This journalist whisperer and ghostwriter is here to help you get your business noticed by reporter | UnNoticed Entrepreneur — public relations for business owners.
In the new episode of The UnNoticed Entrepreneur, I had the benefit of talking to South Wales-based Brett Downes of Haro Helpers . On his LinkedIn page , he calls himself a “journalist whisperer” and during the podcast, he shared how he helped entrepreneurs get noticed.
He used the term “journalist whisperer” as something to help him stand out. He put it on there about six months ago and hasn’t had the time to take it down. But he considers that it’s good in a way because it gives him a little bit of notoriety but not in a bad way.
What Does He and Haro Helpers Do
Brett and his company get entrepreneurs noticed by being a conduit. They are there in between. They are there for people who want to get themselves published in well-known publications such as and Cosmopolitan . They’re ghostwriters. They put words in other people’s mouths in a good way.
If people don’t have the time or the expertise or they just want someone to do it for them, he and his team will approach journalists on their behalf — pretending to be them and providing journalists their expert comments in the hope of getting them published on the aforementioned publications.
What Makes a Great Pitch?
Their work entails two things: one is pitching and the other is writing. The question is, what makes a great pitch to get journalists to say that what you pitched is a great story?
Different journalists have and prefer different approaches. In this time and age, journalists are very time-poor. One of the reasons that they use the platform Help a Reporter Out or HARO is because they don’t have the time to reach out to, let’s say, 50 experts and ask them questions about something in particular. They’ll post a question on the said platform once and they’ll be able to get 100 to 150 responses from people like Brett and other entrepreneurs.
The way to stand out is to be quick because they’re going to get 100 to 150 pitches. Some of the pitches are going to be quite similar. It’s a first-come-first-served basis sometimes, especially if the question is generic and broad.
A subject line is also very important because if journalists are receiving a hundred emails, then the subject line needs to stand out. One thing that he advises people — whether they are startups and they use Haro Helpers’ services or they don’t have the budget to try their services and want to do the pitching and the writing on their own — is to answer the question first.
You shouldn’t waffle on. Don’t tell them how great you are even if you are super great. It’s about giving the answer that they’re looking for and giving it in a punchy, concise manner without being too salesy. You’re there to provide advice not to get fluffy telling them how great you are. Because, essentially, journalists are looking for advice in the article; they’re not looking for the person who has given it. Still, he clarified that it ultimately depends on the journalist.
What he and his team do is to research the journalist and see what they’ve used before — whether they like statistics or long comments; they’re very much sort of structured in their answers, they offer a balanced approach, or they use lots of different opinions.
When it comes to pitches, Brett emphasised that it’s about being quick, concise, answering the question, and doing your research. Remember that you’re competing against a hundred people. The way to stand out is to give a great answer and back that up with figures and your expertise at the end of the approach.
HARO and Other Alternative Platforms
The platform HARO has been going on for about 15 to 20 years now. It was launched by a guy named Peter Shankman . There are many alternatives to this but it’s the main one that Brett uses because it’s US-based and 90% of the articles are written or published on dot-com sites. It really helps journalists get several experts to answer their questions quite quickly as opposed to them having to chase down experts in different fields. It’s a huge platform for them to take advantage of.
He and his team recently wrote an rounding up alternatives to HARO. Every few months, more HARO alternatives are coming out. For example, in Australia, there’s a company called Source Bottle that’s primarily published on Australian sites. There are other ones like Press Plugs and Just Reach Out . They’re slightly different versions of HARO and they don’t follow the same model.
He and his team actually trial these alternatives out on a month-to-month basis to check how well they’d work for certain clients. For instance, they have three clients based in Asia who are happy to have links on American websites. Brett thinks that they’d also benefit if they’ll have links that are more regional or national to them compared to links all the way in the US.
Helping People Shortlist HARO Requests
Haro Helpers have two types of clients: ones who don’t have the time or budget; ones who don’t have the expertise and use their services to ghostwrite for them. Essentially, they cover every end of the market — whether it’s startups, local businesses, or people who want to try their service themselves.
