8 Ways to Stand Out From the Crowd When Replying to a Writer's Call for Sources
Whether it's HARO, QWOTED, a Facebook group, Twitter, Linkedin or a writer's Substack, here are best practices to follow to help your source stand out in a writer's busy inbox.
Hello Top Tier Community!
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This week’s topic is a popular question that’s come up in many of our workshops, so we thought we’d flush it out a bit here in this newsletter: How to help your clients stand out when replying to a writer’s call for sources.
Ever wonder what happens when you reply to a writer’s sourcing query on Help-A-Reporter-Out, aka HARO? It gets sent directly into their inbox as an individual email. Depending on what a writer is sourcing for, they can get anywhere from 10 to 400 responses! And these can keep trickling in as the days go by.
What about when you reply to a source call on QWOTED? Writers get individual emails for each of those but have to log into the platform to view the responses, which all get displayed in one thread with a continuous scroll feature.
When a writer posts calls for sources in their Substack, they are usually sourcing for multiple stories at a time, how many emails do they get? Spoiler alert: It can be quite a bit!
When a writer tweets that they are sourcing and you DM them, how should you move forward? Should you pitch in their DMs or ask for their email address?
If you get a HARO request with sample questions should you have your clients answer them in the first round? Or is it better to wait until your client gets selected?
We’re going to get into all of this and more in just a second. One thing to stress right off the bat is that when writers are sourcing, their inboxes can get nuts, regardless of the platform they are sourcing on. You go from a casual thought of, “Hey I’m gonna do some sourcing and send out some queries” to “Whoa, my inbox went from 200 to 1,200 real fast.” There are a lot of emails flying in all hours of the day in normal times and when we’re sourcing, it’s next level.
The good news? There are DEFINITELY some things you can do as publicists to help your clients stand out in responses to calls for sources. And here they are….
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