Competing for reporter and blogger attention in a sea of emails can be time-consuming, but thanks to Help a Reporter Out, pitching is less tedious. It connects PR people and small-business owners with people writing about their industry.
Not all HARO pitches are created equal, however. Follow these tips to get better responses to your HARO pitches:
1. Systemize.
Filter out the daily queries you don’t need.
Will Coombe of Sharpe Digital recommends: “Add email filters to your inbox so only HARO questions that contain pre-selected keywords surrounding your expertise make it through. This way receiving a HARO email will be infrequent enough to motivate you to put the effort in to respond.”
2. Be concise.
Deliver exactly what the blogger or reporter is looking for, use bullet points, and convey your message succinctly. No reporter wants 10 paragraphs of information, only to use one key sentence.
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3. Include background information.
Why are you relevant to the conversation? Start your pitch with a few bullet points as to why you’re the best expert to answer the question.
No one wants advice from someone who launched a business in their dad’s basement last week. If you’ve won industry awards or been featured in major media channels, mention it.
Marcus Miller of Bowler Hat add: “We always follow up and start with an introduction. We do this to illustrate why the input is valid and the pitch should be considered. If the person has clear credibility in the area on which he or she is commenting then it helps the author know this is a valid source.”
4. Answer all the questions.
Too often, people will offer an expert but won’t answer the questions in my initial query.
The idea behind HARO is to make life easier for bloggers and journalists. If they have to send you multiple emails just to get their initial question(s) answered, they’ll opt for another source.
Everett Sizemore of Inflow adds: “Pay attention to what reporters are asking for. If they want high-resolution photos, provide them. If they ask for a two-sentence response, send them two sentences. If you provide what they want and need in a timely manner, your odds of being used as a source increase exponentially.”
If you want any shot at getting publicity, answer the questions in every query.
5. Include links to your social media profiles.
Any journalist or blogger worth their salt will do research on you before tapping you as a source. Help them out by including links to your profiles.
As a bonus, if a reporter can see you have a large, engaged following on social media, that’s a point in your favor.
6. Be timely.
Spela Grasic of Cheeky Monkey Media says timing is everything: “Respond as soon as possible; don't wait to the last minute. As someone who also requests HARO pitches, I know that if I'm in a rush, I'll take the first few good ones and go from there. I might not have time to look into later submissions.”
7. Pitch relevant people.
“Focus. Time is money, so be selective with your pitches. Don't waste your time pitching anonymous reporters and/or no name websites,” says Ben Landers of Blue Corona. “If I can add value to a query, but I've never heard of a website, I do a quick analysis of the website to determine whether or not to respond. I use tools like Moz to determine domain authority and review the backlinks to the site. Stick to queries where you [offer] deep subject matter expertise and/or a truly unique perspective or story.”
By selecting only the queries for which you have true expertise, and by pitching journalists relevant to your business, you’ll get more out of the experience.
8. Stop with the sales pitch.
Reporters and journalists use HARO to find legitimate sources. I’ve yet to meet a single person who uses HARO in hopes of being sent cheesy sales pitches.
David Lowbridge of Two Feet Marketing says: “You should never be salesy. The main purpose for HARO requests is for journalists to find expert information, not to look for services. You will get more benefit from HARO from providing useful information showing your knowledge rather than showing you can sell your product.”
Your product or service is probably not as interesting as you think it is, so unless a HARO query explicitly calls for product pitches, just respond to the question(s) asked.
9. Include a quote.
Jonas Sickler of ConsumerSafety.org follows this method: “Don’t just provide great information; also provide a useable quote. Make sure you give the journalist an intelligent, succinct and useful bit of quotable text. Keep your quote under three sentences, and write it in a separate line.”
I can attest to this. I love getting an informative, relevant quote that I can copy and paste into a story. Quotes make it easy for journalists to do their job.
10. Include contact information.
HARO automatically includes your email address in responses, but that might not be the best way to reach you, and spam filters aren’t an exact science.
Add your website URL, preferred email address and phone number in all HARO pitches, so reporters have an array of methods to reach you for additional information.
11. Offer yourself as a future source.
Whether or not a reporter uses you for the query you answered, emphasize that you’re available for other stories.
If you present yourself credibly and list the topics you could weigh in on, media contacts will probably add you to their shortlist. Say, “Feel free to keep me in mind as a source for future stories related to X, Y and Z,” to let the journalist know you’re serious about being a long-term source, rather than a one-off placement.
Matt Boaman of Godfrey offers: “If you receive a response that your answer wasn't chosen, it at least gives you the opportunity to start a relationship and keep the lines of communication open for future possibilities. Consider sharing the article or story on social media when it's published, even if you weren't included.”
Blair Nicole is the founder of Media Moguls PR .(Image via)
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