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Congratulations, your PR efforts are paying off! You are not only reaching your desired audience but are now also noticing that journalists are starting to show an interest in your project. We previously discussed how to write the perfect cryptocurrency press release to amplify your message and share your progress with the world. It is now time to supply journalists with the resources they need to follow up on the story, i.e. a press kit.

 

What is a Press Kit?

A press kit, sometimes referred to as a media kit, serves the purpose of helping reporters with the basic information to develop a story about your blockchain business, complete with accompanying media such as logos and images. Journalists utilize press kits to access those resources quickly and easily, as they know any information and media provided won’t need approvals from you that could potentially delay publication. In fact, this should be clearly mentioned in the press kit: that all resources are freely available for use without permission.

You can write press kits to introduce a speaker, promote an event or highlight a new product but today, we are going to focus on how to make a press kit for your blockchain business.

Compiling a press kit is not very complicated. In most cases, all the parts are usually already created in one way or another, ready for you to repackage them up in a single place.

This is a fairly comprehensive guide to cater to a wide variety of crypto businesses, service providers and product developers alike, so feel free to pick and choose what you feel best reflects your company. The fruit of your labor will hopefully be more press coverage and, with the additional exposure that comes with that, an uptick in sales! 

What to Include in Your Press Kit?

– A Step by Step Guide

1. Start With a Bio

Reporters will want to get to know your business and your product. The introduction in your press kit  is a good place to answer the first set of questions. We’ve talked about the 5W rule (who, what, where, when, why, and how):

1. Who are you?
2. What are you selling? 
3. Where are you based and where can a potential client access your service?
4. When will it be available? 
5. Why is there a need for your product? 
6. How can it be accessed?

Please keep reading for a total breakdown of the bio:

Background

• When did you launch?
• Where did the company start?
• Who founded the company?
• Why did you decide to launch your product? What need sparked the idea?
• Share how the business came about if there was a particular person or action that made it possible. A crowdfund could show a big interest. Backing from an organization could show that there was serious due diligence behind the project.

The current state of your blockchain business 

• Share the location of your headquarters.
• It is a good idea to share the number of employees if you are a sizable team.
• If you operate outside the virtual world then share how many stores and offices there are and where they are located.

What you do

• Share a roundup of your products/services.
• Give a short pitch about your most notable product. Imagine that a journalist would use this information in the summary to an article. You can go into more detail in the following step.  

Success markers

• If sharing client names is an option then feel free to mention notable ones.
• The volume of customers served is great if you have been in business a while.
• Media loves company so mention if you have been covered by any prominent publication.
• Give a run down of your historical milestones: awards, launches partnerships, etc.

You can add information such as annual revenue especially if your company is publicly listed. A mission statement can also be added if it is important to show your values and plans for the future.

2. Introduce Your Flagship Product

It is time to share your flagship product in detail together with the most important features.
Make it as compelling as possible by sharing what makes your product unique. Do not overlook basic information such as where it can be purchased and the price of the product.
Bullet points are great to keep the information digestible for a busy journalist.

Briefly introduce other notable products in your press kit, keeping in mind that the text should remain fairly short. You can always link to other pages with more information.

Drive home the point with case studies, statistics and testimonials if you have some handy. Make sure that they are not too salesy as this may repel reporters from including it in their story.

Questions and Answers may provide necessary details. We operate in a tech savvy industry so feel free to share a short Q&A or FAQ; make sure that the questions are interesting for a journalist. Pick and choose rather than copying and pasting from existing ones.

Including a product guide featuring dimensions and all the tech specs is another good option, especially for physical products. Link to a comprehensive version to save space. 

Provide a sample, if possible. Are you able to include a product demo in video format? Maybe a guest login or a free trial? If so, get creative to give reporters a real feel for your product or service. 

3. Introduce Interviewable Team Members

Key members of your management are likely to get interview requests, be asked to attend speaking engagements or provide expert commentary.

Publish short bios with headshots from each person and feel free to link to articles, podcasts etc. that they have appeared in.

Quotes will provide depth and insight especially if the deadline is tight and the reporter won’t have time for an official statement of interview. You can learn how to craft the perfect quote in this recent post.

