HARO Alternatives: 6 of the Best Digital PR Supplements and Competitors

This article is going to be dedicated to letting you know about some of the various HARO alternatives out there and how you can make them work for you today. 

We thought this would be a good idea because (as anyone who has been using HARO for a while can confirm), the platform has become seriously saturated. If you are here reading this article, then you likely already have a somewhat advanced understanding of what HARO is and how it works, and maybe even immediately know what we mean when we say “saturated.”

If you’d like a more detailed breakdown or a refresher before you continue reading, check out our article on HARO link building. 

Marketers have flooded HARO over the past several years–especially spammy link builders–and it has made landing backlinks on HARO more difficult. 

In response, HARO has also made it more difficult to build backlinks using the service, especially if you’re a new business or a solopreneur. 

They now have a much longer list of requirements and warnings for new signups, which include things like: 

And

The number of people using HARO and the number of marketers using HARO for the sole purpose of link building has greatly increased, and so the service is, naturally, not as productive as it once was. 

You can (and should) still use HARO. It’s a free online service, after all, and there are still good opportunities for businesses with verifiable expertise to respond to queries that can land really valuable backlinks. But if you are putting together a digital PR strategy, it should include a lot more than Help a Reporter Out. 

With that in mind, let’s dive into some of the HARO alternatives out there that can put you and your content in front of relevant journalists and garner both high quality links and media coverage.

JustReachOut

JustReachOut is a PR platform that is designed for both solopreneurs and startups that have decided to do their own PR–either because they can’t afford to hire dedicated PR professionals or they don’t quite need them yet. 

It allows you to find journalists, podcast hosts and bloggers that have covered topics and keywords related to your niche or industry. They have an in-house team that is tasked with verifying journalist contact information and you have various pitch template options at your disposal with which to pitch. 

There is also a built-in tracking system to keep tabs on your pitches and let you know if and when a journalist opens one. 

JustReachOut is nice because it provides brainstorming sessions, PR strategy calls, email support and pitch reviews to make sure that you’re optimizing for keywords, getting your pitch angle correct and maximizing the number of replies you get from reporters and media outlets. 

It also lets you search for journalist requests, which means less waiting around for replies and cold calling. You can reach out directly to the people looking for opinions and quotes for their articles. 

Notable features: 

• The ability to search for bloggers and journalists who have covered subject matter relevant to your industry, niche and perhaps even company. 
• The ability to search for podcasts that you can then pitch yourself as a guest on. 
• The ability to find blogs accepting guest posts. 
• The ability to find journalists looking for story sources. 
• The ability to locate broken links to articles for which you have also covered the same topic. 
• Contact information for journalist that has been verified by actual human beings. 
• The ability to have your pitches tracked after sending. 

Price

JustReachOut’s starter plan costs $199 per month (or $1910 a year) if you want to pay annually. 

Muck Rack

Muckrack is a tool that is more geared towards large companies with sizeable communications departments, PR agencies and consultants working with big companies.

It’s purpose is to streamline media relations and help monitor news coverage for easier interactions between PR specialists and journalists. 

One of the core features of Muck Rack is its media monitoring capabilities. It lets you track and analyze everything from news coverage to social media mentions to online articles that overlap with a company’s brand, clients or specific niche/industry.

This is why we say it is more geared towards PR professionals because it allows them to stay up-to-date on things like brand image, as well as industry trends. 

Muck Rake is also a great HARO alternative because it keeps a very extensive database of journalists, bloggers and media outlets. This allows you to search for specific journalists or media contacts and even review articles they have written.

All of this to say, it’s easier for PR and comms teams to locate relevant contact information and build relationships with bloggers, journalists and influencers. 

Standout features

• Media monitoring allows users to track news coverage and social media mentions. 
• A journalist database gives you journalist contact information as well as recent articles. 
• Media lists help create targeted lists for outreach. 
• Media pitching facilitates personalized pitches to journalists. 
• Analytics and reporting measure the impact of our PR campaigns. 
• Media outreach collaboration enables your team to participate in outreach efforts. 

Price

MuckRack contends that their pricing model is based on a number of different variables, so there is no one set price. 

They ask that you request pricing. 

This is one of those HARO alternatives for companies and websites doing serious digital PR. 

Meltwater Media Intelligence

Meltwater Media Intelligence is another media intelligence platform that helps organizations better navigate the constantly changing media landscape. 

Its main role is to provide insights into online presence, brand reputation, and industry trends. 

Meltwater works by monitoring a wide range of online sources, including breaking news articles, as well as social media platforms, blogs and forums. Their extensive coverage lets you stay up-to-date with all real-time mentions of your brand, competitors' media coverage, and emerging industry topics, giving you a curated media list to work with.

Meltwater also goes beyond simple monitoring and provides complex sentiment analysis, which allows you to not only track your mentions but to analyze the tone and sentiment. This lets you see how your brand is perceived in the media and allows you to see and respond to both positive and negative sentiment trends. 

Standout features

• Media monitoring tracks online mentions across various sources. 
• Sentiment analysis evaluates the tone and sentiment of media mentions. 
• Competitive analysis benchmarks brand performance against competitors. 
• Influencer identification identifies industry influencers for better collaboration opportunities. 
• Crisis management provides real-time alerts for reputation management. 
• Customer reports create personalized reports and dashboards. 
• Media insight offers analytics for data-driven decision-making. 

Pricing

Like MuckRack, Meltwater doesn’t have a fixed pricing plan and instead asks you to fill out a short questionnaire and then request pricing. 

