- Reaching out to ask for links is more successful if you’ve vetted your prospects and have something valuable to provide.
- Linkable assets are key — a website owner is only going to link to you if they feel you’re providing something of value to their readers.
- Follow-up emails are important, but make sure you aren’t following up too often.
Every year, children across the world stay on their best behavior during the holiday season and hope that Santa fulfills their wildest Christmas wishlist. In a way, you can say link building is pretty much the same thing. Outreach specialists all over the world are creating a list of prospects and asking that they check out their content, write a guest post, include them in a holiday gift guide, and so much more! The asks are far and wide, as a link builders Christmas wishlist is never-ending.
But, in order to get on your prospect’s Nice List, you have to be on your best behavior. Luckily, the team here at Redefine knows the exact tricks to get your name at the top of the nice list.
Vetted-Prospects
We hate to beat a dead-reindeer (see what we did there?), but having a link building wishlist is key. What’s even more important, is that you have a vetted list of link building prospects you’ve gone through one-by-one to ensure they fall in line with your guidelines.
With a list of QA’d site prospects, you’ll maximize the strength of your link building outreach exponentially. You’ll be reaching out to sites that will actually help to boost your visibility and authority score instead of taking a shotgun approach where you contact any site with text on a page. Then, once you get that link, it’ll be all the more worth it.
High-quality Content & Linkable Assets
In addition to having a vetted list of prospects, you’re going to need a whole lot of high-quality content and linkable assets. Your prospect is going to want to see the value you’re going to bring their readers.
But, what is a linkable asset, you ask? A linkable asset is anything you can use as leverage to garner a link. These usually come in the form of in-depth guides, appealing infographics, and calculators. For example, Survey Monkey has an A/B Testing Calculator for calculating statistical significance. This is a great way to get marketing and conversion rate optimization blogs to link to your site because it provides value to their readers. The possibilities are endless though!
And, let’s not forget that all this must be high-quality. Make sure your content is thorough, free of grammatical errors, and gives the intended audience something to write home about. So, before you do the big ask, ask yourself, “Do I have any that will provide extreme value to my site prospect?”
Well-crafted Emails
Let’s go back to basics. When you’re asking for someone to do something for you, you want to be sure you are putting your best foot forward. It’s like a job interview, you can’t go in there looking like a soup sandwich! You have to make sure your clothes are clean, garments are pressed, hair is nice, and everything else in between. You have to look presentable.
The same goes for any outreach emails you’ll be sending. Make sure they are clean of errors or misspellings, they have a clear ask, and they aren’t too long. These are only a few things to check before sending out your link building emails. More importantly, if you are addressing a writer by their name, make sure it is the right name! A well-crafted email will get you on your link building prospect’s nice list without having them think twice.
Follow-ups
Follow up emails are another way to get yourself on the nice list. Some editors and webmasters are just so busy, adding a link to your article on a blog from 3 years ago is the last thing they want to do. At times your request might fall through the cracks so it’s always good to send them over a quick follow up email. Who knows you might just catch them at the right time or they’ll direct you to someone that is better suited to help. Take this email for example:
The initial individual I reached out to was either the wrong person or just not able to help at that moment. So, after a brief follow-up, she forwarded my email to the correct person and gave her permission to add the link to the article. The same thing has happened numerous times in other situations as well. But, be careful because too many follow-ups will get you on their naughty list!
Bring Value
Lastly, you are going to want to show your prospect how you will bring them value. I mean, we link builders are basically asking a completely random stranger to go out of there way to insert a link to our website. So, increase your odds by showing your link prospects how you are going to bring them some sort of value.
For example, before you reach out to them let them know you’ve shared the post across your social media channels. Or, let your link prospect know that you’d be willing to link to another one of their articles in exchange. If you’re reaching out to them based on a broken link, then this tactic is naturally baked into your outreach. The basic idea is to show them how you’ll be able to help them in return for their favor.
With these gifts of knowledge, hopefully, you’ll be able to get on your prospect’s nice list without having them think twice. But, if you are still having trouble getting the almighty gift of authority, reach out to the link building pros here at Redefine. We’ll be glad to help get your site to the top of everyone’s Nice List.
