How to make a press kit for your online business

How to make a press kit for your online business

We’ve talked repeatedly about the importance of branding when you want a a business that customers love.

And one of the main actions in this process is spreading your company’s symbols and news for awareness purposes.

Your appearances in the press and on other official sites, outside your own website, can bring you both backlinks (for SEO), but are also necessary for brand building.

In order for you to optimize your efforts, it’s recommended to have a constantly updated press kit with the defining elements of your business.

Whenever you are asked for information about your company or need it for preparing press releases, for example, you simply pick it up from your kit.

You don’t waste time, you are prompt and you are sure not to forget the important things to say.

Let’s see together how to build and maintain a solid press kit for your business.

Contents How to build a solid press kit for your online business

  1. Media file
  2. Company descriptions
  3. Company Key Message
  4. Product description / main products and benefits
  5. Owner’s File
  6. Key figures
  7. Contact details
  8. List of useful links
  9. Contextual information
  10. Campaigns and actions communicated so far

Pont!

Organize the detailed press kit in a folder in Google Drive. It’s not for everyone’s eyes, as it may contain sensitive information that you’ll only want to give to certain people.

Also, create a PDF or cloud-based summary collection to make directly available to journalists when they ask for your press kit.

This can be public material that you can have directly on your shop’s website or about us page for quick access.

1. Media file

Our recommendation is to build it in the cloud, in a platform where you can give access to your employees or collaborators on branding and marketing. It can be a specially created account in Dropbox, Google Drive or Google Photos.

The important thing is that it’s there permanently and you don’t change its place. Don’t keep the media files on your personal computer either, because you don’t know when you need them quickly, but you don’t have access to your PC.

Good. What’s in the media file for a press kit?

  • Company logos – saved in multiple formats, including editable. You can have colored versions, black, white, with embedded slogan or not.
  • Descriptive banners – Create 2-3 sets at multiple sizes, starting from 1200×800 px (usually required for advertorials), up to sizes for Instagram Post and story etc. These banners should contain your company’s core message, descriptive graphics and be branded with your logo.
  • Advertising videos – It can be a presentation video for your company, or a video of your main benefits, or testimonial video from customers. You can have the video in its original format in this file, but make sure you have it uploaded to a platform like YouTube or Vimeo, so you can provide the link exactly when you are asked for it or need it.
  • Infographic(s) – Maybe you have an infographic with statistics compiled by your company or a presentation one.
  • Team pictures – for humanizing your brand, you can also keep photos of your team or people you have captured during the work in your kit.
  • Good resolution descriptive images.

Read if: Online shop brand and logo – 10 tips that will help you make good choices

2. Company descriptions

These are the main items in the kit that should be as handy as possible. I’m referring to descriptions of different lengths and formats for your company.

  • Short description – Start with your USP as a description title and summarize in a sentence – 2 the main unique thing your company does for your customers/market. Basically, in the short description you succinctly answer questions like who you are, what you do, since when and for whom. Here you can also include milestones (main achievements over time).
  • Long description – There are few cases where you will use it in its entirety, but from it you can take pieces with the items you need at that moment. In the long description you can add more details about your company, about your history and successes, about the different actions you do, about your products, your main differentiators in the market, your latest launches, testimonials from customers etc.
  • Descriptions at specific sizes. At 400 characters (with spaces), at 200 words, etc.

3. Company key message

Basically, here you specify your positioning in the market, how you want to be perceived by your audience. You can also develop the USP mentioned in the short description.

There is not necessarily a formula for the construction of the key message but you should start with the name of the company and what it does, for whom and for what purpose.

You can create several key messages, incorporating the tagline, for example, or in the form of a call-to-action addressed directly to the audience.

kit-for-press-example

4. Product description / main products and benefits

In your press kit you should also include a list of your main product/service categories and star products.

What do you include in your product description?

  • Description of what your products do for customers. Basically, the benefits of your products to your audience.
  • Prices charged
  • Location from which they can be purchased
  • Comparison with other products on the market (without giving names)
  • News about the products

You can organize the list with bullets or create a multimedia business card for the physical presentation of each item (products / services).

Read also: How To Sell More With Optimized Product Descriptions

5. Owner’s File

Or owners, if there are more than one of you. For example, at unosoft we have 2 files ready, because our company is run by both Cosmin and Aurelian.

