SEO Follow-Up Email Templates

Browse best-performing SEO follow-up email templates for link building, guest post, and digital PR campaigns - where most replies come from the second or third email, not the first.

Categories
6 email templates
Partnering to scale link building

Hi {{first_name}},

Q1 is about prioritization—here are three ways we can collaborate to grow backlinks and organic traffic:

ABC exchanges: We partner with leading SaaS brands to place backlinks in exchange for links from your site.

Guest post collaborations: We regularly contribute to top sites like [[backlink site 1]], [[backlink site 2]], and [[backlink site 3]] and can include your links in upcoming guest posts.

Slack channel access: To scale even further, I can invite you to our private Slack channel, where 200+ SaaS businesses collaborate on link building.

P.S. To kick things off, I’d be happy to build a quick link for you from [[one backlink site]].

Follow-Up SEO
Quick one {{first_name}}

Hope you're doing well {{first_name}},

Do you know why the pea was meditating?

To find his 'inner peas'.

Getting back to the present, did you get a chance to see my last email?

Namaste,

[[signature]]

Follow-Up SEO
Quick one {{first_name}}

Heya, it's little ol' me again {{first_name}},

(I hope you don't roll your third eye at me.)

Did you have a chance to read my email about the mantras article?

Cheerio,

[[signature]]

Follow-Up SEO
Blog post update?

Hi {{first_name}},

Have you had the chance to quickly check the guide I sent you?

I emailed you because I think it’s a great match with your blog post: [[referring_page_url]]

If you are not interested or there is another person you would like me to follow up with, please let me know.

Irina

Follow-Up SEO
Content cooperation

Hi {{first_name}},

I'd like to follow up on how we can cooperate in the content matter.

I'm open to discuss the details here, alternatively, we can set up a call here.

P.S. If you're not the right person to this matter, I'd be happy to know the right contact to talk to.

Cheers,
[[your name]]

Follow-Up SEO
Blog post update?

Hey {{first_name}},

I hate pushy marketers, but at the same time, I’d love to help you update your blog post [[referring_page_url]] with fresh and up-to-date information.

Just ping me if you decide to update the outdated link, and I’d be happy to provide you with 1K free requests to your Hunter account to say "thank you" for your efforts!

And yeah, I’ll not bother you again with follow-ups. Feel free to reach out to me whenever you have any questions.

Have a beautiful day and stay safe.

Irina

Follow-Up SEO
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Frequently asked questions

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SEO outreach targets busy webmasters, editors, and content managers who receive dozens of pitches daily. Your initial email often lands during a content sprint or gets buried. A link building follow up email that reframes your offer gives them a second chance to engage when their calendar clears. Without follow ups, even well-crafted SEO outreach leaves most potential replies uncaptured.

Reframe your offer rather than repeating it. A link insertion pitch that didn't land could become a guest post proposal in the follow up. A relevance-first pitch could shift to reciprocal value: offering to mention their tool in one of your ranking articles. Each follow up should give the recipient a new reason to respond.

First follow up: 3-5 days after the initial pitch. Second follow up (breakup): 5-7 days after that. SEO outreach recipients tend to be less time-sensitive than sales prospects, so slightly longer gaps work fine. Don't follow up the same day or next day. Your follow up email schedule should reflect the pace of content publishing, not the urgency of a sales pipeline.

For high-authority sites, your follow up should feel like a personal note, not a sequence step. Reference something specific that changed since your first email: a new piece of content you published, an update to your data, or a relevant news hook that makes the timing better. How to get backlinks from authority sites requires fully manual, custom messaging. If the editor can tell you're running a template, you've lost them.

Sending from a custom domain produces a 5.2% reply rate versus 2.5% from freemail, a 108% difference according to Hunter's State of Email Outreach report. For SEO follow up emails specifically, a professional custom domain signals credibility before the recipient even reads the message. If you're running link building campaigns from a Gmail or Yahoo address, you're cutting your reply rate in half.

How to write a follow-up email template?

  • Add value with each follow-up. With each follow-up, you should provide additional value for your prospects. Try to collect more information about them, spark their interest with something relevant, provide proof of how your current clients are growing using your services by sharing their success studies, results, or feedback.
  • Write a catchy opening line. Start with an intriguing and/or relevant question, mention mutual connection, prospect’s problem, or use a recent trigger event. Try to avoid such opening lines: “Just checking in”, “Thought I would just check-in and find out”, “Just wanted to check-in to hear about”, “Touching base”, etc.
  • Make it short. In your follow-up emails, try to eliminate unnecessary greetings like “I hope you’re doing well.” Being polite is a must, but it could be easily achieved by using the right style for your email. Also, don’t use wordy sentences. Give your writing a confidence boost by eliminating words that weigh down your writing and make your sound uncertain.
  • Personalize on a high level. Besides basic personalization (first name, company name, etc), do in-depth research, and identify the prospect’s niche, mention possible pains, offer relevant solutions, etc.
  • Avoid sounding passive-aggressive. Direct aggression is relatively easy to spot, but more subtle passive-aggressive phrases can sneak into your follow-ups almost without thought. Try to omit such passive-aggressive phrases in your follow-ups: “I’m following up because you haven’t responded to me yet”, “I’ve tried to reach you a few times now”, “I know you’re busy, I’m busy too”, etc.

Read more: How to Write a Follow-Up Email After no Response (With Examples)

How to write a good subject line for your follow-up email?

The subject line is the first thing your prospects see, and they may decide whether or not to read your emails based on the subject line only.

So try not to be too obvious by having “Follow-up” or “Just checking in” as subject lines for your follow-ups. Be a bit more creative and write a catchy copy that makes users open your email.

These are the key rules to follow while writing subject lines for your follow-ups: make them personal, keep copy short, ask intriguing questions.

Read more: How to Craft Perfect Cold Email Subject Line

How many follow-ups to send?

At Hunter, our key rule is to focus on writing irresistible emails instead of adding too much follow-ups. So we recommend limiting to three follow-ups for your cold email campaigns. If you are sending too many follow-ups to someone who’s never heard about you, you may seem an annoying person and damage your company brand.

If you still feel three follow-ups is not enough or that you can provide more value/spark interest for your prospects—don’t hesitate to use other channels. Twitter or LinkedIn could easily help you to deliver your message on a personal level.

Read more: How to Write a Follow-Up Email After no Response (With Examples)

How often to send follow-ups?

Around 90% of emails are opened on the same day they are sent. The same for the responses—the chances are that your prospects get back to you the same day your campaign was sent are much higher.

So don’t wait for too long to send your follow-up email. Typically, 2–5 days is the best timing to remind prospects about your offer.

Read more: How to Write a Follow-Up Email After no Response (With Examples)

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