How to Build an Effective Startup Press Kit | Hacker News Reader

How to Build an Effective Startup Press Kit

sprouter.com

43 pointserin_bury7 comments

Careful; this is the kind of thing you can burn a lot of time and money on without seeing a dime of improved outcome. The companies that get the most continuous media attention aren't getting it because of their press kits.

If I hired a marketing person (it's been considered) and they told me they were going to spend a week or two making hard-copy designer-y drop-off press kits, I'd have a very hard conversation with them about business objectives.

Definitely agreed - it's not the key to getting media attention, but it makes it easier. Shouldn't take more than a few hours to put together a press kit. To me a hard copy press kit is more of a launch buzz activity than PR, and also shouldn't take long.

If you want to see the best example of how to this you need only to look at

http://www.apple.com/pr/

This is the reason it is rare to see a scrappy image of any of Apple's products anywhere (and why Apple products often get used as stock material for other companies).

The Photoshop files are worth studying too - they are often layered and include proper colour-calibration points etc.

Apple treats the press with respect here - there are no stupid barriers to getting a story out (and no gimmicks either - just good clean copy and good clean images).

great example!

This is a solid example of some old-school PR.

I wouldn't recommend it to tech companies in general, though. In tech, it's a novelty that gets a few bonus points for being rare. But I think it can ultimately send the wrong message. The tech media is immersed in technology and they expect companies to distinguish themselves through technology.

Also, a good portion of them have a superiority complex against PR, and doing anything overtly PR-like will hurt your chances of getting covered. This isn't as bad as sending them a press release, but it's definitely a classic PR move, and for some that leaves a bad taste.

Remember, you're not trying to get people to write about you. You're trying to make it easy for people to write about you.

Dropping off a physical press kit that is unique and design~y enough might get some press coverage... about the kit itself.

I'd get Rachel Sequoia to design mine.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com