Chapter 16: Throw Away Your Form Letters (or 5 Principles to Better Outreach Link Building)
Editor's Note: Michael King shares five principles of effective outreach link building. When this post was originally published on The Moz Blog on Aug. 12, 2011, these principles were worth adhering to in order to dramatically improve the effectiveness of outreach emails. Two years later, in a post-Penguin world, these principles not only still work, but are essential for anyone using outreach emails as part of their link-building strategy. Their effectiveness will be likely be improved even further (and future-proofed) for those who suggest their content be shared, versus linked to.
I'm sitting on an air mattress in my new, unfurnished Brooklyn apartment listening to the sounds of the city outside the window after a long day of client meetings. At one point, I was thinking, “Man I wish I had bought that ugly sofa from Ikea so I'd have something to sit on,” and the next thing I knew, I was considering the Tao of Outreach Link Building.
I know, I know. Outreach link building is hard. It takes time. You send 1,000 emails and end up with seven links, but I believe that's largely because most search marketers approach link building the wrong way. In fact, I'm going to declare right now that link building should be the easiest and most fun part of SEO. Yep, I said it. Let me finish, though, before you head to the comments to tell me why I'm wrong.
First, let me say that I love where we are moving with link building as a community, especially with the stuff the King of Link Building, Justin Briggs (http://justinbriggs.org), has been giving us lately. In fact, what I have to offer for your consideration is very much an expansion on Dan Deceuster's new perspective on link building.
There is often a lot of talk about who to target and how to find them, but there isn't much said about how to get their attention, sustain it, close the deal, and maintain the relationship. Most recommendations revolve around building form letters and then tailoring them to your target.
In my experience, this is the least effective method to engage in outreach link building. The following are five principles of effective link building that have increased my link building success rate from about 20 to 80 percent.
References
“Content-Based Outreach for Link Building” by Justin Briggs, Outspoken Media (http://outspokenmedia.com/seo/content-based-outreach-for-link-building)
“A New Perspective on Link Building” by Dan Deceuster, The Moz Blog (www.moz.com/blog/a-new-perspective-on-link-building)
1. Talk to People Like People (Throw Out Your Form Letters)
Search Marketers tend to think of link building as obtaining a link from a website. Link building is cast as a very impersonal process where we use various methods to identify link targets, write form letters, and then fire off emails—expecting the return to be so low that it doesn't make sense to spend much time on them.
Honestly, just reading that last sentence back to myself makes me think of how counterintuitive the process is. In truth, link building is speaking to a person and convincing them to take an action that is beneficial to you.
Everyone reading this post has been subject to some sort of email, Twitter, MySpace, or Facebook spam. Hell, even President Obama and his friends have been spamming me for five years now. Think for a second—how do you react to spam? You erase it or ignore it, of course. As an owner of various sites, people often contact me to ask for links, offer me SEO services, and such—with form letters that never get opened.
People can usually sense a form letter immediately. Dare I say it? No, I'll let my homey Link from Legend of Zelda tell you.
I myself failed many times using the same approach to link building. Then one day, I realized that the link building strategies I was taught are counterintuitive to everything I've learned about building relationships with people through networking. So I developed my own link building style. Be warned, my approach requires a genuine interest in people. Here goes.
Opening
Link builders are typically very heavy-handed, and send emails that basically say, “Hey, I have this site. Will you link to me because of x,y,z?” The only thing that I attempt to accomplish with my first email is an engaged response. I never bring up the idea of wanting something from this person until later in the email or tweet thread; the same way I wouldn't walk up to a girl and say, “You're hot! Let's have sex because I'm cute, I drive a luxury car, and I have an apartment in a cool part of Brooklyn!” I keep my opening correspondence short, engaging, and relevant to something that person has tweeted about or written on their site/blog.
Quite simply, people love to know their work has been viewed, absorbed, and enjoyed, so actually take the time to read it and strike up a conversation about something you truly find interesting. As marketers, we are taught to optimize one message that appeals to many people; there is simply no place for that in effective outreach link building.
In the following example, I'm building links for the official Transformers 3 movie site (not that this would ever happen because those sites are always powered by Paid Media).
The Old Way of Link Building:
Subject: Transformersmovie.com Link Request
Hello,
I am contacting you to request a link to Transformersmovie.com from your site. We have trailers, downloads, exclusive video and a gallery. Visitors can also find information on movie times and buy tickets online.
I see that your blog talks about Transformers and I think visitors to your site will find this content very useful.
Please link to http://www.transformersmovie.com using the anchor text “Transformers,” or use the following code: <A href=“http://www.transformersmovie.com”>Transformers</a>.
Please contact me if you have any questions.
Thank you for your time and careful consideration.
Transformers Web Teamwww.transformersmovie.com
While I don't doubt that some link builders have some very spiffy form letters much better than this, most of the time they still come across just as sterile as this one. Now take a look at an alternative that shows the new way for link builders to build relationships:
The New Way of Relationship Building:
Subject: Power Rangers, Are You Serious?!