Make sure that the bio is about their current role and is tied to your company and product if a previous role is not of great importance.

Contact details are great if you feel comfortable, or you could share LinkedIn if you want to avoid spam.

4. Showcase Your Press Releases

A press release is an informational news announcement about an exciting milestone. You have hopefully had a steady stream of announcements sent out since the launch of your business announcing partnerships, new features, etc. Make it easy for a reporter to see an overview by showcasing them in your press kit.

Index the press releases by clearly listing the title so that the journalist can easily find what they are looking for. Link to the press release or show the image, title and summary in the press kit to save space. You do not have to include all of them; the most recent or newsworthy ones will do.

5. Show that You are Hot News with Press Coverage

Media loves company, hence featuring articles about your company is a great way to show a reporter that other publications have shown an interest. Furthermore, prominent news sites carefully select and use due diligence protocols when selecting a story which can offer some reinsurance and establish you as a thought leader in your field. Make a habit of adding new press releases as you grow.

Articles are subject to copyright laws. You are free to link to the article and mention the news site’s name but you require permission to share the logo, re-publish or manipulate the article in any way. When in doubt, ask the news site. Some news sites may ask for a fee but if it is a notable one, it can be worth considering paying that fee. Keep the article selection up to date and relevant to your current situation. After all, a 5-year old article about winning a competition might inadvertently reflect poorly on the progress you’ve made since.

6. Show Your Trophies

Awards and patents are relevant so do not shy away from showcasing them as they can further establish you as a leader in your field and a valued contributor to the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Make sure to update this section in your press kit each time you score a new win!

7. Bring on the Graphics

By now, you have provided a good chunk of information that the media can use to write their story. It’s time for some icing on the cake with some media-ready graphics. Make sure that you own the copyright to all graphics including the right to share and reprint!

Good quality graphics are a worthy area to invest in. Great digital assets to include are:

• High-resolution logos in different formats and sizes.
• Images of your product or service including screenshots from software such as an app. Images of the team and/or office.
• Explainer videos.
• Infographics.

8. List Additional Resources

Include other resources such as other pages with information or a whitepaper in your press kit to make it easy for a reporter to dig deeper. Don’t forget links to your social media channels.

9. Be Prepared for Inquiries

You may already have shared contact details but you can also include a media contact at your company. Make sure that this person is easy to reach and able to answer quickly, ideally within a few hours to avoid missing opportunities. Reporters stick to strict deadlines so offer them multiple ways of contacting the person; including available platforms such as Telegram, email, and phone.

10. Location, Location, Location

You can make your press kit a part of your website by creating a new page for it or have it as a viewable and downloadable PDF document. The key is to have it clearly advertised; if it takes more than a couple of seconds to locate it, it’s in the wrong place. Journalists are busy and impatient. You want to cater to their needs by making your press kit easily available, compact and packed with useful information.

What is a Cryptocurrency Press Release?

A cryptocurrency press release is a public relations tool that allows your blockchain-based business to communicate an official announcement to a large number of people and journalists simultaneously, with the main purpose of providing information directly from the source just like any other press release. However, as a business catering exclusively to blockchain and cryptocurrency projects, our PR focus is on this particular industry with the community structures and media that come with it.

As a part of the broader term ‘content marketing’, press releases are an excellent way to increase brand awareness, spread information, and generate leads to your blockchain business; it is considered by many as a vital part of the awareness stage in the buyer’s journey. Although most blockchain announcements could warrant a press release here are a few examples:

• The launch of a new website, product, app, or service. 
• Mergers, partnerships, acquisitions, and new backers.  
• Product improvements, apologies, and rebranding.
• Events, awards, executive promotions, and new job openings.

Press releases are brief and to the point which makes it easy for journalists to spot a potential story. Cision, one of the largest mainstream newswires in the world, surveyed over 2,700 journalists in 15 countries in their 2021 Global State of the Media Report. The extensive survey concluded that 78% of journalists want to receive press releases and news announcements as they find it a useful and effective source of information.

Helpful Tips in Writing a Cryptocurrency Press Release – How To Stay On Target!

