What Every App Developer Needs To Know About Press Kits

When you are pitching a journalist to write about your mobile app, shorter emails perform better. But if your email should only be a few sentences, what’s the best way to share more information? Include a link to a press kit.

A press kit’s purpose is to make it easy for a journalist to write about your app. Imagine a tech journalist’s life. They are getting contacted many times a day by different app developers for the same reason. If they can't find information about your app, they might lose motivation and write about another app instead. Avoid that scenario by creating a single place where they can access everything needed to write about your app.

A good press kit for a mobile app includes a description, screenshots, a company logo, an app icon, an app profile, and a contact email.

• Description - Have two versions, a one sentence version and a paragraph version. For example, please see Apples vs Robots' press kit.
• Screenshots - Have a variety of screenshots showcasing your app. You can take this a step further by including screenshots of your app in real-world scenarios, where a person is shown using your app. For example, please see Timely’s press kit.
• Company Logo - Have your company logo available in different sizes, resolutions, color (dark and light) versions. For example, please see Supercell’s media page.
• App Icon - Same advice as a company logo applies here.
• App Profile - Have information about the app’s release date, platform availability, price, links to app store listings, and sales performance data. For example, please see Apples vs Robots' press kit.
• Contact Email - Have a contact email address, which a journalist can use to reach out with questions.

A great press kit for a mobile app goes further than a good one. It includes everything a good press kit does, and also has videos, quotes, press releases, a FAQ sheet, and a company profile.

• Video - Have a preview video showcasing your app in action. Embed it on your press kit page. Make it possible for other people to embed this video. This way journalists can include the video in their articles. For example, please see Timely’s press kit.
• Quotes - Have quotes by journalists that have written about your app. Also have quotes from reviews written by users. For example, please see Cheddar’s press kit.
• Press Releases - List any press releases that document milestones for your app, such as a launch event or major new features.
• FAQ sheet - Have a list of questions and answers to things that would make it more interesting to write about your app. For example: What motivated you to make this app? What was the biggest challenge when creating it? What is the profile of your target user?
• Company profile - Have details about your company. This might include where your company is based, who is part of the leadership team, and when it was founded. For example, please see Apples vs Robots' press kit.

A press kit should be quick to find. Create a press kit page on the website for your app. Then include a link to the press kit page from your app website homepage. For example, appname.com/presskit would be a reasonable location. On the press kit page, consider including links to PDF, ZIP, Dropbox, and Google Drive versions of your press kit. This way a journalist can view your press kit in their preferred format.

Marketing your mobile app takes a lot of time and energy. Creating a great press kit will help you scale up these efforts by making it easier for journalists to write about your app.

About the author: Murtza Manzur is a developer evangelist at InMobi based out of San Francisco.