How to Make Sure the Media Materials for Your Attraction Are Noticed and Used
By Brad Jashinsky & Philip Hernandez
In a recent Marketing Your Attraction podcast, “Elements of the Modern Press Kit,” we talked about the importance of crafting media materials that will get noticed and be used by the folks you send them to. In this blog, we’re going to tell you all about how to put together a “modern” press kit. The modern press kit is different than what was being sent out 15 or 20 years ago. We’ll discuss how to create media press releases that matter and are useful for the journalists, influencers, and other media outlets receiving them.
Listen to the episode here.
The Elements of the Modern Press Kit
First and foremost, you must understand the audience receiving the kit, and that audience has changed a lot. You’re no longer talking to just newspapers, magazines, TV, journalists, and writers. Those are still part of the audience, but most of the outlets, attractions, and industries out there are talking to “influencers.” These include bloggers and digital outlets, which are cranking out a ton of content.
Unfortunately, long gone are the days when a journalist would receive a three-page press release, carefully analyze it, call you on the phone, ask some follow-up questions, go down to your attraction, take photos, and craft this insightful, comprehensive article. Because journalists are so busy these days, what often happens now is you send them a media kit with a press release and they simply copy and paste the elements of the press release into a story. Sometimes they’ll add a sort of outline and some filler around that—maybe their opinion or a little bit of information from an interview—and then they hit “publish.” That’s a best-case scenario.
Because journalists are so busy these days, what often happens now is you send them a media kit with a press release and they simply copy and paste the elements of the press release into a story. Share on XBuild a Good Press Kit to Make It Easy for Influencers and Journalists
Many times, a theme park influencer gets a press release, copies and pastes it into a “story,” puts in an image you’ve included in your kit, and just shoots it out there. Often, the content in the press release isn’t that good—it’s poorly written or not complete—and this means the person receiving it must take the time to get more information (i.e., search the website for the event themselves or try to contact somebody and ask questions) and rewrite it, or they just ignore the press release because they don’t have that kind of time.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Is your press release well organized, or will the journalist have to rewrite it?
- Does it have a proper lead-in?
- Does it have a main message?
- How receptive is the media contact included on that press release likely to be? Sometimes the media contact is an agency and doesn’t have any additional information besides what’s already in the press kit, so that’s not helpful.
- Can whoever is listed as the contact provide additional information themselves or do they know who can?
Write To The End Audience
However, as we mentioned before, many people out there just don’t have the time to do anything creative with what you send them. Be sure that your press release is written to be understandable to your audience—which, ultimately, are your prospective guests. Don’t make your message overly complicated or too clever. The content should be understandable, conversational, and make the average person in the street read want to attend your event.
Don't make your message overly complicated or too clever. The content should be understandable, conversational, and make the average person in the street read want to attend your event. Share on XThe Need for Speed
In today’s media world, it’s all about speed and who gets that message out the fastest. So, if you don’t have a high-quality press release with pithy information and attention-getting photos to go with it, your attraction is likely going to get passed over.
You can’t expect an outlet to ask for this information and then wait days or a week or more for you to send it to them. The world moves way too fast, and there are way too many pitches coming in. We have a couple of good friends that work in the media industry. They’ve shown us their email inboxes, and it’s insane. The local news in Los Angeles receives thousands of pitches a day. A lot of them are automated and poorly thrown together, so you want a user-friendly, chock-full-of-goodies media kit that will be a delight for media folks and influencers to work with.
What Not to Do
Here’s an example of a bad press release experience from a frustrated writer’s point of view. An agency sent us information on an event last Halloween that sounded interesting. It was a food event, with a small picture included.
We were thinking, “This is it? Don’t you have any additional pictures of the food, the venue, or anything?” This press release arrived as an email, and the press contact was an agency. There was so much more we wanted to know—and needed to know—to write any sort of interesting article. So, we reached out to the contact and asked, “What are the menu items? Are you bringing in an expert taster? How did you decide on what foods to include?” Their response? “We don’t have any answers, but we can ask after the event happens.” We were like, “OK, well, do you have any additional photos?” They said, “We don’t have any extra pictures, but I’m sure we can get photos for you after the event.” How does information and photos that aren’t available until after an event help a writer who’s trying to promote the event in advance?
How does information and photos that aren’t available until after an event help a writer who’s trying to promote the event in advance? Share on XBegin with The End in Mind
We understand that the ‘media’ piece is often a struggle on the attraction side. If you’re bringing in outside vendors or rushing to get an event put together, it can be hard to get materials organized to send to the press. Think about what story you hope will be crafted because of the press release you sent. You must give your influencers and media contacts sufficient information to be inspired and write a good story about your event. Think about what that ideal article looks like and ensure that everything in the media kit allows journalists, influencers, and media outlets to create that ideal content, whether it’s a tweet, Facebook post, video, or insightful article. You must give them the resources to do that.
Think about what story you hope will be crafted because of the press release you sent. Share on XA Picture (or Video) is Worth a Thousand Words
The modern press kit must have HD photos and/or HR video. Sometimes it’s even worth taking the time to create Twitter and Facebook-friendly images; you can easily Google what size those images need to be and put that into the media kit. Include PNG versions of your logo so these outlets can put their own spin on it if they have the time. They may want to throw the logo on the header or take some of your images and move them around a little bit, customize them, and put the logo on there. Provide media the tools to make it their own.
Lead with People First
Avoid photos that are poor resolution or don’t have human subjects in them (including people is always a big plus). Provide explanations for what the photos represent. Otherwise, how can you expect the journalist to create a header or description? When uploading images, label the files as the caption of what the image is—“A guest screaming his head off in Our Scariest Room”—and an image name, not a number or other cryptic identifier.
