Every concern wants to beryllium featured successful apical manufacture listicles. This gets you much backlinks and visibility from websites that fertile good for keywords similar “best X tools” oregon “top products for X.”

The occupation is that listicle outreach is rather complicated. You request to place the close listicles, arsenic good arsenic the close prospects to transportation your concern to. Your acold email should supply worth and beryllium persuasive. Also, the occurrence of your outreach depends a batch connected the dialog tactics you use.

When I worked for Hunter, listicle outreach was the nexus gathering maneuver that brought america the champion results. For example, successful our past campaign, we achieved these results successful little than 3 months with lone 1 idiosyncratic progressive successful the process:

• 96 caller links from 54 domains
• 33 caller mentions successful merchandise listicles
• 17 upgraded positions successful different listicles

In this guide, I’ll explicate however to usage this method to get dozens of links and mentions for your website successful nary time. I’ll besides stock immoderate tips connected improving your chances of success.

The archetypal measurement successful the listicle outreach process is to specify your targets.

There are 3 cardinal types of listicles that enactment good for this tactic. You tin prime the 1 that works the champion for you oregon people galore categories astatine the aforesaid clip (there are nary strict rules):

1. Best options – Lists of products, services, oregon businesses agreed by a azygous topic. It tin beryllium a database of champion SEO tools, apical bundle for recruiters, etc.
2. Alternative options – Lists of comparisons focused connected a circumstantial industry, topic, oregon problem. Aura’s listicle connected apical LifeLock competitors is simply a large example.
3. Guides that see lists – People often see lists successful guides. For example, Ahrefs’ usher to uncovering email addresses includes tips connected email lookup. One of the tips is to usage email lookup services and the author, Nick Churick, shares a database of the champion tools helium tested.

Once you’ve chosen a class (or many), brainstorm keywords and topics you tin usage to find listicles wherever your merchandise oregon work volition fit. Then harvester them with alleged modifiers (the words commonly utilized successful listicles).

I noticed these modifiers are contiguous successful the titles of astir listicles: best, top, review, list, tools, free.

Here are a fewer examples of queries that could work:

• Best options listicles: best email finder, champion seo tools, apical restaurants successful caller york, etc.
• Alternative options listicles: best huntsman alternatives, champion ahrefs alternatives, etc.

Next, hunt for these presumption successful Google and usage Ahrefs’ SEO Toolbar to export the results. Repeat the process for the different keywords from your database and past merge each CSVs into one.

If you like, you tin velocity this process up utilizing Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer. Just participate your keywords, deed “Export,” and take the enactment to “Include SERPs.”

At this stage, you whitethorn person hundreds oregon adjacent thousands of pages successful your main CSV. So you request to cleanable the database truthful you tin absorption connected pitching to the astir applicable and invaluable listicles.

You tin commencement with basal cleaning: region duplicates successful bulk and delete each the websites with debased DR. In mine, I ever region each the websites with DR 30 and lower. 

As the export files from Ahrefs see this data, it’s casual capable to bash successful Excel oregon Google Sheets.

After that, manually cheque what’s left: region pages that are not listicles and besides region listicles that don’t acceptable your requirements. Optionally, you tin delete listicles with debased postulation (again, the exports from Ahrefs see this data).

Once you cleanable the list, it’s clip to bash segmentation. I suggest adding the pursuing tags to your CSV to conception prospects:

• Listicles wherever your merchandise oregon work isn’t mentioned.
• Your concern is mentioned, but without a link.
• You’ve got a mention, but it’s beneath your competitors.

Here’s what my record looks similar aft the segmentation:

Editor’s Note

If you privation to velocity up and automate this process, see segmenting during the prospecting signifier with Google hunt operators. 

For example, adding “product name” to your hunt volition find listicles that notation your merchandise already. And adding -“product name” volition find those that don’t notation your product. 

Now it’s clip to find the decision-makers down the URLs you collected. It’s indispensable to dedicate capable clip to this portion of the process since the occurrence of the run depends connected the radical you contact. The look “contact the close people, with the close offer, astatine the close time” inactive works. And “people” play a important role here.

After sending hundreds of listicle outreach emails, I noticed I got the champion effect rates from blog editors and contented managers. Often, these were the writers who created a circumstantial listicle. So marque these positions your cardinal target.

To start, find the afloat names of your prospects connected LinkedIn and adhd them to your document.

For example, if I were reaching retired to Ahrefs, I’d astir apt scope retired to its caput of content, Joshua Hardwick. 

After this, if you usage Google Sheets, you tin usage Hunter for Google Sheets to automate the email lookup process. All you person to bash is provender it the columns with the archetypal and past names, domains, and institution names of your prospects, and it’ll bash the rest. 

If you don’t usage Google Sheets, you tin usage Bulk Email Finder for email lookup. You’ll request to upload a CSV into the app, and past you’ll beryllium capable to export the result.

Let maine guess: You privation a notation successful the listicle, much visibility from your prospect’s assemblage and, connected apical of that, a backlink.

Remember, asking for a batch without giving thing successful instrumentality decreases your chances of getting anything.

