Make no mistake: even in today’s fast-paced informational world, having a quality media/PR kit—both online and hard copy—is critical for doing business today.
All business owners should have a background piece on them and their business. Perhaps you’ve been asked to speak at an industry conference or your local paper has decided to do an article your business. You may want to announce a new office, project, or partnership, or feature your company’s involvement in a conference or charity event. In these cases, having your message in order can be invaluable so all you have to do is pull the materials out of your file or send them over e-mail.
Media Kit 101
A media kit is a packet of information about your business that is created for use by the press. Its purpose is to provide media members with the necessary data to report on your business. While it’s important to have hard copies to share, today’s world has made it important for you to also have an online version of your media kit available for instant accessibility and download. Tools such as Microsoft Publisher are specifically created for small business ease in creating media kits.
Most important, you need to know what the media wants to see. Numerous media kits are often never looked at. Whether you’re embarking on a marketing campaign to attract media or you’re responding to an inquiry, you need to design your media kit with the end goal in mind: to get people to know and remember you and your business.
While it doesn’t have to be fancy, your media kit should be attractive, reliable and relevant. Key components of a thorough media kit include:
• Brochure: You should have a simple brochure that outlines your company and your product and service offerings. Include your mission statement, goals and any other pertinent information about your business. You can write this in the form of “Frequently Asked Questions” or use succinct paragraphs to describe the important facts you want to convey.
• Business cards: This is a must for any press kit. Business cards don’t have to be elaborate, but they should be professionally crafted.
• Current news: Let readers know that your business is up-to-date by including current news, industry trends and exciting events in your media kit. List all of your press releases, published press clippings, video samples, customer testimonials, case studies, speaking engagements, articles, and other activities.
• Biographies and credentials: Provide short bios and photos of the key leaders at your organization. It’s usually more interesting to add unique accomplishments or quotes rather than list out a full resume. You can also include information about birthplace, hometown, education, business experience, awards, and any other vital facts you want media members to know.
• Folders: Office supply stores have a variety of options. Be sure to choose a folder that can fit easily into a standard mailing envelope.
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