Who to contact for link building outreach pitches

Executive overview

Most link outreach fails because it reaches the wrong person. Contact someone without the power to add a link and the pitch is wasted regardless of quality.

The right contact depends on two factors: your goal and the company's size. Authors and editors work for link-in-existing-post campaigns; editors or heads of content are needed for guest post pitches.

Contact the person who has actual power to add your link — everyone else is a dead end.

Choosing the right contact by goal

• Guest post pitches: target the editor or head of content, not authors or webmasters
• Edits to existing posts: authors (wrote the content) or editors (can make changes) both work
• At larger companies, the editor may not have final say — find the decision-maker above them
• Generic emails (support@, contact@) are a last resort, not a strategy

What the data shows

• Authors converted at 7.56% in a tracked link-building campaign
• Editors converted at 7.55% — nearly identical to authors
• Generic emails converted at 4% — mostly small companies with no dedicated contact
• Content marketing managers and webmasters converted at just 1.64%