PR Package Insider Best Practices with Real Examples

Getting publicity for your brand can be challenging, especially if you’re just starting out and don’t have a big budget to spend on paid ads. But you don’t always have to spend money to get your brand noticed by potential customers.

According to BigCommerce, 92% of people are likely to trust a recommended brand, even from strangers. This is why unboxing videos are so popular. They’re a brilliant way to harness the power of word-of-mouth recommendations to raise awareness for a brand. Oh, and those boxes that get unboxed? They are actually PR packages sent to influencers by brands like yours.

PR packages are a strategic way to get influential people to review your products with their audiences to leverage digital word-of-mouth marketing. The best part is… it’s free.

At PressKitHero we know a thing or two about using PR to grow your business. In this article, you’ll see just how effective PR packages can be through real examples. We’ll also provide actionable insights to teach you how to create and send them to the right people.

Maybe your brand will end up having a viral unboxing video too.

Let’s dive in.

What is a PR Package

A PR package is a branded package with carefully curated products sent to celebrities, journalists, or influencers with the hopes that they’ll give an authentic review of the products to their engaged audiences.

This helps create publicity or raise awareness for your brand. It's part of a greater PR strategy that focuses on building relationships to increase earned media for your brand instead of using paid media.

PR packages are not paid collaborations, so they don’t cost you anything more than the price of sending the package to the receiver.

But because it’s free, there’s usually no contractual obligation for influencers or celebrities to post the content. There’s also no editorial control by the brand on how content regarding the products should be produced or posted. So the influencer has creative freedom on how, when, and where they post if they decide to post.

Why PR packages are important

You build relationships

When you send PR packages to influential people, you’re opening the door to a possible lasting mutually beneficial relationship. Beneficial for the brand because if the influencer posts your products, you can use that as UGC in your own social campaigns.

You can also use this as a way to test a content creator's influence before deciding to do paid collaborations. It’s beneficial to the influencer because being on a brand's PR list validates their brand and level of influence, plus who wouldn't want the free merchandise to enjoy?

They help you leverage new audiences

Influencers spend time, money, and energy building their audiences. They’re trusted for their recommendations and loyal followers will flock to brands based on influencer recommendations. If the influencer loves your PR package, they could decide to post the unboxing and review the products to their engaged audience.

Influencer reviews are like word-of-mouth referrals. Word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing, it drives $6 trillion of annual consumer spending and is estimated to account for 13% of consumer sales. Gaining access to the influencer’s audience through these recommendations is valuable exposure for your brand as it can lead to organic growth for your business.

They increase brand credibility

Done right, a PR package should be able to explain who you are, what you offer, and who you offer it to. It elevates a brand’s image and builds credibility when shared organically by the right people or publications. Being verified by the right people can lead to brand advocacy and a strong validation of your brand.

PR packages can lead to increased sales

While not the primary purpose of a PR package, a welcomed result of a successful PR campaign is a boost in your sales. Not all customers are ready to make a purchase the moment they come into contact with your brand but some are. Infact 82% of consumers are highly likely to follow recommendations by a micro-influencer.

Partnering with the right influencer could let you tap into that small percentage of customers in their audience who are ready to buy and you could see an increase in your sales.

Tips on how to successfully create and send PR packages

Find influencers who align with your brand

The first thing you want to do is find influencers that you can send PR packages to. This can be quite tricky because you want people who have the same audience as your target demographic. You also want them to be aligned with your brand ethos. Here’s how you can find that fit.

What size of influencer to choose? You have the option to approach celebrities, macro or micro-influencers. If you run a small business, you may not have much luck with celebrities and macro influencers. Your best bet is micro-influencers. According to a recent report, micro-influencers boast engagement rates of 4.84% on Instagram, while influencers with over a million followers engagement rates were as low as 1.23%. Micro-influencers are generally more approachable than macro-influencers. Micro influencers are seen as passionate and informed about the brands they love, which is why they are trusted by their audiences.
How to find micro-influencers? Look under your own branded hashtags to see if you can find micro-influencers who are already familiar with your brand. Search hashtags in your niche for more influencers who could fit with your brand. You can also check an influencer marketplace like Collabstr to see those in your niche, or even search on Google.
Look at the aesthetic of their page: does it fit with your brand values, your mission and who your product is targeted to? Do they post consistently? Is their content good quality? What are their engagement rates? Many social media platforms offer engagement rate calculators, as well.
Is your brand a fit for them? If they were to post your brand, would it look natural to their followers for the influencer to be posting or reviewing this product? Or will it be out of place? A food blogger posting makeup may confuse the audience and it won't seem like an authentic match. Ask yourself what kind of content they can make with your products and how it will benefit their brand as well.
Are they a fit for your brand? If you repost their content on your platform will it match your brand and aesthetic? Will it align with your customers and followers?

Once you’ve found a few, approach them and ask them to add them to your PR list. This way you can get their contact details and address to send the PR package. In most cases you’ll have a few who approach you to work with you first then it’s just a matter of deciding if they are a fit or not.

Decide what to include in the PR package

You need to carefully curate your PR package to showcase your best products. But they also need to make sense to the people you're sending them to.

