How to Create a Media Kit

A media kit is a promotional tool that highlights a business's products, services, previous work, and milestones. Also referred to as a press kit, a media kit helps raise brand awareness by highlighting everything a business, media outlet, or potential investor needs to know about your business.

A media kit is generally used when a business wants to launch a new product or service, attract investors, promote an event, or open a new business. How you format your media kit largely depends on the type of product or service you're promoting.

Follow our complete guide to creating a powerful media kit with 10 easy steps and a free template.

How to Create a Media Kit:

1. Write a brief introduction.

Include a concise and informative summary of your business. Even if your media kit is about a new product, service, or event, the introduction should still focus on the business that's offering the products and services, or hosting the event.

Only one paragraph long, the introduction can either share your mission, history, experience, personal story, or the “why” behind your business. Include a professional headshot of the founder, business logo, or your team. This simple detail adds authenticity to the media kit.

If you're a solo entrepreneur creating a media kit for your personal brand, the overview could also be about the founder of the business. If you choose to write a brief "about me" introduction, write in the first person. This adds a more personal touch.

Some businesses opt to include an introduction about the founder and the business. However, we recommend using one or the other because your media kit will also include a backgrounder which details the same information. This will help avoid repetition.

2. Add notable press releases.

If you're simply showcasing your business, you can include three press releases which highlight milestones your business has reached. The press releases you choose should provide journalists with different angles. Send different press releases, such as media advisories for an event you've hosted or follow-up articles that detail the success of a new service.

Start by listing the most recent press release. This section should be in chronological order. If you're creating a digital copy, you can simply add links to the press release. But be sure to add the date, headline, and a link to the full release.

If your media kit is about a specific subject, like a fundraising event or release of a new product, your first press release should be about the product or event in question. This means you'll need a new press release created from scratch.

3. Provide a backgrounder.

A backgrounder is an informational document attached to press releases, media advisories, and media kits. While backgrounders are common for small businesses or startups looking to introduce their business to the media, many established businesses also opt to add a backgrounder because it provides journalists with more information about the company or the product they're marketing.

Provide a description of the product, service, or event. A media kit can be sent for various reasons, including the launch of a new product, service, or event. For these types of media kits, it's wise to include a brief description of the product or service you're launching or the event you're hosting.

Focus your backgrounder. Avoid going off-topic when writing this section. Instead, stick to writing about the media kit's purpose. For example, if your media kit is about a new online payment service being launched, your backgrounder will focus on that service and how it came to be.

A backgrounder should include:

• A brief description.

• Company history.

• Company milestones and awards.

• Product, service, or event description and overview.

• Vision and mission statement.

4. Showcase your statistics.

Journalists and potential collaborators or investors will want to know what kind of results they can expect from working with your business. Statistics are a great way to prove why your business is newsworthy or worth the investment because they show your website traffic, trends, and audience demographics.

Make sure your statistics are easy to read and understand. If done wrong, your statistics section could be overwhelming and complicated to interpret. This could turn off some investors or journalists. To avoid this outcome, list your statistics with graphics and make sure they're labeled correctly.

Use data analytics tools. Besides social media analytics, you may find it hard to obtain the correct statistics if you don't have a system in place that helps monitor the numbers and traffic. Data analytics tools are a great way to stay updated on your latest figures and statistics. We recommend tools like Klipfolio and Google Analytics, which help users manage their traffic, audience demographics, and much more.

5. Include media assets.

Your media assets should be listed by your resources section, which should provide all the materials media outlets need to write a good article. For this section, you can include photographs, samples, and infographics. If you're creating a digital media kit, you have the opportunity to also include promotional videos and downloadable logos.

Showcase your previous work. If you've already worked on big collaborations, mention these in your resources section. You can either list the company names and logos or include more in-depth case studies or samples. This is also an ideal chance to showcase statistics and figures from previous partnerships, campaigns, or events.

Add your testimonials. Including testimonials helps add credibility and professionalism. Make sure you add testimonials from recent customers or business experts that hold weight.

6. Write about your founders and employees.

If you chose to include an introduction that highlights your business, you can now add a brief one-page section that's about your founder or founders, as well as your employees. For a more personal touch that will help your media kit stand out, provide a professional image of your founder and a group employee photograph.

Include your founder's history and talk about your employee's work ethic. This section can be short and straightforward. However, try and use this space to help further encourage sponsors or media outlets to work with you.

7. Add contact information.

Following your introduction, list the immediate contact details of the person who can be interviewed. This can include the founder, a Public Relations contact, or any individual of relevance. If your media kit's aim is to inform investors or media outlets about your business in general, include your business's contact details, as well as a media or marketing contact.

Your contact details should include:

• Email address.

• Phone number.

• Postal address.

• Company website.

• Social media handles.

8. Proofread your media kit.

As with any document that will be sent to prospective partners or media outlets, making sure you proofread and continuously edit your media kit is important. This document represents both you and your sponsors or partners, therefore it's vital that the document is free of errors and misinformation.

Tips for proofreading your media kit:

• Read out loud.

• Ask a fellow employee or trusted peer to proofread it.

• Identify common errors and proofread for one error at a time.

• Print a hard copy and make edits in red pen.

Always convert to PDF once complete. Your media kit should not be sent out in Word format as this may give readers the freedom to make changes.

9. Distribute your media kit.

Who do you send your media kit to? In the media industry, it's a common rule that you don't send media kits to any journalist or features editor. Media kits should only be presented once a media outlet is interested in your story or if you're campaigning for a collaboration.

Consider first sending a press release to media outlets that serve your target audience, and if the media outlet is interested in working on a story, you can then send a full media kit. For maximum exposure, we recommend sending your press release through a professional press release distribution service.