RX2 Marketing Communications

If you have never heard of HARO (Help a reporter out) then you owe it yourself to check it out.   HARO, created by Peter Shankman, puts reporters and sources together in a very effective way.   Once you sign up (for free!), you’ll get daily e-mails with reporters requests for sources and you can reply directly with your pitches.   You can also follow HARO on twitter @helpareporter.

Last week I participated in the “How to Pitch a HARO Reporter” conference call featuring reporters from the WSJ, USA Today, AOL News and Crain Business.   Here are some of the great tips from the call:

• Most reporters want pitches via e-mail (not via phone and not via twitter).
• Know what the reporter writes about – do your homework before you send the pitch
• Subject line is key – short & sweet indicating what your pitch is about
• “Exclusive” in subject line will get attention – BUT only if it’s truly exclusive!
• Misspellings are annoying – check and double check before hitting the send button.
• Initial pitch should be short, interesting and on target, don’t include attachments.  If reporter is interested they’ll come back and ask for more info.
• Use bullet points – why newsy, why now; is your pitch related to a broader trend or related to a current news story?
• If you include a link in your e-mail pitch, make sure you explain what it is; if you can’t explain don’t expect reporter to click on it.
• The traditional press release is not going to get you coverage – usually old news by the time it’s read.

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