How To Use HARO, AKA Connectively [Template + Examples]

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Last updated on October 17th, 2024

Wondering how to write a HARO pitch that actually works (instead of disappearing into the void)? HARO (now called Connectively) is an incredible tool for getting high-quality backlinks and media coverage that elevates your brand.

But if you write HARO pitches that consistently get ignored, you’ll burn out before seeing results.

As a new blogger, I attempted HARO link-building with no success. Literally none – I had a 0% success rate successfully pitching HARO queries. I didn’t understand why this was until I started writing for publications like HubSpot and GoDaddy and I found myself on the other end of HARO trying to find sources.

Now as a writer for these media outlets, I’ve sifted through thousands of HARO pitches and I know exactly why my old HARO pitches were completely were completely unsuccessful. Today I’m here to share all the secrets:

• Why most HARO pitches don’t work
• What the common mistakes (and missed opportunities) are
• Plus successful HARO pitches and a template that you can use

Pause now and save for later

Let’s start with a quick overview of how HARO works.

Have a question, comment or thought to add? Leave a comment at the bottom and I’ll reply right away 🙂

How HARO Works

HARO stands for Help A Reporter Out. It’s a platform where media outlets input queries and wait to hear from experts who are knowledgeable on the specific topic. Subject matter experts (you) see queries that match their expertise, and in turn, write a HARO pitch offering their thoughts for the article. If the writer likes what you wrote, they’ll include it and quote you as the expert source.

Expert sources write their pitch without any confirmation that they’ll be included in the final article that the journalist is writing. You may write 30 HARO pitches before a media outlet includes you in their article.

So why bother?

Why use HARO as an expert source?

Experts go through the effort of writing HARO pitches for two main reasons:

1. Raise their authority in their industry
2. Get links back to their website, to build their backlink profile and boost their results in search engines
3. See referral traffic pour in from these big platforms

Authority building is pretty straightforward: providing expert insights into an article elevates you as an industry leader. It can also be a great advertisement for your organization, and it reaches a new audience and it builds the know-like-trust factor.

Here’s an example of my insights being shared in a Forbes article:

The link to your organization is just as valuable as the exposure itself.

Link building is a little bit more technical to understand: links pointing back from media outlets to your website are very powerful for your SEO. Big publications have a lot of authority to their websites. And when they link to your website, they can pass some of that authority from them to you.

The authority score of a website is called its domain authority (DA), and you can check your DA here. The higher the DA of the media outlet, the more authority it can pass to your website.

HARO is often listed as one of the best link-building strategies because many of the biggest media outlets use it. However, you’ll only acquire high-quality backlinks if your HARO pitch gets accepted. Let’s look at some of the do’s and don’ts of pitching to help raise your odds of success.

HARO Pitching Don’ts

Let’s start with the most common mistakes that I see sources make as they vie to be included in articles.

Misspell Your Email

This happens to at least one source for 100% of my HARO queries. Then when I reach out to follow up, I can’t get in touch. Double-check your email address before hitting send.

Submit AI-Generated Content

This is the worst thing you can do in your HARO pitch. In my opinion, this looks even worse than misspelling both MY name and YOUR email address (this has happened).

I run every pitch through the AI detection software CopyLeaks and won’t use anything that says it’s not human-generated. Yes, this type of software is criticized by some because the accuracy varies, but my editors run content through it as well. I’d rather know upfront if a source is usable rather than have my editors follow up and ask for edits.

Send Half-Written Pitch Content

Everyone hits send by mistake sometimes, but you can protect yourself with the “undo send” function. Follow these steps in Gmail so that you can undo sending an empty email.

Send Multiple Pitch Emails

Don’t follow up with more information in a second pitch. When scrolling through hundreds of submissions, seeing multiple pitches from the same name easily looks like duplicate content and is easy to overlook.

Offer To Pay For HARO Links

Google doesn’t allow paid do-follow link placement. Asking this makes it look like you either don’t know the rules or don’t care, and it also makes all of your past features look like they could’ve been purchased instead of earned organically.

Ask For Link Swaps

Asking for link swaps falls under the same umbrella as offering to pay for link placement. It’s grey-hat SEO, and it’s not what HARO requests are for.

HARO Pitching Do’s

So, with all of the ugliness out the way, what SHOULD you do when responding to a HARO query?

Use The Journalist’s Name

It’s a small step, but it gives the impression that you actually read the prompt and that you understand there’s a human reading your HARO pitch.

Quantify Your Expertise

Online, everyone calls themselves an expert. If you can quantify your expertise, you’ll stand out in a big way.

Here’s an example of one of the best HARO pitches I’ve ever received (I couldn’t get permission to share a screenshot from the source, so I’ve anonymized it). I was seeking sources for a search engine marketing article, and received this pitch:

• [Name, job title and company name]. With a decade of experience in SEO/SEM and extensive experience of managing $10 million in ads, including search ads, I have insights to share in pulling off a successful SEM campaign.

This pitch used keywords from my HARO query, quickly quantified their expertise and got my attention with the depth of their expertise.