When asked how they help people filter and organise HARO requests, Brett shared that they have a software service that they’re developing.
To organise outreaches, their software deciphers them into a spreadsheet. It doesn’t win any design award but it serves its purpose. If you’re looking for a website of a certain authority, age, or certain amount of traffic, or if the website links to your website or your social accounts, you’ll have options and filters. Like how you’re searching for a hotel and you’ll search by location, price, and amenities, you can cherry-pick the websites that you’re going for.
Brett and his company will write 3,000 to 4,000 pitches a month for clients. However, you won’t be having the time to do that yourself. You may be able to write one or two a day. But with their software service, you can already cherry-pick the ones that would best serve your business and the ones that would be more helpful. There are some websites that will use your comments but won’t link back to you. If you don’t want that, you can just filter them out.
If you’re writing one email and you want to get the biggest bang for your buck, their tool will help you out. They use it themselves when they’re picking for their different clients. It’s very much a service for entry-levels or for people who want to give it a try themselves.
On Journalists Linking to Other Sites
People would like to be quoted in an article. But, on the other hand, journalists and publications don’t want to lose the traffic. So they may not want to link from their website to yours.
According to Brett, this is like an old wives’ tale. Before, it was perceived as some kind of a leaky bucket: If you poured a gallon of water into a bucket, that bucket has all the water. Having links out of the bucket would be like poking holes in it. People feel like they’d lose a link juice.
However, this is not the case anymore. If you’re linking to websites associated with what your article is talking about or associated with the content that you’re publishing, then it just passes on that authority without losing it.
If you recommended another expert to a person, that person wouldn’t think less of you. Rather, it would just make that person feel better about you.
There are some people who believe otherwise so what happens is they won’t link out. In their spreadsheet, it can help filter out those websites that are still a little bit behind that kind of initial marketing curve. It can filter out the guys who think would lose equity so you wouldn’t have to pitch them because you’ll only waste your time not getting a link.
On Following Relevant Hashtags
Today, people can also now use hashtags to find out what journalists are looking for.
The two biggest hashtags are #HAROrequests and #PRrequests. You can follow these on Twitter and when a journalist asks a question similar to what they’d ask on the HARO platform, you can then direct-message them or reach out and provide a comment on behalf of your client.
However, note that these texts from people like you run on an editorial calendar. If you provide a quote, it’s probably not going to be live for about five to six weeks later. Nonetheless, if you’re using Twitter hashtags — which are a trending topic usually — your quote will probably be published the same week. This is one of the differences: If you want to get linked now, use that platform.
Just keep in mind that it’s a competitive platform. You’ve got a lot of people going for that. Brett recommends that if, for instance, you’re a tech-minded person, you can use platforms like . If you’re an insurance company and you don’t want to wait for those requests every day looking for insurance quotes, you could set up a simple synchronisation that downloads insurance call-outs daily to a spreadsheet. Then, you could just look at that spreadsheet once a day and reply to those requests.
Thinking for the Long Haul
There are ways wherein you can automate and make your time more efficient.
Brett and his team actually have a template for that if someone wants to use that. If people reach out to them and they don’t want to use their service, the template would say, “Okay, thanks. See you later.” There are also tips on how to do it yourself. If you want that formula for your Twitter, they can give that away as well.
As he emphasised, they give templates and formulae away because they know that these people won’t be leaving them or going to a competitor. They see them as clients who can’t simply afford their services or just want to do it themselves. Brett acknowledges that there’s enough business to go around the world. So they don’t cut those off. Their job is to help people.
Down the line, Brett believes that people will still refer them to others if they were able to provide them with good service. It’s not all about the short-term. It’s building a relationship like how they’d do with a journalist, a client, or a customer. It’s about building that rapport with people. You don’t want to burn bridges on the way up because you don’t know who you meet on the way down.
On the Ukraine-Russia Conflict
Speaking of burning and trending issues, the Ukraine-Russia conflict is something that is on everybody’s mind. More and more companies are having to address and take positions. From a public relations (PR) point of view and what’s HARO asking for, Brett shared some observations on what is trending and what companies are — and should be — doing with their PR.
