PUBLICITY & MEDIA TIPS

Publicity increases Sertoma awareness in the community. Potential members and donors want to be involved in and contribute to an active organization. BUILD A RELATIONSHIP

The best way to ensure coverage is to develop personal relationships with the media – from the local and/or regional print media (newspapers, alternative newspapers, magazines) to radio and television media. Attend their seminars and other nonprofit media-related seminars. Introduce yourself if you see them out, and seek them out. Establish relationships with assignment editors and photographers, as well as with reporters. Invite members of the media as speakers at your club meetings – no better way to “meet the press” and develop personal relationships! Do stay in touch with reporters, editors, etc. on a regular basis, but don’t flood reporters with insignificant news releases or tell a reporter something “off the record.” How to Obtain Free Publicity” Seminars: Most media outlets welcome the opportunity to help you to help them with news coverage. Invite print, radio and TV personnel to speak at a club meeting or event. Note: For it to be worth their while (and for your credibility), you must have good attendance. Perhaps one club could host others in the community, or you can have the media speak at your District and Region meetings. Don’t forget to invite members of the media to join your club. WRITING YOUR STORY

Always seek to humanize and localize your story – put a face (or a family) with your story. Often reporters won’t attend news conferences; instead, they want a face and a story, not statistics. They want to know impact – how you have made a difference, rather than “how” you did it. In larger cities, particularly, it is difficult to gain the media’s interest, unless the story is about “kids” or “dogs.” Begin with a “warm and fuzzy” hook or spot a trend for any press item. Talk to editors and find people who can illustrate that trend. In planning your activity and your press release, develop message points – a few carefully prepared, concise, and memorable thoughts that closely align with your business objectives, differentiate you from your competition, and include a call to action for your target audiences. These are the thoughts you most want your audience to remember. (Message points also provide focus tools when you are being interviewed. If you state your message points initially, the reporter’s questions will go back to these message points.) Ask the reporter to insert a box listing where to send donations. Include a consistent boilerplate at the end of each release. Example: Headquartered and founded in Kansas City, Mo., in 1912, Sertoma is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Every year Sertoma clubs raise more than $20 million for local community service projects. Through these projects, as well as grants and scholarships, Sertoma clubs return those funds to their respective communities. For more information about Sertoma, visit www.sertoma.org or call (800) 593-5646.

FORMATTING

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Limit your release to one page; otherwise, you risk not being published. Bold important items (accomplishments, community involvement, etc.) Center “###” at the end of the release to signify the end. If you must include an additional page, replace the “###” at the bottom of page one with “–MORE–” and begin the next page with “Page 2, Title of Event or Title of Release” and end with “###.” Ensure that spelling, grammar and punctuation are correct Ensure you have covered the “Who, What, Where, When, Why and How”. Rather than writing copy, the release can even just include the “five W’s” stacked down the page. Include the fee or cost if promoting an event. Include contact information When e-mailing a press release as an attachment, summarize your message in a few bullets within your e-mail message – just a few bullets in an e-mail message can be more effective than a prize-winning release.

SUBMISSION

E-mailed releases are acceptable and often preferred, although faxes are also welcomed by the media. Identify the specific persons to receive your release by reading the local publications and researching radio and television to determine which reporters cover which types of stories. If the release promotes an event, also send your release to the calendar listing personnel. If you live in a large city where the newspaper includes “zoned editions” or “neighborhood news,” send to that calendar listing contact as well. Pay attention to calendar listing deadlines (usually at least two weeks prior to the publication date). Some publications require that you e-mail or fax a weekly notice prior to your event. Follow up with a personal phone call to ask if he/she has received your e-mail or fax regarding Sertoma. First, ask if he/she has a few moments to speak with you – the media rep may be working on a deadline. Ask if you may provide additional information, photos, etc. (initially, less is more). Inquire whether the publication will be able to run the article. If not, ask for suggestions on how to make the release of interest to them now or in the future, or whether there is a different contact within the media outlet to whom you should have directed the release. Was there a particular reason they could not use your story? Remember to thank the news reporters when they provide good coverage. Attachments: Depending on the media source in your community and its virus protection, it may prefer text to an attachment.

OPINION EDITORI AL (O P -ED) The Opinion Editorial (Op-Ed) is a free source of advertising. Most local papers welcome Op-Ed essays/guest columns, and word count varies – check your “How to Reach Us” section on the editorial page (and make sure to follow up with a phone call). Two versions are posted: a generic for clubs without specific programs and a specific release for clubs to “fill in the blanks.”

