How To Use Gmail For Link Building

Gmail is an awesome link building tool.

It has some great features which make it one of the best link building tools on the planet-

So if you want to build quality free backlinks at scale, save time and improve the results of your outreach…

Then this is the right tutorial for you.

Because I’ll also be showing you 3 simple ways to increase email deliverability that take less than 3 minutes to integrate.

So let’s look at how you can supercharge Gmail to get the links your site needs.

How To “Power Up” Gmail For Link Building

There are 3x free tools you can use to transform Gmail into a powerful SEO & link building tool-

They all come with a freemium version so you can benefit without spending a penny.

Here’s how to use each of them…

#1 – Boomerang: Follow Up Like A Pro!

Boomerang is a Gmail scheduling tool.

But it’s also much more than that…

It’s an essential productivity tool for people (like me) who struggle to keep their inbox tidy.

Scheduling emails enables you to:

For example…

If you are in the UK and you’re sending an email to a US website, you can schedule it to arrive at 11:00 after the morning rush is over.

You can also set emails to “return” to your inbox at a later date.

This is perfect for follow-ups, which is where we get our most responses.

Let’s say you’ve pitched a guest post to a website owner. You want to remember to follow up in 7x days if you’ve not heard a response.

You can select that from the drop-down menu:

Remember to tick the “if no reply box”.

Then you’ll get a reminder in 1x weeks time to hit them up again!

You can also add:

These can help you decide what to mention in your follow up email.

There’s also another super secret feature we will discuss later in this article that places a paid tool for a free one!

#2 – FindThatLead: Get The RIGHT Contact Details

FindThatLead lets you see a webmaster’s contact details.

It shows you the:

You can either run a domain through their database to see what email address they have:

Or head to a domain and use their Google Chrome extension:

Emails with a tick or “correct” next to them are verified and likely to give you a response.

The tool gives you 50 free credits a month to search with.

(1 credit = 1 search.)

You can only sign up to FindThatLead with a business email like:

You can learn more about how to set this up with Gmail later in this article.

When you run out of credits on FindThatLead you can also use:

Or you can follow my step by step email address lookup process.

#3 – Spelling And Grammar: Ensure Your Emails Are Professional

Well written emails get more responses.

(I get hundreds of poorly written emails each week that I straight up ignore.)

Gmail has an automatic spell check tool to help you catch basic errors, but did you know about their advanced spell checker?

It can help you find high-level mistakes like:

And offer correction that you can apply with one click.

Take a look at this poorly written email below…

The red lines are Gmail’s standard spell checker.

To get an advanced check on this you’ll need to go to the three dots at the bottom of your email editor to bring up a selection menu:

Select “Check Spelling” from the menu.

This will apply a colour overlay to the major spelling mistakes in your email:

You can left-click on any of these to see possible corrections:

You should run this check and make improvements before you send any emails.

Alternatively:

You could use a professional grammar tool like Grammarly.

Grammarly goes even deeper into spelling and grammar to show you:

And lets you remove them from your email in just one click:

Finally: You could use Boomerang’s built-in Respondable tool.

You can find it at the bottom of your Gmail composer. It assesses the factors that make emails more likely to gain a response.

You then get a score for each of them on how you can improve:

All you have to do is get your email into the green sections before you send it.

Speaking of responses…

3x Simple Ways To Increase Your Response Rate

It’s not enough to just send emails from a great platform.

You need people to respond to them.

The more responses you get, the more links you can build.

Here are 3x simple ways to increase your response rates…

People trust website based email addresses more than Gmail ones.

In fact: 75% of consumers believe an email that matches your website builds trust.

Let’s face it…

If you see these two emails in your inbox:

You’re going to take the second one seriously.

You can add your domain’s email address to Gmail quite easily.

Once you have your domain email address set up just follow these instructions from Google. You will then be able to manage emails in your Gmail dashboard.

You can also connect your business to Google Apps for Business.

This will integrate your business processes with Google apps like:

To put your entire SEO business under one productive roof.

#2 – Add A Professional Email Signature

Email signatures have a positive psychological impact.

When we see a high-quality signature we often think the person is more:

So, don’t leave your signature blank.

Instead, use a tool like Signature Maker to create a professional one.

Just input your information to quickly generate one:

Here’s my signature that I created using Wisestamp:

There’s no excuse to miss this step!

#3 – Add A Profile Photo To Your Google Account

Nobody likes getting emails from a faceless account with a name they don’t know.

There are fewer strategies more guaranteed to get your email ignored.

You can combat this by adding a profile picture to your Google account.

Simply go to:

Google Account > Personal Info > Photo

And add an image.

If you don’t feel comfortable using a headshot of yourself, you could also use:

As your profile picture.

BONUS: Learn how to build powerful edu backlinks.

How To Manage Multiple Gmail Accounts At Once

You can manage multiple Gmail accounts by using the Chrome plugin, Checker Plus.

You’re able to view mail for all of your accounts together:

Meaning you can see your:

…accounts alongside each other and respond to emails without needing to open Gmail.

Just click on the Chrome icon and away you go!

The 2x Follow Up Templates That Increase Responses By 30%

Around 30% of our success comes from follow up emails.

You saw earlier how to automate the follow-up process with reminders. But what should you say in your follow up emails?

Well, I’m going to tell you exactly what to say!

Just send these 2x emails to increase your response rate by 30%-

Follow Up Template #1

Send this template 7 days after sending your initial outreach email-

“Hey,

I know how quickly inboxes can fill up so just in case you missed my email, I wanted to follow up to see if you would be interested in collaborating?

Check out my previous email for all the details 🙂

Hope to hear from you.

Thanks

Matthew”

Follow Up Template #2

If you don’t hear a response from that email…

Send this one 8 days later:

“Hey

Some time ago I reached out to you ‘begging for a backlink’.

I just thought I would make one more attempt to capture your interest in my [insert the link you pitched].

It has proven extremely popular with our audience and we want to keep pushing to reach more.

That’s where you come in…

If you have a look at my original email you will find all the details but in essentials…

1. We have some awesome content.
2. Please give it a backlink
3. Can we do something for you in return?

If you are still reading this then thank you so much and I hope to hear back from you soon.

Cheers,

Matthew Woodward”

Then wait for the responses to roll in!

Wrapping It Up

Gmail is a tried-and-tested platform for link building outreach.

You can customize it to:

To ensure your emails get responses, remember to:

1. Use a business domain
2. Include a professional signature
3. Add a profile picture

Or, if you want to outsource it, check out my review of the top link building services.

How do you use Gmail in your SEO and link building campaigns?