What does the owner’s file contain?

  • Short description of the business owner – here you add experience and background (you can also include education if relevant), main achievements over time, mission as an entrepreneur and personal life highlights such as hobbies or preferences (to make it easier for readers to identify with the entrepreneur).
  • Photos of the owner – portrait, full-length, bust photos are required. Also include photos of various facial expressions, necessarily smiling. If you are more than one business partner involved, add pictures of all of you in the file.
  • Contact details – this can be the owner’s direct contact details, or those of an intermediary such as a personal assistant, if the owner is a busy man and someone needs to sort messages and requests addressed to him directly.

6. Key figures

Key company figures should also be repeated separately in the press kit, not just in descriptions.

These can be used as milestones or easily picked up in the creation of visuals such as infographics, PDFs, videos or charts.

What could be the key figures?

  • Number of active clients at this time or over time
  • Number of members in your community
  • Turnover / Annual income
  • Annual growth percentage
  • Average site traffic (if it’s a lot and can impress)
  • Number of monthly / annual orders
  • Number of products in portfolio (if relevant)
  • Number of employees in the team
  • Annual budget for company development

These figures are often asked for when answering an interview, for example, but also for press releases sent at the end and beginning of the year.

Read also: 365 ideas for small and medium businesses [marketing & vanzari]

7. Contact details

A press kit is not complete without up-to-date company contact details. Specify here:

  • Web site address
  • Company contact email address (of type [email protected] or as you wish)
  • Contact phone number for sales/support
  • Name of contact person(s)
  • Email addresses of contact persons
  • Telephone numbers of contact persons

These contact details should be handy in this format so you can quickly give them to your PR agent or pass them on to a potential collaborator for press appearances.

The data marked in bold above can also be published in the press when relevant.

kit-example-box

8. List of useful links

This is a collection of URLs where journalists can discover more about your company.

Of course you don’t always have control over which links are picked up or used, but you can guide them where to start, from places where you have control as well:

  • Web site address
  • Facebook page of your business
  • Your business’s YouTube channel
  • Business Instagram account
  • Podcast of the owner / company
  • Company blog
  • Landing page evergreen (can be a lead page or a sales lp for the star product)
  • Descriptive PDF materials such as catalogues, flyers or tutorial guides
  • Any other website/social media account you own

9. Contextual information

A press kit for your business may also contain contextual information that will be requested by your PR agent or journalists in interviews.

For example, it’s important to establish who your main competitors in the market are. This will allow media people to be as objective as possible in the material they create and to target them where relevant.

For your PR man, this information can provide context so that he can monitor competitors’ moves and act promptly when they give signs they want to corner the market.

Another type of contextual information is related to who your audience is, what kind of customers you are targeting and what hurts them. In this way, your press releases and messages can be delivered to the right audiences who are interested in the topic and who consume information from your niche.

This information can also be picked up directly in your press materials to contextualise your statements.

Thirdly, here you can also note 2-3 actual quotes that can be taken up when needed.

Your quote can state your opinion about the current year for your niche, your company’s mission, a recent business action you took, etc.

10. Campaigns and actions communicated so far

It is vital to have a history of your actions in the press to date. This includes campaigns you have run on your own, with partners or with your PR agent.

  • Latest press releases
  • Latest advertorials
  • Latest interviews with the owner
  • Most recent organic press appearances
  • Most recent paid appearances in the press

This is data that gives context to both journalists and your PR person or team.

Plus, it’s useful to have this information centralized in one place, so you can use it when building materials to send to the press.

Read also: How to boost your sales when the holiday season is slow

These are the vital items in a press kit for your business.

Basically, you have your collection of company information, organized, just a click away so you can respond promptly when asked.

Make sure this press kit is updated monthly, so you can be sure you’re passing on accurate information.

Once you build it (an action that can take time, depending on who’s in charge), it takes no more than 10 minutes each month to go through it and bring it up to date.

Now it’s your turn to put the information into action 🙂 . Good luck with your sales!

PS. Sales are better when you have a solid platform behind you that makes your life easier. unosoft is the technical infrastructure you need to make your entrepreneur experience a breeze!

Test unosoft free for 15 days and check out subscriptions – we have options for every pocket and the tools you need to grow your online store!

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