LETTER TO THE E DITOR This is one of the best-read sections of any newspaper; it is seen more than an ad and is, better yet, free! Note new programs or the community service accomplishments of the club, and recognize members who have been instrumental in the success of local events.

Ask an event attendee or someone you have helped to write a letter to the editor. This is much more effective than an ad. An example is a man who wrote about Camp Sertoma: “… Sertoma comes from SERvice TO MAnkind. I don’t think they could have coined the term more appropriately. They are some of the most caring and giving people of any organization I have ever had the privilege of working with. … In a world where so many people are concerned with finance and ‘making a buck,’ there are still people who give and ask for nothing in return. …”

R ADIO Call the public service director of each station. Ask about the station’s needs and deadlines (typically at least four weeks prior to the event, sometimes the previous quarter). Contacts may include the public relations director, program director, promotions director, general manager, and public affairs director. Do not forget community or public radio stations. These stations often have local interest segments, and you could be a guest on a program. Similarly, some television stations have public affairs programming.

TELEVISION Typically, television will not cover an event that is in the past, and the producers will not let you know until the day of the event whether they can possibly shoot the event. Even then, if something pressing comes up, your event will not receive coverage. Do be prepared if you receive a phone call an hour in advance. Pitch weathercasters with your cause, and have them report live from your event – in front of a Sertoma banner.

MERCH ANDISE VISIBILI TY Wear Sertoma merchandise frequently, especially when your club is sponsoring an event or when your club staffs the phone banks for public television fundraisers, etc. For instance, the Sertoma Club @ The Villages gives a T-shirt to each new member. The Minnehaha Sertoma Club members wear Sertoma aprons and visors when working the concession stand at semiprofessional hockey team games, and they put up a banner in the concession area. Additionally, the club had name badges, polos, and sweatshirts made. Members are encouraged to wear them when doing a service project or in any setting where there are multiple Sertoma clubs present, such as Fall District Conferences and Regional Conventions. This identifies the members visually as being the same club and promotes Sertoma at the same time.

CLUB WEBSITE A website is a great way to increase awareness and visibility for your club. Unfortunately, Headquarters is unable to assist clubs with the mechanics of building a site, as templates vary. If a member doesn’t have the skills to design and maintain the site, perhaps the club can offer a trade-out to a Web designer for bulletin and site mentions. Tickets to events and logo inclusion on your publicity materials could be further incentives. Please ensure that your information is accurate – some clubs have us listed at 35,000 members and with clubs in Switzerland. Contact Sertoma Headquarters for updated information.

OTHER METHODS Seek out local celebrities and poster children for your campaigns. Have the mayor and/or governor sign a proclamation, and promote that. Establish relationships with governmental and tourism agencies, such as the city council, Chamber of Commerce and Conventions & Visitors Bureau. Invite them to speak at your meetings. If you have an annual event, get listed in these calendars and co-op on media coverage. Take advantage of “volunteer opportunities” or “club” sections in your newspaper and/or in “zoned” or “neighborhood news” sections to recruit members and promote your local activities and meetings. Be visible! Your club could volunteer to staff the phone banks (wearing Sertoma merchandise, of course) during a public television fundraiser. A frequently updated club Web site is another visibility avenue.

NEWSPAPE R ADV ERTISING (Courtesy of Bill Rogers and the Hendersonville Noon Sertoma Club, in Tennessee) 

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The Henderson Noon Sertoma Club generally sells $12,000-$15,000 in advertising and realizes about 30 percent of that with their 28-page insert, which benefits the club’s fundraising revenue by $4500-$5000. Additionally, the increased awareness for your club and Sertoma is a very important intangible benefit. Speak with the editor, education editor, advertising director or special projects manager of your local newspaper(s) a minimum of eight weeks in advance, and get a special discounted ad price (30 percent usually – each club must work its own deal with the local newspaper). Lead time in excess of eight weeks is suggested, as the newspaper(s) may have another ad campaign scheduled for abut the same time – the potential advertiser may have a problem justifying additional advertising expense close together. Ensure the club knows the exact costs, including overruns (often no charge) for club use; advertising deadlines; and exactly what assistance the newspaper advertising staff will provide. Provide to the newspaper the newspaper insert Word documents from the Headquarters CD, and supply info to your newspaper about your club for page two (inside cover). Feel free to submit your club news, such as a Sertoman of the Year photo and write-up or the photo and caption of a check presentation you’ve made, in other places throughout the publication. Or, revise the Word documents according to your needs. Note: the newspaper will design the pages with your club news, photos and the ads provided, and they will fax proofs to large space advertisers prior to the deadline. Works better in smaller communities of 50,000 or less, or in a suburban city of a major city. The “friendliness” of the newspaper people probably will be directly proportional to the size of the paper. Larger papers aren’t always interested in discounting. If the large papers don’t want to do anything in the entire paper, ask if it has “zoned” editions (suburban or outlying areas) for the possibility of using the insert in those editions. Partnering with another club(s) in your community or county for increased manpower and awareness could be beneficial. The other newspapers in a county could run the insert as well, and partnering could increase the number of pages of the insert (decreased ad rates).