As someone that has written hundreds of blockchain and cryptocurrency press releases, I can tell you that organising before you start writing is your key to success. As you are most likely heavily involved in the project it is very easy to let passion and vast knowledge of the project overshadow the actual message and basic information. After all, the people that you are addressing are just hearing about it for the first time which requires you to provide all the basic information in this first introduction. Do not get me wrong, knowledge and passion will have its role to play later on. Here are my key tips before you get started:    

Establishing the main objectives of the cryptocurrency press release, I find that two main goals are usually the best amount but you could do more if required. Try not to jam too much into one single press release, you can always release more than one press release.  Examples of main objectives could be:

– Attract visitors to your conference and spread awareness.
– Announce a partnership and highlight an upcoming product as a result of the collaboration.
– Highlight the success of a recent launch and two new features.

Establish your main keyphrase beforehand. This is important as you want to incorporate it several times in your text. Pick something relevant that is specific to your announcement and fairly unique eg. “virtual blockchain conference” or “DiFi Partnership”. Variants of the keyphrase chosen can be scattered throughout the cryptocurrency press release. 

You could go as deep in the SEO rabbit hole as you please but I usually stick to these simple rules in my writing.

– Use the main keyphrase in the title.
– Use it in the summary/first paragraph
– Make sure that the main keyphrase is included in at least one hyperlink.
– Make sure to mention the keyphrase 4-6 times in the press release depending on the length of the text; a keyphrase density of 0.5%-3%.

Establish a clear Call to Action (CTA) for your cryptocurrency press release. What do you want the reader to do? A CTA can be asking the reader to visit a certain page, joining a competition, acknowledging an apology, or subscribing to a service. Having it written down before you start will simply help you not forget it.  After all, it is a key motivation to why you are releasing the announcement.

Establish a structure early with the 5W rule. Even as an old journalistic rule of thumb the rule holds up over time and helps you to keep your press release organised and informative. Confusingly it is more of 5W and 1H: Who, What, Why, How, When, and Where. I put as many as is relevant to my piece down on the paper before I start and add the answers. This helps me to put this key information in the text in an order that makes sense without risking overlooking them when I am deep in the writing process.

The Anatomy of a Press Release

There is a specific order in a press release that complies with most media outlets including press release distribution services. The press release body should be 300-500 words.

Save yourself from editing by establishing the right language. A stellar press release should read like a short and precise article and be written in the third person. Avoid using ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘we’, ‘us’, exclamation marks, and question marks unless it is in a quote.  Furthermore, stay away from sales-heavy language as this may repel some media outlets examples of this would be statements such as “buy it now!”. 

Use words that are easy enough to understand independently of insight. As members of a tech-savvy industry trying to reach into the mainstream media sphere we do tend to use language that may seem complicated to some but if we dumb it down we will loose the interest of our community members.

The trick is to explain the industry-specific words in your cryptocurrency press release in the same sentence; a common trick used by politicians holding a speech that should be compelling to the academic and non-academic masses alike. Example: “The new technology behind MadeUp’s cryptocurrency hardware wallet is Blockchain-based with all personal data securely kept in an unhackable virtual chain of information”

Do you need to cover several topics or explain several features? Use secondary titles to break up the text. You can stick to one uniform body if you only need to explain one concept but secondary titles throughout the text are great to break things up.

1. Title – Hook Your Audience. The title is arguably one of the most important parts of an eye-catching press release and is key in getting your audience interested. However, keep the hook realistic to avoid coming across as clickbait. “The hook” can include a big name, big number, a generous offer, or a buzzword such as NFT. Mention both companies if it is about a partnership.

The title should be around 70 characters long, the title should contain the company name, focus keyphrase and hook. It is wise to write the title last as writing the text might inspire you to come up with a better title.

Example: “MadeUp Releases Cryptocurrency Hardware Wallet After $1M Crowdfund” 

Company Name: MadeUp
Keyphrase: Cryptocurrency Hardware Wallet
Hook: $1M Crowdfund 

2. Main Image. Preferably, you should be able to tell what the cryptocurrency press release is about by looking at the image. Thus it is wise to include your company logo and a preview of the product or service. A banner image can be placed above or under the title depending on your preferred format and where you decide to publish it. It is a good idea to get the image made in a few different sizes just in case an outlet asks for a different size.

