Episode 12: How to Use HARO to Find Journalists and Get Media Features for Free
Have you heard of HARO? It stands for Help a Reporter Out.
This is a tool that is widely used by small businesses to find journalists and get featured, and I get asked about it all the time. If you haven’t heard of it or used it before, don’t worry!
In this episode, I am breaking it down for you and teaching you how you can hack HARO and get featured.
From my favorite hacks to do’s and don’ts and example pitches that I have used that have worked, this episode will give you the information you need to get started with HARO as a small business owner.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
How to maximize your success with this baseline tool
How to make sure you don’t spend hours responding to inquiries
The amount of inquires you can expect to receive
Why domain authority is important
Tips for understanding what is subject line worthy in your industry
Why you should use an email tracking device
Remember, the audio from this episode is sourced from a Facebook Live that I did, so if you want to see me share my screen like I talk about throughout the episode, head over to my Youtube channel here and watch the video!
I wouldn’t use HARO without knowing how to write a pitch. That is the number one skill that will lead to your success, so if you ned help with that before starting with HARO, grab the PR Starter Pack or join me in the masterclass!
For even more information and help when it comes to getting featured, watch the #1 PR Masterclass for small businesses to help you get a media feature in 30 days. You can find it here: http://gloriachoupr.com/masterclass!
Resources Mentioned:
How to Use Haro (Help a Reporter Out) And Find Journalists and Editors: https://www.gloriachoupr.com/resources/2020/6/9/how-to-use-haro-help-a-reporter-out-and-find-journalists-and-editors
Follow Gloria on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/gloriachoupr
Watch the PR masterclass: http://gloriachoupr.com/masterclass
Get the PR Starter Pack: http://www.prstarterpack.com
Join the Small Biz PR Pros FB group: http://www.getfeaturednow.com
Additional Resources:
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Transcript
Speaker1: [00:00:00] You might have heard of horror, and no, it's not Oprah's TV production company. What I meant is help a reporter out. This is a tool widely used by small businesses to find journalists and get featured. And this episode, my friends, I am breaking it down for you so that you can hack HARO and get featured. Hey, friends, I'm Gloria Chou. Small business PR expert, award winning pitch writer and your unofficial hype woman. Nothing makes me happier than seeing people get the recognition they deserve, and that starts with feeling more confident to go bigger with your message. Because let's be honest, we simply cannot make the impact. We're here to make by hiding behind the scenes. So on this podcast, I will share with you the untraditional yet proven strategies for PR marketing and creating more opportunity in your business. If you are ready to take control of your narrative and be your most unapologetic and confident self, you're in the right place. This is the Small Business PR podcast. I am so excited about this one, because so many people have asked me about HARO and how to find journalists organically, right, so HARO stands for help a reporter out. It is the baseline tool that you can sign on to be a source, which means that journalists who are looking for people to interview you will be a source for them, right? So I will share my screen and I will show you exactly kind of what it looks like.
Speaker1: [00:01:25] And that way you'll know exactly what you're signing up for. Ok, so this is when you go to help a reporter, right? It's made by cision you can select if you're a journalist or a source. Now, most of the time, if you're watching this, you're probably going to be a source. So click on. I am a source and they give you kind of the rules, and obviously you want to read the rules to make sure that you're respecting the guidelines here and then you want to sign up. You click, sign up and then you sign up with your name, last name company, whatever it is, right? So once you do that, you get like three emails a day with I'm telling, like hundreds, hundreds of inquiries and it can be overwhelming. So the reason why I want to do this walkthrough is so that a you're not spending hours in this like, you know, responding to inquiries and shuffling through and be how you can maximize your success with this baseline tool. Now, like I said, this tool is used by over 800000 people. It is a grassroots way of connecting with journalists, but I have had people who, after I wrote their pitch, copied and pasted it into and got into fast company, got into top tier outlets, right, got into gift guides. So it does work, but you really want to make sure your pitch is super solid.
