How to Build a Media Kit

It’s hard to overstate the importance of a well crafted media kit to any brand.

A media kit, which you may also know as a press kit, is the collection of promotional materials you provide to media outlets when they want to create coverage of your brand.

A standard media kit includes high-quality photos, a bio (or multiple bios of varying lengths), your contact information, your mission statement, testimonials, some public stats, and any key information about your product or service.

Ideally, a comprehensive media kit includes everything a total stranger might need to know in order to put together press coverage for you. It presents a solid opportunity to showcase the best of your brand to potential partners and sponsors.

Importance of Having a Media Kit

In business, reputation is everything. Having a professional image attracts like-minded business contacts and establishes your brand as a force to be reckoned with in your niche.

If you don’t already have a professional media kit, make it a priority to put one together, or work with a PR agency to do so. Having a media kit helps give you the chance to immediately respond to press enquiries and other opportunities for media coverage.

Media outlets expect to see professional media kits when interacting with brands and businesses. Businesses without an effective media kit tend to be less capable of communicating and interacting with the media.

Good media relations and practices help expand your exposure and your reach.

With this in mind, it’s vital to know the key components of a standard downloadable media kit.

Components of a Media Kit

Before the digital age, press kits typically consisted of a short portfolio with photographs and print copies of a bio and key achievements.

Now, you can have one standard media kit stored in the cloud that you send out to all media outlets, offering the opportunity to make a media kit with high quality photos, blurbs and even videos where appropriate.

The below list is a reliable media kit template you can build on for your own business.

1. Compelling Business Overview

The key word here is “compelling.” You don’t need a long, drawn out history of your business, from the genesis of the idea to the present day.

It’s best to have a clear, concise overview of your business that highlights your unique selling points and any major achievements and milestones. Keep the list short, down to five or fewer of your biggest wins.

2. Company Statistics and Achievements

This is where you can offer more detail. Whatever your key company statistics and KPIs are, include them here. More detail on your big achievements and data around growth and your achievement of key milestones help to build your credibility and engage reader interest.

3. In-Depth Product/Service Information

In this section, you need to strike a balance between detail and brevity. You want to offer as much information on your products and services as possible, focusing on the value for potential collaborators. Avoid going into too much detail with information irrelevant to the audience. For example, it’s easier to state that you have a unique production method that enables faster turnaround times than to detail every step of your production process.

4.Testimonials and Case Studies

Once you have stated your brand’s worth with stats, achievements, and information, pass the proverbial microphone to the crowd.

Adding testimonials and case studies from previous collaborators and clients here lends your brand credibility and offers social proof for your successes.

5. Target Audience Demographics

You must present your demographics and audience insights. You’ve already introduced your audience to the reader. Now it’s time to showcase your audience demographic and relevant insights so they can better understand your reach and how you fit in with the collaborator’s target market.

6. Contact Information

It might be surprising how many media kit examples exclude clear, accessible contact information for media inquiries and collaboration opportunities.

The point of the media kit is that you develop a relationship or deliver a collaboration.

You must include your key contact information at the end of the media kit. For some businesses this might just be a phone number, website, and email address.

An influencer media kit might include social media platforms.

Whatever the best way to contact you is, include that in your kit.

Designing a Visually Appealing Media Kit

There’s an old musician’s adage that applies here: most audiences listen with their eyes.

What does that mean? In essence, human beings are visual creatures. Our first impression of something comes from how it looks. Once upon a time, it helped us decide which berries to eat and which to avoid. Today, it means our press kits have to look professional and aesthetically appealing.

It’s very easy to assemble a pro-quality press kit with the right tools. Your branding elements must be consistent throughout. Your visual elements must be crystal clear. Your layout must be extremely easy to use.

Consistent Branding

The essential elements of branding are well-established. Your company logo should be consistent throughout the kit. Use the same fonts, the same colours, the same formatting, and consistent tone of voice in every piece of your press kit. This makes you look professional and well put together.

High-Quality Visuals

Your visual elements are a key feature of your press kit. Your graphics and images have to be extremely of high quality. Your colours need to be bright and clear. There must be no pixelation or distortion of the images in your kit.

User-Friendly Layout

Perhaps the subtlest, but most critical, distinction between professional and unprofessional media kits is ease of use.

Your kit must be well organised and easy to navigate at every step of the way. You want media professionals, social media influencers, and other readers to find the information they need with minimal effort.

Apply some user design principles to your kit. Make your headings large and friendly. Use graphics and icons to communicate information quickly and concisely. Clearly title each section and make the key information the first thing a reader sees on each page.

Writing Compelling Content

Storytelling is the oldest human tradition. We are still compelled and engaged by stories to this day. It’s why we still watch movies and read books, why we love catching up with a friend over a cup of coffee, and why you need your press kit to make your story as captivating as the latest Avengers film.

Crafting a Compelling Story

You already know your brand story. You know where you began, what challenges you set out to solve, and what you’ve overcome to get to where you are today.

Follow the basic narrative structure: introduction, complication, resolution. Embrace the iceberg theory and tell your audience as much as possible with as few words as you can get away with.

Your brand story needs to be captivating and concise. The shorter and sweeter your story is, the better. Use short sentences and succinct paragraphs. Use images and graphics where possible.

Engaging Headlines and Subheadings

The right headlines and subheadings grab attention and signpost your storytelling. That’s why we use them in this blog post!
Headlines and subheadings like “Our Story,” “What’s Next,” and “Major Milestones” make it easy for the reader to navigate your press kit and keep them engaged as they move from one segment to the next.

Tailoring Content for the Audience

The customer – in this case, the reader – is always right. You must tailor your content so it resonates and engages with your target audience.

This is a long-standing axiom of marketing strategy, and extends to influencer marketing and other modern approaches. Make sure your brand identity permeates the entire kit and that your choice of language and the information you present is relevant to the reader you’re approaching.

Tools and Templates for Building a Media Kit

Unless you’re already a design wizard, you’ll be grateful to learn that there are plenty of tools and templates out there for building your very own media kit.

You want your tools and templates to be, like the kit, easy to use.

Many small business owners and influencers are familiar with the excellent templates and user experience available in Canva, which allows you to customise images, shapes, graphic elements, fonts, and colour palettes to design a press kit that represents your brand.

Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop also offer the capacity to craft a media kit, but they require some extra work and prior knowledge of the platform.

Empowering Businesses with Effective Media Kits

A well-crafted media kit is an absolute must-have for any modern business or brand.

They boost your brand image with key stakeholders and gatekeepers, and pave the way for meaningful, lucrative collaborations across the media landscape.