20+ Effective Email Outreach Templates (From Our Experts)

With email outreach, you get out what you put in. If you don’t put the time and effort to personalize your email outreach, you will most likely get little to no results.

Like in link building, quality beats quantity with email outreach. You don’t need 1,000 emails to get ten mediocre results. You could send 100 or 50 highly-targeted emails to get ten solid results.

The less spam we put out, the more our outreach gets ignored, making it harder for ourselves in the long run.

With that out of the way, here are our favorite email outreach templates to help you reach your targets, get those links, earn some coverage, and win those deals.

What is Cold Email Outreach?

“Cold outreach” is usually meant to mean reaching someone you’ve never met before. You then “warm” the prospect up over time until that prospect becomes a sale.

But too often, cold emails go right out of the gate for the sale. There’s no effort to personalize or build a relationship.

With Google’s new email requirements to reduce spam starting Feb 2024, cold outreach may take a critical blow if you aren’t personalizing.

Any way you can connect to your target, the better your chances of getting them to take action.

The remainder of this post is a collection of cold email outreach templates broken down into specific industries for easy browsing.

PR Outreach Templates

In the fast-moving world of PR, getting placements depends on many things going right. The one thing you should always be able to count on is your outreach email.

Hannah Smith of Worderist stresses that “you can follow the template structure below, but if you’ve failed to uncover the most compelling stories from your data, you still won’t secure coverage.

I suspect that whether or not you secure coverage is more down to factors like how compelling (or otherwise) the story you’re selling in is, plus whether or not you’re taking that story to the most appropriate journalists.”

We’ve covered tips on successful survey ideation in the past, so the next step is distributing your content. This section delves into crafting templates that resonate with your target, ensuring your emails yield coverage.

1. Survey Post or Data Study

When pitching a survey post, highlighting the key takeaways is the most effective way to inspire your target to cover your post.

Some journalists like to dive into your data and extract their insights, but most don’t have the time, so they look to you to point out the most critical aspects (which they may confirm themselves.)

Here is a successful template used by Jodie Booras of Kaiona Communications to secure coverage from major news outlets across the globe. Jodie says:

“Journalists love data, but sometimes it is not easy to come across. If you can provide them with useful, relevant data it makes their jobs much easier and you become a highly valued partner/source for them. When pitching the data, be sure to call out why it is relevant to them and their audience. WIIFM?”

Subject Line: New Survey Data for [Website Name]

2. Press Releases

Like those outlined in our digital PR tools post, many press release platforms provide distribution networks. But if you are doing your own pitching, a press release template is a great building block for all types of pitching.

Jodie reminds us that “journalists receive hundreds of email pitches and press releases a day. Make their job easier by using bullet points to allow them to quickly and easily see the key takeaways of your news and give them a head start on potentially covering it.”

You’ll first need a press release. Discover the anatomy of a perfect press release to ensure you cover the most compelling information.

Then, use Jodie’s recommendation for a press release email pitch template.

Subject Line: New Survey Data for [Website Name]

3. Quote/Interviews

Pitching quotes from a thought leader, C-suite executive, or relevant spokesperson for a third-party report or news event is a great way to get press mentions and links.

Jodie’s insight:

“When any news breaks in an industry, being able to offer quick sources to comment on that news and how it will affect the industry is key. It is important to highlight what unique angle or perspective your source is offering and what makes them credible on the topic.”

Subject Line: Exclusive Insight: [Company] on Recent [Report Name] Findings

Link Building Outreach

Link building techniques have changed significantly, but many tactics still work well. Below are the most effective templates for link builders who want to personalize their outreach to boost their approach. Each is based on my years of experience with agencies like Siege Media and The Grit Group.

4. Guest Post

When pitching a guest post idea, the golden rule is to follow the writer’s guidelines on the target site. Some will have specific words to include in a subject line; others may also want the entire pitch in a Word Doc or Google Form. For example, here are the guest post guidelines from the Hubspot blog.

If you miss those guidelines, don’t expect your email to get read.

With any pitch, you’ll need a strong post idea and clarify why your target will benefit from including your post on their site. Don’t be afraid to show off by linking to authoritative, relevant sites where you have written lately.

Pitching to Someone Who Accepts Guest Posts

You can find 150+ high-quality guest post sites on our blog with links to their guidelines.

Here is a more specific guest post outreach template:

Subject Line: Guest post idea for [Website Name]

Pitching to Someone Who Doesn’t Advertise Guest Posts

Not everyone asks for guest posts, but you may still be able to convince someone to share your post. This more strategic approach requires finding a keyword that a site isn’t ranking for but should be able to and then pitching that post idea for them.