Here’s how you can do that:

Choose products for them: You can decide what goes into your PR package based on the product you want to raise awareness for. They could be your best sellers or new products you've just launched. But make it relevant to the people you're sending them to. For example, if you follow the influencer, and you know their preferences based on their content and interests, you can send them products in their favorite color. This keeps you in control of the products you want to showcase but is also relevant to the influencer.
Let them choose their own products: Alternatively, you could let the influencer know that you’re sending them a PR package and they can choose 2 or 3 products from your online store that they love. This is all to reduce the chances of influencers not liking or not posting or using the products.

Skims is an example of curating a PR box with pieces that they wanted to create publicity for, but also making it relevant to the influencer's preferences. These PR packages coincided with the launch of the Skims swimwear line. This brings us to the next point.

Decide when to send the PR package

You can send your PR package at any point to raise awareness. But they work best when coinciding with a big event or business milestone like a launch. Whether you're launching your brand or a new product line, a new location, or hosting an event and you need extra publicity, a PR package can help you achieve this.

A good example of this is the Minions: The rise of Gru movie launch. There were a lot of videos on TikTok with people wearing suits to watch the movie. The brand was proactive to use this hype to reach as many people by also sending PR packages. This unboxing video by Erika Titus got a whooping 1.3 million likes. All the social media hype contributed to the movie becoming the highest-grossing animated movie this year.

Make the package look good

If you search “PR packages” on TikTok or Youtube, you’ll see videos of influencers showing how they receive dozens of PR packages in a week from different brands. So when you send your PR package, ask yourself, why would someone open your package and even review the products online? Here’s how you can stand out:

Invest in aesthetics: Put in the effort to make your package look good. Invest in the actual packaging so that it stands out. Use nice wrapping paper, use packaging that's in line with your brand color palette, and make sure your branding is visible and attractive. It’s the first impression that you’ll give, so make it a good one. If your package is aesthetically pleasing, that's half the battle won. Instagram is a game of aesthetics so you’ve made it easy for influencers to want to post because it's good content for them.
Personalize the package: Go the extra mile and personalize the package. Putting someone’s name on something reduces the likelihood of them throwing it away or neglecting it. It can be a plain pair of white socks but with your name on it, they’re now your favorite pair. Add a personal note to compliment the package. Handwritten notes like this one from Nudebeverages are popular because they show the effort and time that went into the PR package, people will appreciate this.

Don't put your eggs in one basket

Sending PR packages to influencers is one tactic that’s part of an influencer marketing strategy. But when trying to gain PR publicity, you don’t have to rely on influencers only. Look at other ways to gain publicity for your brand using PR packages.

The founder of Elxr - a moisturizing sanitizer brand, reached out to Tatler magazine and sent them a PR package with products just 6 months after launching. The result was a product feature in Tatler magazine for free. This is a big milestone for a small business and it’s the beauty of PR, when it’s done right it creates instant credibility for your business.

Here are a few tips to get PR publicity from media companies, which also worked for Elxr’s founder:

Do your research in terms of which media companies you can approach.
Find an editor who deals with your niche and get their contact details
Send them an email explaining why you love their work/brand, then tell them about your products and what makes them awesome
Send them your professional press kit with the email to show that you're a credible brand.
Send them your PR package and follow up to see if they received it.
Engage with their social media accounts to show it’s not just one-sided.

Include your Presskit

When you do succeed in getting your PR package out to influencers and editors, give them a way to know what to say about you. Include your press kit or a media kit, which has all the information about your company, products, and founding team. It also includes awards your business has won, downloadable images they can use, testimonials from customers, logos, and previous press about the business.

Benefits of a press kit: Having a digital media kit makes it easier to send and share with editors, influencers, or reporters so that they don't have to struggle to look for information about your business.
How to create your press kit: you can either use an outdated PDF that’s hard to update or you can have a professional digital media kit. Getting started with your media or press kit is simple with PressKitKero. There’s no code required and with a few clicks of a button, you can have a press kit that highlights important information about your business. It’s easily customizable, so you can spruce it up regularly.

Make expectations explicit

When you send a PR package there are risks involved like: the influencer may not like the products and return them, they may keep the product and not post about it or you may not get any sales.

One of the ways that small business owners feel like working with influencers doesn't work is because expectations are not explicitly stated. Again PR packages are not paid collaborations. There is no obligation for the influencer to open, review or post your package.

If you want them to post, it doesn't hurt to ask. Making a clear request can help avoid disappointment.

Best practice: Offer an affiliate link and more collaboration opportunities should this experience turn out to be effective.

Get feedback about your PR package

Whether the influencer posted your PR package or not, reach out to them after 2 or 3 weeks to find out what they thought about your PR package.

If they posted the content and tagged you, ask them for metrics on the channel they voted on. If they posted on stories, ask to see the story views, link clicks, etc. If they did a feed post, ask to see the impressions, likes, bookmarks, saves, etc.

This will give you an idea of the influencer's impact on their audience and how effective their recommendations are. Don’t forget to actually engage with the content. The audience and influencer will like this, and it’s all part of relationship building.

Get started on your PR package with PressKitHero

PR is essentially a way to get people talking about you.

A PR package gives them a reason to talk about you, and a press kit tells them what to say about you. This is because words have power and you can easily direct your own narrative with a press kit or media kit.

PressKitHero is a software that lets you create, host, and customize your press kits and media kits. This way the people who’ll be talking about you, have all the information they need to start the conversation. For more tips on public relations and communications for your business, check out the PressKitHero blog. Better yet, sign up to create your first media kit. It's completely free to get started.