What's your process for building backlinks?

Mine's boring. Find pages that link to two or more competitors but not to us, check each one by hand, and only email where we've genuinely got something better than what they link to now. Short list, personal emails, one follow-up and then leave it. Most never answer; the few that do are worth it.

The step people get wrong is starting at outreach. Before you email anyone there has to be a reason for a stranger to link, and in practice that's one genuinely useful page - original numbers, a tool, something that answers a question badly served elsewhere. Then find who already links to comparable pages and go to them. Every guide says something different because they're all describing the second half and skipping the first.