Hey Zelda,
I just read your awesome post where you compared Voltron and Power Rangers to Optimus Prime and crew. Not sure if I agree that the Power Rangers could have taken out Megatron in the first film. I mean honestly, they had trouble with giant bears on their own show!
Truthfully, I think Voltron would make short work of all of them. Speaking of Voltron, have you ever seen this hilarious live action spoof? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtwX0nuqPO0
Anyway I'm curious to know what you think of the new Transformers film. Give me a shout when you get a chance!
-Link
Link of HyruleTransformers Web Outreach [email protected]
Option two is clearly stronger, and was even more fun to write. Creating context allows me to hit more touch points to elicit a response. Also, the engagement is all about opinion sharing, thus framing the conversation as just that—a conversation—rather than a link request.
Sustaining
Sustaining is all about keeping the conversation going, building a rapport with this person and offering something of value. Most people will be tempted to jump the gun at this stage and just ask for the link right when the person responds. This is not the way to go because then your original correspondence will appear to be a thinly veiled link request (which it is, of course, but that is the mindset we are trying to eliminate).
In this stage, it is good to have some content to share that this person may be interested in. It could be related to the site you're trying to get a link for or not. The important point is that you demonstrate that you are a worthwhile resource of some sort, whether it be for entertainment or educational purposes. Not only does this build trust, but it establishes context. This phase can continue as long as it takes for you to actually develop a relationship.
Let's just rename link building “relationship building.”
Continuing with our robot cartoon blogger example:
Hey Link,
LOL Link, that video was hilarious and thanks for reading my post but there is noooo way that Voltron could take out the combined power of the MegaZord!! I'm not even sure Voltron could take out the GoBots!
I haven't actually seen the film yet. Do you actually work on the Transformers site?
Best,
Princess Zelda
Princess Zelda,
The GoBots? Zelda, you're killing me! The GoBots were a cheap rip off of the Transformers; they should not be typed in the same email as Voltron! I bet you preferred Silverhawks over Thundercats too, didn't you? HA!
Anyway, yep I sure do work with the Transformers web team. Do you have any interest in seeing the film?
-Link
Link of HyruleTransformers Web Outreach [email protected]
Hey Link,
LOL, you just keep making me laugh. Silverhawks?! I didn't think anyone remembered that cartoon. It was pure redux of Thundercats just as bird people!
I definitely do want to see the new Transformers film! Can you hook a princess up?
Best,
Princess Zelda
Notice how the suggestion of value (movie tickets) causes the link target to become further engaged, and sets up the link request as a natural progression of the conversation.
Closing
The key thing in this phase is to only pull the trigger on asking for a link after context and value are established. The link request then becomes an aside to the correspondence, rather than the main subject of the correspondence.
At the end of our sustain phase, Zelda, our Robot Cartoon Blogger, has taken the bait, realizing that the link builder potentially has something of value to her. She then puts the link builder in a position to close the deal. The nature of the conversation puts Zelda in a position where she is comfortable enough to make the request so that when the link builder requests the link, it is natural for him to ask for something in return.
Princess Zelda,
Hmmm... well I don't make it a habit to do this, but since you have such good taste in cartoons....
Sure, I can get you two tickets to see the film in your local theater, but in return can you write a review or write another one of your great articles and link back to our site?
If that works just shoot me your closest theater and I will send you a Fandango confirmation code for your tickets.
Also, are you on Twitter? I'd love to keep up with the stuff you are posting on your blog!
-Link
Link of HyruleTransformers Web Outreach [email protected]
Just like that, we've built a link by talking about our favorite cartoons. The challenge—and the fun—is in finding something that interests both of you, and then using that information to build a relationship. The less you have to offer in the form of incentives, the more sustaining and rapport building you will need to do in order to build the link. Do not think that this method only works with incentives. Value can be established in many ways when building a relationship.
A caveat that I should offer here is that it is painfully obvious when this approach does not work because people will not reciprocate the engagement. Your email might result in a simple “thanks for reading” response. In this case, you can decide whether you want to do more research to identify a different touch point and try again, or to just move on to someone else. You'll get better at being able to spot a lost cause with a little experience.
2. Stand out in the Inbox
How do you feel about spam? Probably the same way you feel about telemarketers. When people can tell by their caller ID that a telemarketer is calling, they don't pick up the phone. By that same token, if they can tell an email is spam, they avoid it.
Never send an email with “Link Request” or something to that effect in the subject; those emails are doomed to never get opened. You want to take an indirect approach because you don't want the link target to dismiss your email before seeing what you have to say. This is the Trojan Horse approach to link building (Trojan Horse in the classic sense, not the virus).
Let's go back to the email I mentioned earlier in this post. On that day, my inbox was full of spam, and I only opened the one with the subject line “let's work together.”
It was clear exactly what every other email was about. However, there was some mystery as to what the “let's work together” email was about. It appeared to be a naturally generated email, and it stood out to me because it looked like someone was requesting to collaborate with me in some way. The sender was a real name, and the subject was lowercased. It resembled the emails I receive from people that want to send me beats, or hire me to appear as a musical guest artist on their albums.
