For Animal Organizations

This article is a follow-up to Publicity 101.

Small Town Publicity

Getting publicity in small towns offers unique challenges and opportunities. While there are fewer TV, radio and print outlets to utilize, there are also fewer stories to compete with. In addition, the audience can be saturated more easily through available media and other means because there are fewer people to reach.

Here are how some organizations are getting the job done:

Ithaca, New York

Lodi, California

Sample Press Releases/Posters (PDF file)

TOMPKINS COUNTY SPCA- ITHACA, N.Y.
From an interview with Nathan Winograd, Executive Director

"Ithaca has a population of 30,000; Tompkins County has 96,000 people. We are the biggest town in the county, home to Cornell University, two other colleges and city and county government offices.

We have four radio stations, one weekly newspaper, one daily newspaper and one TV station. Each township within the county has its own local paper.

Last year, the Tompkins County SPCA was in the media 383 times (an average of 32 times per month), all achieved with an advertising budget of ZERO.

How did we do it? With persistence and positive messages. If I had to give one piece of advice it would be this: only talk about the good things. We write about our offsite adoption locations and animals rescued by the SPCA. We never talk about nuisance barking or animal control problems.

We send out at least one press release a week, sometimes more. When the media has to fill space, they ALWAYS reach for an SPCA press release, because it's a nice way to finish off the news. A heartwarming story about a rescued animal, a suggestion that you could find the love of your life at our next offsite, a reminder to keep pets warm and feed them more as the temperature drops. We put out a press release on winter pet care tips and the newspaper runs it every time it snows (it's been in the paper a dozen times this year).

We also have regularly scheduled media spots. Every Tuesday night I'm a guest on the local TV news. I bring a pet of the week and give expert pet advice on everything from house training to the latest in veterinary care. I have a weekly spot on the Morning Report on our radio news station and I have a monthly column and a weekly Pet of the Week in the daily paper.

I must have asked to be a guest on the radio talk show at least a dozen times but all of my pitch letters went unanswered. Then I saw the host at an event and was able to get a one time interview. It was so popular, I was asked to be on every week. Once we were on the radio and it was successful, the other media spots were fairly easy—at that point, everyone wanted in. The trick is getting the first one.

In addition to the media, another way to get the word out in a small town is by joining civic organizations. When I first came to Ithaca, I joined the Lions, the Rotary, you name it. Giving talks at clubs and civic groups is another good thing to do.

Flyers and posters are also an effective publicity tool if they are very specifically targeted to intended audiences. For example, four times a year we do free spay/neuter clinics where our goal is to alter at least 100 cats in a single day. Despite the publicity (radio, tv, newspaper), we weren't getting at the population we wanted. Our first clinic only drew 55 cats. So we started doing direct marketing: we sent the flyers to the Department of Social Services to mail to their clients and post in their offices. We did the same at public housing. After that, 170 people signed up for the free clinic in less than a week.

We like to blanket the surrounding neighborhood with flyers when we go to an offsite adoption location. I PDF posters and flyers and email them to about 180 volunteers who put them up in neighborhoods and businesses. You don't reach the same ratio of people for effort as you would with the media, but you reach the right people.

You can see SPCA posters in businesses all over the county. Today, this organization is supported by every sector of the community. Businesses and individuals raise money for us. The media promotes us. There was talk recently of cutting our budget because New York is getting hard hit financially. The community came to our defense and stopped the measure.

Here's a typical example of how individuals show their support: a newspaper columnist recently came to the shelter to look for a second cat. We spoke briefly, he looked around and went home empty handed. In his column he wrote, "I didn't find a cat but I did find something to write—a check for the Tompkins County SPCA." And with that, other donations came flooding in.

It wasn't always that way. When I first got here, the only press this SPCA got was bad. I started sending out press releases but nothing got picked up—not even the announcement about my arrival.

I started some new programs – a foster care program, a program to spay/neuter all animals before adoption and still no coverage. After about six months, I sent out a release about how many lives we were saving. We had reduced deaths by 78% and increased adoptions by 50%. A reporter came out to cover the story, the article made front page news, and the publicity flood gates opened.

It all goes back to this: do a good job, tell people about it and then ask for their help. Put lifesaving programs in place, do a good job with publicity and public awareness then ask for money and volunteers. If people know how much good you're doing for the animals, they'll support you many times over."

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Another small town created a slightly different plan.

ANIMAL FRIENDS CONNECTION - LODI, CA
From an interview with Patricia Sherman, Executive Director

"We recently sat down to create a plan to increase our publicity and community awareness.

We are a town of 60,000 but there are several other towns within a 50 mile radius. Here, our media consists of one newspaper and a small Shopper. Our largest neighboring town (pop. 250,000) has four radio stations and a good sized newspaper. Each of the surrounding small towns has their own paper.

Without a lot of media outlets, we needed to find other means for increasing awareness of our organization. We started by looking at our town's largest employers. We have city government offices, one good-sized corporation and the Unified School District headquarters.

We looked at where town residents go and where they congregate. The place most people go is the local Wal-Mart. Grocery stores come in second.

We looked at other means of communication: church bulletins, posters, notices in electricity bills, advertising in a regional glossy magazine.

Currently we have a Pet of the Week in our local newspaper, plus Pet of the Week features in two neighboring town newspapers.

After reviewing our options, we came up with the following ideas:

1. Ask the local Shopper for a Pet of the Week feature.

2. Send more public service announcements to the radio stations in the nearby town.

3. Send local paper more calendar listings (volunteer orientations, meetings, events, classes) and happy stories of adoptable pets.

4. Survey our volunteers to see if any of them work at one of our large employers. If so, ask if they can post flyers (of adoptable pets, volunteer wanted posters, events) on places like lunchroom bulletin boards. Ask them if they can get information about our organization (e.g., a plea for volunteers) into the company newsletter.

5. Ask our local veterinary hospitals (with whom we have good relationships) to put our organizational brochures in their office. Ask to put posters of adoptable pets on their bulletin boards.

6. Try tabling at Wal-Mart on Saturdays. Set up tables with a donation jar, information about our organization and pictures of adoptable pets.

7. Put posters (not fancy printed ones but homemade computer generated ones) in the windows of local businesses to publicize events/promotions/services.

8. Try door hangers. Design the hanger with information about a service (low-cost spay/neuter or an event) on one side, and key information about the organization on the other. Have volunteers hang them in key, targeted neighborhoods.

9. Make up attractive book marks with important information about our organization. Ask if the library and bookstore will give them out to patrons.

10. Ask local pet suppliers to put our brochures on their store counters.

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