Getting In Step

The purpose of this guide is to provide the tools needed to develop and implement an effective outreach campaign as part of a state or local water quality improvement effort. Whether you're charged with developing a watershed management plan to restore impaired waters or protecting your local water resources for the future, this guide will help you understand the importance of reaching out to people and motivating them to act. It will help you understand the audiences in your watershed, create messages that resonate with them, find appropriate ways to communicate your message, and prompt changes in behavior to reduce water pollution. This guide is an update of the 1998 publication "Getting In Step: A Guide to Effective Outreach in Your Watershed." This updated version includes more specific information on how to work with the mass media to conduct an outreach campaign. It also provides new information on how to incorporate social marketing techniques into your campaign to generate sustainable behavior changes that will protect water quality. The guide will teach you how to listen to the needs of your audience rather than just blindly handing out fact sheets or reports that sit on shelves and collect dust. It will show you the important roles that audience research and program evaluation play in changing personal behavior. The step-by-step approach to social marketing and outreach planning and implementation in this guide will help you to determine the most effective vehicle to reach the target audience and motivate behavior change.