{"id":39118,"date":"2025-02-25T13:36:51","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T12:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/?p=39118"},"modified":"2025-02-28T10:10:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T09:10:05","slug":"linkbuilding-outreach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/linkbuilding-outreach\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Build Backlinks with Cold Email: A Practical Guide (2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Backlinks are still one of the most powerful SEO ranking factors. But let&#8217;s be honest \u2013 getting quality backlinks without paying for them is like convincing a cat to take a bath. It&#8217;s frustrating, chaotic, and requires lots of previous experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Linkbuilding outreach has become increasingly competitive, and achieving results through cold email is harder than ever before.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In an era filled with spammy emails, breaking through to your targets is very difficult. However, I managed to do it for a SaaS client, and I will show you my process and results in this blog.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/seo-dude.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SEO consultant for SaaS and B2B<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and not an outbound specialist, but this approach still worked out for me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reason is very simple: I worked at Woodpecker for eight years and picked up a lot of knowledge in this field.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<h2><b>Goal: To gain sensible SEO backlinks with cold emailing<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Together with the client (SaaS), we had a clear plan: to get backlinks from sites with a good Domain Rating (DR) in the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">composable commerce<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> niche.<\/span><\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-39137\" src=\"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image7-2-1024x414.png\" alt=\"A dark mode Google search results page displaying blog articles related to &quot;composable commerce.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"414\" srcset=\"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image7-2-1024x414.png 1024w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image7-2-300x121.png 300w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image7-2-768x311.png 768w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image7-2-1536x622.png 1536w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image7-2.png 1999w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You probably see where the problem is. Great websites in this niche do not give away links like free samples in a supermarket. They are flooded with requests for links regularly, and most of them go straight to the trash. To break through, we had to figure out who to write to and who might be interested in what we have to offer. We also had to try and personalize this content as much as possible while trying to automate specific processes so that the volume would be large enough to manage to get something statistically.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>How did I prepare a linkbuilding outreach campaign?<\/b><\/h2>\n<h3><b>Step 1: Domain warm-up to avoid spam filters<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before I sent my first email, I warmed up the domain for two weeks. I treated it like a warm-up before the gym \u2013 no one wants to get injured, which in this case means getting blacklisted. I gradually increased the messages I sent and had real email conversations to show that my inbox was being used for everyday communication.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After those two weeks, I launched the warm-up function in Woodpecker for another week. I know it should have lasted a bit longer, but by that time, we had already developed a backlinks cold email strategy and gone through prospecting and content creation, so we wanted to get going.<\/span><\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-39161\" src=\"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image3-12-1024x224.png\" alt=\"A notification explaining the benefits of an email warm-up service to improve deliverability and avoid spam folders.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image3-12-1024x224.png 1024w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image3-12-300x66.png 300w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image3-12-768x168.png 768w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image3-12-1536x336.png 1536w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image3-12.png 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\n<p><b>\u2757Important<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: From the very beginning, we knew that we had to create a domain for the client used just for outreach, and therefore, it was necessary to warm up this fresh domain. If, in this paragraph, you thought to yourself, &#8220;<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cool, my domain is warmed up because I&#8217;ve been using it for communication every day for five years<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8221; then stop here for a moment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Never use your main domain to send cold emails.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The reason? Despite your efforts, you can still end up on the spammer blacklist, and then your standard communication with your clients will also be affected. It&#8217;s better to focus on sending from a new domain and not worry later if anything happens.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Step 2: Monitoring deliverability<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I used Woodpecker to track open and response rates to ensure my emails were landing in inboxes and not spam.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another aspect is a <\/span><b>good prospecting database<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 instead of using an extensive, pre-made database, I created one myself using the right tools. I decided on this because I was primarily looking for specific people associated with specific blogs or domains. Besides, such prospecting databases from the internet are often outdated and may contain many addresses that are <\/span><b>no longer functional<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Step 3: Mass customization<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No one likes impersonal messages. If I got an email that started with &#8220;<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hello stranger<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8221; I&#8217;d probably delete it immediately. That&#8217;s why I used personalized snippets to make each message seem as natural as possible:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hi {{first_name}}, great article on {{article_title}}!