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A newspaper insert would be justifiable with a minimum of eight pages. Of course, we believe we could sell more than that easily. For the tabloid size, the newspaper will talk in terms of four-page increments. Ask about color (four-color and spot color). Will ads with color be sold? How much additional? What are the mechanical requirements of the paper for color ads? Color affects how many pages can be run, location of ads, etc. Selling a spot color back cover ad pays for the front cover. One return on investment for the newspaper is community goodwill, plus the newspaper does not assume the risk of collecting debts owed. Far less than normal return on investments in revenues is possible because the newspaper’s sales staff, news staff and line managers are, except for a few people, bypassed in producing the newspaper insert. The club will need to establish credit or pay in full prior to printing. Sell business card size, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and full-page ads at discounted prices the companies can only realize through the Sertoma club. Collect for ads while you’re at the location selling the ads. Forward ads sold each week to the newspaper to avoid production bottlenecks.

SUGGESTED ADVERTISERS

Sertoman businesses, politicians, members of Congress, legislators, realtors, attorneys, restaurants/clubs, medical centers/hospitals, doctors, dentists, veterinarians, optometrists, funeral homes, hair salons, speech and hearing clinics/associations, colleges, CPAs, insurance companies, security companies, stock brokers, apartment and office space property companies, banks, roofers, car, boat and motorcycle dealerships, politicians, video stores, lenders, retail stores, florists, convenience stores, auto repair and body shops, pool, patio and spa companies, YWCAs and other nonprofits, wrecker services, drug stores, printers, trophy shops, lawn care services, cleaners, cabinet and specialty shops, pest control companies, carpet stores, glass repair shops, chimney sweeps, jewelry stores, donut shops, company employees (bank VP, bank service manager, etc.), wholesale clubs, air conditioning and heating companies, contractors, golf courses, individual contributors, club members, your own club ad for an upcoming event. Decide whether it is appropriate in your community to pursue beer or liquor ads, as these may cause potential advertisers to reject the idea of buying an ad with this association. SUGGESTED AD RATES

Ad rates will vary according to your agreement with your local newspaper(s), its circulation and the number of anticipated pages. Your newspaper can guide you. Small ads are your friends. They bring in more money per page, but require more sales calls Newspaper Insert Guidelines to be made and more merchants sold. Eighteen business card-sized ads fit on a page of the standard four-column tabloid format. See the attached Sertoma Ad Flyer for an example of an ad sales piece, and adapt for your club after you’ve determined the prices per ad size. SAMPLE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

The larger the profits a club wants to achieve, the more ads that must be sold. More ads means longer lead time to sell. 8 weeks (minimum) prior to printing Meet with newspaper to iron out all details. Take the Sertoma Newspaper Insert PDFs with you. Have your ad flyer designed and printed by the paper (should be at no charge).

6-8 weeks prior Distribute ad flyer to members to begin selling 4 weeks prior If you haven’t already submitted, provide your club news and photos to the newspaper. 25% of ads to newspaper. 3 weeks prior 50% of ads in 2 weeks prior 80% of ads in 1 week prior 100% of ads in. Ads/news and total pages agreed upon. Club knows total payment due to newspaper and potential profit once all outstanding invoices are paid by advertisers. TBD Final proofing at newspaper, Treasurer provides check D-Day Published in target newspaper(s) SAMPLE PROCEDURES

