Pitching brands for paid collaborations without a media kit is like playing tennis with one arm behind your back: it's doable, but your odds of winning aren't as good. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to create the perfect media kit
A lot of rookie bloggers and influencers overlook this important step in the process of pitching brands, but fail to realize that a media kit is so important. You honestly stand little to no chance landing brand collaborations or paid partnerships without a good media kit. For that reason, pitching brands—in my opinion—is probably a waste of time without sending a media kit for them to look over.
You have to remember that brands get hundreds—if not thousands—of inquiries on a regular basis with bloggers and influencers all wanting the same thing. If you don’t stand out and tell them exactly what you have to offer and why they should say yes to a collar with you, they are going to ignore your email.
The more robust your blogger/influencer resume is, the longer your media kit should be, but don’t let the fact that you’re new to the game deter you from putting together a media kit. Even one page will do, but you have to have something.
This post will share exactly how to create the perfect media kit—whether you are just starting out or are a little further along in the game.
1. Experience will dictate length
If you’re just starting off and don’t have the metrics to back up a long media kit, that’s okay. Don’t let the thought of “I don’t have the experience or the numbers to showcase in a media kit” dissuade you from creating one. You really have to have something.
If you’re new, one single page is fine. Think of it like you’ve probably been taught that it’s best to have a one page resume, unless you’re a professional with tons of experience. Keep it short and sweet, but with all the necessary information.
The more robust your blogger/influencer resume is, the longer your media kit should be. My media kit, for example, is 11 pages long. Some might argue that’s too long, and they’re probably not wrong. But I recently added two full pages of hotel collaboration case studies—in addition to a product case study I had in there already—and the added length is important to me because I’ve been pitching a lot of hotels lately.
Your media kit obviously shouldn’t be too long, but definitely needs to convey all the information you want to communicate to brands in a visually appealing way. Cramming too much shit onto a few pages will do you a disservice as well, since that will end up looking cramped, visually distasteful and overwhelming. It’s all about balance.
2. First page
The first page—whether it’s your only page or the first of many pages, should absolutely have the following: your name, your social handles, a photo of you (and probably a few other photos of your work), website analytics (if applicable) and follower count on whatever platforms you have a decent following on. If you have a large following on one medium but very little on others, just showcase the platform where you have the most followers.
The first page of my media kit has my blog name, my blog email, follower count on Instagram, social handles for Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, several photos of me, my monthly page vies on my website, and a short two-sentence paragraph bio (just as an introduction, since there’s a longer, more robust “About Me” page next).
3. About Me
If your media kit is several pages long, be sure to include an “About Me” page, or combine an “About Me” section with another topic (like demographics, for example). This is where you should explain a little about yourself, tell what you do, explain what type of blogger or influencer you are (e.g., travel, fashion, makeup, photography, etc.) and what you share to the world.
For me, because I am not a full time blogger, I make sure to say that I am an attorney and travel blogger. I explain what I’m most passionate about (travel, food and photography) and how I love to create content, whether it’s for myself or for others. I explain how I shoot content (using drones, GoPros and professional cameras) and talk about what kind of content you can find on my blog.
4. Audience Demographics
Next you’ll want to share audience demographics. This might not seem important to you but it’s definitely important to brands. While a travel WiFi product company might want a more balanced demographic of 50/50 men and women, a skincare company or handbag line will likely want an influencer whose audience is mostly women.
Geographic location is important too. If you’re in the US, and most of your followers are in the US, it’s important to include that so you aren’t somehow unintentionally conveying that you have a worldwide audience. A small hotel in the UK probably doesn’t care to market much to Americans since they’ll likely get most of their traffic from local travelers within the UK.
Age is important too. If you’re a luxury travel blogger pitching to hotels where their rooms start at $2k a night, but your audience is primarily 18-25 year olds, that hotel probably won’t want to work with you since it’s assumed that a majority of those 18-25 year olds can’t afford to stay at luxury properties on their own dime. Similarly, if your audience is mostly people aged 40 and up, you probably won’t have much luck landing a clothing collab with Princess Polly or White Fox, since their buyer is generally in the 15-25 range.
If a brand is going to agree to work with you, they want to know the people who read your blog or see your social posts are the type of people who would either buy their product, stay at their hotel, or interact with their account in some way. If this information is missing, it’s very likely you will get asked for it, and if you don’t have it, you can look pretty silly.
