When you start a business, it is very important that you promote the business in the press in order to stimulate the sale of your goods or services. Obviously, a feature story in a targeted media venue can significantly boost brand awareness and bring foot or web traffic to your business. In addition, this type of publicity tends to boost your brand with third party credibility which is something that you cannot buy with paid advertising.
With a user-friendly media kit, your business can increase its chances of getting some free publicity.
So, what exactly is a Media Kit?
Also known as a press kit, a media kit is a document that contains information pertaining to a particular business including the resources geared for reporters and publishers.
With a media kit, it should be a lot easier to learn and understand what your business is all about and what you have to offer. It also provides access to your photos, logo, brand colors, and other marketing materials you might have that they can use for their content. Furthermore, having a media kit makes it a lot easier for content publishers such as bloggers and podcasters to feature your business through their website and podcasts. A media kit also allows potential investors to access information about your business which can convince them to partner with you or invest in your business.
Be that as it may, you should bear in mind that having a media kit is not an absolute guarantee that it will get press coverage for your business, but it is very likely to open doors to getting the press publicity that you so desperately seek.
If you have a media kit ready to go while you’re reaching out to publications, they’ll be more receptive to your pitch, not to mention that it will look more professional than scrambling for information at the last minute.
Why does your business need a media kit?
Take for instance that reporters have very little time to finish up a story, it only makes sense that they will want to go for the fastest and easiest way to get the information they need to finish up their report. However, if your competitors have a media kit with the information they need readily available and you do not have such a tool, your competitor will most likely get the free publicity.
Media kits are also great tools for communicating important points about your company to potential customers and partners. The information is easily accessible in one central location (especially if it is online), and you can still print copies of your media kit for conferences, tradeshows and targeted media members as needed. But by posting the information on your website, you can save a significant amount of time and money in printing and shipping fees.
What should an ideal media kit contain?
Depending on the type of business you operate and the type of publication you want to work with, the specifics of the contents of a media kit can vary. Be that as it may, there are a few essential components that all media kits should have.
Essential Components of a Media Kit
- A Business/Company Overview
An ideal media kit must include an introduction of your business, along with a concise description of your company’s mission. The business or company overview should be written in simple, unambiguous and easy to understand language free of any form of industrial jargon (were possible). Your overview can be as long or as short as you want but you definitely should include the following:
- Company introduction.
- Founding date.
- Any past or current inventors.
- Bios of the CEO, founders, and other notable executives.
- Your company address. If you have multiple office locations be sure to include all of them and clearly identify the headquarters.
- The size of your company. The number of employees on your team.
- A demo video of your product.
- Any notable mentions, awards, or achievements along with a brief description of each.
- Important numbers that depict your company’s growth, such as the number of employees, customers, products sold, etc.
- Potential deal news or venture capital information.
Irrespective of the amount of information you would like to include, try to make it concise and ordered. It is advised to use bullet points in order to make the information you present ordered and easy to read. You can also get creative here and include a timeline overview of your company or use graphs, charts, and other graphical elements to present all the relevant details about your company.
2. Media Contact for Your Business
Contact information is very important for any media kit. This can be in form of a dedicated media contact or anyone in your company who is responsible for handling day-to-day communications.
If you work with an agency, make sure to include their contact information and verify that the information is always up to date. This will guarantee that reporters and media agencies can easily contact you.
3. Showcase Your Product/Service Information
It is crucial that you should showcase the product or service you are offering. It is best to keep things basic and assume that you are showcasing your product or service to people who have not come in contact to what you are offering before. Make sure that you clearly elucidate the advantages of your products or service and the edge it has over what your competitors have to offer. If your website has a page where this information is listed, you can lift this information from them to your media kit. Keep it organized and do include your pricing structure.
This is a great area to include lots of imagery, including photos of your product in use, the production stage, and possibly even a video that demonstrates the use.
