A press kit is basically a set of documents and materials of interest to journalists, media and influencers. It is a basic introduction of your company for a journalist or media that does not know it.
A basic press kit of a company should contain a “backgrounder”, a profile or description, with basic company data. It may also have logos, photographs and company executive’s bios, relevant press releases, products and services catalogs, photos and videos, white papers and other materials of potential interest that the company has produced. It is also essential to include contact information for the press.
When organizing your media kit, prioritize those documents that allow the journalists to know, in the simplest and fastest possible way, who the company is, its product, services and activities, clients, scope and other relevant information.
It is also advisable to avoid overloading your press kit. Journalists should not feel overwhelmed by the amount of material and find it difficult to find what they are looking for in a tide of files.
Instead, organize your press kit to guide them through your content. If the press kit is in a digital support (a pen drive or the cloud), you may use folders and files correctly identified, and use links between them.
Other uses
A press kit can also be useful on particular occasions, such as in campaigns, product or service launchs, and congresses or trade shows.
For example, if the company is going to participate in an event, it may be a good idea to prepare a special press kit for the occasion, containing the information of the product or service that you wish to highlight in that area and some brief information about the company. If someone from your company is a speaker at the event, you should include a bio, profile photos and even their presentation files.
When launching new products and services, press kits should include supporting multimedia materials such as photos, videos, specifications sheets, and other related, relevant documentation.
Objective
Always bear in mind that the objective of a press kit is to provide complementary information about the company, its services and products, for journalists interested in writing about it.
Press kits are especially useful in congresses and trade show, which usually are a meeting place for journalists and companies. In such events there are lots of things to do and people to meet, so time is really precious. In that sense, a press kit is a very powerful tool to complement a brief, first meeting with a journalist.
Tips
Audience. While press kits are originally intended for journalists, consider that other audiences can also take advantage of them. Keep in mind that, like any public material, it can be accessed by many other people, including potential customers, business partners and even competitors.
Print & Digital. Having your press kits both in digital and print versions might be useful. Many journalists will benefit from having it in a pen drive or other digital formats when writing on their laptops. However, a print version may be useful to have a quick look at live interviews opportunities, and for radio, video or podcast journalists.
Digital delivery. Make sure to choose the best way to provide your digital press kit. CDs, DVDs and other optical drives are really affordable, but most laptops do not have optical units nowadays. The cloud is also a cheap option, but sometimes Internet connections are poor at crowded events. USB pen drives may be a good choice to facilitate the journalists work at events.
Time and opportunity. Most journalists will write their stories right in the event, as sooner as possible. If you are not able to timely provide them all the information they need, your chances to appear in their stories may decrease.
Press room. Some trade shows and conferences reserve a press room available for journalist to work, and they generally allow companies to leave their press kits there. Ask the organizers which is the best way to make your press kits available for journalists at their events.