1. Pitch or Be Pitched How Can HARO Work for You?
Miracles come in moments. Be ready and willing
Wayne Dyer
Pitch or Be Pitched
How Can HARO Work for You?

2. Our Agenda 1 2 3 4 HARO History How it Works: Pitching
2008 to Today
How it Works: Pitching
Package Features, Success Stories, Tips and Best Practices 2 3
Turn the Tables: Submitting as a Reporter
Using HARO to spruce up your own content 4
Q & A

3. How do you pronounce “HARO”?
But First…
How do you pronounce “HARO”?
Is it “Hair-O”, “Ha-Row” or “Hay-Row”?
Answer: It doesn’t matter!
What matters: HARO is an acronym for Help A Reporter Out.
Reporters, bloggers and authors submit queries seeking experts who can lend credibility and breadth to their stories.
Experts respond in hopes of gaining some publicity for themselves, their brand or their client.
It’s that simple!

4. History
2010
2012
2014
2017
2008
HARO is created by entrepreneur and author Peter Shankman. It begins as a Facebook group.
HARO’s homepage, is established. Morphs into a 3x per day e-newsletter with 100K recipients.
HARO acquired by Vocus.
Peter Shankman exits Vocus, but HARO sticks around.
Vocus merges with Cision, takes Cision name. HARO officially becomes a Cision brand.
HARO is used by 55K+ journalists and bloggers and distributed to 800K+ experts. HARO is available stand-alone, or within Cision’s CPRE and CCC platforms, and is expanding it’s global reach.

5. How it Works: Pitching Registration & Package Features
My First Template
How it Works: Pitching
Registration & Package Features
HARO Registration
 Free and paid packages available
Can activate HARO Premium within your Cision dashboard
FREE package includes:
3 Daily 5:35am, 12:35pm, 5:35pm (ET)
Master newsletter or choice of specific industry feeds
Master alerts  queries per alert ( per day!)
Ability to pitch each query contained in your newsletter
Tech support available via
Available for a monthly subscription fee:
Custom newsletters by keyword(s)
Store and create user profile(s) to expedite pitching
Text alerts remind you that your newsletter will arrive in an hour
Search active queries online
Receive applicable queries in advance, giving you more time to prep your pitch
Industry Feeds: High Tech, Lifestyle & Fitness, Business & Finance, Travel, General, Master. Also UK and Giftbag
Custom Keywords – Maybe “High Tech” is too broad, and you’re specifically interested in “Drones” or “Apple” products. You can customize alerts to this niche level using keywords.
User profiles – different package options offer the ability to create 1, 3 or unlimited user profiles. This is useful so that you don’t have to keep re-typing you or your client’s bio, contact info etc. in every pitch you send!
Text alerts – we’re all busy. We all need reminders every now and then. Text alerts give you a heads up to check your in an hour for your fully-stocked HARO newsletter.
Accidentally deleted a HARO newsletter? Want to see all queries related to a specific topic? No problem. Paid packages allow you to search through active queries online to find the ones you’re looking for.
Head start alerts – Our HARO team edits and approves queries prior to their publication in our newsletters. You can take advantage of this by receiving queries when we approve them without waiting until they’re published. This gives you extra time to prep and plan your pitch. Be advised – you can only pitch once that query has officially published, though!

6. How it Works: Pitching Anatomy of a HARO Newsletter
“From” & Subject
Newsletters come to your inbox from
The subject line will reflect the day of the week and the time of day.
The subject of master alerts will also reflect the topic of the featured “Rant”. The subject of the industry alerts will reflect the industry.
Cision Announcement We’ll keep you updated on Cision’s new content or upcoming events, and notify you of HARO Success Stories! Great source of industry news and tips!
You can’t pitch through HARO, without having something to pitch to!
Rant – click – Monika Kanokova, freelance community and content strategist.
Rant Master alerts feature a fun fact, industry tip or lighthearted news. Some fodder for your pitches that day.
Queries Queries are listed at the top by category, with hyperlinked shortcuts taking you to the “meat” of the query below.

7. How it Works: Pitching Anatomy of a HARO Newsletter cont’d Name Email
The query will include the journalist or author’s name. Name will be omitted if the reporter chooses to remain Anonymous.
Each query is assigned it’s own anonymous address. This is how you pitch the query. You can do this via your own account, or from within the HARO app itself.
Media Outlet
This can be a specific outlet name, a description of the outlet or will read as “Anonymous” depending on the reporter’s wishes.
Deadline
Cutoff time and date that the reporter can be pitched for this query. NOTE: once deadlines have expired, your pitches will NOT go to the reporter. Some queries can have same-day deadlines!
Query & Requirements
Description of what the reporter is looking for. Some reporters are more detailed than others!