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Appoint one member as news coordinator to provide club news in the Newspaper Insert on page two and other pages, as appropriate. Appoint one member as advertising coordinator. This person will check all insertion orders, see that all materials are included and check for mistakes or illegible writing in the ad, correcting as needed. Do not rely on spell check; actually pull proofs and read the ads for accuracy. This person keeps a running logbook of ads (sizes, amount received, etc.) and forwards payments to the club treasurer. This person delivers ads sold to the newspaper at least once a week during the sales period and approves the Ad Flyer created for your use in selling ads. Club treasurer enters all monies from advertising and checks to ensure the amount is correct for the ad size sold. The treasurer is responsible for invoicing and collecting monies from accounts that demand an invoice rather than paying in advance. The treasurer will see that a check is delivered to the newspaper prior to printing for the entire sum owed to the newspaper. The club will appoint a project chairperson (usually the current president) to oversee all project operations. This person will determine final pages, ad/news ratio and potential project based on actual sales. This person will set the prices for ads charged by the organization and troubleshoot the entire process, along with the newspaper publisher.

WHAT THE NEWSPAPER DOES

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Assists in planning the project: pricing for ads, cost analysis of printing and distributing, furnishing examples of similar projects, establishing a schedule of events/deadlines, designing a sales Ad Flyer (see attached sample on the CD). Note: ask whether the newspaper will print the Ad Flyers, or whether the club will need to print them. Composes all ads

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Schedules on press Composes all news space (stories and photos) Designs front cover with chairperson Inserts into newspapers used Coordinates final proofing with key project member Provides overruns for the club’s private use Gives receipt to the treasurer once payment is received Prints on press Distributes in the newspaper(s) used

SUGGESTED AD SALES TECHNIQUES

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Have a training session, led by someone from the paper’s ad department, for the club members who will be selling the ads – the answer to an untrained “Do you want to buy an ad from Sertoma?” can too quickly be “no.” The newspaper ad department probably could also provide a sample ad to take when calling on a prospect. This prospect may have never advertised, or may rely on his/her regular ad salesperson to provide examples or suggestions on what makes a good ad. Explain what Sertoma is about and what sponsorships your club supports in your community. Explain that the insert will be used for two reasons: a club fundraiser and raising awareness of noise-induced hearing loss, following Sertoma’s mission to assist people with communicative disorders. As Sertoma gives to the community, the advertiser will in turn be giving to the community. Explain that the insert will be in a subscription newspaper (and possibly in a Friday edition, depending on your agreement with the paper), rather than in a free flyer that may be picked up somewhere. Provide newspaper circulation figures. Urge the advertisers to upgrade their ad sizes in order to be more readily noticed. Generally, do not sell advertising based on the location of the ad. If you do decide to sell location, put the price at a premium. Push for the advertiser to have camera-ready ads which reduce errors in copy while saving everyone time (which means money). Ask the ad department to download on a disc the entire section and particularly the ads that ran. Then, next year, you can go back to the advertisers, show them what they ran the previous year and, hopefully, make an easy repeat sale or convince them to buy a larger ad for the current year. Even though you will have overruns, the disc is helpful for your archival purposes but, more importantly, so that you’ll have the camera-ready ad and hard to find logos.

HOW TO GET PUBLICITY FOR YO UR CLUB BY DAVE LIEBER, FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM COLUMNIST

Stop blaming your area newspapers, TV and radio stations for not giving your Sertoma club enough coverage and causing membership and fundraising problems.

Blame yourself. Local media are dying for great stories. You just have to know how to give it to them. A press release announcing your scholarship dinner most likely will not yield a front page story. Let’s get real. When was the last time the front page of your newspaper carried these stories: LOCAL GAL WINS MISS AMERICA SCHOOL BOARD VOTES TO INCREASE TAXES 10 PERCENT MAN DIES IN FIRE ON NORTH SIDE SERTOMA CLUB DOES GOOD DEEDS FOR COMMUNITY The secret here – and this is important – is that reporters and editors are not looking for stories about clubs and institutions. We are looking for stories about people. All too often someone asks me, “Why don’t you write about my church?’’ I say, “What about your church?’’ He or she replies, “It’s a great church.” “How come?” “Oh, the minister is great and so are the members.’’ Can you picture it on the front page? BANK ROBBERS TAKE $1 MILLION PRESIDENT BUSH TO VISIT OUR CITY TOMORROW ST. DAVID’S CHURCH IS REALLY NEAT Instead, what you should do is identify those stories in your club that are the kinds of stories that you go home after a meeting and tell your spouse about. Who did something really extraordinary? Who achieved the impossible? Who overcame the odds and persevered? Who helped change someone’s life for the better? Often, we know about these life-changing stories in our volunteer organizations and we tell our spouses about them. But when it comes time to write a press release to get some coverage of your next big fundraising event, the press release starts like this: The Sertoma Club of Anywhereville is proud to announce the 38th Annual Bill Loogie Memorial Pancake Breakfast. Oh, please. Stop the presses! But why not tell how the memory of Bill Loogie lives on? Why not share that Bill Loogie was the fellow who single-handedly built the Little League ballpark with a rake and a wheelbarrow after World War II, a park that is now known as Bill Loogie Memorial Park? And why not tell the story of how his grandson, Bill Loogie III, played baseball in that park and now goes to University of Anywhereville on a baseball scholarship which is partially funded by your Sertoma club?