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I&#8217;ve noticed that {{company}} is doing a great job in eCommerce\u2014huge respect!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-39149\" src=\"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image1-12.png\" alt=\"Various snippet options like first name, last name, email, company, and LinkedIn URL, used for email personalization.\" width=\"616\" height=\"444\" srcset=\"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image1-12.png 616w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image1-12-300x216.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 616px) 100vw, 616px\" \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Small changes like this make a huge difference in the number of responses.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Step 4: Personalization by day of the week<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I also had this simple idea: the prospect database would be divided into five parts, each for a different day of the week. If a prospect were in the Monday campaign, the first email would go out only and exclusively on Monday, and in its content, I would include phrases such as:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHave a great Monday!\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI know Mondays can be tough\u2014I hope yours is different!\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This way, I tried to strengthen the recipient&#8217;s feeling that a real person was writing to them, not an automated process. Well, a bit of trickery, but you have to be smart.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>My linkbuilding outreach strategy: What I focused on<\/b><\/h2>\n<h3><b>Searching for articles on &#8220;Best Composable Commerce Platforms&#8221; and related topics<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, I fired up Ahrefs to find articles that rank for phrases like &#8220;Best Composable Commerce Platforms 2024&#8221; and other keywords related to composable commerce, which was our goal. These were perfect places to backlink because my client had something <\/span><b>valuable<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to add to those topics. \u2028<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I put the article URLs I found into a Google Sheet.<\/span><\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-39119\" src=\"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image4-12-1024x337.png\" alt=\"SERP overview for composable commerce.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image4-12-1024x337.png 1024w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image4-12-300x99.png 300w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image4-12-768x253.png 768w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image4-12-1536x506.png 1536w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image4-12.png 1999w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\n<h3><b>Broken link building: repairing and reminding about lost links<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Ahrefs&#8217; &#8216;<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lost Backlinks<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8216; section, I searched for links that had disappeared in the last three months. If someone has already linked to us once but suddenly changed their mind (or something happened to that link), you should ask why.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have chosen the 3 months because there were enough examples of sites that removed our link during this period. On the other hand, it is hard to ask someone about a backlink that disappeared half a year ago. They simply may no longer remember what it was about. \u2028<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I compiled the found URLs in a Google Sheet.<\/span><\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-39155\" src=\"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image2-12-1024x281.png\" alt=\"A dashboard showing backlinks data with filters for dofollow, nofollow, best links, and lost links.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image2-12-1024x281.png 1024w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image2-12-300x82.png 300w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image2-12-768x211.png 768w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image2-12.png 1304w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\n<h3><b>Logo and graphic material search without links<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I used <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google Reverse Image Search<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to find sites that used my client\u2019s logo without a backlink. In our case, besides the logo, there were also infographics and other marketing stuff that were heavily shared by the audience some time ago. If you find people who share your content without mentioning you, you have an easy recipe for getting a link \u2013 all you have to do is ask for it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, you know what I did \u2013 I compiled the relevant URLs into a Google Sheet.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Brand mentions without links<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the help of Brand24, I have tracked the mentions of the client&#8217;s brand in the past. This must be done correctly, so remember to set the appropriate exclusion keywords. Take care not only of the keywords that interest you but also those that disqualify a topic. Same with the type of sources \u2013 we will not be interested in forums like Reddit or Stackoverflow, but all blogs or tutorials meet our requirements. \u2028<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You already know what I did with the exported list of URLs!<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>How I searched for the right contacts and sites<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You know where all potential backlinks went \u2013 to Google Sheets. I marked important pages in red, potentially meaning <\/span><b>manual prospecting<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u2028<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I used <\/span><b>Woodpecker Lead Finder<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>Apollo<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to automate the process for the rest.