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What You Need to Know to Write an Effective ‘Green’ Press Release

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A press release is one of the best techniques for publicizing an event or calling attention to a specific issue, your product or service. A well-written, well-distributed and well-timed press release is not difficult or expensive to produce. The key to writing an effective press release is getting it read and the information published. With these objectives in mind, the most important elements of a press release are clear and engaging text, careful selection of recipients, and good timing.

When you add “green” into the mix, you should keep in mind the following essentials to getting your release noticed:

1. The media person you are sending the release to may not completely understand what you mean when you use terms such as “geotourists or sustainable.” Many terms are defined differently by different people. It can make the subject of “green” very confusing. Some may not even fully understand what it means to be a green hotel, B&B or lodge. Make sure you fully explain this in your release to get it noticed.

2. The media may not be up on the current number of geotourists/eco-travelers in your area or in the nation.

3. If you are mentioning you are a “certified” green hotel or B&B, make sure to explain what that means; many states do not have this type of certification yet. Additionally, there are so many certifications available; it becomes confusing to the media and the reader as to why the certification is necessary, what it means and how it is received.

Press Release Basics You Should Know

Here are some basics that you may know, but they will serve as a good reminder:

1. Make your press release informative. An effective release answers the “W” questions (who, what, where, when and why). This helps the media learn important and useful information about your green hotel, product or service.

2. Stay away from hype. A press release can easily be educational and mention a product or service. Just be careful that it doesn’t try to make a sale or read like an ad. If it does, you’ll need to rewrite it.

3. Make your opening strong. Within minutes, often seconds, a reporter will decide if they want to cover your story. This is why you need to be able to get your point across quickly and coherently in your headline and first paragraph. That’s where your story is told. The rest of your press release provides the detail.

4. Stay away from industry jargon. Although some jargon will be necessary to use if your goal is to optimize your release for search engines, jargon is not deemed appropriate for the general reader. Keep the jargon in the industry publications only. Green terms can be considered jargon. Just because you are writing to get your release into a publication such as “E” Environmental News,” or the Environmental News Network, it doesn’t mean that your readers will understand all of the terminology. The research my company has conducted as well as other national research confirms that people still do not understand certain green terminology.

5. Every press release must be double-spaced with a “-30-” or “###” at the end of the press release. This designates the end of the release. If the release goes onto more than one page, “-MORE-” must be put at the bottom of each page. Sometimes forgetting something this basic will make your release end up in the circular file—the trash can. Moreover, if you are sending a poorly written release or pitch to a blogger, you could be shamed online.

6. When e-mailing a release, embed it in the document, then ad an attachment. Make sure the email/attachment is not larger than 100 KB unless the journalist requested it.

7. Try to keep the release to one page, unless you have a strong enough story to justify additional pages.

8. At the very end of the press release, you should have a “boilerplate.” This is information about your organization—a short paragraph that describes your company, products, service and a brief company history. For consistency purposes, this should stay pretty much the same on your press releases. If other organizations or companies are involved in a joint project, you’ll need a brief paragraph about their organizations as well.

9. Prior to distributing your press release, you need to determine what media and more specifically, which reporters would be most interested in covering your story. This is one area where you should use extra care. Not doing your homework could ruin your opportunities to get press. The best way to determine the correct reporters and publications, blogs, etc. is to read them and pay attention to which reporters write on which subject matters.

Think Twice About Release Recipients

Also, keep in mind that you may have always sent your article to the reporter covering environmental news, but maybe the way your release is written, it might fit better in the health section of the newspaper, especially if you are talking about how healthy your employees are due to the fact that you use environmentally friendly cleaning products, etc. or that travelers will stay healthier at your green hotel because you spray eucalyptus and lavender in the air and do not use any chemical products. Actually, this story might fit even better in a business section.

At my company’s website, you can subscribe at no cost to various environmental RSS newsfeeds. Go to www.marketing-insider.com to be in tune with what is being covered, if you are not already.

It’s pretty common anymore for the media to have a listing of press contacts on their websites. Look for the reporters who are covering the environmental beats, health beats or as I mentioned previously, a reporter covering the beat that best fits your story. When you’re dealing with bloggers, remember, they’re experts on their subject matter and looking to share information with their online community. Make sure that your information matches what they discuss or are most interested in.

Timing the press release for optimal effectiveness is the final step. Timing should consider both the media reporters and the target audience. Here are some things to keep in mind in regard to timing:

1. Radio cutoff is generally up to an hour before “drive time.”
2. Television cutoff is generally up to two hours before newscasts.
3. Weeklies’ cutoff is generally up to two days prior to printing.
4. Dailies’ cutoff is generally up to three hours prior to printing, but stories are generated between 24 and 48 hours before publication.
5. Monthlies generally plan two or more months in advance.
6. For feature length attention, considerably more time is needed for a story to be developed.
7. Publications usually cater to people’s desire to hear good news in the morning and the beginning of the week, placing bad news at the end of the day or week.
8. If the timing does not work the first time, resend the release as a “re-release.”

Even though the title of this article suggests that one press release is all you need, an effective press release is only one of the key components of an effective PR campaign. Rarely, if ever, does one release grab enough attention to accomplish your goals. Repetition matters and is paramount if you want to build a successful green brand and generate sales. (Yes, press can do this.) Just make sure that you submit newsworthy information. If you’re having trouble getting out of the gate, take a look at my article on this website, “How to Generate News About Your Green Hotel When There Isn’t Any.”

Colette Chandler is an expert in consumer health and environmental trends and the president of The Marketing Insider, a marketing and communications consulting firm that teaches companies how to profit from consumer trends and understand the consumers who influence them. Learn about the media training services she offers, including her Walk the Media Tightrope audio program, or the study her firm conducted on attitudes of green and health-conscious consumers at www.marketing-insider.com. Find out about her free teleseminar, www.howconsumertrendsdriveprofits.com or her blog at www.keyboard-culture.com. She can be reached at (614) 776-1416 or at cchandler@marketing-insider.com.

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