And that scholarship, well, that’s where the money from the pancake breakfast goes! Pitch that to a newspaper and see if you can’t get a front page story! Remember that a newspaper article is called a story inside a newspaper, as in “What story do you have for me today?” And the definition of a story is something that has a beginning, middle and an end. There is a hero and a villain. There is a conflict where the hero has to overcome adversity and achieve great success that benefits others. There is a climax to the story, too. Find the stories in your club that fit that pattern and pitch them to your area media. Don’t give up just because they say no the first one, two or three times. Maybe you can catch them on a slow news day when they are dying for a good story. Maybe you can catch them on a day when the big editor has just issued a memo to the entire staff that begins like this: Dear Staff: We need more feel-good stories in the paper. I’ve had complaints that we have nothing but negative news in the paper. And we need to capture the spirit of Anywhereville in our newspaper so that our circulation does not keep dropping. Anyone who finds one of these feelgood stories that shows how the people of Anywhereville are overcoming our hard times will get a $50 bonus in his or her next paycheck. Believe it or not, we do get memos like that, and we do get bonuses for writing special stories. And believe it or not, whichever club comes to me with a feel-good story after getting a memo like that, well, that club just hit the page-one jackpot. So look at the press in a different way. Don’t give up pitching stories. Find out whom at the paper or on the local TV news station specializes in these feel-good stories. Watch their work. Make notes of what they do and cut out their clippings. When you approach them, tell them that you admired their work on a previous story and that’s why you thought they would be perfect for this one. A little flattery goes a long way. Remember, though, that publicity in a newspaper or on TV will not necessarily bring you more members, more attendees to your event and more money for your fundraising activities. It helps, but the key is to make copies of that publicity, whether it be articles or videotapes, and circulate that around town so those who missed it can see it. Share it with potential donors and prospective members and say, “This is the kind of work we do.”

PRESS RELE ASE TIPS BY DAVE LIEBER, FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM COLUMNIST, MARCH 2006

In January, Western Union stopped sending telegrams. With the advent of e-mail, the most reliable form of communication – in the 19th century – lost its way in the 21st century. But there still is one form of communication that maintains its place: the press release. If you are trying to get publicity for your Sertoma club, the press release is still a very reliable way to do this. Until a decade ago, most press releases were sent in the mail. Then most were faxed. Now they come in to newsrooms as e-mails.

The advantage is that if a newspaper is going to use your press release word-for-word, a staff member doesn’t have to retype it. In many smaller and weekly newspapers, you can write a press release about your club’s activities and the release will be reprinted word-for-word. How do you find out whom to send the news release to? You call the newspaper, TV, or radio station and ask. Remember to tell the person who answers the phone what the subject matter is: “Who do I send a press release to about a fundraiser?” “Who at your newspaper gets a press release about a children’s sports event?” “Who at the radio station handles features on interesting people in the community?” You also might want to ask, “Do you prefer to get your press release by snail mail, fax, or e-mail?” Then when you get the answer, make sure you have the correct mailing address, fax number, or e-mail address. Now that we’ve covered the basic “send command,” let’s think about the basics of writing a press release. It’s pretty simple: Your press release should be one page in length. Your release should be on the club’s letterhead to make it look official. Your release should have a headline. And on the upper right hand corner, you should give a name, phone number, and e-mail contact. Remember that reporters who want to put your press release in the newspaper or on a TV or radio station may want to call you. It’s important that you be there, ready to help, whenever they call. So give your cell phone number. And if you give your e-mail address, you’d better check your e-mail every few hours. Otherwise, if they call and can’t reach you, they may drop your story and move on to something else. You snooze, you lose. The press release should quickly answer the basic questions: who, what, when, where, and why? Leave the fancy writing for the actual writers. You give the reporter or editor the basics to decide if this is worth a story. Tell them when the event begins and ends, its location, and the reasons behind it. Give them details on visuals for newspaper photographers or videographers for the TV news.