Communication tools and public relations strategies have changed drastically in the past few years, but one thing has remained the same throughout: the media kit.
What is a media kit in public relations? As well as telling your story, media kits can help you improve your media relations and boost your chances of landing coverage in your desired media outlets.
Along with standard press releases, follow-up messages and social media campaigns, the media kit (or “press kit”, as it is often called) has proven to be an effective tool to raise brand awareness and improve connections with the media.
A media kit is a fun, interesting and eye-catching way to convey important messages about your brand, campaigns, products and the main company goals.
Press kits work as a “storytelling tool”, with space for words, but also experiences that will persuade journalists not only to engage with you and your audience, but also write about you or your product. They also save journalists time, since they don’t have to wait around for a reply from you or your team.
But why is the press kit so crucial to public relations? The answer is actually very simple: it is a one-stop shop for all of the essential information journalists need to know in order to accurately cover a story.
With that in mind, let’s examine exactly what you need to put your best foot forward with your media connections. While press kits can come in all shapes, sizes and formats, they typically contain certain same basic elements:
- A press release about the main subject you are looking to promote;
- A summary of your client/company containing relevant research and data, spokesperson bios, and any other relevant data to ensure your brand guidelines stay intact across all potential coverage;
- Frequently asked questions that might come up in a possible interview;
- Contact information, such as the phone numbers and emails of your PR team, interviewees, and anyone else of interest;
- Samples of your product and/or gifts for the media representative you’re trying to connect with.
Your media kit may also include team bios & quotes; logo variants; high-resolution images, videos and audio content (if relevant to the subject at hand); boilerplate text; social media links; and a product/service fact sheet.
In the past, a media kit would be sent either through a ton of cumbersome e-mails, or delivered by hand. These days, digital press kits are much easier to access, especially when updates are required.
By sharing a press kit digitally, you can alter any aspect of your media kit at any given time, which allows you to keep the information up to date and also adapt it to target certain audiences in different ways. This also saves time for you and your media partners, which helps them develop their story more efficiently.
Now that you have the answer for the question “what is a media kit?”, it’s important to remember that physical press kits are often a source of free promotional material, as people tend to share gifts and interesting packages on social media nowadays, and they’re also a way to spread your message further and make more of an impact.
Before shipping the package, you’ll want to send out a personalized email to each journalist asking if they’re interested in receiving the media kit, while introducing yourself and your client, and explaining what the package is for.
This will further your connection with the person you’re trying to reach, by making the experience less robotic. If you decide to include a product sample, make sure you understand the guidelines around accepting gifts at your target media outlets.
If you’d like to learn more about communicating in Latin America as a foreign company, keep reading our blog posts to learn more from our specialists.
