NEAFP Note - August 2010
National Alpaca Farm Day Sale!

Stock up for Alpaca Farm Day

NEAFP is happy to announce our National Alpaca Farm Day Sale, running for the entire month of August. Open Houses are a wonderful way to invite your community onto the farm for an educational and fun day with your alpacas! Take advantage of these savings!

Be sure to head over to the National Alpaca Farm Days site and get listed if you plan on having an event!

Sale Details:
Free Shipping and Handling on All Orders over $350
Save 5% on dozens of our newest items! - Save on Diabetic Socks, Alpaca Mittens, and our newest hat, The Heirloom Cable Knit Beanie!
The Sale will run for the month of August. Shipping and Handling charges will be removed before payment processing in the office on all qualifying orders. Updated Invoices will be mailed to you with your saving totals.

Article - Tips on Writing a Successful Press Release

With National Alpaca Farm Days coming up it is a good idea to write a press release and send it to your local newspapers, radio stations, bloggers, and anyone else you think would be interested in spreading the word about your upcoming event. Press Releases are a very cost effective way to help build buzz about your alpaca farm and upcoming events. To make them even more cost effective, write them yourselves instead of hiring a professional that can charge you a pretty penny for a relatively straight forward service.

Here are some tips and resources to help you get started on your Press Release.

1)Keep it Short and Sweet - We recommend keeping your Press Release to a maximum of one full page. This forces you to choose your words wisely and stick to the point. Many media professionals receive a large amount of press releases each week so it helps to respect their time by being precise in your release.

Your opening paragraph should contain the most important information in the entire release: Who, What, Where, When, and Why. This way you ensure that even if the entire release is not read, the reporter or editor will still walk away with the most important information.

2)Consider the Audience, not just your Target Demographics - Many businesses make the mistake of only writing their press releases with what they assume to be their target demographics in mind. It is better to cater to the local media's entire audience then just a sliver of it. This way you maximize your exposure and can pique the interest of a wide variety of people. Reporters and editors will also be more inclined to run an article about your event or farm if they believe it will appeal to a wide range of people.

An example of this would be to discuss the aspects of your event that will be fun for the entire family – Feeding and Petting Alpacas, Farm Tours, Alpaca Products for the whole family, and Refreshments. This will draw more people to your farm than just writing a press release that appeals to Fiber Artists and other Agriculture enthusiasts.

3)Offer your Press Release in a few Formats - When sending out your press release be sure to include a simple TXT version to be read in an email, a link to an HTML version for viewing on the WEB, and a PDF copy to be shared among a wide variety of software and devices. Remember that people are accessing the internet and information from a wide array of technologies and you don't want someone to miss your information because they couldn't access it properly. Many word editors will allow you to export your finished document in a wide variety of formats that can be uploaded to your website for downloading.

4)Include Quotes - Help the reporter or editor out by including quotes that you believe will help draw in people to your farm and event. Do not be afraid to quote yourself or friends and farm hands. Many reporters will use these quotes directly from the Press Release in their write up so it saves them time, as well as allows you to focus the article on the aspects of your farm and event you want to draw particular attention to.

5)Stick to the Point - We all have a tendency to get long winded, especially when writing about ourselves and our farms. Keep the fluff to a minimum and really focus on the key information you want to portray to your audience. That being said, keep the information light and airy, you do not want it to come off robot like. Let your personality out in the Press Release. You are promoting your fun, educational, family friendly event, convey that in the press release without taking away from the major details.

6)Include all Pertinent Contact Information and Proof Read - You would be surprised how many press releases get sent out without all the pertinent information. Make sure to include your contact information in the header as well as at the end of the article. This will ensure the editor can contact you for more information, as well as pass it along to their audience. You should also invite the media out to your event to conduct interviews, get some footage of the alpaca farm and the people there. You might even end up on the evening news which will do wonders for your farms reach into your local community!

It also really helps to have someone else, or even a handful of people, proof read your write up before you hit send. When someone rereads what they themselves have written it is really easy to skip over certain words or for your mind to read them as you intended and not as they actually are written. A second or third pair of eyes will really help you make sure the write up is as professional and polished as possible before sending it out.

Here are some further reading resources on Press Releases:
How and to Who you should send your Press Release
How to Write a Proper Press Release
How and When to Send your Press Release to the Local Media

Head to our NEAFP Note Section to check out other business resources you might have missed! Topics Covered: Setting up your Fiber Nook, Local Marketing, The Story behind the Products, 30 Second Elevator Pitches, Alpaca's Green Selling Points, Bringing your Products to Market, Accepting Credit Cards, Thinking Outside the Box, and Networking Networking Networking!

2010 Scheduled Fiber Pickups
Save on Shipping, let us haul your fleece for you! NEAFP will be running Fiber Collections at the following upcoming events:

• Empire Alpaca Extravaganza - October 22nd - 25th - Syracuse, NY
• New England Coastal Classic - November 5th and 6th - Worcester, MA

Want to promote your Farm Blog or Alpaca Resource? Let us know about it by emailing us at support@neafp.com !

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