For a blog, this information can be found in Google Analytics or your blog hosting site. For Instagram and Facebook, look at your insights from your business or creator account.
5. Case Studies
Case studies—if you have them to boast—are what I have found to be the most impactful parts of a media kit. Basically, this is where you get to say, “See, I can deliver results, and here’s what you can expect if you agree to work with me.” Case studies can include anything from Instagram insights from posts (which would include impressions, comments, saves and engagement percentage), reviews from companies you’ve worked with, blog statistics and affiliate sales.
For example, with a product that you’ve promoted as an affiliate, you’ll want to share conversions to date since becoming an affiliate, which would include the total sales of the product that you have generated for the company, the number of clicks using your trackable link or code, number of conversions and the conversion rate. This information is typically readily available on your affiliate dashboard. If not, reach out to someone at the company who can get you this information.
Another example is for a hotel collaboration where you spell out what you offered to the hotel and then essentially explain what they got in return. For my hotel case studies, I have a paragraph explaining what the project consisted of, what I delivered to the hotel (e.g., blog posts, IG posts, IG stories and high-res photos) and then share the reach and impressions. These case studies are heavy on the photos since they contain photos that were specifically curated for the hotel.
6. Photo Gallery/Examples of Curated Content
This part isn’t necessary, but if you’re a content creator, it’s advisable. I have several pages where I highlight lifestyle, adventure and brand collaborations—which are each separate pages containing images I have shot either on my travels or specifically for brand collaborations, where products or properties are showcased. Basically, it’s like creating a visual scrapbook of your work. If you do any photography or videography on the content creation side, your media kit should be photo heavy. If not, this element is less important.
7. Deliverables on offer
Though not necessary, it’s also nice to spell out all the services (or “deliverables”) that you can offer. It’s sort of like a menu that a brand can look at and decide what, if anything, you can offer them that fits their needs. There’s a chance you could pitch a hotel, for example, and say you will write a blog post and spread content across social media, but perhaps what they really need is reviews instead. Or maybe they are looking for curated photo content that they can use in their marketing materials. For this reason, it’s important that you explain ALL of the things that you can offer to a brand, and not just the things you might have pitched them in an email.
Deliverables can include a number of different things for influencers, but mostly include things like static blog posts, static Instagram posts, TikTok videos or Instagram reels, social media takeovers, drone photography or videography, general content creation (high resolution photos or videos that you “sell” to the brand, and then hey own the rights to those images and videos), reviews and more. Get creative here! Think about what YOU can offer that’s unique. Maybe it’s something more specific like food recipes, how-to videos or article writing.
8. Contact Page
Finally, don’t forget to include a contact page. If you have a shorter media kit, this can clearly be combined with other things like demographics or your “About Me” info. And of course, if you have a single page media kit, don’t forget to put your contact information on the first page!
What you include should obviously be based on what you’re most comfortable with, and also dependent upon how widely disseminated you plan to share your kit. If you post your media kit on your blog or website (like I do), you probably shouldn’t include any personal information like a cell phone. If, however, these kits really are only going to people you want to work with and may want to give your cell phone out to, include it. At the very least, your contact page should have your website again and your email.
9. How to easily put a media kit together
Okay, so I know we’re not all experts in Adobe Illustrator. That’s okay too. There are TONS of media creation apps and software out there that can easily put these together for you, sometimes with templates too. Apps like Canva and Adobe Spark can create visually appealing collages and kit pages from your phone or desktop computer.
If your skills are more advanced, this can obviously be put together in a more robust way using Adobe Illustrator (which is what I used, and then converted the kit to a PDF for easy sharing and viewing).
Not good at creating digital media? Consider hiring someone on Fiver. You basically give them all the information (the written content, statistics, and photos) and they put a media kit together for you. And usually these services are pretty cheap, often starting at just $50 (which is money well spent if you would otherwise have to spend hours teaching yourself how to use Adobe Illustrator or can’t quite figure out one of the apps).
Then of course save and share! I like to downsize the file format for easy sharing. This of course lessens the quality of the images, but makes it much easier for people to view it online and also for me to send in emails. If your file is too large and you don’t want to downscale it, just share a Dropbox link.
And that’s it!
Good luck!
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