<\/span><\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-39131\" src=\"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image6-5-574x1024.png\" alt=\"A filtered list of contacts with marketing-related job titles, email status, and engagement metrics.\" width=\"574\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image6-5-574x1024.png 574w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image6-5-168x300.png 168w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image6-5.png 696w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 574px) 100vw, 574px\" \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manual prospecting will always be more effective than automatic, large-scale prospecting. I have decided to mix these two processes, so I\u2019ve searched for the addresses I had manually marked in red earlier. \u2028<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How did I do it? Having the address of the blog on which I wanted a backlink to appear, I knew what domain it stood for. I searched for a given company on Linkedin, and then for its employees, and I tried to find anyone from the marketing team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once I managed to locate people, I pasted the data to <\/span><b>Hunter<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.io, which showed me this person&#8217;s email address if it was in their database. Hunter did not find the email address in about half of the cases. Then, I copied another person\u2019s data from their marketing department to Hunter, and often, step by step, I reached the email address of someone from this company dealing with marketing. \u2028<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, if I could not find any email address in this process \u2013 I chose outreach via LinkedIn and simply sent a cold chat (is there such a word? If not, I just made it up) via LinkedIn. \u2028The exact process awaited those cases that were not found by the automatic process \u2013 I threw them into the bag of manual prospecting and again: search on Linkedin, search with Hunter, and if unsuccessful, then outreach with LinkedIn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Automating prospecting at scale with Woodpecker Lead Finder and Apollo was a piece of cake. From my Google sheet, where I had URLs of articles and websites, I pulled the domains themselves into a new column based on those URLs using a simple formula:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">=REGEXEXTRACT(A4, &#8220;https?:\/\/([^\/]+)&#8221;)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then, in the previously mentioned tools, I could search for contacts based on the domain or company name, which is usually also a domain (but without the ending). \u2028<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can also choose a specific company department that interests you \u2013 in my case, it was the Marketing department. This process allowed me to acquire a large number of email addresses. The quality was probably not always perfect, but I accepted it because our list of prospects already contained a sufficient number of potential backlink donors, also of high quality.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>How I write the perfect cold email<\/b><\/h2>\n<h3><b>Examples of topics that had a high open rate<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Quick question about {{article_title}}&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cGreat article about {{article_title}}!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCan you help {{article_title}} readers with this update?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>My message regarding composable commerce related articles\u2028<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>Subject<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Update request {{article_title}}<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hey {{first_name}},<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Great job with {{article_title}} \u2013 valuable content!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have noticed that {{company}} is talking about composable commerce, and I have an idea for a small update that might be valuable for your audience. We have just published a guide on how to implement composable commerce in your store, which perfectly matches your article.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What do you think?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have a great {{day_of_week}}, thanks for considering!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regards,<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[Your Name]<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Follow-ups: How I increased my response rate<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s not enough to send one email, and I hope everyone will respond immediately. Most people are busy, and their mailboxes are full of this kind of messages. That&#8217;s why, after the first email, I sent three follow-ups, which increased the chances of a response.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>First follow-up: light reminder (after 2 days)<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I sent a short, light reminder two days after sending the first email. The content was informal and intended only to draw attention to the previous message gently:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Subject<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: &#8220;Hey {{first_name}}, I don&#8217;t know if you&#8217;ve seen&#8230;?&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hey {{first_name}},<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I just wanted to make sure you saw my earlier message. I know that mailboxes can get pretty full (mine is too!), so I&#8217;m back with a quick reminder.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let me know what you think!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Best regards, [Your Name]<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Second follow-up: surprise in exchange for a backlink (after 5 days)<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After a few more days, I added more value and tried convincing them it was worth giving us a backlink. In this message, I have suggested that if we could agree on a backlink, I would give them a small bonus. I didn\u2019t say what the bonus was right away, but I will tell you that it was an e-book about composable commerce and an invitation to our affiliate program (the vision of money always works).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Subject<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: &#8220;{{first_name}}, I have something extra for you!