Speaker1: [00:02:38] And so that is why you want to watch my masterclass. Make sure that you understand the CPR method and get into my PR starter pack so you can see exactly how to write a pitch that you can literally just copy and paste and and use HARO. But obviously, if you're in the starter pack, you won't need HARO because you'll have 60 thousand editors and every single media list you need. But if you're doing it on your own, this is how you should hack. I'm going to show you now. So now that we have gone through how you register, right, I just showed you, I shared my screen with you, how you sign up for a source. Now I'm going to show you what the actual emails look like, that they send you every single day of all the different inquiries. So now I want to show you once you register. This is kind of what it looks like. So for example, this is an email that you get, so you get these emails three times a day. Again, it can be overwhelming, but they have a morning edition, afternoon and evening, and they send out three emails Monday to Friday. Right. So that's a lot of opportunities for you to get featured, but also a lot of time that you're spending going through this.
Speaker1: [00:03:37] So what I want you to do is I don't want you to scroll through all of this because a lot of this might not even be in your niche. What you should do, first of all, is do control F and you want to do a keyword search. So that way it's only showing you the inquiries on your business, right? So for example, if you're in wellness, right, so I'm going to type in wellness. Boom, I see here this person wants to interview someone in the wellness field. And so the outlet is Aura Glow, and you can do your own research to see whether or not this is a legitimate or not. Because remember, a lot of times people who have blogs and Facebook groups can also sign to be on to be a source, whereas all the contacts in the starter pack are real, legitimate journalists who are vetted. But a lot of times these are still legitimate journalists. So you want to make sure that this is a website that will move the needle for you, and they tell you when the deadline to submit your pitch is and you want to read the inquiry because you want to make sure that not only do you match that what they're asking for, that you're basically feeding them exactly what they want, right? So this person says, I am looking for a health wellness expert to weigh in on the following questions one How can you detox from sugar, too? What are some tips? You have three any tips you have for dealing with side effects of sugar withdraw.
Speaker1: [00:04:54] These questions will be published on a thirty six day site. So just for anyone who doesn't know, DA stands for domain authority. So a Forbes or a BuzzFeed is going to have a domain authority of one hundred or ninety nine, right? So the higher it is that the higher ranking your website is, the higher the number. So thirty six is kind of like mid to low. It's not terrible, but it's not like a Forbes, but it might be still good because it might be something speaking to your industry, right? Again, a lot of the niche industry tiers will probably be in the mid range, and that's a lot of times where your customers hang out. So it's not a bad thing, right? So that's wellness. And you can see right here this person from very well fit they she. So this person says they are contributing writer I am making. I'm working on a story about what makes a great baseball club, right? So that may or may not apply to you. I know we have some interior designers in the PR Typekit community, in the Facebook community that I'm streaming live to now. And this is for my domain. My domain is a very good website.
Speaker1: [00:05:57] I've read it. It's it's got beautiful esthetics and. I think it has a lot like millions of views per month, so if you are trying to get into my domain, then you should probably look at this one, right? So this one is I am reaching out on behalf of my domain, where I work, where I'm working on a massive interior design ideas guide. That's awesome, right? If you're interior designer and I know we have some in the group right now, and if you have a great tip, I love to feature you. Right. So make sure you have that. Not only do you fit the inquiry, but also the requirements, right? What what is the requirements? The requirements of this one is if you're interested in being featured, please leave your name and credentials below and answer the following questions. So again, a lot of times these emails kind of like Craigslist, are hidden, so you don't actually know their name and email, but you have their name. And here you can do a very simple Google search to see if this person is a legitimate contributing contributor. And if it is, then you know that you're good and solid. And this is a person that if you send a pitch out to, you can build a relationship with, right? Again, my domain is is very high ranking. So once you send an email to this email again, it's hidden.
Speaker1: [00:07:08] You want to put in the subject line exactly what they're looking for. Right. So what I would do is literally put in the subject line, responding to your inquiry colon top interior design tips, right? And then in the subject of the email. For example, if I were to if I were to do this right. So for example, let's copy this email. And by the way, another hack is you want to respond to it within like 10, 10 to 15 minutes after you get these emails. So if you really want to do this on your own, set a timer, set it, set an alarm for yourself. So that way, every time this hits your inbox, maybe in the morning, because remember hits your inbox three times a day. You can check it and respond within 10 minutes because if not, they're just going to get flooded. And yours is going to be at the bottom of the pile, and I wouldn't even bother, right? So a hack is respond in 10 minutes and do whatever you need to do to clear your schedule and to don't go through the entire email. Use keyword search to do control f and only typing your keyword. And remember, remember that I said, I want you to have Google news alerts as well, right? So when you do Google news alerts, you also put in your keyword and you will be able to know all the different publications on your letter being published on your industry that's going to help train your mind to to understand what makes something subject line worthy.
