Press Kit for Kickstarter – What the fuss is all about!!

Well, you designed a beautiful product, shared your story in a beautiful video and campaign page, submitted your campaign to Kickstarter and it got approved. Seems like everything’s going perfectly. Then, the next thing that happens is someone approaches you or the Marketing Agency that you hired starts fussing about the importance of Press Release or Media Kit or the PR Kit. And you’re left wondering, Press Kit for Kickstarter, Why??

We’ve all been there

A creator’s main concern is getting the product or in some cases, product prototype right. They have spent hours sweating and working on their idea, ultimately creating a dream project. Nowadays, Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms provide a great way to validate your product and gather the much-needed funds required for manufacturing. So, when a campaign is accepted on Kickstarter, a creator feels relaxed and one step closer to the goal.

But then comes the plethora of Marketing options. Many creators start Pre-Launch marketing too, which is a wise option and guarantees an initial boost. And the first step in most of the successful marketing campaign includes a well-formed Media Kit or Press Kit. Which brings me to today’s topic. Press Release for Kickstarter – What the fuss is all about!

Why Press Kit for Kickstarter

Before getting into what exactly is a good Press Kit for Kickstarter, let’s first see, why is it needed? One thing that all of us know is that you need to reach as many people as possible for the success of your campaign. You may try emailing all your friends, family, colleagues, and even mere acquaintances. But is that enough?

Definitely no. If you’ve hired a marketing agency, everything is fine. They are going to inform thousands of people about your product and campaign through advertisements, emails, and blog posts. But if you decide to go solo, you’ll be responsible for reaching out to people on the Internet. People you don’t know but who share the same interest and might like your product.

There are hundreds of blogs and websites out there that are in your niche. Suppose, your product is a pet product. Then, there are numerous websites out there that specialize in information about pets, pet products, and such. Additionally, many websites featuring crowdfunding campaigns have flourished recently. All these websites are potential platforms where your product can be featured. And to make publishing on these websites easy, you’ll need a Press Kit.

Why would they feature my Product

As a website owner, we know how challenging and time-consuming it is to keep on producing good, informative content. So, if we are approached with a potentially good article that goes with the theme of our website, we would be happy to help. It’s a win-win situation. Your product gets exposed to our visitors and we get some good content for our visitors. Yet another trend is that you pay a certain amount to get your product featured on a website. Again, it’s beneficial to both parties. The website owner gets good content as well as monetary benefit. And the creator is able to reach potential buyers for a nominal fee.

This funda applies to all websites. But when you approach big publication houses or popular blogs, more often than not, you don’t even receive a reply. That is because they may have hundreds of similar emails. Your email is likely to get ignored or read but discarded due to a lack of information. Suppose your email gets read. And the editor or the journalist finds it a bit interesting. He may reach your campaign page. But then what? He would have to go through your images, download relevant ones, then write an article/ story about your product, gather information about the creator and what not. Do you think he would have the time or patience or motivation for going through all that?

The much-needed Press Kit

Continuing the above scenario, consider you have uploaded all the important product images, some GIFs or videos, creator information, and a readymade Press Note to Google Drive or Dropbox or a similar cloud service. All that a journalist or a website editor has to do is to select the images or videos he likes, and use your Press Note as it is or maybe a part of it and that’s it. What your Press Kit did was provide all the necessary material for featuring your product to a mildly-interested person and made his job easier and roused his interest.

Many blogs state that journalists and writers are either lazy or have too much workload to give much time to your product if the required data is missing. But what I like to think is that a Press Kit is your chance to not just increase the probability of your product getting selected for publishing, it also gives you an opportunity to select which images you would want to be associated with your product and the story of your journey that you want to share with the world. I am not saying, your exact words will be published but the gist will certainly be there.

What is included in a Press Kit

If you’ve reached here, I guess you know the importance of the Press Kit and would like to know what an ideal Press Kit for Kickstarter or other crowdfunding websites include. Let’s have a look at each of the elements in detail.

• Press Note: The most important part of the Press Kit is the Press Note. It contains all the details of the project, the story behind it, and a brief introduction of the creator.
• Images: The second most important and visually appealing part of the Press Kit are the Images and Photos. You should include the photos of the product, initial sketching of ideas and concepts, a working prototype or a rendered image, and the product in use. The creator’s photo can also be included.
• Logos: A logo is the identity of your brand. The inclusion of the logo in your Press Kit ensures that anyone interested can easily include your brand identity in their write-up or image if they wish.
• GIFs: If you observe the successful Kickstarter campaigns, you’ll notice that most of them contain informative GIFs. Most GIFs display the product in use, the product in different colors and sizes, or the features of the product. GIFs don’t take as much effort as the video and provide almost as much information, all the while being visually appealing too.
• Video:  If you get a detailed post dedicated to you, I am sure a video or two will definitely generate interest and engagement.

So, that’s a basic layout of how a standard PressKit looks like. Of course, it’s not fixed and you can follow your own instincts but try to keep your information easily accessible.

What to write in a Press Note

A Press Note generally follows a news report format written in Third Person. You start off with a date and place and write about the product and its’ journey and also something about yourself, what motivated you and how much efforts were involved.

Again, there is no fixed format, but a well-written Press Note usually contains the following:

• Heading and sub-heading: The heading is the first impression of your product. If it is dull or ambiguous, the reader may not even read further. A sub-heading simply compliments the heading and explains the product in a brief manner.
• Date and Place:  This is entirely optional and is generally required for news websites.
• Product Introduction: The introduction should specify what the product is, what its distinguishing features are and what is the story of its inception.
• Creator Information: Include the Creator’s background and his journey from the idea to product.
• Special offers or Discounts: If you are planning to give discounts or offers for a limited period or to the subscribed users, do mention that.
• Additional Information: If you feel that you couldn’t write as much as you would’ve liked in the limited format of the Press Note, you can always provide an additional document describing your product and its use in full detail. That might come handy when someone wants to write a dedicated article or post on your product or you.
• Testimonials:  The best publicity is the word of mouth. So, if you’ve happy clients using your product (not applicable to First-time creators), that would be great.
• Previous Media Coverage: If in the past, you’ve been featured on a website or News site, do mention that. It builds trust and increases your credibility.

Fun Trivia

Apart from this, there are certain practices popular when creating a Press Kit.

• Start the Press Note with a –. This applies when you include Date and Place. So, you add — that states the beginning of the note.
• End the Press Note with ##. Generally, contact information follows the Press Note and ## apprises the writer that the text following ## is for his/ her information only. (If someone needs to even be informed about that. how blindly is he working!)
• The logo is placed in a separate folder. It’s simply for the Ease of Access. The writer won’t have to go through a dozen images searching for your logo.

I think I’ve covered almost all the aspects of a Press Kit for Kickstarter or in fact any Press Kit. If you’ve any doubts or queries, do mention that in the comments.