My HARO Strategy

Recently I’ve been investing in a new channel for Credo which is starting to show real dividends. That channel is a well-known one that I think a lot of people have forgotten about.

That channel is Help A Reporter Out. This is how I use it:

In short, my strategy is:

  1. Sign up to relevant streams of queries within the HARO backend system;
  2. Spend 3-5 minutes on each email you receive, noting the ones that you qualify for;
  3. Get outside of your specific niche (eg marketing) and respond to anything you know about;
  4. Spend 10-15 minutes crafting a response with 3-5 bullet points summarizing your advice

The goal is to spread your name around the internet and be everywhere. Most of us don’t have a full time or part time PR specialist, and the best teller of our stories is ourselves.

Once you’ve had some responses accepted and you’ve been published in cool places, you can now start leveraging these mentions into other publications. If you’re trusted enough to be mentioned in Wired, Search Engine Land, GrowthLab, and This Week in Startups (humblebrag because I’ve been on all those places) then you can use that street cred to get mentioned/cited/interviewed in other places.

Do you have a HARO strategy?