Speaker1: [00:08:25] And again, that is also in my starter pack, too. Ok, so this is this is how we're sending it to, right? So we're just doing like an example here. So this person is from my domain again, a very high ranking website. It would be very expensive to buy an ad. So if you are in lifestyle, fitness, fashion, design my domain, you've probably heard of it, right? So in the subject line, so I will actually I actually would. What put? So for example, the requirements, what are your all time favorite design ideas? What do you love about each idea? So what I would put here would be like minimal, like whatever your design ethos or it might be minimalism, right? Or some kind of minimalism, then a little wisdom and whatever. Top interior. Design ideas for I actually like to put like spring summer 2020 one, because if I were if I was reading all the pitches and I see something that has the date and the time, I know that that pitch is speaking to the right now, right? And not from five years ago, right? So that's also a subject line hack in the PR starter pack as a bump offer that you can purchase. As I actually show you all of my subject lines, every single one and and what the end result is.
Speaker1: [00:09:38] So I show you the subject line that got into Ford's eye, so you'll show the subject line. They're gone to Fast Company. I show you the subject line that got into well and good that got into vogue, and you can start to train your mind because remember, you're only as good as your subject line, right? If they don't open your email because your subject line doesn't resonate. You're not going to it's not going to get wrecked, right? So here you go. So you want to put the person's names. This person's name is Lindsay, right? And make sure you do a Google search on her. So that way, you know, like if this person is legit or not, right? So you're going to put their name and then you're going to put like, you know, and using my CPR method. Remember, the CPR method is kind of like our PC, right? So you want to put relevance of you and then credibility. Right. So CPR is kind of it's kind of like reverse. So what I would put in the first sentence is like as we transition to spring summer trends, I have three unexpected interior design trends. I am seeing that people are loving. Right, and so your point of view would be those three trends, right, so you would put in bullet points like first bullet point minimalism, second bullet point, third bullet point.
Speaker1: [00:10:45] Right, that's that's kind of again, all of my pictures are written this way. I have all of my winning pictures in the starter pack and then you would finish off with one sentence on your credibility. So I want you to put the credibility here because that is what's going to separate you from the eight hundred thousand people that are on this platform, right? It doesn't mean that you are a big shot interior designer. It could be as simple as I have helped X amount of people or I have done a research paper or something that gives that person, you know, knowledge that you've actually done your research right and you're here to serve, which is you're here to give these trends. So as a let's just say, 10 year industry veteran that's helped, or should I say that's worked with clients in, I don't know, 30 states or something, you know, like just put a number on it clients or we can put in like seven countries. I have seen these interesting trends take place due to, I don't know, we could say like due to like our new normal with COVID or something like that normal and consumer behavior with stay at home becoming the new normal. And then you would basically wrap up with I can be reached on here, here and here, right? And with every pitch writing session I do for one on one.
Speaker1: [00:12:06] This is kind of the this is kind of a how I write the pitch. Obviously, this is going to be shorter because this is just responding to something that's so specific, right? So I don't want to see you writing more than two sentences per thing. Relevance really should just be like one sentence. It just leads into what they're asking for. So they're asking for trends. You're just setting the stage for why these trends are interesting and then you would send it again. This is for help a reporter out. This is a way to connect with journalists for free. You sign up to be a source and you get three meals a day. But be careful because a lot of times these outlets may not move the needle for you, so you need to know a are they asking for free merchandise? Right? Because I've heard of people saying that they've given away like three hundred dollars worth of product and gotten no response because this person was kind of an influencer and not really a journalist. Now, obviously, the media list I have is not for this, but if you want to do it on your own, you just want to be careful and you want to do your research and just make sure that that person is like a legitimate, credible source, someone that is in the position to actually take your story to other people.
Speaker1: [00:13:10] So let's go down the list here. So, so that's one email, right? So that's that that is kind of how you do it, and let's keep going down here and seeing what other things, right? So you see, there's lots of lifestyle and fitness. This person is looking for makeup artists and beauty experts. I know there are some people in our Facebook group that is that is a makeup artist who just joined a starter pack. So this one would be for her. See how to be a good marketer, right? So like there are like hundreds and hundreds in here and you get three emails a day can be overwhelming on the top. They tell you like the index. So for this one, they have biotech, they have business, they have education. So instead of going through it, I really want you to control F. I want you to just search by keyword and only answer if you have gotten this in the last like 10 15 minutes, because if you wait too long, you will start piling up. And don't forget in the subject line to write like the season that we're in. So spring summer twenty one something, it just makes your pitch stand out so much more. And don't forget, I always say this install an email tracking device that you know whether or not your emails are being opened.
