In my last post, I wrote about the importance of having a press kit to help immortalize your moniker in print. In this post, I’ll share the tasty ingredients for your kit.

The Cover Letter
This is a brief intro letter, typically one page, that tells the editor or reporter what the press kit is all about and that you’d be just pleased as punch to be interviewed or contacted for a quote when the right story come by.

It’s important to do your homework beforehand. Address your cover letter to a specific person and make sure to spell their name correctly. Check the publication for the right folks to send your material. It’s always a good idea to pick up the phone and call the publication for verification of the name, title and such.

Backgrounder
Here’s where you’ll be detailing what you and your business are all about. Some of the things you’ll be addressing are your company’s history, services/product offerings highlights, why the company exists and what it’s mission and goals are all about.

For independent professionals, you want to position yourself as an expert in your field. That means addressing your background along with your relevant education and experience. It might also contain your key topics such as branding, web design, corporate identity, etc.

Fact Sheet
This is a listing of key facts about the business. Reporters love facts, so make it easy for them. This may contain office locations, number of employees, number of awards won, etc. Some folks prefer to incorporate the facts sheet within the backgrounder.

Press Releases
Press releases are the anchor of your publicity efforts, so you’ll want to include a few of your most recent/most important releases. Be sure when writing releases that they conform to accepted format standards. I’ll be cover press release format standards in a future post.

Key Personnel Bios
In some instances, you can cover key bio in the backgrounder. In other cases, it makes more sense to create a “Bios” page. This is a couple of paragraphs about each key player in the business and may also include a photo. The bio should list the person’s title, key responsibilities, relevant education and experience.

Services/Products
This is a page or pages that outline your key services and/or products. Some companies will substitute this with a brochure. The main thing to remember here is focusing on benefits, not features. Lots of people get hung up with their offering’s bells and whistles, but that’s not usually what’s important to clients and readers. They want to know how what you offer will solve their problem, make their life easier, make them look good and such.

Press Reprints
Got press? Great! Make copies or order reprints from the publication. Editors are more likely to cover you and your business if another publication has already taken a chance on you. Reprints are also a good source of inspiration for writers to develop a story idea all about you. Give them all the ammo they need.

Photos
These can be key personnel photos, product images, and such. Perhaps you do speaking gigs. An in-action shot might be perfect to punctuate an article about you. Images can be hard copies or digital on a CD or DVD, but the latter is preferred since most publications are produced electronically now days. Make sure your images have enough resolution for print reproduction. The rule of thumb is 2x the line screen of the publication. For most magazines that means at least 300 dpi. Newspapers use a coarser screen so they can be 120 - 200 dpi. When in doubt, go higher. Images can go down in resolution, but not up.

And there you have it. Piece of cake. Yes? Putting together your press kits isn’t rocket science. It simply takes some time, diligence and planning.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt