First impressions are everything, especially in a professional environment. Because of this it is important for you to create a digital media kit for your company or product. But what exactly is a digital media kit?
A digital media kit, also known as a press kit, electronic press kit, or media kit, is an information packet about a business or product. Imagine it as a resume for your company that aims to answer questions from media, investors, potential clients, and others. At its core, a digital media kit should be accessible and layed out so that it is easy to find and understand the information included.
Before the advent of the digital age, media kits were normally printed and mailed. Now, with almost everything accessible online, they are commonly found on a company’s website. Although it is not required that media kits be hosted on a website with their own page, it is ideal. However, when this is not an option they can be made easily accessible using Dropbox or Google Drive.
There are three things an effective digital media kit should do:
- Grab the reader’s attention
- Make a lasting impression
- Create enough interest to encourage the reader to contact you for more info
When putting together your digital media kit, the following questions should be addressed:
- What is your purpose?
- Who are you?
- What are people saying about you?
- What’s new?
- What are your brand assets?
Each of these questions have separate components that should be included to effectively present your kit, and are included in more detail below.
What is Your Purpose?
Putting the following three things together allows you to create a deeper view of the vision of your company. This helps draw in more bloggers, journalists, and reporters to cover your story because they have a more emotional and personal connection with your brand. Creating an emotional connection leaves a lasting impression and ultimately makes your business more memorable over others.
Mission
According to the founder of Short Street Cakes, Jodi Rhoden, “your mission statement should motivate you and your staff. You should be living and breathing your mission statement. A living mission statement can guide your company culture and streamline decision making…Keep in mind it is not a description of what you do – it’s the guiding force behind it.”
Creating and adding a strong mission statement to your kit provides more depth about who you are as a business.
Vision
According to BusinessNewsDaily.com, consultant and producer of BizTank Joel Klein says, “A mission statement illustrates the purpose of the company…its main function is to provide direction to the company and highlight what it needs to achieve in its vision…Meanwhile, a vision statement illustrates where a company would like to see itself further down the line, what it hopes to achieve and what its goals are…”
While a mission statement defines the direction of your company, your vision statement defines how your company will move into the future and what it hopes to achieve. Joe Klein also said,”A mission statement answers the question: Why does my business exist? A vision statement answers the question: Where do I see my business going?”
Brand Promise
The brand promise is the unique promise your company or organization makes to the people it serves. It is what’s different about your brand and how you live the values of your brand. The brand promise is putting forward what the company agrees to do for its customers, donors, clients, and the people in your community.
Reflect your values and voice in how you present your mission, vision, and brand promise in your digital media kit. There is power in having a video of the CEO presenting the mission and vision statements. Be sure to include other visual elements such as infographics, flowcharts, diagrams, or other elements that portray information in a creative way. Try and be creative as you build out your digital media kit because it is another opportunity to strengthen your brand.
Who Are You?
Who is involved in your company? Who are your leaders, staff, partners, and clients? What are the values that define and drive the members of your company? These are all important to include as they not only provide a personal link to your company and staff but establish credibility and authority.
Leadership
Who is the founder, business owner, President, CEO, etc? Who are the decision makers in the company? Who are these people and why are they involved, and how long have they been involved?
Team Members
Who else works for the business or organization? Is there staff? Are there volunteers? Aside from the leadership, who else is part of the team, and who else is committed to the values and brand promise?
Customers, Clients, and Donors
Who currently hires, pays, donates, or buys from you? What types of audiences and people come to you? Talk a little bit about them to give insight into who you are and what drives you.
Partners
What other organizations and businesses do you collaborate with that share your values and target audiences? When you share that you are partnered with other companies, businesses, or nonprofits that you feel are aligned with your vision/mission, it speaks volumes and boosts your credibility.
Values
What matters to your business and organization? What is the foundation of the brand? What are the keys that drive that mission, vision, and brand promise forward? Share these to stand out from the competition.
It is important to note that a lot of media kits will connect to the “about us” section of websites or may even be located under the “about us” section itself. These two things are easily connected when including a digital media kit on a website or about page. Just make sure it is easy for a reader to access and understand.
What Are People Saying About You?