Use A Professional Email

Using a Gmail address is by no means a disqualifying factor of HARO pitching, but it does look more professional to see a company email address. Some brands create an entire specific email address for HARO pitching. I’ve seen all of these iterations:

• haro @ company.com
• outreach @ company.com
• press @ company.com

If this helps keep your inbox organized than it’s a great idea. Otherwise, any company email will do.

Only Apply To Highly Relevant Queries

HARO emails are huge and everyone is rushing to be the first source in a journalist’s inbox. Don’t waste time scrolling through the entire email and thinking “I could probably write something about this…” Instead, use your computer’s search function to look for the exact relevant keywords.

If you don’t find any queries open for your most relevant keywords, then you can scroll and read the rest.

Repeat Relevant Keywords

It’s important to remember that HARO journalists aren’t necessarily experts on the subjects that they’re writing about, and this could lead to lost opportunities if you’re not careful.

For example, many people don’t realize that “Holland” and “the Netherlands” are the same country. If a HARO query asked for tips on traveling in Holland and you replied with tips for the Netherlands, they could immediately skip over your contributions. The same pitch with relevant keywords might have been accepted.

Beyond this point, journalists also use the “CTRL+F” function to filter HARO results and quickly search for sources that speak to a specific angle of their story. Your odds of sticking out of the pile are higher when you use the right keywords.

Offer To Share Articles

…and follow through if you’re selected.

I’ve had sources advertise that they’ll share the article with their large audience if they’re included as a source. Then when I send them the link to the published article, they never reply.

To be clear: that source’s audience did not influence their inclusion in the article. But it did destroy any chance of us building a relationship and being featured again in the future. If you’re seeking publicity, building real relationships with writers should be a priority.

Journalists often use sources for multiple articles, and the majority of them write for multiple publications.

HARO link-building tip: Go connect with journalists on LinkedIn and click the notification bell on their account so that you get notified when they post content. Comment on their posts to develop a relationship and watch out for calls for sources. I often get article sources through LinkedIn.

HARO Pitch Examples

The first is from David Janovic, founder and CEO of RJ Living. This pitch from David was successful and landed him in the article I was writing, and he’s been featured in several other articles since then as well.

The next pitch is from Matthew Barker of Horizon Guides. This is one of the most thorough HARO pitches I’ve ever read. He summarized his expertise so well and made his years of marketing experience laser-focused on my specific article. I followed up with a Zoom call and made him the primary expert featured in the article.

This last HARO pitch example is from Amanda Sexton, founder of FocusWorks. Amanda always submits highly relevant pitches and I’ve included her expertise in several of my articles.

HARO Pitch Template

Time to start writing! After creating your free HARO account, it’s time to start responding to relevant queries. Use the below guide as a HARO pitch template to help guide your writing.

1. Writing style: Keep your writing style informative and professional. No need to be flowery with your word choice; you help a reporter out by getting right to the point
2. Subject line: Subject lines aren’t the most important aspect of your pitch, so don’t sweat over them. Keep subjects short and informative, and share what makes your expert insights special
3. Introduction: Introduce yourself with your name, title, LinkedIn profile and website. These are essentials when citing an expert.
4. Expertise: Summarize your relevant expertise in one or two sentences. You saw great examples of this above.
5. Follow instructions: This is a must. Re-read the journalist’s request before you submit your pitch to make sure you checked all of the boxes
6. Offer to share: You can receive recurring media coverage if you create relationships with writers. Share the blog post once it’s live and tag the writer so they know you’re engaging with the feature

Truthfully, the perfect pitch doesn’t exist. Even if you write the most incredible pitch, the journalist may be taking the article in another direction. It doesn’t mean that your time is wasted -they may circle back in the future, or recognize your pitches and finally pull you onto the field.

How will you know if your HARO pitch was accepted?

Most writers don’t have time to follow up on every HARO response, and hearing nothing is the norm. This is especially true of journalists writing news articles. I try to follow up with every single source who wasn’t included and let them know that I appreciated their submission.

This process takes me a good hour to copy/paste every email from HARO into Gmail, and sometimes those emails go to people’s spam folders and they don’t even see them. I feel better knowing that I did my part to show my appreciation.

1: Google Alerts

Use Google Alerts to try to know when you’ve been featured. Set up a Google alert for both your name and your company’s name. Be aware that Google Alerts aren’t foolproof – I’ve had many mentions of my name slip through the cracks and not notify me, but it’s better than nothing.

2. Backlink Profile

You can also periodically check your backlink profile to see when you’ve been linked to by a publication. Sadly, not all publications give links to sources so this isn’t a perfect system. Sometimes only your name will appear alongside your quote, and not your website link.

3: Plagiarism Checker

Copy and paste your pitch and run it through a plagiarism checker. This will tell you whether or not your exact text has been published on the web.

I’ll warn you though, it’s not perfect – if a journalist only chose a short quote from you, the plagiarism detector might not be able to detect it.

PR link building is an imperfect marketing strategy, but when it works, the payoff is huge.

Conclusion

These HARO tips will help you stop wasting your time and finally build links to the publications you respect.