&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hey {{first_name}},<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I see that we haven&#8217;t had a chance to talk yet, but I&#8217;d like to keep in touch because I have something cool for you. If we can agree on a backlink, I&#8217;ll gladly send you a bonus that I&#8217;ve prepared. In addition, you can start working with us and earn some money, so it&#8217;s worth it!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let me know if this sounds interesting to you!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Best regards, [Your Name]<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Third follow-up: direct request for an interview (after another 5 days)<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the third follow-up, I clarified and asked a direct question: <\/span><b>Can I call you on Friday at 11:00?<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, I haven\u2019t had their number, and no one would get a call from me, but such an email often pulled people to respond &#8211; mostly with a &#8220;<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No, you can&#8217;t, but what do you want?<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8221; and&#8230; that was the moment when I could convince them to give me a backlink.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Subject<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: &#8220;{{first_name}}, is Friday 11:00 okay?&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hey {{first_name}},<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What do you think about a quick call on Friday at 11:00 a.m.? I wanted to discuss a topic I have mentioned in previous messages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Best regards, [Your Name]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This was one of the <\/span><b>most effective follow-ups<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Most people don&#8217;t like the idea of an unexpected phone call, so they prefer to reply and ask what it is about rather than ignore the email.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using this follow-up strategy, I increased my response rate and got more backlinks. Remember \u2013 <\/span><b>the biggest mistake you can make in cold outreach is not following up<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Results: How many backlinks did I get, and what worked<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have sent <\/span><b>4037<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> emails, of which <\/span><b>3986<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> messages were delivered correctly (the rest were invalid).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-39125\" src=\"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image5-11-1024x235.png\" alt=\" A performance summary of a cold email campaign, displaying metrics like emails sent, delivered, views, replies, and bounces.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"235\" srcset=\"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image5-11-1024x235.png 1024w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image5-11-300x69.png 300w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image5-11-768x177.png 768w, https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image5-11.png 1514w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From this pool, I had <\/span><b>307<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> responses, with <\/span><b>118<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> positive, <\/span><b>37,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> after exchanging one or two messages, stopped replying and ignored the topic, and <\/span><b>152<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (mainly bloggers) did not agree to place a backlink. \u2028<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately, life is brutal. Out of these 118 positively considered requests, as of today, we can see <\/span><b>72 correctly placed<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> because some people, despite their consent, did not place the link on their website. Of course, another campaign has already been launched for them, reminding them that they promised but did not keep it! \u2028<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Out of this pool of 72 correctly placed backlinks, 49 links were marked as <\/span><b>follow<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, while 23 links were marked as <\/span><b>nofollow<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am happy with the results of this campaign because we have acquired over <\/span><b>70<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> backlinks (okay, <\/span><b>50<\/b> <b>follow <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ones), spending money only on automation tools: Woodpecker, Apollo, Hunter, and using the tools we had so far, i.e. aHrefs. Good deal!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Plan your outreach strategy and boost your SEO with cold emails<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Remember, personalization and good prospecting are key. Don&#8217;t forget to create a <\/span><b>separate domain<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for sending the campaign and <\/span><b>warm it up<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. If you care about some places to put a link on, find the author&#8217;s contact details <\/span><b>manually<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to make sure you reach the right person. <\/span><b>Follow-ups are necessary<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and we received the most positive responses after the second and third follow-ups.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you need support with your website analytics, backlink outreach strategy, or simply the help of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/seo-dude.com\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">B2B SEO consultant \u2013 write to me<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Backlinks are still one of the most powerful SEO ranking factors. But let&#8217;s be honest \u2013 getting quality backlinks without paying for them is like convincing a cat to take a bath. It&#8217;s frustrating, chaotic, and requires lots of previous experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":39143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,3],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.11 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Build Backlinks with Cold Email: A Practical Guide (2025)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Boost your SEO with the cold email outreach guide! 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