If you have testimonial from a customer who has used your product or service in the past, you should include it in your media kit, because it will show that people have trust in your product. You can also include a promotional code or a special offer for the reporters which they can give out to their audience.
4. Make Brand and Media Assets Available
Irrespective of the type of publication that your product will feature in, journalists will want to have at least an image that they will post along with your story. Ideally, your logo in several sizes should be in your media kit along with your brand colors or any other brand assets you might have. You can also include photos of your product, photos of your offices, your employees, and naturally the company’s founder and/or CEO.
If the products that you offer are more of the digital variety, then you should include a screenshot of it. In the same vein, if the service you offer is photography or design services, then you should include samples of these as well.
You should make sure that each and every one of your media assets is clearly labeled and named intuitively. It is a lot easier to find a logo or a particular image when they are clearly named rather than going through dozens of screenshots with generic names.
5. Highlight Your Satisfied Clients
Just like it was mentioned previously, a testimonial can go a long way to provide social proof, but including clients you’ve worked for/with or simply those who use your product can take that trust a step further.
This will further allow reporters to identify you with other known companies and give them a list of resources to call should they expand your coverage. However, you should make sure that you get your clients permission to include their names, logos, or testimonials in your media kit.
6. Take Note of Important Media Mention
Don’t be shy to include media clips of what others have said about you and your business if you have previously appeared in any media before.
Don’t just include only the excellent reviews, instead strive to be objective by including a balance of the positive mentions and those that are more neutral in tone. This can help you get more media coverage as it shows you’re easy to work with.
7. Provide Past Media Releases
It is always a good idea to provide the media with a list of media releases that you have made in the past.
It is not necessary to include all your media releases or every bit of news published on the blog, but focusing on the most relevant and most recent information is a good start. This can include hitting a major milestone in terms of customers, the number of products sold, major acquisitions, or any other substantial announcement.
8. Call to Action
Last but not least, always include a call to action. Your call to action should try to encourage the reporter to get in touch with you after they are done reading and going through your media kit.
If well composed, your media kit should have been able to provide enough information to pique their interest so that they will be quite eager to contact you.
How to Make Your Media Kit
Making an ideal media kit does not have to be complicated as long as you have the right information that you should include. You can easily create one using the Microsoft word document or any other similar program and then convert it to a PDF. You can also make use of a professional graphic designer to add a professional touch to your media kit.
Here are steps in which you can follow to make your media kit
- Gather All Your Information: the very first step towards creating a winning media kit should be to gather all the relevant information that are supposed to be on it.
You have to brainstorm in order to find out all the components that you will need to include in your media kit so that it would be top notch. Gather the information and data pertaining to Your Company, your images and photos, brand assets, important statistics, testimonials, and anything else you want to include and create a dedicated folder.
This way, you can easily gather them together to make a media kit
2. Plan and Write Your Outline: from the information that you have already gathered, think about sections you want to include and write out the headings for all of them. It will be easier for you to add relevant information once you know what you plan to include in your media kit.
3. Add Your Business Information: as soon as you have the outline, what you need to do next will be to add the necessary information that you have gathered.
4. Add Your Images, Graphics, and Photos: add the pictures of your products, company, employees, CEOs, founders, as well as your logo and other brand assets.
5. Proofread and Export to PDF: when you have compiled all the necessary information, you will then have to proofread it in order to ensure that there are no grammatical or typographical errors in it and then export your media kit in a PDF format.
How to Offer Your Media Kit
In times past, media kits were usually sent through the mail. Well times have changed. These days, media kits are readily available as documents that are stored in hard drivers and are also made available on the company’s website.
What this implies is that you should have a dedicated page on your website that contains all of the information that would normally be found in your media kit. You are not required to link it prominently in the main menu on your website, but do include a link to your media page in the footer of your website.
It is also advisable to also include a link to download your media kit in PDF format, so it can be opened easily no matter which operating system the reporter is using.