An outreach email should not be written in a single format for all types of asks. Link requests, collaboration pitches, guest contributions, and resource suggestions are different goals requiring different types of information. This difference should be reflected in the email structure to achieve better results. The goal affects not only the message elements but also the order in which they should be placed.
An effective structure cannot be created with the help of a single sequence of introduction, pitch, and call-to-action. Each outreach objective requires the recipient to make a certain decision, so a good email structure should be determined by the information needed to make that decision.
Link Requests Require Relevance First
A link request email asks a site owner to change or add content. This goal requires information about the relevance of a certain web resource in the context of an existing website.
Introducing yourself at length at the beginning of such an email just delays the information the recipient needs to know.
This message architecture should start with the recipient’s content and then move to the reason why the proposed destination should be added to it. In this case, the value proposition is based on fit: the suggested link adds some value to the existing page.
Guest Contribution Requires Information About the Contribution
Guest contribution outreach requires the recipient to make a completely different decision. Unlike link requests, this email does not ask the recipient to reconsider existing content but to evaluate and decide whether a guest contribution is relevant to their publication.
The structure of this email should focus more on the subject of the contribution and how it can add some value to the publication. Information about the sender can help in this process, but it must support the contribution rather than be the key point of the whole message.
In this case, the value proposition becomes content value. What does this potential contributor offer that can be valuable for the publication?
Resource Suggestion Requires Quick Demonstration of Utility
As an email suggesting a resource already contains a link to it, it requires a different message architecture. The recipient should understand what this resource does and why it can be valuable in terms of their own resources.
This means that the sender should move quickly from the existing environment of the recipient to the usefulness of the suggested page.
In this message, a lengthy introduction just distracts the recipient from the information they really need to make a decision about including the link in their publication.
In this case, the value proposition is the resource utility. The reader should easily see what the resource provides without having to look for any additional information about the sender.
Collaboration Emails Require Information About Mutual Benefits Earlier
While other types of outreach are relatively transactional, collaboration requires a more complex decision-making process.
The recipient should understand not only what you propose but also why you think that collaboration may bring them something valuable.
This means that this kind of outreach email requires a better balance between information about the sender, their ideas, and the recipient.
If the email immediately mentions what you want from the recipient, it may seem that you want something one-sided. If it spends too much time providing background information, the collaboration itself remains unclear.
The better architecture introduces the collaboration idea first and then describes what participating in it can mean for the recipient.
Here, the value proposition becomes the mutual benefits of the collaboration.
Order of Information Should Reduce Decision Friction
Each outreach goal requires different information, and each goal requires this information in a different order.
A recipient who considers a resource suggestion should understand the relevance of this resource almost immediately. In contrast, a recipient who evaluates a collaboration proposal needs information about the idea before making any decisions about participating in it.
It means that the outreach email structure should reflect the recipient’s decision process.
The first information should be related to the question that the recipient needs answered. The next information should help reduce uncertainty about making the final decision.
Email message architecture reduces decision friction gradually.
Value Proposition Depends on the Purpose
Another common mistake is using the same value proposition for each outreach objective. It is one of the reasons why outreach emails sound generic even if the sender personalizes them with names and websites.
Different goals require different kinds of value.
Link requests require adding or improving the value of the recipient’s page. A resource suggestion adds some useful resource to the existing environment of the recipient. A guest contribution provides the publication with some new knowledge or perspective. Collaboration offers mutual benefits.
The email should focus on the specific kind of value that supports this particular goal.
Changing Only the Call-To-Action Is Not Enough
Using templates is an operationally convenient way to write emails, but they become restrictive if each outreach goal is pushed through the same email structure.
A more reasonable question is: what does the recipient need to know to make a decision about a specific ask?
The answer to this question determines the information that should appear first, second, and so on.
Outreach email structure depends on the order of information presentation. A link request, guest contribution, resource suggestion, and collaboration are all outreach messages, but they require the recipient to make completely different decisions.
