Considering how fundamental they are to the publicist's trade,
it's always amazed me how lousy almost all press kits truly are.
Your typical press kit is a bloated folder filled with puffery,
hype, irrelevant information and worse. The vast majority of
these monstrosities do little besides kill trees and clog
newsroom trash baskets.
The good news is that creating a press kit that actually works
really isn't that hard. Let's look at the elements of a winning
press kit, and help you avoid some common pitfalls.
The Psychology of a Press Kit
There are two fundamental rules to creating a good press kit:
1. The press kit exists to make the journalist's life easier, not
for you to present sales messages and hype. Good publicists are
journalist-centric -- that is, they think from the perspective of
the recipient, not the sender. They take the time to learn what
journalists need and then they give it to them in as simple,
straightforward and user-friendly a manner as possible.
Remember, publicity is not about you -- it's about giving
journalists what they need to create a strong story.
2. Everything in the press kit goes to support your clincher.
Everything else gets yanked out. (A refresher: a "clincher" is
my term for the one or two line distillation of your publicity
message. It's the publicist's version of the Universal Selling
Proposition that marketers use to boil a product's marketing
message down to its essence.) You lay out your clincher in the
pitch letter that gets clipped to the cover of the press kit, and
the press kit serves to flesh out and support your clincher.
That's it. If your clincher is that you've brought a radical new
way of thinking to your market segment, then a backgrounder about
your "old fashioned commitment to excellence" not only doesn't
support your clincher, it may actually contradict it.
The Elements of a Press Kit
The Cover: In my twenty years as a publicist, I have never
encountered a single journalist who told me the cover a press kit
had the slightest impact on their decision whether to run a
story. Yet, businesses still spend thousands on glossy, four
color folder covers. Don't bother. A simple colored folder with
your business name imprinted upon it will work just fine.
Some businesses choose to get stickers printed up with their logo
and place them on blank folders, which is fine too, as long as
the stickers are neatly applied. Either way, don't obsess over
it -- it's what's inside that counts.
Letterhead: The first page of each press kit element should be
on your letterhead. Some folks prefer to get special "News from
(name of company)" letterhead printed, although, again, I doubt
it really matters.
The Lead Release: If your press kit is going out in support of
an announcement, an event, a trend story or for another specific
purpose, the release that lays out the news should be the first
thing a journalist sees upon opening the folder. This "lead
release" should be positioned at the front of the right side of
the folder.
Backgrounder: This is the element of your kit that provides,
well, the background information to support your pitch. It's
written in the fashion of a standard news feature (i.e. in third
person, objective tone). This is typically the longest element
in a press kit, often going 2 or 3 pages. As you're crafting
this, keep something important in mind: if a journalist is
reading your backgrounder, chances are he's already interested in
your pitch. If he wasn't, he wouldn't bother with it. You've
hooked him and the backgrounder can reel him in. To do so, you
must answer the two questions he has: "Is the claim made in the
pitch legitimate?" and "Is there enough material here for me to
do a story?"
Your pitch letter (based on your clincher) made a claim of some
sort about you, your company or your product. You're the
fastest, the most advanced, the hottest-selling, the most civic-
minded, etc. Now you have to back up your claim. Your
backgrounder is where this happens. Provide proof, by giving
concrete examples, third party observations, study results, etc.
to support your pitch. If you're claiming that there's a trend
taking place, here's where you provide the statistics to back it
up. If you've claimed that you've won more awards that anyone
else in town, here's where you describe them. Don't stray from
your purpose -- to reel in the journalist by convincing him that
your claim is legit.
The backgrounder also must demonstrate that enough material
exists to support the claim - and that it will be easy for the
journalist to access this information. Journalists don't have
time to do extended investigation on every piece. Provides leads
to websites, trade journals, experts and other resources to back
up your claim and help the journalist complete the story, you'll
have a big edge.
To write a backgrounder, do some role playing. You're a
reporter. Your editor has handed you a pitch letter and said
"write this up". In this case, of course, the pitch letter is
your own. While you're writing it, try to forget that the piece
is, essentially, about you. Pretend you're an objective
reporter. Track down resources, dig up stats, interview
experts. Try to see if you can create a credible piece that
proves the pitch's claim to be valid and interesting to the
reader. If you can, you've got a great backgrounder. If you
can't, it may be time to come up with a new pitch!
Bio: Only include bios of people who are relevant to the pitch.