You should plan for at least a few thousand dollars a year, however.

Cision Communications Cloud

If you recognize the name Cision, it’s because it’s the company behind HARO.

Cision Communication Cloud is a comprehensive communications platform designed to support public relations and marketing professionals, offering a suite of tools and features aimed at streamlining and enhancing communication strategies, media relations and brand management. 

Like the other options on the list, it provides and extensive media database that includes journalists, bloggers and various media outlets, allowing PR and communications specialists to identify relevant media contacts for campaigns and build powerful industry relationships. 

Like the other options above, you also get excellent real-time media monitoring capabilities, letting you track news coverage, social media mentions and mentions in online articles, helping you stay up to date on your brand’s online presence and other industry trends. 

Standout features

• Integrated PR and marketing platform. 
• Extensive media database for locating relevant contacts. 
• Real-time media monitoring for tracking coverage.
• Simplified media pitching for better outreach. 
• Robust measurement and analytics tools for ROI assessment. 

Pricing

According to research done by Prowly, Cision starts at around $7200 per year. 

#journorequests

Journorequests is a Twitter-based digital PR tool that serves as a bridge between journalists and PR professionals. It is designed to help make it easier for journalists seeking information and experts/sources looking for ways to connect with writers and secure media coverage. 

The premise of Journorequest is pretty simple: journalists post requests for information or sources based on stories they’re writing and PR professionals (or entrepreneurs with expertise and a website) respond with relevant pitches and expertise. 

This platform acts kind of like a marketplace for media opportunities, allowing journalists to find the information they need quickly and PR experts to secure valuable media coverage 

Journorequests is widely used because it covers a wide range of topics and industries, so there are a lot of different journalists on different beats using the platform at any given time, looking for expert insight. It’s a highly valuable link building and digital PR tool regardless of how big or small your company is.

Standout features

• Connects journalists and PR pros, bridging the gap between writers seeking information and PR professionals searching for media coverage opportunities. 
• The platform operates in real-time, allowing PR experts to promptly respond to journalist requests for sources and insights. 
• Covers various industries and topics, making it highly valuable for businesses and PR pros across sectors. 
• It provides a cost effective way yo get media exposure without having to pay for costly advertising or press release services. 

Pricing

Perhaps the best part about Journorequests: it’s a completely free tool and free service.

Qwoted

Qwoted is another centralized hub where journalists can easily find and connect with PR professionals, industry expats, and thought leaders. It is a well-subscribed-to digital PR platform because it does a good job of simplifying the often time-consuming process of locating credible sources for news stories. 

Unlike HARO, Qwoted’s verification and authentication process is quite a bit more thorough. You are vetted before being allowed to join, which means journalists can confidently engage with sources without having to worry (unlike HARO) that they are being scammed. 

Streamlined communication and an innovative collaboration environment that lets journalists and sources work together on story development fosters more meaningful and informative content creation, resulting in higher-quality news articles and features. 

Standout features

• Qwoted simplifies the process of connecting you with journalists, so once you’re verified, it can be easier to start contributing right away. 
• Their platform verifies all PR experts and subject matter authorities to make sure journalists know what they are getting, eliminating manual vetting for writers.
• Provides a secure space for journalists to request information and receive relevant pitches from PR professionals. 
• Qwoted fosters collaboration between journalists and experts for higher-quality content creation, which often attacks higher authority publications and websites (potentially better links and more extensive press coverage through syndication).

Pricing

Paid plans start at $149.99 per month and their free plan allows you to reply to three journalist queries per month. 

Regular media coverage requires branching out from HARO

A strong digital PR strategy can do wonders for your online visibility. Whether you’re contacting writers directly through their social media accounts on places like Journorequests or you’re sending a media pitch using a custom media list somewhere like Meltwater Media, diversifying away from HARO is a good idea. 

That said, whatever alternatives to HARO you decide to pursue, there are some best practices to keep in mind. 

Contact relevant journalists and media outlets

Regardless of the HARO alternatives you end up using, relevance should always be at the forefront when reaching out to journalists. If you try to spam as many writers and journalists as possible, you are going to not only end up wasting their time, but yours as well and could even garner yourself a reputation as dishonest actor. 

You would be surprised how quickly word spreads and how quickly you can find yourself added to a journalist’s black list. 

Don’t use AI

It is tempting to use AI to come up with your expert responses to journalist queries, but don’t do it. 

Tools like writer.com’s AI content detector are free and easy to use and spot sloppy, low-effort content and pitches right away. 

You might be able to get away with regurgitating some rehashed version of the top few Google results on HARO and passing it off as your own original thoughts, but that’s not going to work with any of the above HARO alternatives. 

Wrapping up

Help a reporter out has its uses, and PR agencies certainly still use it, but its golden years, both in terms of usefulness and productivity, are behind us. 

Small businesses can have success there, and we have certainly had our fair share of success there, but tech savvy PR professionals know that diversification is key when it comes to earned media and digital PR. 

It is also important to understand that, a lot of the time, what you are getting out of these digital PR relationships, from a link building perspective, are homepage links. Homepage links are very powerful and well worth pursuing, but they shouldn’t be the only kinds of backlinks you are targeting. 

A diversified backlink strategy that uses a variety of target pages from different parts of your website is key to a natural backlink profile. Accomplishing this requires employing a number of different proven link building tactics. 

Get in touch with dofollow today and find out more about how our transparent, contract-free, user-centric link building can help build you the kinds of backlinks that will turn your website into an SEO lead-generation machine.