Getting the required attention from journalists for your brand or being featured in a publication is a huge milestone for businesses. Such features can give your startup the push it needs to build a strong brand image and drive more traffic.
If you want to get that kind of brand exposure and drive qualified traffic for your new business, a press kit is indispensable. This serves as a style guide for journalists, reporters and media in general, enabling them to learn about your company’s journey and mission.
An online press kit eliminates the need for the efforts required by startups to attract journalists. It encourages the media to share a compelling story about the company.
In this post, we will share everything you need to know about press kits and how you can leverage them to build a strong brand.
How to Build a Brand for the Modern Consumer
What is a press kit?
A press kit or a press page is a special section on a website that offers informative resources for the media. The page focuses on sharing company data that tell journalists and media professionals more about your company. The information is often shared in a digestible package, including images, videos and marketing materials.
The best press kits offer these facts in the form of a downloadable asset, allowing the media to know about your company’s journey without having to speak to your team or email them. Thus, press kits not just help improve a firm’s brand image but also save the time and effort involved in improving media relations.
Whether you choose to share your press kit on your press page or create a PDF version, it should be geared toward your target audience — journalists and media professionals. Sharing it on your page allows you to revise and update company information.
On the other hand, a PDF press kit once out of your hands cannot be updated. Moreover, if you are emailing the PDF file, your message could be flagged as spam.
Make sure you weigh the pros and cons of each of these options before creating your press kit.
Why do startups need press kits?
The journey of media outreach is challenging, especially for startups that are yet to establish their brand. The process involves months of preparation, connecting and building a relationship with media professionals, and writing business pitches for them.
Creating a press kit is an effective way to build your brand recognition and get featured in major publications, popular blogs, and social media channels of influencers and key opinion leaders. Here’s how a press kit can help your startup with the tricky process of media outreach.
Builds brand credibility
A press kit shares all the information about your firm and its achievements on one page. This creates a positive impression on journalists, building your brand credibility and an appealing brand image.
When media professionals have easy access to your press page, they feel confident about your brand. This encourages them to write positively about your brand, thus boosting your overall brand reputation and trustworthiness.
Supports SEO efforts
A compelling and well-crafted press kit can get you backlinks from authoritative publications in your niche.
An analysis of 11.8 million Google search results shared by Backlinko shares that getting backlinks from different authoritative websites is critical for SEO. In fact, the #1 result on Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than those at positions #2 to #10.
To gain these quality backlinks you need to persuade journalists to feature your startup without the need for constant follow-up. This is only possible if you create a well-designed press kit that holds all the information they are looking for.
Boosts website traffic
Imagine the amount of traffic your website will receive when:
- your brand reputation goes up.
- your ranking goes higher on Google.
- your brand gets featured on an authoritative website.
News sources have a huge following and once they feature your brand, people following these sources may be inspired to visit your website to check out your products and services.
How to Create a Brand Awareness Strategy That Will Generate Buzz
Essentials of a great press kit
Here’s what you should include in your press kit.
- Your brand story
Your press kit should include your brand story. Here is where you share the why and how. In other words, you need to share how your business came to be, what’s your mission and how your products are impacting your audience.
- Company facts
This section should include solid data like the number of customers you have served, how long you’ve been in business, and business locations.
- Boilerplate
A paragraph describing your company along with the key business information you want the media to be aware of. This paragraph should ideally be included at the end of your press page.
Check out Apple’s boilerplate in one of its press releases.
- Team bio
Your team is the lifeblood of the business. Tell journalists and media professionals the impact your team is making. Sharing behind-the-scene videos, team photographs and event photographs can give a glimpse into the culture your firm upholds.
Uber certainly gets its share of media attention, both positive and negative. Yet, the ride-hailing company proudly showcases its leadership team on the press page.
Logo variants, images, and videos
Make it easy for journalists to use your company logo and other visual data by sharing high-resolution media files. Ideally, images should be shared with a transparent background for ease of use.
Check out how Mantry offers an option for downloading information from their press page. Later, they also share information about their team.
Contact information and social links
You need to share the spokespeople for your startup and how they can be contacted. Share a phone number, email address, and links to your social pages to encourage journalists to get in touch with your startup to know more.
Product fact sheet
This is a crisp outline describing your company’s offerings. Here, you could include details, such as the product images, description, pricing, and locations to purchase.
Awards
If your startup has received awards and recognition, your press page is the best place to share it. These awards act as social proof, adding credibility to your new business.
Press coverage and releases
If your startup was recently interviewed on radio or a popular television show, you can include them as a part of your press kit. This section should also hold new launch announcements, company updates, mergers and acquisition news, influence collaborations, and more.
Notice this press release announcing the launch of a new digital agency website. The release effectively shares relevant company news with its target audience.
Check out more press release examples to know how to write an effective press release for your media kit.
FAQs
Adding an FAQ section eliminates the back and forth with the media team. Use this section to answer all the commonly-asked questions, especially if your product or service is highly technical.
Check out how Drupal has included a list of FAQs as a part of their media kit.
Useful tools for creating a press kit
Here are a few tools that can help you make a professional media kit for your startup.
Visme
Visme is a comprehensive tool that not just helps create media kits but also serves as a visual communication tool. You can use this tool to create beautifully-designed press kits using the endless visual media elements, animated illustrations, and other features it offers.
Canva
Canva helps businesses create a professional media kit quickly and effortlessly. The platform offers numerous templates and intuitive design features, allowing you to fully customize your press page.
Adobe Creative Cloud Express
Adobe Creative Cloud Express helps businesses create impressive press kits. The platform offers templates of all shapes, sizes, and designs. It also allows you to remix and customize these templates.
Examples of well-made startup press kits
Unitel Voice
Unitel Voice’s press kit is a neat page holding all the relevant information for the media fraternity. The page shares how they would expect their brand to be represented. Further, they also share the necessary company information, brand logo files, and product photos.
Atlassian
Atlassian’s press kit is yet another example of an impressive design. The page is a one-stop resource for journalists. It offers logos in SVG and PNG formats, shares information about the company, and also highlights life at Atlassian. Finally, journalists can look through their video library to know more about the firm’s journey.
Dropbox
Dropbox adopts an innovative approach to building its press page. The American file hosting service company shares information in the form of press releases. It has also included the search capability on this page to help journalists easily find what they are looking for.
Intercom
Intercom has included almost all the press page elements we discussed earlier in this post. They begin with a short description and boilerplate. Next, they have shared their logos and an effective guide on how the media should use them. They have also shared links to the latest company updates.
Finally, there’s a Contact Us call to action to invite media professionals to get in touch with the company’s communications team.
Wrapping up
Journalists seek to share impressive brand journeys. Press kits are a comprehensive package of all the company information and facts that best explain your business and brand story.
In a startup environment, press kits help founders manage press inquiries effectively, thus offering them an opportunity to build a strong reputation. Use the information shared above to create an effective press kit for your startup.
