Defining Outreach and Promotion

Outreach and promotion work hand-in-hand, and are equally important to the success of your station's project. Public radio stations can use on-air programming to give audiences the facts behind the headlines on health care. Partners can provide materials or forums to help listeners make informed decisions. These programs, resources and calls to action are "outreach." But to be successful at outreach, both partners and the station must make sure that there is good media coverage and promotion of programming, events and resources.

Outreach:

• focuses on an issue or need rather than on the station or the broadcast;
  
• the "call to action" provides a way for listeners to get more information or become involved in problem-solving;
  
• aim its message directly at the community; and
  
• is oriented toward providing information on community resources.

Promotion:

• focuses attention on your station's programming and outreach efforts;
  
• the "call to action" is to draw people to an event or listeners to a program;
  
• aims its message at other media; and
  
• is oriented toward visibility rather than information.

Here are some steps you can take to get started on your promotion plan:

• use the handbook topic overviews and story ideas to stimulate ideas about how to enhance and call attention to your original plan;

• contact the National Outreach Partners identified for each topic, and browse through your tool kit. Most partners have newsletters, Web sites, and reproducible materials that can be customized to increase your project's visibility; and

• customize the press release template to emphasize and reflect your partnership's unique qualities.

Coordinating Promotion Efforts with Partners

One of the most detail-laden and time-consuming aspects of outreach partnerships is working out the promotion plan. Having a clear outline of how promotion will be handled will go a long way toward strengthening your overall partnership. Not having a promotion plan will create delays, misunderstandings, turf issues, and friction among partners.

The Community Partner's Role in Promotion

Community partners, with their content expertise, are likely to take the lead in developing resource materials. If events are planned, many of the nonbroadcast-related details of events management might be handled by community partners.

The Broadcaster's Role in Promotion

Your station can use its strength as a broadcaster to call attention to outreach and programming efforts. Specific ideas for supporting and publicizing partners' efforts might include:

• maintaining an on-air calendar of programming and events for Sound Partners;
  
• starting a regular Sound Partners feature in your program guide, highlighting programming and outreach activities, and listing ways for listeners to get related print materials and reach local resource organizations; and
  
• providing promotional expertise, such as writing releases and PSAs, to support partners' activities and programs.

Engage Other Media

Initiate media alliances with newspapers, other radio stations, television stations and other local media outlets. Outreach and news efforts that engage multiple media partners have the advantage of reaching members of the community with whom your station and your partners don't normally connect.

• use your connections to spread your message through other radio outlets. You might want to target rock stations that reach teenagers, or country stations that reach rural listeners;

• consider having your project efforts culminate in a simulcast or in "road block" programming, where several stations carry the same program; and

• newspaper collaborations bring new dimension and reach to projects. Newspapers might help by seeking public opinion, printing youth essay winners, or printing resource materials as special supplements.

Types of Outreach Activities

• Contests: scripts, commentary, auditions, essays.
  
• Fairs
  
• Forums
  
• Conferences
  
• Recognition programs
  
• “Do”-a-thons
  
• Mentor campaigns
  
• Speaker's bureau
  
• Speak Outs
  
• Training programs
  
• Workshops
  
• School events/campaigns
  
• Business-oriented events
  
• Town meetings/leadership forums
  
• Online components

Types of Outreach Materials

• Audio tapes to stimulate discussion
  
• Teacher's and listener's guides
  
• Radio writing contest rules, entry forms
  
• Resource listings
  
• Service directories
  
• Tips, guides and “How to” sheets
  
• Posters
  
• Handbooks
  
• Online resources
  
• Listener response line or hotline
  
• Schedule of events
  
• Brochures/directories

Evaluating Promotion and Outreach Materials

Publicity is often the most expensive part of an outreach budget, but it can be well worth the cost. Collateral materials produced for outreach programming can make your station more attractive to funders. Print resources that carry names and logos provide a tangible, long-lasting way for funders to get extra exposure for their underwriting dollars.
The impact of the campaign may be measured—directly or indirectly—by the success of the publicity strategy. So the cost of every poster, directory, brochure and paid ad should be weighed against how it can further the goals of the campaign.
The direct cost of producing a publicity item (for example, printing expenses or advertising rates) is only one measure of its true cost and value.
The indirect cost of producing a publicity item (for example, the time and expertise of the person producing the piece) should be weighed against other ways those resources might contribute to the campaign. For instance, if a valuable community organizer spends 3 months compiling a directory distributed to only 15 callers, the indirect cost of that directory would be very high.
Ask these questions about each phase of the promotion strategy and each outreach resource offered:

• how does it reflect the project goal?
  
• what will be the quantifiable effect of this piece?
  
• who will write or produce this piece?
  
• how will the finished piece be distributed?
  
• what are the distribution costs?
  
• how many people will the piece reach?
  
• what is the total cost of the piece?
  
• what are the potential benefits (exposure) for potential underwriters?

Cost-Effective Ways to Produce and Distribute Outreach Materials

Don't reinvent the wheel! Always begin by asking what already exists. In many cases, existing resources have already been produced and/or distributed by local or national partners. In other cases, you may be able to take existing materials and make only minor modifications. All the station and/or partners may have to do is:

• assemble resource packets consisting of brochures or materials from several agencies;
  
• let the public know how to get the packets or materials; and
  
• distribute the materials. (Be sure to factor postage and other distribution costs into the project budget.)

Package Programming with Resource Materials

Don't overlook the impact outreach materials can have on helping the station's programming reach new listeners. Consider packaging Sound Partners programming with print support materials (either created for the project or supplied by a community partner), and make them available to listeners, teens, parents, educators, community agencies and libraries. Tapes and print materials can be used at meetings, in classrooms or in the home. Promote the availability of these materials after each program and in your own print materials. Make them accessible to libraries and other public places as well as through your community partners.

Read about how several Round One grantees collaborated with other media to raise awareness of their projects in the following document: Examples of Successful Media Collaborations.