How to get news coverage for your business

If you are a small business owner you are probably wondering how to get more and better news coverage for your company.

I’m going to show you some content marketing strategies on ways to build up your credibility and get you great press exposure.

We’ll be looking at a tool that journalists, reporters, and other media outlets use to help them build their stories.

This is a service that local and national newspapers use to build compelling articles and new stories. Best of all it’s free!

1. Sign up for Help A Reporter Out (HARO).
2. Respond quickly to HARO post.
3. Reply with the exact summary in the subject line of your email.
4. Give reporters exactly what they want to know.
5. Include your credentials at the end of your submission.
6. Build a relationship with the journalist.
7. Track your citations with Google Alerts.

A Free Tool To Get Media Coverage

The service is called HARO. HARO is a free, easy, and legal way for journalists to find experts to comment on almost any topic. HARO is the acronym for Help A Reporter Out which was created in 2003.

Many media outlets use HARO’s Media Advisory Service to supplement their coverage and reportage with more reliable sources.

It’s a win-win situation where experts (that’s YOU!) gain recognition just for being knowledgeable in their field of expertise while helping the media get better information for its stories – often resulting in an article being written about said individual or company.

Tip 1. Sign up for HARO.

The first thing to do is create an account. It takes less than 60 seconds to create your profile on HARO so you can start getting quoted. You can sign up at www.helpareporter.com.

Once you sign up, you will now become a source for journalists! You can actually respond to a HERO request and land coverage by standing out. You will receive emails 3 times a day on topics that journalists and reporters are covering.

You see, reporters have stories that they need to report on. Their editors have assigned them a topic to cover and they will need to start writing about it. However, they also need an expert, like you, to fill in the gaps and complete their story.

Now the real challenge is in using HARO properly. There are hundreds or thousands of people that are using HARO to get press coverage for their businesses.

You will need to respond in the best way to get noticed as an industry expert. Here is a sample list of articles that are needed:

The Best Ways To Get HARO Press Coverage

Now I’m going to go over ways to respond to a HARO request so that your reply stands out and gets you noticed.

Here is a sample of a listing of a HARO email. This includes the summary of the article, the name of the reporter, the category, the email address of the reporter, the media outlet, the deadline, and the query.

Tip 2. Respond quickly to HARO posts!

Reporters have tight deadlines and need to develop their stories quickly. TV and print reporters often come in for work at 9 a.m. and have to turn a story by the 5 p.m. newscast or deadline. These journalists are working on tight time frames.

You are also competing with hundreds or thousands of other businesses across the web who want coverage. So the quicker that you can respond the better your chances are of getting coverage.

When you see a HARO you need to respond quickly!

Tip 3. Reply with the exact summary in the subject line of your email.

Don’t try to be cute and don’t try to be fancy. You should literally copy and paste the summary of the HARO query in your subject line when you respond.

Journalists will post multiple HAROs at a time. If you say something like “In response to your HARO” in your subject line the reporters won’t know what you’re talking about.

The journalist might be working on multiple storylines. You want to make sure they know exactly what you are writing about in the subject line. Literally, just copy and paste the summary as your email’s subject line to them.

Tip 4. Give them exactly what they want to know.

This is where people really mess this up. Most people try to pitch their business or get overly promotional when responding to content requests. It is not the journalist’s job to promote you and your brand.

The journalists already has their story. They know what they’re writing about. They just need an expert quote, they need your expertise to finish the news story.

The journalist that use HARO are often shocked at the responses that they have gotten. People will sometimes respond by not answer the question at all.

They will just promote themselves, their event or services. Don’t fall into this marketing trap. You need to answer the question directly and don’t try to write about unrelated content.

You should copy and paste the question in your response email. Then answer it word for word. Again, this is not a time for you to promote your business. You’ll get press coverage if they use your content.

Tip 5. Include your credentials at the end of your submission.

This is where people really mess this up. Most people try to pitch their business or get overly promotional when responding to content requests. It is not the journalist’s job to promote you and your brand.

The journalists already has their story. They know what they’re writing about. They just need an expert quote, they need your expertise to finish the news story.

The journalist that use HARO are often shocked at the responses that they have gotten. People will sometimes respond by not answer the question at all.

They will just promote themselves, their event or services. Don’t fall into this marketing trap. You need to answer the question directly and don’t try to write about unrelated content.

You should copy and paste the question in your response email. Then answer it word for word. Again, this is not a time for you to promote your business. You’ll get press coverage if they use your content.

Tip 6. Build a relationship with the journalist.

The emails that are listed in HARO are not the real email addresses of the journalist. There are a couple of things to keep in mind when trying to build a relationship with these journalists.

If they do reach back out to you they’re going to be doing it from their personal email address. You will now have a point of contact. Make sure that you keep their email address and let me know that you can be a source for them when they are doing more stories on the topic you responded to.

You can say something like: “I’m more than happy to help if you are doing any other news stories on this topic. If I can’t help you out then I probably know somebody who can.” Make yourself available for them for future news stories.

Tip 6. Track your citations with Google Alerts.

Setup a Google alert for your name and your business name. This will allow you to track anytime something is mentioned about you. That way you will know when a journalist has used you as a citation in one of their publications. You can set that up at www.google.com/alerts

Now you can go back to that coverage to find the author of that article. You can usually get a link to them on Twitter. Sometimes their email address will be listed under the article.

At that point, you should send them a note thanking them for using your quote. Also, tell them that you’d be more than happy to help them in the future if they are ever doing any stories on a similar topic or if they need help finding a source for another newsworthy story.

Using HERO is a great way to earn publicity. If you follow these simple steps, you will be able to engage with reporters in a meaningful way and get great media coverage for you and your business.