8. Pitching Tips & Best Practices
No pitch is guaranteed, but these tips can help!
Study the query with a critical eye
Stay on topic
If you can’t meet all of the reporter’s criteria, don’t respond.
When responding, make sure the reporter’s needs are all addressed upfront.
Sometimes less is more. Address what the reporter is asking ONLY. Don’t use your pitch as an opportunity to tout an unrelated brand, event, product etc.
Respond quickly, but edit
Be brief
There are 800K+ experts using HARO – put yourself ahead by responding within an hour of receiving the query newsletter
However, make sure your pitch is typo-free
We usually advise to keep pitches shorter than 300 words.
Pitch in soundbites
Supply contact info
Don’t just say “I have an expert who’s perfect for you” – actually tell them upfront who the expert is and what information they have to contribute to the story. If you have them, direct quotes are great! Many reporters will quote directly from your pitch!
Ideally, your pitch included all the info the reporter needs. However, it’s ALWAYS common courtesy to supply multiple means of contact in case they have follow-up questions or need to do background research on you!

9. Other Pitching Reminders
Do your
Due Diligence
While HARO staff edits and will even deny some queries, it is also on you as a PR professional to ensure that the query and the journalist are a good match for you and your brand.
Don’t Fear
the Anonymous
Some reporters opt to exclude their name and/or the name of their media outlet in their queries. These journalists go through basic vetting by our HARO staff and shouldn’t be avoided when pitching! No
Attachments
Every time you pitch to a query using the anonymous provided, that pitch needs to filter through HARO’s system before reaching the journalist. That said, to avoid the threat of viruses HARO does not permit attachments to be included in pitches.
Share
Queries
You are welcome to share HARO queries with your co-workers and even on social media. Note, however, that anyone who pitches a query must have a HARO account first! No
Harvesting
Harvesting queries and journalist information, and using it for your own gain, is prohibited. We have investigated instances of query theft in the past.
Follow
the Rules
There are a number of game rules for HARO. Violation of these rules could lead to account termination. Rules are publicly noted on HARO’s website:
Anonymous – These are often – but not always – journalists who are working for high profile media outlets. They choose to remain anonymous for a variety of reasons. Some of them simply do not want all of HAROs 800K+ sources to know what outlet they work for, in fear of being SPAMMed outside of HARO. Some do not want to reveal their story, for fear that competing media might steal it.
HARO Rules for Sources – publicly available and can be referenced any time on HAROs website. The page mentions most of the stuff we talked about on this and the previo7us slide, and also offers one last tip – Be Excellent to Each Other! HARO is a platform for professional interactions between journalists and Experts. Any type of bullying is not permitted. You’d be surprised what we’ve seen come through our inbox!

10. Harvard Medical School, Recovery Research Institute
SUCCESS STORY!
Harvard Medical School, Recovery Research Institute

11. Query + Pitch = PUBLICITY!
Harvard Medical School, Recovery Research Institute
Alexandra’s pitch was a success, and resulted in Dr. Kelly being quoted in not one, but TWO, Teen VOGUE articles earlier this year! Not only that, the Recovery Research Institute also received multiple backlinks on the Teen VOGUE site.
Furthermore, this isn’t the only success the Recovery Research Institute has had with HARO. Alexandra wrote in to tell us:
“I just wanted to reach out and say how wonderful the site is. Our institute has received 8+ leads in the last 12 months alone, that have lead to interviews for everything from Teen Vogue to the New York Times. You all are doing a great job, and HARO makes my job a whole lot easier! Thank you again!”

12. HARO helped me… More Expert Success Stories …get published In a book.
“…author Gina Greenlee was looking for women who have traveled to NYC on their own. I wrote about my most recent visit…my story was included in Postcards and Pearls: Life Lessons from Solo Moments in New York.”
-Kris Keppeler
Voice Over Actress
…recover my business.
“I hit PR big time in 2011 when FIRST Magazine…ran a feature story about how I started my company after undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer in 2002.”
-Haralee Weintraub
Owner, Haralee Sleepwear
…secure media coverage for authors.
“90% of our massive media success has been due to HARO. Wyatt-MacKenzie authors have been featured on multiple news and talk shows from CNN to Fox & Friends, and mentioned in the
largest outlets.”
-Nancy Cleary, Publisher
Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing
…get featured in the Wall Street Journal.
“Thanks to HARO, I was quoted in The Wall Street Journal. For a small law firm like ours, that is a major coup.”
- Bob King, Attorney & Founder
Legally Nanny

13. Spend more time writing and less time sourcing.
Turn the Tables
Submitting queries as a journalist
Professional Publication
Recruit expert feedback for thought leadership stories to be published on your organization’s blog, newsletter or another media website.
Personal Publication
Lend credibility to your personal blog, upcoming book or other publishing endeavor.
JOURNALISTS
Spend more time writing and less time sourcing.
Why might you, as a PR professional, want to use HARO as a journalist?
Gift Bags
Recruit items to be included in the gift bags at your next professional event.
Represent a Client Encourage clients to use HARO to collect expert content for their blogs, books and other publishing endeavors.

