Whether you are a blogger, an Instagram influencer, a TikTok Influencer, or a YouTuber, you’ve heard about the media kit and that you definitely need one. But you may be asking yourself how do I put together an influencer media kit that will make an impression so that I can secure paid brand partnerships. It can be difficult to figure out, and even if you open a document to begin building one, you may find yourself at a lost of how to design it and what should be on it.
As an influencer coach and blogger coach, I’ve worked with a number of creators who have just been stuck when putting their together, or didn’t know that they needed one at all. And time and time again, I have shown them my media kit and walked them through how essential it is to have one if you want to work with brands through sponsored partnerships.
When I first started out as an influencer, I will admit that I didn’t know much about putting together an influencer media kit. I kept hearing people talking about how they sent theirs to a brand but had no clue where I should even start to begin building mine. Eventually, I built mine and over the years it has grown to become a media kit that I am super proud of and one that has secured me multiple brand partnerships.
In this post, I’m going to share with you some of the key tips that I give to the influencers who I have coached and helped secure brand partnerships as well as provide an extensive, ultimate guide on what a media kit and how to build your own influencer media kit.
What is an INFLUENCER MEDIA KIT?
A media kit is somewhat like a resume for influencers. It is a professional document (or webpage – but we will get there) that creators send to brands and potential clients to share who they are, what their brand is about, and what they can offer in terms of working together.
Though that description sounds super simple, you can run into a lot of issues if you, as an influencer, don’t target your media kit towards who you are intending to send it to – the brand. I’ve seen influencers who either leave too much out or make it a biography about who they are and how they have gotten to where they are today. As much as brands do enjoy learning about their influencers, they want to know how they are going to benefit from partnering with you, and what makes you stand out.
What you have to understand is that influencer relation managers and those in charge of the social media marketing for brands get thousands of emails weekly and review tons of media kits on a rotating basis, so you need to make sure that yours stands out and it is clear as to what you can do for them. As you are looking to build your influencer brand, it is essential that you build a concrete influencer media kit.
What Should Not Be in YOUR INFLUENCER MEDIA KIT
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YOUR RATES
Though you’re seeking a paid partnership, your media kit is not the place to share your rates. Rates are not something that you have set as one flat rate and by putting them in your media kit, you are severely limiting yourself. You should have ranges based on what the brand is seeking and you don’t share what those are until you get into the stage where you are negotiating. -
A LIST OF EVERY BRAND YOU’VE WORKED WITH
Below, you’ll see that in your media kit you should share past and present partnerships, but it should highlight the ones that are not only super successful but ones that you are product of, and it should be a short list. I’ve seen some media kits where influencers have either listed every single partnership they have ever worked on or they link to an Excel sheet that lists all of their partnerships and their analytics. Limit to just highlight a few. -
YOUR LIFE STORY
Your media kit should tell about you and your brand, but it should not be an extensive story. Save your story to when you write your autobiography or an influencer help book that you can sell as your career grows.
What Should Be in YOUR INFLUENCER MEDIA KIT
A media kit has quite a few sections that are definite must-haves. Brands are looking to gather specific information about you in order to see whether you are someone that is fit to work with based on a number of different factors. So with that in mind, let’s break down what sections you should have in your media kit and what should be included in those sections.
ABOUT YOU & ABOUT YOUR BRAND
Your media kit should start off with introducing you. Brands want to know who they are in contact with and whether their ideals align with yours. In this section, you want to share the basics about yourself and your brand. In some cases, you can break the ‘About Me’ into two separate sections to talk about who you are and then talk about the brand.
- Who are you? Introduce yourself just like you would in person. My name is Iesha of LivingLesh.
- Where are you? Let them know where you reside. Brands actually keep your location on file for brand campaigns specific to a city or state, and to invite you when there is an event in the area.
- What should brands know about you? Give a short 1-2 sentence bio of who you are and your brand. This can include your mission statement, but it should definitely include the content that you create and your brand identity.
- What do you look like? Make sure to include a photo of yourself next to your bio. Now, it doesn’t have to be a headshot though it’s great if it is. Just make sure that it’s a photo that shows who you are and not just the landscape.
BREAKDOWN OF YOUR DEMOGRAPHICS AND ANALYTICS
Your blog and/or social media analytics and demographics are a must-have in an influencer media kit. Brands want to know whether your audience is who they are targeting and what the potential ROI (return on investment) is when they work with you. When including your analytics, I always suggest to those I am working with that you include your major platforms and the platforms that you’d be willing to create content on. For example, my YouTube channel is not my strongest platform and I create content on their more out of enjoyment than for monetization, so I don’t include that on my media kit. But as I grow that channel, I will add it later.
