If you think in terms of quality and not in terms of quantity, it doesn't take thousands of links to rank.

The best strategy is to make a list of other websites in your industry/niche that are extremely relevant to your topic, then figure out how can you generate links on those websites.

Typically the best method is to share content or show the site owner that your page should be linked to due to the quality of your content.

The bottom line is you should try to get links you'd find valuable enough to click if you were a user.