How to Make a Media Kit

What is a Media Kit?

Media kits are a package of promotional materials that a business puts together to showcase its brand or services. A media press kit includes information about the company’s background, mission, services, and other statistics, like website traffic, social media followers, and contact information. It’s like a resume of a business that represents who they are and what they offer.

Having a comprehensive media kit is very essential for a brand as it establishes credibility between potential investors or sponsors to work with the company. It keeps everyone on the same page in terms of understanding what the business stand for and what they hope to achieve.

Although a media kit is not a guarantee you will get press coverage, having one will make it a lot easier! Showcase your products, services, and company milestones to professionally present your company’s story to bloggers, podcasters, and even investors.

Online media kit Design and components

Summarize your product or service in a few sentences. You can indicate your company’s mission statement or describe its current status. Some useful information to include in your effective media kit overview:

• Date of launch
• HQ location, company address
• Size of the company, number of team members
• Fundraising status
• Press contact
• Target audience: Indicate who the target audience is, such as journalists, bloggers, or social media influencers.
• Branding: Showcase the company’s branding, including logos, color schemes, and typography, to create a professional look.

Quick Tip: Make sure the contact info is up-to-date. It’s also good practice to have a designated contact email address for press inquiries (e.g. [email protected]).

Press Releases: List a few notable press materials

List your best press release that shows the best achievement of your business. If you have many of them, just mention the important milestones with the most traffic and valuable information about your business history and vision. A good media kit template always shows important information that helps in potential partnerships, so add essential elements like product samples or case studies.

Bonus: If you are looking for an easy way to create beautiful press releases and update them whenever you need, take advantage of Xtensio’s free Press Release template.

About: Highlight additional information

This section of press kits should show the details about your company that weren’t covered in the overview. It is important to know what media coverage you would like to see for your brand, so add the information accordingly. Here is some information that should be covered:

• When was your company founded? A very short background will help the media outlets get an idea of your company’s current stage.
• What are some of the unique features of your product or service? What makes you stand out in your market?
• What is your competitive advantage in the market or your unique value proposition?

Audience: Visualize your market

Who your audience is can be a critical factor in a journalist’s decision to write about your product or service. If your audience naturally fits with their readers, they’ll be more likely to publish content about your company. On the flip side, if their readership doesn’t align with your market, the referral is probably not going to be your ideal customer anyways. That being said, you want to make sure you clearly define and describe your market.

Your connection with the audience is a powerful tool that should not be overlooked. The success of any media outlet and business depends on how well it’s connected with its audience. If your potential customers naturally fit with a journalist’s readers list, they’ll be more likely to publish content about your company. Likewise, if their readership doesn’t align with your market, it will not matter how many people view your company information, the referral is probably not going to work. So for ideal brand deals, clearly define and describe your market with key features of your services and products.

Quick Tip: Avoid unnecessarily long descriptions of your users. Concisely define your audience and visualize your target market with graphs and charts. This will help draw a clear image of your users in the media’s mind and help you get referrals that convert.

Resources: Include all useful materials

When you make a media kit include resources that will help journalists build a story about your company, such as:

• Publications and press mentions. Has your company already received media mentions? Include the post title, writer, and publication name with a hyperlink.
• Quotes. Are there any quotes that would make a difference for the reader? Time to mention them.
• Publication logos. If you have an impressive publication logo and think it will be useful for your media contacts, then you should include this in your media kit resources.
• Media Assets: Provide high-quality images which represent a message about your brand
• Social media platforms: Add social proof so people can reach you easily.

Another important piece of your media kit is high-quality images and assets that tell your brand story. This should include:

• Company logo. If anyone wants to publish about you, they will need your logo to refer to your product or service. Have this ready in all formats that could possibly be required (transparent background and different sizes, brand colors).
• Team or product photos. Images make a powerful statement. Include a recent team photo or showcase a product feature.

Media Assets: Provide high-quality images

Another important piece of your media kit is high-quality images and assets that tell your brand story. This should include:

• Company logo. If anyone wants to publish about you, they will need your logo to refer to your product or service. Have this ready in all formats that could possibly be required (transparent background and different sizes, brand colors).
• Team or product photos. Images make a powerful statement. For marketing purposes, include a recent team photo or showcase a product feature.

Quick Tip: Make sure to add a downloadable media kit. You can use a file-sharing service like Dropbox or Google Drive and add the link to your Media Kit.

Founders: Include a short bio

A high-quality brand story always speaks about the solution your targeted audience needed and emotionally connects with them. So if your business does not have a brand story, it’s time to have one!

Add a quick company history with some key team members that are imperative to the company’s history Give a short biography, and describe their background and how it all started. that people can read and memorize easily. Don’t forget to mention their current role in the company. Add a company’s contact information for direct phone calls. That’s how a deep influencer media kit template should look.

Quick Tip: This is another place you will need to make sure all the contact links are updated! You wouldn’t want to miss a chance to get published simply because of an outdated contact info.

Easily update your media kit

The media kit template is adaptable just like other Xtensio tools. It can and should be repurposed, revisited, and revised to suit your evolving needs. You can duplicate your folio to easily get started on the next one or save it as a template. And remember, all of our templates are meant to be starting points. You can always add, delete, and move your modules and sections around with Xtensio’s versatile editor to adapt the Media kit to your needs. See media kit examples of big companies to get an idea!

Media Kit vs Press Kit vs Brand Kit

These three terms are often used interchangeably, but they serve different purposes and audiences. Understanding the distinction helps you build the right document for each situation.