Most media outlets will allow more than one graphic in your press release such as a video or an infographic. Graphics should be elements that bring your press release to life. According to Cision’s 2021 Global State of the Media Report, 22% of journalists explicitly said that they want multimedia assets in the press releases they receive to avoid it being discarded or left unread.

3. Summary. The summary is basically the press release in a very short format and can be copied and pasted as a news tip to journalists. The 70 – 155 character long text should perfectly explain what the press release is about and contain the focus keyphrase in the first sentence. I base the summary around the 5W rule (who, what, why, how, when, where). I will repeat the 5W rule in the text.

Example: “MadeUp’s security packed cryptocurrency hardware wallet will be available on the website on March 6 as a result of a successful fundraising”

Who: MadeUp (company name)
What: A hardware wallet
Why: Added security
How: Due to a fundraising
When: March 6
Where: Website

4. Dateline. Most media outlets require you to state the release date of the press release and the city and country that the company is based in. The dateline should be placed after the summary but before the press release begins.

BODY:

5. The Introduction is the first paragraph of the press release and should ideally compel the reader to keep reading. I usually include ‘who and ‘what” in this paragraph together with the main driver of the project, service, or product. In the example used in this text, the main driver for the MadeUp hardware wallet is security. A person interested in the product would be compelled to keep reading the press release to find out how it is more secure than other wallets currently on the market.

6. The Second Paragraph – Build a Background. This is where you build up the need for your product, lay out the issues and how they can be resolved by you, or explain why an upgrade was needed and the impact it will have on the user. This is usually where I include ‘why’ and ‘how’.

Leverage statistics if you have them handy to really hammer home the need for your product or the fact that you have responded to demands from your users.

7. Explain Your Product in More Detail.  Answer ‘what’ again but go into more depth in this paragraph(s).

8. Quotes and/or Testimonials (optional). ⅓ to ½  is a good spot for quotes. Quotes are there to provide a feeling, not facts, facts are already covered in the text. This is your team’s chance to share their unique voice, ideas, and passion for the project. Quotes add depth to a press release that can easily come across as a bit soulless. The most common person to submit a quote is the CEO, founder, or project leader but you could very well choose to include a developer or sales manager instead. 1-2 quotes are usually best in this length of text, they do not necessarily need to come from the same person.

Testimonials can be included if you feel like it would build trust in your product, especially if they come from a prominent member of the community.

9. Create Action. By now, your reader should be well versed in your product and the need for it. This is why this paragraph is a great place to answer ‘where’ and ‘when’, where can the reader access your product/offer/service and when will it be available.

Establish a clear Call to Action (CTA) explaining what you want the reader to do next such as visiting a certain page. This is also where you should use the FOMO effect (Fear of Missing Out) explaining why the reader should act quickly, it can be wise to include a time-limited offer such as “the 500 first customers will receive a 20% discount”.

10. Closing Paragraph The ending segment is where you summarise the text again and emphasize the importance of the project to the industry or to the investor. Make this paragraph as positive as possible to leave the reader feeling excited.  

11. Links and Resources. Add relevant links to follow up your ending segment, it can be your website, relevant pages, a link to your media kit and a link to your whitepaper. 

12. Media Contact Information. You are sending out a press release with the hope to not only find your audience but also catch the interest of journalists. Make sure that the person listed is able to receive requests and that the information is accurate. Include name, title, email, phone number, and other means of contact like Telegram.

13. Disclaimer (optional). If you feel like any information in the cryptocurrency press release could lead to a legal predicament or be misunderstood in any way, it is good practice to include a disclaimer. You can always ask a legal professional for advice or to write a disclaimer for you. As a service provider, ours is very simple “[Company name] is the source of this content. This Press Release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.”

Example of a Blockchain-Based Press Release

**Please note that this is a fictitious press release, any likeness with existing products or persons are circumstantial. The product does not to the best of my knowledge exist but serves as an example of a press release for a blockchain-based business. 