Subject Line: Getting [Website Name] to Rank for [Keyword]

5. Broken Link Building

Unless you write to your target post author a few days after their post has gone live, authors rarely remember the specifics of an external link they’ve placed within an article.

So, when writing a broken link building template, make it as easy as possible for your target to find and change whatever you need.

Here is a more specific broken link building outreach template:

Subject Line: Broken link and suggestion for [Website Name]

6. Link Reclamation

Websites drop links for many reasons, most of which aren’t on purpose. So, it’s usually easy to get them to re-add the link. You just need to guide them to exactly where your link was and remind them why it was relevant to include.

Here are more specific templates for a few different scenarios.

Link Was Removed

Oftentimes a link may be removed accidentally or due to a technical change on the site. Either way, you never want to appear too aggressive with your ask.

Subject Line: Missing link on your [Website Name] article

Link Was Set To Noindex

Sometimes, a site might not remove your link altogether; instead, they might just add a noindex tag, rendering it virtually “invisible” for Google.

Here’s a quick email to send to get it back.

Subject Line: Missing link on your [Website Name] article

7. Resource Page

Resource pages are pages that list multiple resources in the form of links. If you want a page to include your resource, include a compelling reason. Then, help tell them exactly where it should fit.

The more work you can do for them so they don’t have to think about it, the more likely they will help you.

Here is a more built-out outreach template for resource page link building:

Subject Line: [Topic] resource for [Website Name]

8. Unlinked Mention

You can ask for the link when a site name-drops your brand but doesn’t link. Unlinked mentions are an excellent way for brands to pick up high-quality backlinks.

To make it as easy as possible for your target, tell them exactly where the unlinked mentions occur—specifically which post and where in the post.

Subject Line: Thanks for including [Your Brand/Site] in your article

9. Link Insertion

Getting your link inserted into a post is one of the lowest-effort link building tactics because all it takes is a compelling email. Once you find a relevant, quality site that you think would be a good fit for your link, you can dig around to find their email address and send the template below.

Subject Line: Complementary resource for [Website Name]

10. Infographic Outreach

Infographics have been used for link building for years, though interest and reliability have waned due to overuse. Ensure your post is compelling, the graphics are original and high quality, and your infographic topic is relevant to your site.

Subject Line: Infographic for [Website Name]

11. Link Moves

“Link move” is a bit of a misnomer, as you are asking for a link replacement. So, pitching a link move requires you to include specifics to make things as easy as possible for your target.

Include the post, place, and new link you’d like as the replacement.

Here is a more specific link move outreach template:

Subject Line: Quick link update on [Website Name]

12. Podcast Pitch 

Aside from being a great brand-building technique, getting yourself featured on other people’s podcasts is an effective white-hat link building tactic.

If you can warm up a lead by reaching out on social media first, you’ll have more success. You should always try to listen to a few episodes on the podcast so that you can speak to something more specific in your email.

An outreach template for a podcast pitch would look like this:

Subject Line: Podcast guest for [Podcast Name]

Affiliate Recruitment Outreach

Affiliate recruitment helps expand your brand’s reach and, with the proper targeting, can drive sales. Here are some best practices that ensure your outreach hits your potential affiliates.

I may sound like a broken record at this point. Still, the main focus should be personalization, with an extra eye on your value propositions and any mutual benefits of these partnerships.

13. Standard Affiliate Recruitment

Faique Moqueet, CEO of the affiliate and partnership marketing agency, Hamster Garage, mentions that “the point of the first outreach should be to open the conversation and give enough information to gain interest.

Keeping it more general will mean partners will have to reach out to learn more, which opens the door to sharing more about what you are looking for and what the partner is willing to provide so you can begin the negotiation process.”

Here’s his recommended template:

Subject Line: Partnership with [Brand]

14. Product Review

Building reviews for your product can drastically influence product sales and exposure. About 75% of users read reviews to learn about a new product, according to a study from PowerReviews.

Faique offers two different, more specific approaches.

Subject Line: Partnership with [Brand]

Another More Detailed Approach

Faique recommends not thinking about it like you are soliciting a product review but rather you are building a partnership. “If you are reaching out for a specific kind of partnership, you need to be specific about what you are looking for and how it would relate to the partner.

They will be looking to see what the benefit of the collaboration would be for them and how it would relate to current content. 

Being open about flexibility around communication can help start a conversation and engaging the potential partner. “

Here’s a more detailed template:

Subject Line: Subject Line: Partnership with [Brand X]

Influencer Outreach

Influencer outreach is becoming a much more powerful strategy in digital marketing than ever, with apps like TikTok continuously dominating usage reports.

Below are templates designed to effectively engage influencers for product promotions, collaborations, or brand endorsements.