Speaker1: [00:14:14] I wish I had this when I started, so I use mail track that I owe. I mean, there's tons of different there's streak. There are all these kind of Chrome extensions, so install that before anything. I know Anna, who I talk about all the time. She copied and pasted a pitch. I wrote, and she got into Fast Company, so it does work. But I just I just really don't want you to be spending so much time on this and then giving away free merchandise. I would never tell you to give away anything for free as a prerequisite. There's also something about gift guides if you like. If you sign it for HARO today, there's one that I received and it was about a kid's gift guide, right? So if you write a gift guide for kids, then you might want to respond to it. So that's it. There you have it. That's how you use HARO. That's how to hack it. I know there's tons of founders in here who have used the CPR method with success With HARO , I wouldn't do horror without like knowing how to write a pitch. Again, that's the number one skill I think is going to lead to all of your success. So start practicing. Look at the previous lives that I did. Watch the master class. Join us in the starter pack. See exactly how to write the pitch.
Speaker1: [00:15:21] And next week we're going live with a founder who use the CPR method and got her very, very early stage wellness company. She makes body lotions and soaps, and she was cited in a really good magazine, a top magazine and. A story mentioned her multiple times, it was basically around her expertize, and she paid zero dollars because it was not an ad and it gave her so much credibility. So I cannot wait for next Friday when we go live with her talk about the mindset that she had before and after, and now how she is using the CPR method and the starter pack to keep getting more press features. Another thing I want to say is that we know that there is the death of the cookie, right? That third party tracking, which is how Facebook ads and Google ads track you. That's not going to be allowed anymore. And so that is a big deal because it means that ads are just not going to be as effective and they're not going to be targeted because it's going to be illegal to track people. So as a small business, you're only saving grace because again, you cannot compete with the Amazons and Googles of the world that have so much data and you you need first party Opt-In. You're only saving grace is building your brand. You're only saving grace is position yourself as a thought leader and getting ahead of that so you can build trust with your customer.
Speaker1: [00:16:36] Because again, ads and marketing pay marketing and you know it's going to be illegal to have have cookies installed and track people. So that is going to be an unprecedented shift in marketing. I actually just wrote a pitch yesterday for someone who has been in marketing for 20 years, he's worked with the biggest brands. And he said that they have never seen a change like this and everyone is scrambling. And the people who can leverage PR and brand building, which is through thought leadership, which is through getting on podcasts, which which is through positioning yourself as more than just a product seller. That is what's going to allow you to get that customer to build that trust because again, ads are going to be less and less effective and the cost of ads are going to go through the roof with this new change. So if you have any questions, let me know. I love this group. I love being a part of the group. If anyone's watching that's not on Facebook, you can join us. We have, I think we have about like twelve hundred small businesses now. Join our group now. I go live in it every Friday and I and I planned on doing this for free because again, it lights me up and it's my way of serving my community.
Speaker1: [00:17:39] You can join us at getfeaturednow.com There are tons of amazing podcasters, their subject area experts. There's people who do a retail wholesale, how to get into stores like such a wealth of information. And I always say that your net worth is your network and that is what we're building here. So join us. Go to getfeaturednow.com. Join us in our Facebook group. I cannot wait for you to introduce yourself and thank you everyone. Bye bye. Hey, small business hero, did you know that you can get featured for free on outlets like Forbes, The New York Times, Marie Claire, PopSugar and so many more, even if you're not yet launched or if you don't have any connections? That's right. That's why I invite you to watch my PR secrets masterclass where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses used to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought after industry expert. Now, if you want to land your first press feature, get on a podcast, secure a VIP speaking gig, or just reach out to that very intimidating editor. This class will show you exactly how to do it. Register now at gloriachoupr.com/masterclass. That's Gloria Chou, C H O U PR Masterclass dot com, so you can get featured in 30 days without spending a penny on ads or agencies. Best of all, this is completely free, so get in there and let's get you featured.