Sharing reviews, media coverage, and awards your business has received can drastically help improve your credibility since people are more willing to trust a company with solid reviews and coverage.
Media Mentions/Press Coverage
Post digital clippings such as screenshots and links to past articles, interviews, podcasts, print articles, etc. Don’t worry about getting every example; aim to get the strongest pieces that are the most valuable and credible. You can always add new ones later.
Awards and Accolades
List the ways your business, organization, or work has been recognized. Include badges, logos, or other relevant graphics from organizations and associations that have given you considerable recognition.
Reviews and Testimonials
Pull together a sampling of feedback and get permission to quote customers. Make it is easy for members of the press to source other people talking about the value of what you do.
What’s New?
What’s new in your organization? What’s happened recently? Make it easy for journalists, bloggers, possible clients, and the press to access recent news about the company. You want someone to quickly and easily find and take in information about your business.
Press Releases
Create an archive of all the press releases your company has written and shared. Publish and link all of these releases within the archive so that they are easy to find. This allows people to see how many press releases you’ve put out over time. Having a great press release on your website that you can link to is invaluable as many reporters and journalists want to be able to click on a link and read about the latest news from your organization.
Story Angles
You can lay out story angles in press releases themselves via headlines or even through announcements on your blog or the pages of your website. Clearly define at least three different story angles through press releases and announcement headlines. Story angles also allow you to define the audiences you want to reach and shows the media and press why those audiences might care about your products/services/topics.
Quotes from the Team
Organize a number of quotes from the company or organization leadership and staff, as well as relevant partners, that the media may use.
These quotes are not just testimonials; they are your team speaking in their own voice about the products or services, commitment to quality, and the organization’s values. Let people know that they can use these quotes in a story or article to quote the CEO, the marketing director, or someone else who is an expert on the staff.
Where Are Your Brand Assets?
Provide high and low resolution logos and images that can be used online and in print, as well as trademark guidelines, video content, and social media accounts. Most importantly, these things must be accessible while allowing you to retain brand consistency across all forms of media.
Low and High Resolution Logos and Images
The best file formats to include are PNG, JPEG, and vector formats ready for web and print. Make sure to provide horizontal and square versions, as well as full color and black and white or inverted versions. Also offer versions with and without a tagline. These are important to have for people reporting, blogging, or making videos online as easily accessible low resolution images to use. Those coming from print or more traditional media will need high resolution images/logos.
As well as logos, include some photographs in both high and low resolution. You want to include three or more print ready and web ready photos that are 1000 pixels or more. It is much easier to scale down an image and retain its clarity than it is to scale up an image and do the same. Images in JPEG format will typically be the best option, but do note that web ready images are 72 DPI and print ready images are 300 DPI.
A good thing to keep in mind is to have some photos of people, not just places or things! Seeing the people who are involved in your business is always a positive thing, especially for journalists and bloggers.
Embed Shareable Video Content
You want to embed any video content that you have on the internet including streaming sites such as Facebook, Youtube, and Vimeo. Make it easy for people to watch and share those videos.
Link to Social Media Accounts
Using icons to direct people to all of your active accounts makes it easy for people to not only find you on social media but connect with and follow you on social media.
Pro Tips to Take With You
- Everything must be on the cloud and downloadable. Use systems like Dropbox or Google Drive for this, and/or a page on your website.
- Track media mentions and downloads. Use tools like Google Analytics, Google Alerts, Buzzsumo, etc to track when people are talking about you.
- Update the press area of your kit regularly as new mentions and coverage occur.
- Make sure features are easy to navigate and are interactive.This is particularly important for the press/media area as it will be the section you flow a lot of your other “about” sections through. Also include multimedia such as text, videos, and other visual components to help to keep viewers engaged.
- If you promote an event, let press and media know how they can request and get approval to attend and cover the event. If you have sponsors, include their logos and link to their websites. If possible, include quotes from sponsors about why they are involved.
Useful Digital Media Kit Examples
- Stripe
- Gilbane Building Company Look here for a great example of a creative visual with the infographic as a major component in their press kit.
- SOCAP (Social Capital Markets)
- Shopify
About the Author
Keegan Mele, a rising junior at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, has a passion for writing, history, and astronomy. In his spare time, he has been teaching himself to code and 3D model.
