Are there various types of media kits? This article will discuss how many media kits there are and what they mean for promoting yourself and your brand.
One of the first questions about marketing is, “what is the difference between PR and marketing?” That answer depends on who you ask.
If you are a reporter, you might ask why someone you are interviewing doesn’t do marketing as well as marketing.
If you are a marketer, you might be more inclined to create a content marketing plan instead of one focused on outreach. And of course, some people make their money from both.
This is one of the many differences between PR and marketing: your efforts will either convert existing fans and customers to a new market or draw new ones to you. But, depending on who you are, you might want to be more focused on either.
However, if you find that most of your work is going into the outreach and that your company's other products aren’t doing well, it might make sense to spend more time marketing your business.
Over the years, there has been a lot of confusion about how to go about writing content marketing or content marketing or marketing kits. So let’s look at the myths and bust them!
The first myth is, “any press is good press.” We all know that’s not true!
The value of media is based on how many people read and share your piece. Also, media outlets are highly selective in their news curation and don’t want anything worth sharing.
In terms of writing press releases, that is exactly what you want. What are you sending them?
Is it something that you are excited about? Is there something valuable that they can add to their sites or networks?
The art of a great press release is to find someone who works for your publication and adds value. Maybe you can call them up and ask them questions or help them learn about your product or your company.
You can use their contacts and resources.
You need to be bold and use your own personal selling skills to get them to publish your story. And even if they don’t accept your pitch, you can always wait another day and try again.
This is a good lesson to learn about the importance of persistence!
You can always pitch journalists in your area. Talk to them about your city, the local area, or your publication.
Ask them to do a story on your company and products.
Suppose you are running a social media campaign, tweet about your latest product launch or new release. Create an event on Facebook. Send a personal note to influencers.
This can help you establish relationships and keep the conversation going about your company.
You can also pitch your story to publications that focus on your niche. They may be looking for a story, and if they don’t write it, someone else will.
The second myth is, “get PR ready by writing your press releases in advance.” You might be one of those marketers who write their press releases as they go along.
This isn’t a bad practice, but it isn’t a recommended one.
When writing press releases, you should always be focused on the readership of the publication. It would help if you thought about what they are looking for, what they need, what will excite them.
When you write a press release in advance, you might send it off to your PR agent and think it is good enough. You need to make sure that what you write is really ready for publication.
You should avoid posting it on your company blog and emailing it to the PR agent, who will read it and send it off.
If you are going to write press releases, you need to really think about how you will present the information to your audience. You need to understand what they need to know and give them the information they want, not what you think they want.
I have a client who sends a press release to every publication that he has any interest in writing about his business. He has found that some publications publish his press release, and some do not.
He is afraid that someone in the press office of the publication will read it and not write it up, so he sends it to every single outlet he has a connection to.
The most obvious example is online press releases. If you are a small company that doesn’t have any staff or PR contacts, you may not even know if any publication is interested in covering you.
You can’t assume that every website is going to want to write about your company.
Start small. Focus on writing stories for publications that have a readership in your niche.
Send them stories that are interesting and informative. Give them value.
You can send along with links to other articles you have written. No rule says you can’t send along a link to a story you’ve already written for another publication.
You might get the story written about you!
Or, you can pitch a story to someone who is writing a press release. Send them a link, and see what they think.
They may also give you valuable feedback.
The third myth is that you should write the headline and the body copy of your press release in advance.
As you have probably noticed, media releases and press releases don’t really have a lot of structure. You write a press release, and you want it to look good, but it isn’t very structured.
You might want to write the headline and body copy in advance. That way, you can focus on the main content.
As you write it, you can keep making changes to it, taking the article's desired focus and the desired focus of the specific readership.
Don’t be afraid to be willing to try something different. It doesn’t need to be perfect the first time you try it.
That doesn’t mean that it needs to be terrible, but you need to have a sense of what’s acceptable and what isn’t.
Let’s say you’re writing a press release about a new product. The headline could be: “Next-generation Network-management platform turns your server into a Wi-Fi router.”
That’s a great headline, but when you send that release out, people are going to ask you why the Wi-Fi part is missing.
You can edit and change the headline and make it slightly different. It may not have the same effect, but it still fits the release's content, and it doesn’t change anything about the message.
Remember that the point of a press release is to create interest. You have to get someone’s attention.
The more compelling you can make your message, the more likely you are to get their attention.
