Make Them Care: Why Every Tech Startup Needs a Press Kit — and 12 Steps to Get One

Every business needs press, and failing to make your brand story easily accessible to journalists is a mistake. If you have a company, you need a press kit, and here’s 12 steps to create one.

As advisors, we meet with dozens of companies per week. Most are tech startups or early-stage companies with compelling brands and interesting stories, that are simply not sharing their story with the marketplace. Many, particularly those in the blockchain or transformative technology spaces, are working on stellar concepts and cutting edge products. Yet no one knows about the awesome work they’re doing.

Every business needs press coverage, and failing to make your brand story easily accessible to journalists is a mistake. Particularly if you’re a technology startup, storytelling is absolutely essential and one of the most crucial components of your communication strategy. Creating an easily accessible narrative for the outside world can level up your brand awareness, especially if your company is working on complicated products that few understand.

So if you have a company, you need a press kit, and here’s how to create one.

What is a press kit?

A press kit (aka a media kit), is a website page or downloadable PDF document that contains resources and information for reporters, publishers, and event managers. Optimal kits streamline information about your company, team, and product so reporters can swiftly learn about your brand, access marketing materials, and contact you if they are interested.

Leveraging a press kit sends the message that media is welcome and speaks volumes about your ability to market your own brand story.

Getting Started

1. Research other press kits. There are dozens of sample press kits online. Check them out. Spend a few minutes researching what is needed to make an effective media kit. For reference, here’s our media kit for DecentraNet, our blockchain and transformative technology advisory and consultancy firm.

2. Write your story. Start with your WHY. Share your business story, how your business came to be, and tell the world about yourself and your mission. Startup and entrepreneurial life are hard. Why do you do what you do? Make the reader care.

As one of my favorite marketing gurus, Megan Groves, once pointedly said:

“Your potential customers live in a noisy world, so your company needs to build a concise story that will penetrate all of the clamor and actually reach your consumer base. This means condensing the major points of your company into two consumable bits: your company story and your founder story. Having both and keeping them distinguishable from one another is really important for ensuring that neither overshadows the other, but together will create leverage for a great brand story.”

3. Gather your facts. What is your competitive edge? How many customers do you have? How many sales have you completed? Where are your company and team located? What are your accomplishments and milestones? Where is the product manufactured?

4. Promote your team. Your team is the core of your business. Brag about them. Tell their story, their role and impact on your company, and why they do what they do for your business. Include high-quality headshots and thorough biographies. Definitely remember to hyperlink their email address (mailto:email@.com) so they can be easily contacted. Also, consider including any of their social media accounts.

5. Feature your CEO. Our founder, Matt McKibbin, is a public speaker and part of getting our message and mission out into the world is having Matt speak. In our media kit, we featured Matt’s accomplishments and gathered statistics on how many events he had actually attended (it’s a lot). Do you have a public speaker on your team? What do they specialize in? Make sure you feature them on at least one slide and provide details about their expertise.

Here’s an example from our media kit, showcasing Matt’s talents:

6. Include your logos. Make it easy for content publishers to use your logo or create graphics using your logo by providing high-resolution options in your media kit. Provide high-quality graphics that also include a transparent background to make your graphics easy to use for nearly any purpose.

7. Gather your data. Hopefully, you have Google Analytics tracking data and some method of monitoring your social media reach. Gather these stats and share them. How many followers do you have on Twitter? Do you have demographic data? How many people are on your mailing list? Where are they located in the world? Has your team been featured or spoken at notable events? All of these details are important to collect as they showcase your target market and key demographics.

8. Be clear. Use clear messaging and simple, concise soundbites about your brand story, product, and market opportunity. Particularly for companies in transformational technology, write as if the reader has no idea what your technology is or does — this is crucial as you do not want press with little knowledge about your product to walk away more confused. Aim for clarity and limit the use of buzzwords. Also, remember to list important milestones. Tell the world your mission. What is your company doing and why? What is your goal? What do you want to achieve?

9. Be visual. Include as many photos of past events or images of your team. Show your office, your product, your favorite customers, or any other bragging rights that can be visually expressed.

10. Documents are fun. Has your founder published something notable? Do you have a white paper? If you’re a technology company, do you have product reviews worth sharing? Specific blueprints that can be made public? A product manual? The more information, the better.

11. Don’t forget the essentials. Include an email address for press inquiries and make sure you list your social media accounts. Do you have a blog? Link it!

12. Testimonials. If you can, get several testimonials from clients or customers. Depending on your industry, these could be powerful narratives that demonstrate your marketplace position and competence. Aim for a minimum of three.

Let’s talk about tools.

To gather some of your demographic or customer/user data, we recommend installing Google Analytics on your website. Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. It’s free. The platform can provide you with a host of information, including important data that you should already be gathering about your customers. Here’s a quick guide on how to get started with Google Analytics.

For the press kit’s presentation, you can simply add this information to your website under a dedicated page, “Press Kit”. Regardless of the platform that you’re using, (Squarespace, WordPress, HTML, etc.), add a page with a simple name and link it from your main menu.

If you’re on a budget and have an in-house marketer, we recommend the free online tool Canva. You can also hire graphic designers on sites like Upwork or Fiverr to complete these projects. Our company, DecentraNet, also designs press kits. You can contact us here.

Final Thoughts

With a media kit, you can leverage data and storytelling to increase the likelihood of attracting sales through the press. If a media venue or platform features your company’s story, the promising potential for new traffic and brand awareness can be unlimited. Further, earned media coverage provides substantial credibility that paid advertising simply cannot offer.

Regardless of where you are in the startup journey, no one cares about your company more than you do. You have to tell them why you’re awesome. You have to make them care.