A media kit is the broadest of the three. It targets journalists, bloggers, podcasters, potential sponsors, and advertising partners. A media kit includes audience demographics, traffic statistics, advertising rates (if applicable), brand assets, and company background. Think of it as your business card for anyone who might write about you, partner with you, or advertise alongside you.

A press kit is more focused. It targets journalists covering a specific event, product launch, or announcement. A press kit includes the press release, key quotes from leadership, relevant data points, and high-resolution images tied to that particular story. While a media kit is evergreen, a press kit is often time-sensitive and built around a single news angle.

A brand kit (sometimes called a brand guidelines document) is an internal resource. It defines your visual identity: logos, color palette, typography, tone of voice, and usage rules. Brand kits are shared with internal teams, agencies, and vendors to keep everything consistent. Unlike media kits, brand kits rarely include performance metrics or press coverage.

When you need each:

• Media kit: When a journalist, blogger, or potential sponsor asks about your company or wants to feature you.
• Press kit: When you are launching a product, announcing a partnership, or attending a trade show.
• Brand kit: When onboarding a new designer, agency, or contractor who needs to produce work in your brand style.

Many teams maintain all three as separate living documents in their workspace, updating each one as the company grows. The key is sharing them as live links so recipients always see the latest version without anyone resending files.

5 Media Kit Mistakes That Make Journalists Ignore You

A media kit that sits unread is worse than having no media kit at all. It signals to journalists that your company is not prepared for coverage. Here are the five most common mistakes and how to fix them.

1. No high-resolution images. Journalists need images they can actually publish. Low-resolution logos, tiny headshots, and screenshots with visible compression artifacts force editors to either skip your story or ask for replacements, which slows down coverage. Include at least three logo variations (full color, white, black), team headshots at 300 DPI or higher, and product screenshots at full resolution. Make them easy to download without requiring a login.

2. Outdated statistics. Nothing damages credibility faster than a media kit that says “Over 10,000 users!” when the company hit that number two years ago. Review every number in your media kit monthly. User counts, revenue milestones, social media followers, and press mentions should all reflect current data. If exact numbers are sensitive, use ranges (“50,000 to 75,000 active users”) and date-stamp them.

3. Missing or buried contact information. Journalists work on tight deadlines. If they cannot find a direct email address and phone number within 10 seconds of opening your media kit, they move on. Put your press contact at the top or in a clearly labeled section. Include a name, title, email, phone number, and time zone. An “info@” generic email is not enough.

4. PDF-only distribution. Static PDFs are difficult to update and impossible to track. Once a journalist downloads a PDF, they may reference outdated information months later. A live link to your media kit stays current as your company evolves. You can update stats, add new press mentions, or swap out images, and everyone with the link sees the latest version without anyone resending files.

5. Burying the story angle. Journalists do not want a data dump. They want a narrative. If your media kit leads with a dry company history instead of the interesting angle (the problem you solve, the market shift you represent, the milestone you just hit), most reporters will stop reading. Lead with what makes your company newsworthy right now, then support it with the background details.

How to Distribute Your Media Kit

Building a media kit is only half the job. The other half is making sure the right people can find it and access it when they need it. Here are the distribution channels that actually drive press coverage.

Your website newsroom page. Create a dedicated /press/ or /newsroom/ page on your website. Include your media kit link prominently, along with recent press releases, press coverage highlights, and your press contact. Many journalists start their research by searching “[company name] press kit” and landing on this page. Make it easy to find from your main navigation or footer.

Email pitches. When reaching out to journalists, include a link to your media kit directly in the email body. Do not attach a large PDF to the initial pitch. Instead, write two or three sentences about the story angle, then add “Full media kit and assets: [link].” This keeps the email lightweight and gives the journalist control over what to review.

Live link vs PDF. There are situations where each format makes sense. Use a live link as your primary distribution method because it stays current and lets you track views with engagement analytics. Use a downloadable PDF version as a backup for journalists who need to access materials offline, such as during flights to conferences or in areas with poor connectivity. Xtensio supports both: share your media kit as a live link and offer a PDF export for offline use.

Event and conference distribution. Before attending industry events, update your media kit with event-specific information (booth number, speaking session details, product demos). Share the link with event organizers for press lists, and have it ready to share via QR code at your booth. Journalists covering events collect dozens of kits in a single day, so a live link that stands on its own without additional context is more useful than a USB drive full of files.

Tracking who opens it. One advantage of sharing your media kit as a live link rather than a static file is the ability to see who viewed it and when. Engagement analytics tell you whether a journalist actually reviewed your kit after receiving your pitch, how much time they spent on it, and which sections they focused on. This data helps you follow up more intelligently and refine your kit based on what recipients actually read.

Written by

Alper Cakir is the founder and CEO of Xtensio, the living deliverables workspace for teams that create, deliver, and reuse professional work, a staple tool for businesses globally. He boasts over 17 years in the tech industry with expertise in UX/UI design, product management, and innovative business strategy. His passion for design led him to work with major clients like CBS Interactive, NBC Universal, and Toyota. Before Xtensio, he co-founded Fake Crow in Los Angeles, known for its innovative UX/UI approach. Alper studied music theory and jazz composition at Istanbul Bilgi University and guitar at Musicians Institute in London. Known for his hands-on approach, his philosophy is to simplify processes, cut through bureaucratic red tape, and help teams create work that’s ready to send and stays alive as projects evolve.

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