Use social media, send friendly emails or comment on blog posts. Or try good-old conversation: make connections at local meetups, conferences and in your day-to-day. Create content with input from those industry thought leaders. Not only will these thought leaders help you write your content, but they'll also share it, giving you new visitors and a new link. You could create a 'best-of' list or a resources list, and give credit to the sources or authors. Conduct an interview with an industry thought leader and publish it as a blog post. Write crowdsourced content - solicit information, answers or opinions on a particular topic from industry thought leaders. Or ask an industry thought leader to write the foreword or give a quote for an ebook.