A bio of your sales manager in a press kit designed to support a
claim of technological superiority is pointless. A bio of your
head of R&D is valid. Keep bios short (three paragraphs at the
most) and include only information relevant to the pitch. The
fact your head of R&D spent twenty years at NASA is relevant,
that she loves golf and has two cats isn't. The point of a bio:
to show the legitimacy of those quoted in your release or being
offered for interview, and to help the reporter craft a short
description of the person when writing the piece.
Fact Sheet: The fact sheet should distill the entire press kit
into an "at a glance" document. Keep it short, use bullet points
and bold headings. For example, I might start with the heading
The Story: and include a bullet point repeating the pitch. The
next heading might be Why It's Important: followed by some
bullet points putting the pitch into a broader industry-wide (or
perhaps even worldwide) context. Finally, I might use the
heading Why (name of my company) is at the Heart of this Vital
Story: and run some bullet points taken from the backgrounder
giving support to my claim. Put this fact sheet at the front of
the left side of the folder, just across from the lead release.
This sort of fact sheet is amazingly powerful and almost never
crafted in the fashion I just laid out. I've sold countless
stories because of this style of fact sheet and you can too.
Other Stuff: Filling out the kit with a company brochure and a
photo or two is reasonable, but don't get carried away. Keep your
kit simple, stick to your clincher and think like a journalist,
not a marketer, and you'll have crafted a first class press kit!
Bill Stoller, the "Publicity Insider", has spent two decades as
one of America's top publicists. Now, through his website, eZine
and subscription newsletter, Free Publicity: The Newsletter for
PR-Hungry Businesses http://www.publicityinsider.com/freepub.asp
he's sharing -- for the very first time -- his secrets of scoring
big publicity. For free articles, killer publicity tips and
much, much more, visit Bill's exclusive new site:
http://www.publicityinsider.com/freepub.asp
In last year's animated film Shrek II, a giant gingerbread... Read More
Have you ever noticed how the same people's names always... Read More
If you manage a department, division or subsidiary for a... Read More
Press releases are one of the most cost-effective ways to... Read More
Do you want to be quoted by the national press... Read More
Like human nature over time, the power of good public... Read More
In a media interview, always stick to your main points... Read More
Although media relations is not all there is to PR,... Read More
How do press releases or interest stories have an effect... Read More
With all due respect to all those stereotypical males out... Read More
A great way to celebrate your achievements and capitalize on... Read More
Each of us is exposed to people from other cultures... Read More
When, as a business, non-profit or association manager, you are... Read More
Talkback radio offers a fantastic opportunity to access thousands of... Read More
Business, non-profit and association managers are in a stronger position... Read More
Would you like to be the next Dr. Phil, Suze... Read More
Redevelopment is replacing new construction throughout the Greater Boston area,... Read More
I say public relations can be a matter of survival... Read More
There are all kinds of smart moves professionals can make... Read More
It sounds too simple to be true, but it really... Read More
"We are in the communications business, the business of conveying... Read More
Most business, non-profit and association managers live to tell about... Read More
Business, non-profit and association managers get a ton of satisfaction... Read More
When special events and communications tactics rule the PR roost... Read More
So you have spent hours and hours writing, shaping and... Read More
A well structured press release in an excellent way of... Read More
You bet!Especially for business, non-profit and association managers who REALLY... Read More
We rely on all kinds of tools and advice to... Read More
If you manage a department, division or subsidiary for a... Read More
Does it really make sense to bet your PR budget... Read More
How do press releases or interest stories have an effect... Read More
For discerning business, non-profit and association managers, PR success is... Read More
I got the latest issue of Internet Works in the... Read More
The easiest way to meet city council members is to... Read More
Just about anyone who has been in the public eye... Read More
Publicity is an important and often overlooked tool of creative... Read More
With a dismal failure rate of more than 75 percent... Read More
Created properly, an extremely effective marketing tool.It's a great concept,... Read More
When, as a business, non-profit or association manager, you are... Read More
What else, for goodness sake, could you as a business,... Read More
The world has woken up to ethical issues in corporate... Read More
It behooves you to know and remember the names of... Read More
And not results you can measure only in terms of... Read More
You won't accomplish much if you call the gas company... Read More
You've probably noticed, if you live on this planet, that... Read More
In competing for a piece of business not too long... Read More
Recently, I told a friend (who's a business owner) that... Read More
Whether you are a business, non-profit or association manager, your... Read More
The Key to Great PR is PerseveranceBy Paula Gardner of... Read More
It doesn't matter how cruel the reality programs get, there... Read More
Public Relations |