Top 3 Tips for Professional Press Kits
⌛ By Kaylin R. Staten ⌛
What Is In Our Professional Press Kits?
If you’re a public relations professional — or anyone in a communications field — print and electronic press kits are your best friends. If you’re hosting an event launching a new product or service, adding a press kit on each table or seat will give attendees a takeaway.
Press kits can be an effective way to tell your organization’s media relations story without having to devote too much time during a press conference or other event to getting into company’s backgrounds and other information.
Traditionally, press kits (and thus, electronic press kits, A.K.A. EPKs, especially in the entertainment industry) provide the following:
- Folder with the company, product or cause’s logo
- Business card with the PR representative’s information or another stakeholder
- Press release or media advisory
- Fact sheet, FAQs, white papers or brochures/rack cards with company backgrounds, biographies and other information
- DVD or flash drive with photos, videos and other collateral materials
- Product samples, whether that is a new EP record, portfolio of photography, beta product, etc.
- Past press coverage of your organization
The icing on the cake is a table of contents to let members of the media and other attendees know where they can find specific information.
Whether you are a PR novice or a seasoned veteran, here are three ways you can add some pizazz to an otherwise run-of-the-mill press kit:
Make it interactive.
It takes a little more time to embed links, videos and other content, but it’s well worth the time and effort. When you send items to the media, the more information you have, the better. They can even link to your Facebook event page, YouTube video commercial and/or website to provide readers and viewers with more information. If you structure the layout like a standard press release or media advisory, the media can derive information from that as well. It’s always awesome when they copy and paste what you send them because that means your message is getting out there as you intended. The more quotes, the better. The more concise and informational the lede is, the better.
Make it digital.
All of us know that technology continues to take the communications world by storm. If you manage your company’s or a client’s social media pages, notifications tend to bombard your smart phones and computer screens. Everyone else is always online, too, so take advantage of that simple fact and get your information out there on a digital scale. Unless you have to have a press kit folder with all the dressings, take your press kit online. We like to use Adobe Spark Page. They have a wide array of clean, crisp templates that will set your client and content apart. Plus, you can track analytics to prove ROI to your client, Board of Directors, donors and more. Win, win.
Here are recent examples of two press kits we have created for clients:
And here's the one for my business:
Make the content shine.
Content is king or queen in any communications field, and each business is vying for the same attention with their digital footprint. Do the necessary research with your target audiences to see what actually resonates with them. Playing the guessing game doesn’t get you anywhere; often, you will spin your wheels and end up coming back to square one. Conduct one-on-one interviews, focus groups, surveys and more to see what clicks with your audience. Assess your SEO, keywords, click-through rates and more to establish the ROI of your media relations efforts. Then, build your content. Tell others’ stories through your brand or company’s EPK or print press kit. Everyone loves a good story. Don’t sell yours short but cutting corners to save time or energy. Put in the extra hour (or however long it takes) to build content that can be used in your media relations efforts and on other platforms.
Copyright © MMXVII Hourglass Omnimedia, LLC
This post was originally posted on Aug. 29, 2017.
Kaylin R. Staten is an award-winning public relations practitioner. She owns Hourglass Omnimedia, a consulting company based in Huntington, WV.
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