Creating a Media Kit That Sparkles

For a marketing campaign to work, you have to provide the media with a kit. Announcing news and information about your business can be attractive when combined with a useful and packed media kit.

A media kit is a collection of significant materials that gives the media information on who you are, what you do, and best of all, why they should care. It can be as fancy as you want it to be, just make sure that it is consistently clean, attractive and relevant. Proofread and edit thoroughly any copy that you include in the media kit. This can and will be used for future reference, so make sure that the information is reliable and correct.

For easy and quick creation of a simple yet professional media kit, Microsoft Publisher can help you a lot to come up with the items needed such as a cover letter, a brochure, a press release, business cards, your company's mission statement and profile, and biographies/credentials of key personnel.

Use the same Master Design Set in Publisher (Studio Design) for consistency in your materials. Create your company letterhead, business cards, brochures, and labels using the featured tool in Publisher. Customize and tailor your materials according to your specifications. As such, you can be sure that your media kit, and everything in it, will convey exactly what your company wants to convey to the media.

Here are some tips for an effective communication materials in your media kit:

-Cover Letter. It should be short, straightforward, and should be able to introduce you, your company, and your media kit. If you can, address your cover letter to a specific contact person, and not just Dear Sir/Madam. The Publisher has a Mail Merge feature, which you can use to address your letter to different names even with the same content in the body of the letter. The Mail and Catalog Merge Wizard will guide you through the process.

-Brochure. Create a brochure with Publisher to provide information on your products and services.

-Press Release. A media kit always have a press release. This will help the media to quickly grasp the relevance of your material. It usually contains anything that is new with your company. Templates on Microsoft Office Online have sample press releases that you can use to get you started.

-Business cards. Publisher also has tools to help you create your own business cards in a jiffy. You could even customize a set of your business cards according to the media your going to give them to.

-Label. The software has a collection of preformatted label applications, designed to be compatible with labels for your desktop printer.

Put them all together in high quality presentation folders and you're all set. You can choose from a variety of folders available in the market- they come in a variety of colors, some even have embossing, die cuts, extra folds, or pockets. You could go a little bit further and customize the folder to have a label in front that matches your company identity; or put your company logo.

Lastly, put your media kits in mailing envelopes and you're all set to send them out. Congratulations on creating a media kit that's sure to impress.