14. Aaron Cohen Founder, CEO and Principal of Glitch PR
“I recently used HARO to write a story about artificial intelligence in public relations and HARO was a great way to find reliable sources who provided a lot of value for my readers.  The [story] landed in VentureBeat and many of the sources came through HARO responses. Thanks HARO!”
Just last month, HARO user Aaron Cohen wrote in to tell us his success story. Aaron is in the PR industry. His firm, Glitch PR, assists tech start-ups in establishing their brand. Aaron uses HARO as both an expert source, as well as a journalist. This time around, he was personally working on a story for VentureBeat discussing his thoughts on how Artificial Intelligence will impact PR. After submitting his query on HARO, Aaron was contacted by multiple experts who helped his story come to life. Being published in Venturebeat isn’t just good for Aaron, it’s also good for his business – being able to show your PR expertise on such a highly-acclaimed site is the essence of thought leadership and helps to establish you as a knowledgeable PR professional.

15. Submit Query Anatomy of Submission Form
Media Outlet Identify the media outlet, website, blog or event name.
OPTIONAL
Keep me Anonymous Checking this will ensure that your name and the name of your media outlet are NOT published.
Summary, Query & Requirements Give your query a headline. Tell us what type of info you’re looking for. Tell us what type of people you’d like to talk to.
OPTIONAL
Schedule Query
Tell our HARO staff when you’d like your query to publish.
Select a Category Your query will publish in our Master alert, but what additional industry alerts apply?
Submitting a query is easy, and can be done right from HARO’s homepage. Here’s a quick overview of those query fields and how journalists use them.
Due Date
When do you want to stop receiving pitches for this query? NOTE: You should NOT put your publishing deadline here.
OPTIONAL
Urgent If you need pitches within 48 hours, flag your query as Urgent.

16. Journalist Resources & Tips
Tip Sheet & Rules Journalist tip sheet –
Journalist rules –
Clearly-worded Query It’s important to craft a clearly-worded query that describes:
The media outlet where your story will publish
The focus of your story
The type of experts you are looking for and the questions you need them to answer
Due Diligence Just as we advise experts to carefully choose the queries they respond to, journalists using HARO should also practice journalism 101 and fact-check the information collected from sources, as well as the reliability of the sources themselves.
Attribution
If you’ve successfully published a story using info provided by a HARO source, show the source some LOVE: attribute their quotes and images, backlink to their organization’s website and let them know the story published!
REMEMBER:
Even if you’re not planning to use HARO as a journalist, it’s good to familiarize yourself with our journalist rules!

17. Top-Tier Outlets: HARO Reuters FOXNews.com The Globe and Mail Mashable
Chicago Tribune
TIME
Refinery 29
Bustle
The New York Times
U.S. News & World Report
Wall Street Journal
Reader’s Digest
Newsday
Entrepreneur
Inc.
TheStreet.com
Self.com
InformationWeek
Everyday Health
Healthline.com
Philadelphia Daily News
Life & Style Weekly
CBS News
Elle
The Epoch Times
Prevention

18. Success Stories: HARO Success Stories HARO Alerts Social Media
My First Template
Success Stories
We receive Success Stories from journalists and sources all the time, and try to publicize their success as much as we can.
Sources can submit success stories to
Success Stories: HARO
HARO Alerts
Success stories are published at the top of our daily HARO e-newsletters, for our 55,000 subscribers to see
Social Media
Success stories shared on Cision’s various social accounts (your success tweeted to our 118K followers!)
HelpaReporter.com
Journalist and Source success stories detailed, but webpage is not updated very frequently

19. Pricing: HARO* Various packaging available for Sources
Basic Cost: FREE
Source request e-newsletters delivered 3x/day; access to basic support.
Advanced
$49/month Everything in Basic, plus THREE keyword filters w/ customized alerts, THREE profiles, Head Start alerts, text alerts, online search
Premium
$149/month Everything in Basic, plus UNLIMITED keyword filters w/ customized alerts, UNLIMITED profiles, Head Start alerts, text alerts, online search
Standard $19/month
Everything in Basic, plus ONE keyword filter w/ customized alerts, ONE profile, text alerts, online search
Reflects HARO stand-alone packaging and pricing. Pricing and packages may vary when packaged with other Cision products.

20. Product Expert Kristen Sala Director, Media Research HARO Editor
Cision