October 8, 2026
As credibility and expertise are more important than ever when it comes to creating successful content online, utilising expert-led PR is an incredibly strong marketing strategy.
It’s pretty rare that a journalist is short of people willing to give them a quote. But finding genuinely good, verifiable experts who respond quickly and have something interesting to say is a whole other story. This is where the problem (and the opportunity) lies.
When you put forward an expert, you need to prove to the journalist they're worth quoting. So, here are a few tips that will make your PR expert stand out to a journalist.
Journalists won’t want to spend hours verifying the authenticity and credibility of an expert. Instead, you need to give them all the information they need to feel confident straight off the bat.
This includes:
We're seeing an increase in fake AI experts at the moment, so this kind of information is especially important right now. It will help separate your expert from the sea of spurious ones flooding journalists' inboxes.
Keep their profile relevant and concise, but detailed enough that a journalist can be confident that the expert is legitimate and worth quoting.
Especially when dealing with reactive PR or tight deadlines, the last thing you want is a back-and-forth between you and the journalist over headshots or other missing assets. Make sure any imagery is high-quality and easily accessible to make the journalist’s life easier.
Opportunities can disappear if you’re too slow to act on them. Another PR professional might have a better expert, but if they’re harder to work with or slow to respond, then they could lose out.
You don’t need to be permanently glued to your phone or laptop - just stick to experts you can rely on to respond where possible.
Expert commentary should add something that makes the overall article stronger and more interesting. Steer away from just stating what’s already been said in the article and instead focus on things like:
This gives the journalist a little more reason to use your expert over someone else’s.
If you consistently impress journalists with offerings of credible, reliable, and genuinely interesting experts, they may well start to clock onto the fact that when your name pops up in their inbox, your email is worth their time.
Ultimately, you want your expert to be credible and engaging, reliable and cooperative, and easily verifiable to make life easier for the journalist. Make their expertise obvious, assets clear and accessible, respond in a timely manner, and give them something that they can’t get anywhere else.
If you’d like expert help with your PR strategy, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today.
