The Perfect Link Request Email Template

Over time, people must have asked me over a hundred times what kind of link request email template I use when I contact other websites owners to get a link, or what kind of email format I consider to be the “perfect” link request format.

In my opinion, the perfect link request email template looks something like this;

{Greeting} {Name},

{Opening/ Introduction}

{Explanation of why your website is relevant to the one you’re contacting}

{Include WIIFM for the person you’re emailing}

{Close},

{Your Name}

I bet you were hoping for a bit more :) . You were hoping for something that you could copy/ paste and save time with. Well, sorry, but it usually doesn’t work like that :)

The problem with sending out emails is that your contacting individuals. And every individual is different, and therefore requires a different approach. Sure, there are things that you can either automate or templatize, but this is pretty difficult with link requests in general. In most cases, using email templates will result in a significantly lower success or link conversion rate.

When you think about all different factors that come into play, you’ll probably agree with me:

• What industry are you in? Whether it’s tech, banking or automotive; every industry needs a different approach in email format, use of language and level of explanation.
• What kind of media are you approaching? Traditional media usually need (or are used to) a different approach than bloggers or other webmasters.
• What is the profession of the person you’re emailing? Is it a professor, a hobbyist or a school boy?
• Are you contacting a man or a woman? This isn’t just for the opening (Dear Mr. X/ Hello Mrs. Y), but you can use it for so many other things as well. Leveling, for instance.
• What’s the age of the person you’re trying to reach? A eighteen year old will probably communicate on a different level than an eighty year old.
• Does your contact person have any hobbies? Hobbies are excellent for personalization; you show that you’ve been following the person you’re contacting (don’t overdo this in a creepy way, though)
• What is your proposition? Are you just requesting a link, trying to establish a relationship, or are you aiming at a guest post?
• Are there other relevant factors you could use? Have you read other articles written by the person you’re trying to reach? Do you have a history with the guy you’re contacting, or are you contacting him out of the blue? What’s the relevance level between your website and the website you want to obtain a link from? Etcetera, etcetera.

If you’re constantly working in the same industry, contacting the same type of men (or women) of the same age, with the same hobbies, then, perhaps, you might be able to create a format that you could use yourself. However, I doubt that that’s your situation.

You could try to counter these statements by saying that sending out a link request is similar to email marketing (I’ve heard this argument in more than one occasion), but this simply isn’t true. When you’re using email marketing as a method of communicating with your customers, you (1) already have a relationship with the people you’re contacting, and (2) people don’t expect your email to be a personal email. Or do you expect that Zappos is crafting each and every email newsletter individually on a personal level? When it comes to a link request (or any other business proposal), people DO expect that the email comes from a real person, not a bot or tool. https://www.salesforce.com/products/marketing-cloud/best-practices/abandoned-cart-emails-guide/

Saving time in other ways

In stead of trying to save time by using templates that lower your success rate significantly, there are several other ways you can save time during a link marketing campaign.

> Contact relevant websites only

Lots of people are wasting time by contacting not (or slightly) related websites, in an attempt to obtain a link. Irrelevant websites will be much less likely to link to you, in comparison with relevant or highly relevant ones. So if you want to save time in an efficient way, filter out every website that’s not relevant enough. The same goes for low quality websites, by the way.

> Test your email skills

Although, like I mentioned before, no two websites or webmasters are the same, it still is possible to test your skills. For example, you could try to contact someone you know with a link request without disclosing that the email is yours. Afterwards, you can ask him what he or she thought of the email (or why it got deleted :) ). If the person finds out the email was sent by you, he/ she’ll probably honestly say what he or she thinks of your message. Repeat this a few times and learn from the opinions of your friends.

Outsource your link marketing

Unfortunately for retailers, shoppers abandon their online carts more often than they complete the transaction. This may be due to additional costs, such as shipping, or being forced to create an account. However, while abandoned carts are a less positive side of doing business online, it does give marketers the opportunity to engage with shoppers through an email campaign.

These campaigns are a series of up to three emails that remind the shopper of what they were interested in, and then give them reasons why completing the purchase is worth it. Nearly three-quarters of marketers believe these campaigns are effective — but only half are currently using them. With this type of email campaign, companies can re-engage consumers, learn more about how to shorten the sales cycle, and upsell or cross-sell to consumers.

Abandoned cart email campaigns are a proven way to increase sales by helping consumers complete their purchases. Use the best practices outlined in the infographic below to create successful campaigns that bring customers back to complete their transactions — and become loyal customers.

Seriously, if you don’t want to do link building, you’re probably better off not doing so. If seen a lot of link requests in my life, and you can often see if it was sent by someone who’d rather be on the beach, or some place else.

In stead of focusing on link marketing, you could work on your on-site optimization, your content marketing, client acquisition or anything else you like to do. Hire someone to do the link building part for you, or to help you with the process.

You can compare sending out a link request to trying to close a sales deal; it all comes down to liking. And if the person you’re contacting doesn’t like your email, you probably won’t close the deal.

More about link requests at Clickz.com, SoloSEO and SEJ.com.