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"89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases"
Lesson #27: 'The local angle' to
a national story
When a national or international story
breaks, and you're the local angle, write a press release.
Take Hurricane Katrina, for example.
Three weeks after the hurricane hit, Steve Roberts, the owner of a Canadian rug-cleaning company,
traveled to New Orleans to
restore hundreds of precious rugs that had been waterlogged and
covered in mud and slime.
Andre Janisch wrote a press release
about his good deeds. Media coverage included an article in a local
free-distribution newspaper, a story on CBS radio, and
an article in the Victoria News. Visitors to the company's
website can see
a
video interview with Steve, along with scenes from the New
Orleans rug rescue.
"Along with submitting the release to local media outlets, I also
submitted it to
PRWeb
and a couple of other free online press release distribution
places," Andre says. "I still can find quite a few places on the web
that picked up that release and made it part of their website."
The release and media
coverage resulted in a 23 percent increase in sales at the factory
within just a few weeks.
Notice that the release resembles a
story that you'd read in a newspaper, with great quotes from Steve
and lots of detail.
Here's the release:
For Immediate Release
For Further Information contact:
Steve Roberts
Phone: 250-883-0938
Email
Hundreds of Priceless Oriental Rugs
Rescued From Hurricane Flood Damage by Canadian Business Owner
Steve Roberts, owner of Luv-A-Rug, a
Victoria, B.C., based area rug cleaning company, never imagined
being directly involved with any rescue efforts in New Orleans. But
a telephone call from Jackson, Mississippi changed all that.
"I was an exhibitor at a Carpet Cleaning Trade Show in Las Vegas
when I got a frantic call from George Bell, who owns a rug cleaning
company in Mississippi," remembers Roberts. "He desperately needed
one of my new 'RugBadgers' that I recently unveiled to the industry,
so after the show, I flew down and personally delivered one to him."
When Roberts arrived in Jackson, George Bell lamented to him how he
and all his best people were so busy restoring flood-damaged rugs
from New Orleans that he didn't have anyone else that could go back
down and pick up other rugs that needed to be saved. "There are
thousands of rugs rotting away down there that still can be saved,"
explained Bell.
Roberts immediately volunteered to go and help rescue these rugs.
Even with all the TV coverage, Roberts was not prepared for the
devastation he witnessed. "Trees, roofs and even buildings were all
blown down. I needed to use a GPS to figure out where I was because
there weren’t any street signs left standing," Roberts remarked.
It was while driving through the older upscale district of Metairie
that Steve Roberts saw all the front yards piled high with the
damaged contents of the houses. "Anything left in the homes during
the flood was ruined," Roberts said. "People were dragging out
furniture, TVs, kitchen cabinets, washers, dryers, electronics, you
name it, it was out there."
Even with all this clean-up going on, people would notice the area
rug cleaning van that Roberts was driving and they would chase him
down to get him to look at their rugs. "People were so happy to hear
their rugs could be saved," recalls Roberts.
Whenever Roberts drove by a house with a rug on a garbage pile, he
would stop and ask the owners about it. Many people said, "Oh, you
can't save it," but Roberts would reply, "You know what, if it's a
good rug, it's worth taking a look at." He was often surprised at
what was thrown away. "People would go to the heap, pull the rug out
of the pile and I would discover it was a $20,000 Isfahan, or a
$10,000 Tabriz, or even a $40,000 Beshir rug, all completely
restorable!"
According to Roberts, the only salvageable personal item many people
had in their flooded home was their oriental rug. Often it was a
family heirloom. “In one trip alone, I was able to save over 80
waterlogged rugs that were covered in filth, slime and unimaginable
stink,” said Roberts. “Good-quality handmade rugs are extremely
resilient and can be easily restored because their dyes will not run,
nor will they fall apart like many glued synthetic rugs even under
severe conditions like what happened in New Orleans.”
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Want more tips on how to be the local angle?
"Special Report #35: How to be the Local Angle to National Stories"
shows you how to be on the lookout for publicity opportunities, how
to pitch your ideas to the print and broadcast media, how to make
your pitch irresistible, and when to pitch multiple media outlets.
Opportunity #27:
Free samples
Any time you're offering free samples, write a press release.
Samples can include things that you mail to people, like packets of
shampoo. They can also include things like a free sample chapter
from a new book. You can invite people to visit your website and
download the sample if they give you their email address.
Tomorrow: Promote your business
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