HARO Outreach
Direct HARO outreach for placements (minimum guaranteed 1 link per 6 hours)
$98
HARO comes from the popular direct-to-journalist newsletter (helpareporter.com) where writers at high-traffic websites submit requests for expert guidance to use in their online content. This often results in a link or citation for the participating expert. HARO outreach isn’t limited to helpareporter.com, but actually includes many other press outlets.
The goal is the same regardless of the source – to promote your brand on high-traffic websites and earn links or strong brand/personal mentions. In contrast to other types of link building, HARO outreach isn’t designed to improve specific discovery Google rankings, but instead to drive traffic to websites.
We also use this type of outreach to promote people – it’s the foundation of a strong personal branding campaign and a great way to promote blogs and podcasts where the author is a big part of the product!
HARO Outreach is otherwise appropriate for any website seeking to earn safe, organic and high-authority backlinks to balance an SEO campaign’s outreach strategy or break out of a growth plateau.
HARO Outreach is also a high-rejection tactic – it may require 10+ pitches before a link is published, and opportunities are highly competitive and limited. So treat HARO outreach as a supplement to more comprehensive backlink campaigns for true growth potential.
Active Pursuit
- Our team will set up all appropriate access first – we need a brand email (e.g. marketing@yourcompany.com or name@yourcompany.com) and to register that email with HARO and other media outlets. We’ll also set up an SEMRush link monitoring project to help track and report on new links.
- We’ll monitor press opportunities throughout each business day, and either respond on your behalf or request support (from the client or staff) for each opportunity.
- The deliverables are live backlinks, but the service is billed as an hourly retainer. Estimate 6 hours of work to secure a live link. So a 12 hour monthly retainer should result in 2 live links, with more potential links if the client is responding to requests and saving retainer time!
- Any live backlinks will be reported to the client throughout the campaign, in real time.
Training
- Marketeering Group will develop all training materials for client team members to facilitate HARO outreach.
- We’ll develop email templates to help improve rejection rates from journalists, and prep client team members for possible scenarios and measuring success.
- A one-time project for HARO outreach includes both an initial 1-hr training call and a one-month 30-minute follow-up for support.
- HARO outreach training retainers include availability throughout the campaign within the retainer hours.
Publishers may be slow, so all a 2-week grace period for all backlinks after each 30-day window.
Links are paced with the retainer, so you can expect one live link for every 6 hours of retainer. Marketeering Group can substitute other high-quality links for HARO-earned links with agreement from the client. This is useful if opportunities are slim or initial outreach isn’t earning links. We commit to live links, so unsuccessful campaigns must pivot and clients will always get the number of links to which we commit.
Marketeering Group does not guarantee traffic, conversions, or improved rankings with HARO outreach.
Many HARO links will be no-follow.
This service works best with a hyper-engaged client – one who is responsive on emails or with whom we communicate on Slack. Slow responders will miss opportunities and our content team may lack the depth/access to satisfy journalists.
We’re more commonly positioning this as a very useful tactic for clients’ internal teams – it helps newer employees familiarize themselves with the brand quickly while actively participating in digital marketing. In this case we’re training/guiding the clients’ team. Consider a 4 hour project for setup, and a potential 1 hour/month SEO strategy retainer to assist internal teams and guide their HARO outreach work.
Don’t sell retainers higher than 18 hours/month – opportunities are limited and we can’t commit to more than ~3 links/month with this tactic.