When it comes to media coverage, the more popular your brand is, the more exposure it receives.
This is essentially a vicious cycle – your brand cannot become popular unless you get lots of media exposure; and this does not happen till you are popular.
As a small business owner, this is a bigger hurdle to cross because businesses as yours simply do not have anything newsworthy to talk about all the time. It is not surprising then that some businesses resort to theatrics and stunts to spread the word.
One of the most important components of a PR campaign is your small business media kit. The ideal media kit will provide the reporter or writer with everything they need to cover your business the way you want.
In this article, we will look inside a small business media kit to understand what will make it good.
Start with your marketing approach
Most small business media kit templates you find online are typically meant for traditional media (print, radio, TV). Also, in most cases, this is mostly a short write-up about your company along with a few images approved by marketing.
This is nothing extraordinary. With social media and SEO turning out to be cornerstones of modern day PR, your small business media kit needs to be something much more than this.
To do this, start with what kind of coverage you are going after. Are you doing a social media viral campaign? An SEO link-building campaign? Or, something else?
Your media kit needs to be developed based on who the target audience is. It is, in fact, a good idea to have more than one media kit depending on who you are chasing.
When it comes to PR, one rule of the thumb is to make content so easy to disseminate. For traditional media, that would mean writing multiple versions of the story and sharing it with your target audience so that the reporter can quickly edit it and publish.
In the case of social media, for instance, that would mean producing videos that are “Facebook-worthy”.
That would mean producing high quality videos that a media house can quickly slap a watermark on and distribute.
This doesn’t have to be expensive. Find a small business friendly freelance animator who has experience producing content for campaigns like this
Do an ELI5 version of your “About Us”
Digital PR campaigns are great from both a branding and SEO perspective. However, if you want to avoid a scenario where your campaign gains coverage without proportional brand visibility, you must make sure that there is an “About Us” page that simplifies what your business does (ELI5 is a term that stands for “Explain Like I’m Five”).
One way to do this is with explainer videos – not necessarily the same videos you show your customers. But a video that is more appealing to a casual visitor.
Make sure that this video is integrated into each of your campaign productions so that the average viewer knows the brand that is responsible for the campaign.
Assets to assist with outreach
Whether you are looking for SEO backlinks, or social media shares, outreach is an inescapable component of PR.
Your small business media kit must contain assets that can make your outreach easier and more effective. Here are a few things you could work on.
Infographics and charts: This is especially useful if your PR campaign involves studies and research reports. The recipient would like to know the highlights of your analysis. An infographic or chart will best explain this and is something you must definitely include.
Social media profiles: As I pointed earlier in this article, PR campaigns follow a vicious cycle where the bigger brands enjoy better exposure than smaller brands. One way to get better coverage is to showcase brands that you are associated with on your social media profiles.
For example, is Microsoft a client? Have you previously held a high post in Boeing? The use of such big brand names can deliver a big boost to your own media campaigns.
Past media coverage: Sure, if your campaign is one of its kind, you are going to receive a well-rounded coverage regardless of how big or small your business is.
However, for the rest of us, writers do not always want to be the first to write about. It sounds counter-intuitive, but when it comes to non-news reporting, being the first to break the news is not something many writers do.
Sharing your past media coverage can be helpful here. It tells the prospective writer that your business is in the big leagues already and has received favorable coverage earlier. This prompts them to write about your latest campaign.