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MadeUp Releases Cryptocurrency Hardware Wallet After $1M Fundraising

MadeUp’s security-packed cryptocurrency hardware wallet will be available on the website on March 6 as a result of a successful crowdfund.

July 30, 2021 – Capital, Krakozhia – MadeUp, one of the market’s leading trading platforms, is now releasing a secure cryptocurrency hardware wallet after successfully securing $1,000 000 in funds during a six-month fundraising period. The new hardware wallet features multi-level security and a state-of-the-art interface.

Security is the main concern of the cryptocurrency community which was made clear in a survey issued by MadeUp of over 1700 cryptocurrency enthusiasts, 67% answered that security was the most important aspect when looking for a cryptocurrency wallet. 56% favoured a hardware wallet for security reasons when asked which type of long-term cryptocurrency storage they preferred.

MadeUp has leveraged its many years of experience with security concerns to develop a five-level security protocol. The security protocol features fingerprint recognition, 2-factor authentication, a smart track feature that allows the user to track their device from their smartphone, an algorithm that warns if the device is used in an unusual way based on the habits of the owner and last but not least a transaction cap that can be adjusted by the user from the software control center.

The MadeUp team of developers recognise that security and usability must work in tandem to create a seamless user experience. Lead Developer John Doe explains,

“As cryptocurrency enthusiasts ourselves we are beyond excited to finally offer a wallet that fulfills our own security needs and user expectations. After almost a year of development, we are now certain that our hardware wallet will not only serve our users but also raise the bar of security and usability for other hardware wallets on a global scale.”

Weighing in at only 15 grams, the brushed stainless steel case is waterproof and the display comes with an option for a white or black background. The MadeUp cryptocurrency hardware wallet goes beyond security, the device comes with a software control center compatible with all smartphones, smart pads, and computers. The MadeUp wallet includes a wireless charger, a protective sleeve and the option to charge via USB and USC ports. Transactions are made via Bluetooth or by connecting the charging cord, the user can also choose from two different interfaces via the control center for added customization. Jane Doe, CEO of VeryImportantPerson and a member of the test panel had the following to say,

“After using the MadeUp wallet for over 4 months I can honestly say that it exceeds all my expectations. I was concerned that the security features would become a nuisance but it hasn’t affected my user experience at all. I have customised my wallet to perfectly suit my needs and I appreciate the peace of mind knowing that my assets are safe and easy to access for years to come.”

The MadeUp wallet will be available for purchase on the website at 8:00 GMT on the 1st of September 2021, retailing at $299. Users can preorder the device now, the 500 first customers to preorder the MadeUp hardware wallet will receive a 20% discount followed by a 10% discount for the next 500 customers.

The September release of the MadeUp cryptocurrency hardware wallet marks both a promise kept to the many initial investors that participated in the fundraising and an exciting new era of security for the cryptocurrency community.

To preorder the MadeUp cryptocurrency hardware wallet please visit preorder/madeup.notexcisting

To find out more please see the full white paper at whitepaper/madeup.notexcisting or visit the website madeup.notexcisting

Media Contact Details

Name: PR representative, Sarah Jane Doe
Email: sarahjanedoe@madeup.notexcisting
Phone: 127.0.0.1

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Let the World Know About Your Blockchain Business

Your knowledge and passion for your project can provide unique insight and a truly compelling press release. These very in-depth instructions might seem a bit overwhelming at first but once the order comes naturally you will be able to make press releases for all your upcoming announcements easily and in a pretty short amount of time; a worthy tool to have in a lifetime of creativity and invention.

If you feel like your time is better spent elsewhere, our experienced journalists are happy to write your press release for you and as your extended PR team we are able to handle the planning, distribution, and report while working closely with you to make sure that your unique knowledge and passion does not get lost along the way.

**Disclaimer: The Bitcoin PR Buzz blog is made by individual team members wanting to share their unique experiences from many years in this industry. Specific views may not represent Bitcoin PR Buzz’ official stance. We try to fact-check statements to the best of our abilities but please be advised that human errors may occur.