How to Make a Free Electronic Press Kit
A press kit is a way to introduce your business--or even a single product, such as a book or music album--to potential clients. These clients may be individuals or other businesses as well as media personnel, and you may be trying to attract them to buy your product or to help you in your marketing efforts by offering you interviews or other free publicity. Traditional press kits are usually contained in slick folders and may require expensive color printing. Electronic press kits can be made and distributed for free because they are simply a collection of computer files that you email out to promote your business. Think of your press kit as a resume for your business or enterprise, suggests "Entrepreneur" magazine.
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Instructions
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Create documents such as a company resume that offers highlights of the business, specification sheets for products and even short video clips that highlight your products' features.
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Write an interview with yourself. Press kits are often used to attract the media to your story. Creating a question-and-answer session not only gives them background information on your company's story, but also provides them with a direction for questions to ask should they choose to do an in-person interview. Answer at least five questions on your self-interview, but feel free to include an additional list of suggested interview questions that you don't answer, which may draw them into interviewing you for more detail.
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Introduce yourself and your kit in a letter. This should be included as a file in your media kit, but also pasted in the body of the email when you send the kit out. This letter's purpose is to gain the recipient's attention, and should describe your company's key points in one or two sentences. Also include a list of what's in the media kit and the best ways and times to contact you to follow up.
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Save all of these files in formats that are viewable on any computer. For files with any text, even if it's just image captions, export them to PDF. Convert image files to JPG and audio and video files to MP3. Converter software is available for free online if your computer does not contain native software that will make the conversions. Always check the results before sending, as free programs may not offer the consistent results available through proprietary software.
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Place all of your media kit files online where anyone can download them or, as a better practice, view them online without downloading. Many free file-sharing sites are available online, or you can host them as pages on your website if you have one. Include links to the online documents and any necessary passwords in your introductory letter. Some people are wary of opening attachments and downloading files, so offering online versions allows you to reach those who might otherwise just delete the attachments.
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Tips & Warnings
Make sure you have reputable and up-to-date anti-spyware and antivirus software running before you use a converter site, as some free sites may attempt to install spyware or other malicious software on your computer.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit sales manager checking the sales image by Peter Baxter from Fotolia.com
