Is your brand struggling to get your reports and ebooks covered by the press? If you’re doing a lot of outreach without having much impact, or are trying to get more out of your outreach efforts, providing a media kit may be your ticket to procuring more links back to your website.
That’s why I’ve created a Media Kit Template for Marketers for you to use in your outreach efforts around content. It has everything you need to put in a media kit. Download it now, and follow along as I walk you through each section of the template:
What is a media kit?
A media kit is a public relations tool marketers can use to get more press coverage for their content and brand activities. It serves as an overview of important information, providing key highlights, visual assets, important links, and more — all in one neat package.
Why should I create a media kit?
Reporters, bloggers, and influencers are extremely busy people. Their email inboxes are inundated with link requests and pitches. In order to cut through the noise, it’s best to present them with everything they need to know about your content upfront — preferably, in one page. Providing a media kit also gives them everything they need to write an article, reducing the amount of work required by them to cover your content.
When do I need to make a media kit?
Media kits can be used for a variety of promotional efforts, from launching a new product to announcing an event. Basically, you’ll use it for anything you want the press to cover. I’ll talk about media kits in the context of promoting content via email outreach to the press. I’ve most often used them to make information about reports and ebooks more accessible to members of the media.
How to create a media kit in 10 steps:
I’ll walk you through the Media Kit Template for Marketers, going through each of the 10 sections so you understand their purpose and how best to use each of them.
- Header: Embargo, report name, press contact
It’s important to include an embargo label (when applicable), the official report name, and your press contact information in the header of the media kit so this information is on every page, even if you go over the suggested one page limit.Embargo: If you’re releasing a large report with news-making information, it’s best to send an embargoed copy (with media kit) to reporters a few days ahead of time. That way, they have time to have someone write and get ready to launch their story so they can break the news once the report is released to the public. However, if you’re not releasing content that has breaking news, sending an embargoed copy may be unnecessary, or even cumbersome for reporters, rather than waiting to send them the final report once it’s live. That’s why using the “embargo� label is optional. You know your content best, so use an embargo when you think it’s right, or experiment to see what gets you the best results.Report name: The report name is fairly straightforward. Include the official name of the report — as you would like it to be referred to in an article — in the header of the Media Kit Template, along with the label “Media Kit� so that the purpose of this document is immediately apparent to readers.
Press contact: Always list a press contact who will be actively monitoring their email and phone in the days following you report’s release. This person should be responsive and in contact with the author and people listed as available to talk to the press (see Step 9) so they can arrange interviews as needed. Ideally, this person will be the individual reaching out to press with this media kit via email in the first place.
- Title and author
Include the official report name and the author’s name, as you would want the press to cite them in their coverage. Make sure the title matches the report title included in the header. - Embargoed until
If you choose to send an embargoed copy of your report to press ahead of time, make sure to ask them to keep the report and its information confidential until the report is released. Specify the date and time of the release in this section, and highlight it in yellow to make sure anyone who reads the media kit sees this very important information. The last thing you want is for your news breaking report to be leaked because someone didn’t see when the embargo would be lifted. - Assets
Here, you should include a link to an easily accessible folder or other place to download additional report assets the press might be able to use in their coverage (I typically use a Dropbox link). This can include: separate graphic images (be sure to put your logo on each of these), especially if there are data-rich graphs in your report; infographics; social media graphics; an additional copy of the media kit; an embargoed copy of the report; and a final copy of the report, once released. Make sure to specify what types of assets are available, and test the link before you send out your media kit. - Landing page URL
This should list the final landing page URL you want the press to link to when covering your report. Avoid using web pages that are gated, as typically people don’t like to link to gated web pages. Instead, provide a link to a blog post that announces the report’s release and summarizes its highlights. - Summary
Include a concise two to three sentence summary of the report that explains its purpose and its impact. This is your opportunity to convince the reader they should keep reading. Remember to keep it short — if it’s too long, you’ll lose their interest. - Key findings
This is probably the most important section of the media kit, and, often, the section people will go straight to in order to find out whether or not the report is worth covering. Limit this section to two to four key findings from your report. Keep each key finding as short and punchy as possible. Keep them to one sentence, or two shorter sentences, if necessary. These are the potential news making headlines for your report. If you can’t picture it on the front page of a newspaper, save that finding for Step 8 and go for something with more of a hook. - Additional highlights
If you had extra key findings from the previous section, or additional findings that would further prove the impact of your report, list them here. Often, I find myself including more granular, but still significant, findings in this section. Think of this section as your chance to provide two to four more findings that will help reporters write their stories. But still concentrate on keeping it short — there’s no need to republish your whole report in the media kit as reporters will have their own copies to refer to. - Available for interviews
In your media kit, you should list one to two people who are available to speak with members of the press about the report right after its release. Ideally these would at least include the report author, and perhaps a member of the leadership team who can speak about the report findings. Make sure the person listed as the press contact has their information so she can reach out to them about interviews as requests come up.You should also double check with these individuals to about their specific availability to take media requests in the week or so after the release, to make sure they’ll have time to promptly respond to press inquiries. Send this information to your press contact as you receive it, so they know who is available on what days. - Tweets and Facebook/LinkedIn posts
This section is optional, because if you have a data-heavy report with several key findings and additional highlights, you may want to get rid of this section to reduce the length of the document. However, if you have content that lends itself well to social sharing, and you have the room, providing suggested tweets and Facebook or LinkedIn posts can make sharing the report easier for readers. I would especially suggest using this if you are reaching out to a lot of influencers, who might not write about your content right away, but may be willing to tweet about it.
Now that you’ve learned how to use the Media Kit Template for Marketers, you can start leveraging it to get more links back to your content and website! Take the first step by downloading the template: