As a business owner, you seek to increase your brand awareness and promote your products or services. What better way to achieve these objectives than to reach out to journalists?
Enter journalist outreach. It involves pitching relevant information about your business to journalists to get press coverage. Not only does it boost your media exposure, but it also helps you earn backlinks for online visibility and website traffic.
Here’s the problem: One in four journalists (28%) receive over 100 emails weekly, most of which are irrelevant. As such, they only respond to approximately 3.27% of all pitches received. So, business owners should focus on their pitch relevance to journalists.
In fact, Muck Rack identifies the vital components of a pitch as follows:
- A topic relevant to the journalist (42%)
- Content personalized to the journalist (35%)
- Timeliness (14%)
- Catchy subject line (4%)
- Short in length (3%)
If you’re a business owner, digital marketer, or PR professional, you’ve likely heard of HARO (Help a Reporter Out). So how does HARO work? It’s a platform used to connect with journalists by answering their inquiries and providing relevant information for their stories.
This page covers HARO for your journalist outreach. Read on to learn how to write a pitch that converts.
7 Effective Ways To Write a High-Converting HARO Pitch
Many business owners have relied heavily on HARO for link building. What started as a small Facebook group has grown into a massive network. Today, it connects over 800,000 sources with more than 55,000 journalists worldwide. But how does HARO work?
HARO is a platform that lets journalists connect with sources for their stories. These sources are businesses from various industries that can provide expert commentaries for the journalists’ articles.
By responding to relevant HARO inquiries, you’ll have the chance of getting your pitches mentioned and quoted in the journalists’ articles. That will allow you to earn backlinks to increase your search engine rankings for online visibility and website traffic.
But with thousands of responses pouring in for each query, crafting a pitch that stands out from the crowd is challenging. Fret not; here are seven proven ways to write a high-converting HARO pitch:
1. Target inquiries relevant to your niche
It’s easy to respond to as many HARO inquiries as you can. The idea is that the more pitches you send, the higher the chance you’ll get quoted. However, this notion is wrong—go for quality over quantity.
The trick here is to answer HARO inquiries relevant to your niche. Of course, it will be easier for you to provide valuable insights based on your expertise and experience. Remember, journalists are highly critical; they’ll only get information from credible sources.
2. Offer a unique angle in your pitch
No matter how relevant your pitches are to the journalists’ stories, you have a sea of digital competition. You’ll compete with other business experts, making it hard for your pitches to stand out and get quoted.
The key here is to offer something new to the table. Find pitch angles that set them apart from other responses without compromising relevancy and value. Remember, journalists want answers that provide unique insights and real value to their stories.
3. Relate personal experience to show expertise
You might be an expert in your niche, which means you know exactly what you’re talking about. But chances are, you provide direct answers to the journalists’ questions.
But while straightforward answers work, relating personal experience creates an emotional connection. Give real-life examples based on your experience in running your business. Doing so will showcase your true expertise while captivating the journalists’ emotions. That might get your pitch selected as a source.
4. Use an ‘eye-catching’ subject line
In HARO pitches, never underestimate the power of a catchy subject line. Keep in mind that journalists receive tons of responses to their inquiries. They look at the subject lines first and start filtering potential pitches from the rest.
As such, you must make your subject lines stand out. Use eye-catching phrases that instantly grab the journalists’ attention and entice them to read further. However, keep them concise since long sentences might bore journalists right away.
5. Keep it short and simple—and sweet
When it comes to writing, you might have heard of KISS. This acronym stands for Keep It Short and Simple—and sweet if you will. It’s a rule of thumb in writing that works in getting readers hooked up and providing real value.
KISS applies to HARO pitches as well. First, keep your content concise (short and simple) by getting straight to the point and avoiding fluff. Second, write with good taste (sweet) by making your sentences interesting. With these elements in place, you’ll make your pitch easy to read and tasty to digest.
6. Make your pitch quote-worthy
Let’s go back to the basics: How does HARO work? Journalists send inquiries via the HARO platform, and business owners or PR professionals respond by answering questions. If these journalists find your pitches valuable and relevant to their stories, they’ll quote you as a credible source and link to your profile or website.
As such, you should craft quote-worthy pitches. Make your sentences not only relevant and valuable but also catchy and memorable. Also, don’t forget to edit and proofread your content. This way, journalists can easily copy-paste your responses and quote them in their stories.
7. Follow the writer’s brief—strictly
Journalists provide specific instructions on how they want sources to respond to their inquiries. Make sure you read and follow these instructions carefully. If you don’t, your pitch might get ignored.
And that leads next to focusing on the journalists’ needs. First, study these journalists and their websites to see how you can win their hearts. Then, you can draft pitches that will offer them real value. In turn, they might quote your responses in their stories.
HARO Pitch Templates for Quote Requests
Template 1
Template 2
Template 3
Final Words
Writing a successful HARO pitch can make a difference in your journalist outreach. Consider the seven proven ways to write a high-converting pitch recommended above. Start by using our templates and make some tweaks relevant to your niche.
Writing a HARO pitch is about knowing your audience and providing value. By crafting a concise, relevant, and informative pitch, you’ll have the chance of getting quoted as a source. That will help you earn backlinks for your search engine rankings, web presence, and site traffic. Ultimately, it will help establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