Keep in Mind Who You’re Pitching To
Think about who you’re pitching too, and that’s a much bigger conversation. We’ve seen so many bad and inappropriate pitches—somebody just has a list and sends out pitches randomly. Our advice is to take the time to build relationships with outlets—even if it’s just a local influencer. You can do this through email. The most important factor in pitches: understand what that writer’s focus is and whether your attraction is something they’d cover. There’s no reason to email a food reporter if your attraction has nothing to do with food or a family blogger if your attraction doesn’t allow children. You get the point.
Understand what that writer’s focus is and whether your attraction is something they’d cover. Share on XMake Pitches Personal
Next, personalize your pitch. Don’t send a three-paragraph email that focuses exclusively on your attraction. What we’ve found works well is sending an email to particular individuals that says something like, “Hey, I noticed you covered [insert name of another attraction] and we have this event coming up. Here’s some information on it, and we’d be happy to answer any questions.” Let your contact know that you’re aware of previous articles he or she has written and then craft a personal email that’s casual, short, and sweet. You don’t want the email to sound like you’ve sent the same thing to 100 people—there’s nothing more insulting than that.
Let your contact know that you’re aware of previous articles he or she has written and then craft a personal email that’s casual, short, and sweet. Share on XGive Your Contacts Enough Information to Build Their Own Story
Whether it be in your media kit or in an email, think of ways your recipient could expand on the content if they’re interested in doing so. A lot of times, we’ll mention, “There are five aspects of the event that are really unique,” or “Here’s a different angle on our event” if we’re writing to business reporters, especially at bigger newspapers and bigger outlets. You don’t just want to send them something that says, “We have this new event.”
An Example from Knott’s Scary Farm
Here’s an example of text from a press release for Knott’s Scary Farm that shows what ‘value-added’ content looks like: “Halloween is a huge and growing industry, with the Halloween industry in North America valued at close to $10 billion.” This provides some hard data and an interesting intro to the meat of the release. It shows that the message isn’t all about the attraction, but the attraction is part of this larger phenomenon. Including this kind of information is great, especially for big publications like a Bloomberg or LA Times. They’re probably not going to be writing an entire article for the front page that’s all about your attraction, but, if you can give them a pitch that’s broader—for example, talking about the huge momentum of a particular new technology and how your attraction is part of it—that’s a great way to get interviewed or to provide the basis for a bigger article that’s not all about your attraction but still mentions it. These are ideas that can help turn what would have been a small mention in the newspaper’s community calendar into a big, front-page, feature article.
Make it Easy
Again, the big takeaway here is you want to make the writer’s or influencer’s job as easy as possible, which includes everything from formatting pictures and providing high-quality video to making sure your press release is ready to be copy and pasted in a way that makes sense to your audience. You want to give the writer or influencer story ideas and spoon feed them. Remember, these are busy people who are getting hundreds or maybe thousands of media pitches every week—or maybe every day—so you want to make them feel special.
The big takeaway here is you want to make the writer’s or influencer's job as easy as possible. Share on XS-E-O Doesn’t have to be H-A-R-D
And, of course, in this Internet age, we want to be sure our press materials are SEO (search-engine optimization) friendly. It’s critical to use keywords that people would be most likely to search for to find your attraction. For example, if you have a seasonal Christmas event in Los Angeles, think about the most popular keywords that someone would use to search for it. There are word tools out there that you can use, but, usually, common sense works just fine. Words and phrases that come immediately to mind are “holiday events,” “Christmas events,” “family Christmas events,” “Christmas tree lighting,” “Santa Claus,” “Los Angeles holiday events,” etc. Once you get started, you’ll find a lot of good descriptors, so you want to include these in your copy and press releases. You don’t want to overuse them or force them into the text, so it sounds unnatural, but there’s usually an easy way to work those keywords into press releases. This can really help with SEO rankings, so that when someone is searching on Google for things to do in LA at Christmas time, your attraction comes up first.
It’s critical to use keywords that people would be most likely to search for to find your attraction. Share on XMeta Descriptions
Meta Word descriptions are another thing you should include, and you want to be sure to use keywords in these word descriptions, too. Your media kit should include a 300-word, a 150-word, a 100-word, and a 50-word description in addition to the press release/media alert. These word descriptions are useful as a summary of the article and are easy to apply to social media.
The SEO game warrants its own separate blog, but, for now, just remember to make sure your keywords make sense within the context and that you think about the range of that context. As we mentioned, there are tools to help you figure that out, but the long and short of it is that you need to write with a general audience in mind. Sometimes, those of us in the biz talk or write from a certain level of expertise, but you need to remember that you’re writing for regular folks who’ll be reading this article in a general news source, so they likely won’t have that level of expertise. This can be the tricky part—you need to use keywords that a general reader would use to search for your event. This is what makes content relevant.
This can be the tricky part—you need to use keywords that a general reader would use to search for your event. Share on XThe Beginning of Every Successful Event is Great Media Coverage
In summary, writing a personal email to each individual media contact may sound like a daunting task, but it can really pay off. It can assure that your attraction gets more coverage and, once you do it for a while and start to build long-lasting relationships with media outlets, every single time they see an email from you, their reaction will be, “Oh boy! Here’s an email from Fred at Scary Haunted House. I know there’s a good story here, because Fred is always a good resource.” Over the years, that can add up to thousands, tens of thousands, or even millions of dollars of free media coverage for your attraction.
You should now have an idea of the elements of the modern press kit. We’ll be expanding on some of these topics like media pitching and search-engine optimization in future blogs.