15. Collaboration Invite

Remember to approach all emails to stress that you are building a beneficial relationship where your brand and the influencer can grow and succeed together.

Subject Line: Collaborate with [Your Brand]

16. Event Invite

Inviting influencers to your event is a strategic move to magnify your event’s reach. The key to this email is the exclusive invitation, which flatters the influencer and leverages their presence to attract their audience.

Here is a more specific invite email template:

Subject Line: Exclusive Invite: [Event Name] Hosted by [Your Brand]

Follow Up Email Templates

Follow-ups have proven to be very impactful in B2B outreach campaigns, with one study from Belkins showing an increase in reply rate of 49% from the first follow-up email. Another survey from Woodpecker.io found that the first email increased by 40%.

Follow-up emails can be effective for PR, link building, and other marketing-related email outreach campaigns.

The question is, how many emails should you send?

The same survey from Belkins found a significant drop-off after the first follow-up email.

While there isn’t a clear answer, it is somewhere between one and two emails.

17. First Follow-Up

We generally recommend sending these 3-4 days after the first email if no one responds. Use the same email thread.

18. Second Follow-Up

A second follow-up can be five days to one week later.

19. Personalized Follow-Up

While this approach isn’t something you can quickly scale, it is much more effective than others. You want to mention something recent that they did to show that you are following and genuinely interested in their work.

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20. New Angle Follow-Up

Gisele Navarro from NeoMam Studios recommends utilizing the follow-up pitch to unresponsive contacts as an opportunity to try completely new angles and approaches to your pitches:

• Offer new insights that you didn’t utilize in your initial pitch
• Conduct additional research or data analysis to uncover new findings
• If the topic allows, incorporate an emoji into your subject line to make your email stand out
• Experiment with the presentation of your email — Could you embed a striking visual? What about utilizing shaded containers to highlight important points?
• Always include a link where recipients can find all the assets ready for download

When you follow up with unresponsive targets, you have nothing to lose. Make your follow-up emails count by trying new things beyond the ‘Just following up on the story I sent last week.’

Using AI to Write Your Outreach Template

We partnered with Fractl to create a survey where 500 respondents working in the media evaluated AI-generated pitches.

We found that 79% found the pitches convincing, and 71% reported them being of high or very high quality.

Does this mean this whole post is obsolete? Not at all.

Before using AI to draft your pitches, there are a few things to remember.

• AI cannot personalize email without prompting.
• AI makes mistakes, so it’s critical to proofread anything before you send

What is the Format For a Successful Outreach Email?

While all outreach emails are unique, there are a few main sections to hit in every email template you create. Traditionally, the format looks something like the below:

Purpose: Clearly and succinctly explain why you are reaching out to them. Whether you are looking to collaborate, asking for a link, or setting up a call, be sure to state what you want.

Personalization: Some type of personalization should happen early in the email to hook the reader and let them know you are a real person. You can reference something in their bio, a recent blog post, a social post, or an email.

Value Proposition: Explain what’s in it for them. What are the mutual benefits of establishing this relationship together?

Call to Action: Specify what action you want your target to take. If the answer from the recipient is “OK, what am I supposed to do with this?” (a real answer I once got), adjust your template to ensure you are including a clear ask.

C.H.A.M.P. Outreach Method

I outline this more in the C.H.A.M.P. outreach method post, but in essence, the C.H.A.M.P. outreach method encapsulates the best practices found throughout this post.

C.H.A.M.P. stands for:

• Connect
• Help
• Adapt
• Make it Scannable
• Personalize

The method focuses on making immediate connections with recipients, offering a clear value, matching the communication style, and ensuring everything is readable (on any viewing device) and highly personalized.

Ultimately you end up with something like this:

This format is ideal for a targeted outreach approach, though bulk senders can benefit from a similar approach.

How Do I Create An Outreach Template?

There are many tools available for sending outreach templates.

In BuzzStream, simply start a new project, choose Sequences, and then you can set up either an individual template or an automated sequence.

Copy and paste any of the templates above to set up your outreach template. Use the Dynamic Fields or create your own.

If you’ve created a Sequence, you can add follow-up emails.

Then, when it’s time to do any outreach, you can choose your template or sequence and it will automatically pull in any of the Dynamic Fields.

Learn more about setting up projects and outreach templates with BuzzStream.

Vince Nero

Vince is the Director of Content Marketing at Buzzstream. He thinks content marketers should solve for users, not just Google. He also loves finding creative content online. His previous work includes content marketing agency Siege Media for six years, Homebuyer.com, and The Grit Group. Outside of work, you can catch Vince running, playing with his 2 kids, enjoying some video games, or watching Phillies baseball.

More Posts by Vince Nero
Website: https://buzzstream.com