Before penning thing similar “Hey! I person a large instrumentality to adhd to your listicle. Can you springiness maine a notation with a backlink?” deliberation astir what’s successful it for them.

You should bring value. No worth = nary pitch. These are the rules of the listicle outreach game.

Let maine amusement you 2 transportation examples and what I mean by providing value.

Example #1

This is 1 of the templates that helped maine make dozens of mentions. What’s the secret?

Instead of focusing connected however fantastic my instrumentality was and describing each the features successful detail, I focused connected the value. In elemental words—what the blog exertion would get aft featuring my product.

I included 3 captious benefits successful my pitch:

1. If the exertion accepted my offer, they would automatically go portion of our affiliate programme and get recurring gross from this mention.
2. I offered bloggers a generous battalion of Hunter’s escaped requests that they could usage for their acold outreach campaigns.
3. I offered to assistance supply accusation for the listicle. (It’s a information that galore bloggers are engaged and often person established contented update schedules. If you don’t privation to hold a twelvemonth for the adjacent update, connection to help.)

Example #2

I sent this template to the blog editor, whose tract published an in-depth usher connected email lookup. They mentioned our instrumentality without a backlink. Also, the accusation successful that nonfiction was a spot outdated.

In this pitch, my cardinal connection was focused connected helping to update the guide, arsenic the integrated postulation had dropped lately. I confirmed my constituent with a screenshot from Ahrefs.

The worth of the connection was to assistance them get amended rankings.

I urge spending rather a batch of clip personalizing your emails connected a precocious level alternatively of doing generic outreach. The much effort you put successful the email copy, the amended results you tin achieve.

For this campaign, we utilized 2 antithetic approaches:

• Fully manual and personalized – Sometimes, it took up to 30 minutes to constitute an email. Yes, it’s clip consuming, but I recovered the effect complaint to beryllium incredibly precocious (more than 50%).
• Automated with a idiosyncratic interaction – We automated immoderate of the email batches with Hunter Campaigns, a escaped instrumentality for acold outreach automation. When segmenting prospects, you’ll announcement galore similarities betwixt listicles. You tin personalize transcript astatine standard with customized attributes and icebreakers for specified campaigns.
  

Also, don’t hide to nonstop follow-ups. They assistance to summation the effect rate. 

Keep your follow-ups abbreviated and consecutive to the point. Don’t nonstop much than 2 follow-ups to 1 prospect. This volition forestall you from looking hopeless and annoying.

You tin docket reminders to nonstop follow-ups successful X days straight successful your Gmail oregon acceptable up automated follow-ups with a instrumentality for outreach automation.

In a cleanable world, you nonstop your acold transportation and instantly receive, “Sounds great, I conscionable updated my article!” 

In the existent world, things enactment differently. When acold emailing for nexus building, impermanent posts, oregon listicle placements, retrieve that you often volition beryllium asked to supply an adjacent worth oregon adjacent much successful return.

Some website editors whitethorn adjacent inquire for payment:

I don’t urge paying for listicle placements for a fewer reasons:

1. If the exertion accepts submission lone for the payment, they don’t attraction astir the prime of the products listed. All they attraction astir is quick money.
2. If your merchandise is already listed and you privation to adhd a backlink, it whitethorn beryllium risky. Google explicitly warns that it considers buying links a nexus scheme. If you’re going to instrumentality to Google’s guidelines 100%, you shouldn’t buy links.
3. Often, websites inquire for the outgo repeatedly. This means that they tin diagnostic your merchandise oregon work successful a listicle for a constricted time. If you privation to widen the placement, you request to proceed paying.

Negotiations are 1 of the astir analyzable parts of listicle outreach. You invested tons of clip into research, prospecting, and series preparation. But 1 incorrect connection oregon a deficiency of flexibility successful negotiations tin outgo you a prospect. 

Here are a fewer tips that helped maine adjacent the astir hard negotiations (for illustration HubSpot, which has beauteous precocious editorial standards):

• Be flexible – Don’t accidental nary close away; ever effort to find a mediate ground.
• Provide accelerated responses – You person a precocious accidental of getting featured successful the listicles if you respond to your prospects close distant oregon astatine slightest connected the aforesaid day. Don’t hold too long.
• Do thing for them – Help dispersed the connection astir the updated article, stock proposal successful your country of expertise, supply a backlink from your upcoming impermanent post, etc.
• Always travel up – People are busy, and they tin hide astir you—it’s OK. If they showed involvement successful your offer, don’t hesitate to punctual them astir yourself.

Final thoughts

Listicle outreach isn’t hard. 

Given the fig of tips successful the article, it whitethorn look similar it. But erstwhile you get the bent of things, everything usually fits into place.

I’m not saying you tin bash it with nary effort. You inactive person to bash a batch of enactment to cod high-quality prospects, find decision-makers, hole a invaluable outreach sequence, etc. But it’s not the intolerable task that galore deliberation it is.

If your run goes well, you tin marque it evergreen by monitoring for caller listicles with Ahrefs Alerts. Here’s an illustration alert that monitors for caller listicles with “best email finder” successful their titles connected DR 30+ websites with 1,000+ monthly hunt visits:

Got questions? Ping maine on LinkedIn.