How to HARO like a Pro

Help a Reporter Out - Get FREE Press for your brand

Take control of your own PR

You may or may not have heard of HARO (Help a Reporter Out).

A service used by Journalists to source content for articles they are publishing that require expert insight from people like you.

The basic subscription is free and delivers 3 emails per day, full of various queries, categorised by industry.

The idea being, you respond to those queries and the Journalist MAY include your comment piece in the article with a link to the source (you).

Once you have chosen a topic to comment on, you will get further information on the query request, along with an email address to contact the Journalist and a deadline.

What most people do

They will answer the query in short basic form, sometimes forgetting to include anything about themselves, or at the very least add a name, company and website address.

What the Pro’s do

Answer the topic in detail, including a quote from yourself to summarise what they want. Include your full name, company name, position, email address and website address.

Prepare a media pack for your brand, which includes your company logo, banner and personal headshot photo. Then include a download link to the zip file in the email as well.

Do not attach the media pack directly to the email.

Added Bonus

These HARO requests give a great insight into what Journo’s are writing in your industry. Which is not only a source for content ideas, but an indictor of what is popular.

If you take the time to create a response to help the Journalist, you’ve also created some great content to post on social media!

Double Whammy

Then, if you do get published in the article, you’ll have another opportunity to promote this to your audience.