He mentioned that when it comes to HARO, you’ll always get questions about anything trending, current news, or popular culture. Journalists are always asking for expert insights for their articles.
Lots of people are trying to help companies in Ukraine and take refugees, thanks to that. For him, one of the things that people feel now is that they’re helpless at the moment. You just can’t go to Ukraine and help someone else like what you’ll do when helping a neighbour.
Money is one of the driving things. It does help the world go round — whether it’s helping housing people or providing relief or even bulking up the army so that they can defend themselves.
There’s a company called Ahrefs (which checks for your company) and there’s a gentleman named Tim Soulu who’s its Chief Marketing Officer and is a Ukrainian currently based in Singapore. Essentially, he’s the voice of the company about this conflict. One of the things that he and Ahrefs did is, anything you pay for them, they’ll double the service. Then they send the money as aid relief to Ukraine.
People are already using their service and if they get double their subscription, they’ll be enticed to go all-out and pay for a yearly subscription instead of a monthly one (they’ll have to pay that money anyway) because it’s going to a good cause and it’s going to Soulu’s homeland. This is inviting for people who don’t want to donate extra money.
For his business, Brett however clarified that they tend to stay away from political questions unless the client explicitly asked them to do it for them.
Part of their onboarding is getting to know the client and their company. This way, they can write in a tone of voice so that the audience can’t tell if it’s the client or Brett and his team who answered the question.
If clients do want to get involved, then they let them. Everyone has an opinion and it tends to go in the same direction. It doesn’t seem very partisan. If people want to do it, they can.
Nonetheless, Brett would advise people to do it on their platform instead of using ghostwriting services like his for another publication. Getting publicity and backlinks for your company is obviously good in terms of business. But then, it could also be tainted when someone has taken advantage of the situation.
What he recommends to clients is to find journalists who are writing about it and reach out to them personally. This is something that you wouldn’t want to be done by someone who mimics you or sends articles on your behalf. You should stand by your own views so that they can’t be taken out of context or misconstrued.
He also doesn’t want someone to come back to them and say, “We didn’t actually say that. Our agency said it.”
In terms of something personal or controversial or anything on that landscape, understand that you’re not doing it for your business — you’re doing it out of duty. He said, however, that you can use a platform like HARO to find information but don’t use a company like his to post on your behalf.
Using Different Platforms to Get His Business Noticed
When it comes to getting himself noticed, Brett shared that it’s quite fairly strange. He’s a ghostwriter and he’s trying not to get noticed as much because he’s pushing his clients to the front of the queue. He’s making clients walk the plank.
But when it comes to getting his company, Haro Helpers, noticed, he said that they’re using a variety of platforms. He has a digital marketing background and for him, using referrals is a massive source of business for them. If they do a good job, their clients will recommend them to other people.
They also use pay-per-click or PPC advertising and social media. They especially use the #JournoRequest hashtag and the like.
They don’t push their business as much there — they simply offer advice to people who use the said hashtags and platforms like HARO. They’d give tips to private business owners and small businesses and help them get more success.
Among other things, they also use direct email marketing and . They run the whole gamut of digital marketing but they find referrals as the source of the bulk of their business.
They don’t want to get too big as a company and he’s already happy with their status quo. Because for him, when you start out with about 15 employees and you begin getting triple figures, it takes the fun out of what you do. Instead of a hobby and career, it will turn into a job.
They’d rather keep the number of clients that they have right now and add new ones every couple of months — instead of keeping getting new clients and losing them.
Additionally, the longer a client is with them, the better they’d know them. The longer you’re friends with someone and the more you know them, the more you can speak for them. If you’re their client, the longer you’re with them, the more value they can give and the better they can provide information on behalf of yourselves to journalists.
To learn more about him and his company, visit www.harohelpers.com and check out their and accounts. Brett and company will help you with HAROs and get you more success in pitching yourself.
Originally published at https://theunnoticed.cc on May 13, 2022.
