For businesses, getting their products or services featured in major publications is huge. Imagine the top authoritative publication website of your industry or even a local media outlet, gives you a free press. Now, think of the kind of exposure and traffic that would bring to your website.
A good PR campaigns increases the chance of building trust in those publications, giving your website social proof when you place their logos on your digital handles. The results? More return on investment. However, the questions arise here. How can business owners make it easy for journalists, publication sites, and media outlets to feature them and write stories about their businesses? With a well-crafted Press Kit.
Journalists usually interested in your brand’s story don’t always have ample time to interview executives or wait for the response from the PR teams. A press kit empowers them to find required information about the business along with photos they need to craft a perfect story.
What is a Press Kit?
A press kit, or digital media kit, is a page on a business’s existing website that contains resources and information for reports and publishers. The best press kit makes it easy for reporters to know about a brand or product and access photos and marketing materials they can use in a story.
By providing a press kit, businesses are spreading the word that they love press releases and here’s everything reporters or journalists need to put on their story, as well as to reach the respective company. However, a press kit is not only for publications or reporters; anyone who wants to talk about a brand or to promote it by sharing it through multiple media channels, even with a personal blog, or just sharing the story in an online community. Additionally, there is no 100% guarantee that businesses will gain publicity; instead, it just makes PR distribution a bit easier.
Key Benefits of Having a Press Kit
The worldwide PR market is valued at over $106.93 billion, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6% over the next four years, reaching $144.28 billion by 2028, highlight the significance of PR marketing in today’s digital world.
Press kits are the most crucial aspect of every business’s digital marketing efforts, a way to efficiently distribute content, allowing reporters, journalists, customers, and investors to quickly learn about the business, its mission, and key people driving the success of the organization. Here are some of the key benefits of having a press kit for your business:
Defines Your Brand
Press kits are the primary source for individuals to learn about businesses that may not be aware of them. When journalists are seeking to cover a brand story, they usually visit the website to assess whether the particular business is a perfect fit for the story.
However, if the businesses’ press kits are not well-aligned with what the company is all about, journalists will surely lose interaction and look for other brands to cover their stories. Journalists are not brand promoters. Instead, they are storytellers, hunting for compelling stories to present in front of the world. Luckily, media kits empower businesses to tell their brand story, giving an edge to journals to promote companies’ vision and mission.
Can Provide Media Coverage of Your Business
Having a press kit can give brands exposure, as journalists are quite busy in their roles, and they don’t have time to especially email to get more information about the company. If businesses don’t make it easy for them to gather the information they are looking for, they will simply look for it elsewhere. Ultimately, press kits help businesses foster better relationships with journalists and can earn better media coverage or placement.
Can Win Investors
Press kits don’t only aim to attract journalists; business owners can also use them to hunt down potential investors. Depending on the nature and industry of the business, they might have separate press kits for the investors tailored to their interest and motives. However, the message should be clear enough that investors can get the value out of it.
Investors don’t work like journalists; they are businesspeople who seek value in terms of financial benefit in partnering ventures. The better the business press kit, the more investors will be attracted, and the greater the chance of securing big investments.
What Digital Press Kits are Used For
Press kits are the most common and convenient way of creating and distributing content for promotional or branding purposes, especially in today’s digital space. Businesses can use press kits for:
- Product launches
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Company news
- Special events
Mainly, a traditional press kit includes all the documents, photos, or other content material that needs to be sent to media outlets for promotional purposes. However, the technology has completely changed how press kits were designed and used. Reports can now come to businesses’ websites to find more about them, in order to find something worth sharing.
To do so, businesses must create a separate webpage for press kits on their websites, so reporters can easily find it. While there is not a key requirement to give links in the main navigation, however it’s great to add a media kit in the footer of the site. Additionally, it’s also suggested that to keep the press kits in USBs or external hard drives, making it more accessible to give these out to the journalists, so they can review later.
Suggested Read: 8 Disruptive Ways to Promote Your Digital Press Releases
What Does a Perfect Press Kit Consist of?
There is no hard and fast checklist for a perfect press kit, however, a standard format should include graphical assets, press coverage, and other business information, which journalists require to build up a story. However, the following is a must to have elements in every type of press kit:
Company Mission and History
A business mission statement helps journalists craft a strong brand story, but it goes beyond that by spreading the identity of the company. Therefore, it’s the most crucial aspect of a press kit, that helps the potential audience know what the brand is all about and what they care about.
Additionally, the company mission must include the values along with the solid reason why the brand was launched. Depending on the type and nature of businesses, it’s always viable to add company history and what the business holds for the future, as long as it is perfectly aligned with the customers’ values.
Branding
Like mission statements and company history, branding is also another most important part of any press kit, as it gives journalists the visual and graphical assets that need to make the story more visually appealing. Visual assets including videos, logos, photos, or banners should easily download in multi-formats, ensuring that the assets are aligned with the brand style guidelines.
Leadership and Team Members
While developing a press kit, businesses need to highlight the key team members along with the C-level executives, providing journalists and investors with detailed background information about the company founders and the motive behind the formation of the business.
By doing this, it will become more accessible for journalists to determine who are the driving forces behind the venture and who to interview for getting the more details about the story. Depending on the story’s topic, journalists may connect with anyone from the CEO to marketing director to business development officer.
Press Coverage and Company News
Adding company news and press coverage in the business press kit is a must for businesses seeking to attract journalists, helping them to understand whether the business story is worth sharing or not. However, for those startups or businesses in the development phase or who do not have any press coverage to market, it is suggested that news stories like press releases be included to help investors and journalists better understand the company, its services, and new corporate partnerships.
Ready to Develop a Press Kit Yourself?
As can be seen, paper-based, multi-page brochures used as business media kits are now reshaped and completely digitalized that can be easily charred online with the journalists and reporters. Thus, press or media kits are proven to be a valuable asset for businesses when pitching their story to the media outlet or journalists.
However, there is not a single best press kit format, but businesses can definitely create their own template. However, sometimes businesses seem to get challenged by coming up with optimized press kits that journalists would love to see.
Worry not; Press Connect is here to help you master the art of creating an attractive yet compelling press kit. From deciding on its format to PR writing to PR distribution, we do it all for you.
Don’t think more; contact us today and let us make your digital identity future-proof.
The post What is a Press Kit and Why Does Your Business Need One? appeared first on Press Connect.
