Colorful Press Kits = Love.
With an upcoming trade show in our future for our tile company, Oscar & Izzy, we’ve been tackling the “concepting stages” behind our press kit. We contacted 2 good friends, one being an English professor and one being a senior editor and picked their brains. Both are wordsmiths and gave great ideas. The senior editor of a trade magazine gave us her personal experience: At many trade shows, companies neglect to leave press kits in the designated “Press Room”. Hm. Why? Too busy? Maybe companies don’t know what to include? So what’s in a press and kit and what should all of these companies be packing into their press kits. Here is a recipe we’ve found on Entrepreneur.com that was really helpful!
They say:
“Here are some ideas about what to include in your press kit. Of course, this is a comprehensive list and intended only to provide ideas for what is needed for your target audience. Do not include all of them in your press kit.
1. Letter of introduction: Sometimes referred to as the pitch letter, this first impression item is where you will grab or lose the reader’s interest. Tell them upfront why they should care about what you’re telling them. Provide a table of contents or a brief description of the items enclosed in the actual press kit. Let them know you are available for follow-up interviews and questions. Also make sure to include your contact information in this letter.
2. Information on the company: This includes your company’s history, a company profile, and profiles of the chief officers, senior management and ownership. Include bio sheets, if appropriate.
3. Product and service information, including a product, service or performance review: This will let editors see what others are saying about you or help the editor write his own review. This should also be supported with product or service fact sheets, sell sheets or company brochures that are specific to your product or service.
4. Recent press publications and articles: Copies of recent press coverage is very appropriate for a press kit. After all, what other media have done will be of interest to current media targets. This can include article reprints and printouts of online press that a company might have received.
5. Press releases: Many times, these are what instigated and caused the printing of the articles described above.
6. Audio and video files of radio or TV interviews, speeches, performances and any other media-covered event: Hard copies will suffice if the actual media is not available. Today, some companies are now putting online audio clips on their Web pages and in online media kits.
7. A sample news story: This is your chance to guide the media or your reader. Some editors will even print it verbatim, as they view ready-to-print articles as an easy way to fill up space with little effort on their part. They do, of course, usually edit these stories, so be prepared.
8. Since many media kits are put together for investors, any news related to the industry, financial statements or any other investor-related news is very appropriate for the press kit.
9. List of frequently asked questions: This helps the editor determine what questions to ask you in an interview or what to include in the article.
10. Other items to include:
• Nonprofit and community-service involvement
• Recent awards
• Photos (if appropriate)
• Factual background material and/or white papers
• Specific information and schedules of upcoming promotions and events
• Significant statistics specific to your industry, demographics and target audiences
• Feature article material, such as articles written by company officers or senior management
• Missions, goals and objectives
• Samples or examples
• Camera-ready logo art
• Giveaway information
• An order form
Great! So now you know what’s in it, but what should it look like? We’ve decided to go bold and crazy-unique. Press attendees are visiting trade show after trade show… and are grabbing at sometimes “mundane” press kits, knowing that when they get back to their desk..they will have to weed through all of this and figure out what to write about. Let’s cheer up our media-related friends and give them something fun. We’ll be pushing color and lots of it. Color makes the world go ’round, right? That’s our motto.
We’ll keep you posted on what our press kit turns out to look like! In the meantime, contact us for more info on designing your press kit!