President Obama tricks me into clicking open his emails pretty often, too. I don't always look at who the emails are from when I get them, but most of my friends use short email subjects (like the ones in this image) that cause me to click through.
Even when I do look at the sender's name, it might be just a quick glimpse to make sure it's a person, not a company or www.something.com. It was my assumption that other people reacted this way when I started to apply these principles, and therefore the improvement in response rate is the only thing in the way of science I have to show for this.
However, what I can show you is a clear example of a subject fail.
1-800-Contacts clearly runs some sort of CRM software for these types of emails. Either someone was asleep at the wheel or they messed up the input fields. This could easily happen to you if you use a link building program like Link Assistant. Don't be that person. However, judging by the format of the sender and subject fields, it is highly unlikely that these emails will have an open rate worth talking about.
While I'm sure there are more comprehensive studies on email optimization, here's a quick summary:
Tips for standing out in the inbox
• Keep subjects short.
• Keep subjects natural.
• Do not use “Link Request.”
• Send emails as a person (not as a company or “web team”).
• Include a natural salutation (since the first line of the email will appear next to the subject).
3. Do Your Research
I don't want to encourage you to stalk your targets, so ... study your targets. Bloggers and webmasters are certainly not the most private people in the world; they have shared their personal thoughts, favorite music, films, travel plans and other endless minutia about themselves online for years. Use this publicly shared information to develop your context for the initial email.
User data drives models of people for targeting your broad messaging, so it only makes sense to use user data to create the context for your specific messaging.
Don't get caught up in the whole romantic comedy “OMG I manipulated you but it turns out I really love you and I wish I could take it all back” aspect of this. Think of it as a way to increase your odds of effectively relating to someone. Again, Context is King.
Choose something that relates back to the content that the person wrote about on their site. The subject should be something that you related to, can offer insight into, and speak about at length. So if I'm doing link building as illustrated in the example emails, I might check Zelda's Facebook, Twitter, and Last.Fm accounts, and then weave into a conversation how Voltron was actually created after Power Rangers, contrary to popular belief, as a reaction to the stance she takes in her blog post. Then I might end the email with something to the effect of “Wouldn't Radiohead be a great choice for the Voltron soundtrack?” Now we have a conversation that is still contextually relevant, if only tangentially so, to the topic at hand.
Researching your targets turns link building into a video game—with a strategy guide.
4. Offer Value
We tend to think of link building in terms of “what can this site offer me?” rather than “what is it about my site that will be interesting or useful to this webmaster or blogger?” or “what of value can I introduce this person to?”
Depending on where you are contacting them from, simply the fact that you have reached out to this person can offer some value. If you are working for a client with a good reputation in the space you are building links for, it's important to obtain an email alias on their domain. For example, if you are doing link building for Moz, you should have a Moz email address. That way, if you are following up with a blogger who has written a review about Moz's software offerings, for instance, they will feel as though their voice has been heard by Moz.
In some cases, you may be link building for a client who has not established a reputation in the space, so it's important that you share something of tangible value with your link target. Perhaps you have a link to some content important to the niche that hasn't been seen by too many people—share it with your link target. Maybe an awesome video has just floated around your office and you are now having an active email conversation with your link target—toss it in there. Maybe you just have an interesting story that you can share. Failing all that, it's very important to include any client-provided incentives.
The bottom line is this: Approach your link target in the same manner you would when meeting one of your friend's friends, and your efforts will be more effective.
5. Maintain the Rapport
No one likes to be used. Therefore, it is important to maintain an active rapport with your new friends. If you only contact them when you need a new link, they will be less inclined to help you out. Twitter is the perfect place to maintain this rapport. Follow your newfound friends and encourage them to follow you. Be sure to retweet their links and engage with them from time to time so that you are in constant contact. This process continues to generate a shared context, so even if you faked your way this far (which won't be the case if you have a genuine interest in people), you can easily start the process again based on their latest tweets.
Conclusion
Is this approach scalable? Well, it depends how much information you need to sift through to find a hook for the person you're reaching out to. Once you go through this process enough times, you'll be able to create shared context in little more than the time it takes to uncover a buried email address. However, outreach link building isn't the place you need to be looking for scalability to begin with.
The benefits of this approach are two-fold. First, your link building becomes more effective, and while you may not reach out to as many people, you will convert a lot more of the people that you do. Second, you are building a rapport with many people that you can then activate in social media as it becomes more of a ranking factor.
Link building is often viewed as an arduous task that no one really wants to engage in, but it really shouldn't be seen that way. Link building is really an opportunity to make friends throughout the web and social media. Perform your link building like a marksman, not a drive-by shooter, and you will see better results.
Context is King. Link Building is Dead. Long Live Relationship Building.
Also, you'll be happy to know that I now have a bed, a desk, a chair and a dresser in my apartment. Definitely give me a shout if you're ever in Brooklyn!
Oh, yes ... I almost forgot to include the infographic. Go easy on me, it's my first one!