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FOLLOWERS
It’s no secret that brands are still focusing on looking at your social media followers numbers as an indicator of whether they should work with you and how much they should pay, but I will say that it is changing and that brands are starting to recognize the the power of the micro influencer. -
REACH & IMPRESSIONS
Reach and impressions are easy to gather on any social media platform. Brands want to see how many people will potentially see the content that you are going to create from them, so make sure to include this. -
VIEWS
If you are a YouTuber or someone who is doing really well with Instagram Reels or on TikTok, make sure to include your average views. Video content is huge and many brands are investing more in video content. -
ENGAGEMENT
Brands are starting to base their willingness to work with an influencer and how much they are willing to pay for a partnership based on engagement. There are some tools out there that calculate engagement rate, but many don’t factor in Reels and other video content, so the best way to do it is to try to calculate it yourself. To figure out the engagement rate just add up likes, comments, saves, and shares and divide it by your total number of followers. -
AGE & GENDER
Brands have certain campaigns that they tailor toward a certain demographic. For example, you may be reaching out to a brand that is kicking off a campaign focused on women in their 30s, and if your following is mostly women in that age group, you’ll be put on the list for consideration. -
LOCATIONS
Not only is your location important for seeding for brand partnerships, brands may be targeting a certain region for a product launch or because they are based in that area. So they’ll look to see whether the majority of your audience lives.
SERVICES OFFERED
Brands want to see what type of services that you typically offer especially if they are looking for a specific type of content. For example, the brand may be looking for video content and if you’re not someone that creates video content, then you wouldn’t bit a fit. Additionally, with your services offered listed, you may also be able to spark inspiration for them and they’ll add on additional deliverables.
PAST & PRESENT BRAND PARTNERSHIPS
This section can be designed in multiple ways, but either way, you want to make sure that you have it. Similar to when you apply for a job and they look at your past experience on your resume, when a brand is vetting you for a brand partnership and they are looking at your media kit, they like to see what you’re experienced with working with brands that that you understand the process.
Sharing past and present partnerships can be displayed either via a list of the brand names or using their logos and working it into your media kit design. Another way to show past partnerships is to give examples of your work.
EXAMPLES OF YOUR WORK
How you display examples of your work is up to you and how you’ve structured your influencer media kit design. Having photo examples of your work and links directly to them are the most preferable. Being able to showcase the quality of visual content that you can create and then linking the post to show the caption and engagement will provide the brand a great deal of information on what you can create for them.
You can also consider linking to case studies or showcasing screenshots on your influencer media kit. I typically like creating proposals to send to brand partners that include all of these aspects on the media kit and case studies. Additionally, after brand partnerships, I sent over reports that I provide to brands via email to showcase my work. When I work with my clients through influencer coaching and on my influencer and blogger course, I teach further on how to develop structured reports to use as case studies and influencer brand partnership proposals.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Lastly, you want to definitely make sure that you have your contact information. I’ve seen a few media kit where influencer do not have their contact information listed with the thought that if they are emailing already that the brand already has the email address. What they fail to realize is that media kits get saved into databases and shared through out the company and to PR agencies that will reference it at a later time and won’t have the influencer’s email in their address book.
How to Make AN INFLUENCER MEDIA KIT
Making an influencer media kit can be fairly dauting. There’s a lot of information to put into and it’s hard to determine where to start and how to design it. But don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be super difficult and I’m here to help.
For a place to start, I’ve created two types of media kit templates that you can use. You can grab the one-pager influencer media kit or, if you want to go a little more extensive, you can snag this multi-page influencer media kit. Both of these are completely free and you can use them in Canva.
Making an influencer media kit can be done using whatever platform that you choose. My media kit is actually not made on Canva or Photoshop because it is currently digital, but we will get to talking about that further down in this guide. My suggestion is to start with a template, like the ones above, and then match it to your brand or start with a blank canvas and just move the different sections around as you see fit. But IMO – a template is the best way to go.
Sending Your INFLUENCER MEDIA KIT
When you’re sending your media kit, what you want to avoid doing is sending the media kit in your initial pitch email. You want the brand to first latch onto your idea that you send in your pitch which is something that I always explain to influencer when pitching brand partnerships. Once the brand responds to your initial email requesting your media kit, then move forward with sending that information along. You’ll want make sure to PDF it and either upload it to Google Drive and then share it via an embedded link in your email. Or if it is small enough, you can attach it right to the email itself.
If you do end up with a digital media kit, you’ll only have the option to send it via a link and I typically tell those with a digital media kit to include a direct link to it in their signature. Yes, that means that it’s getting sent right away for brands to look at, but if they are clicking through your signature at that point, they are very interested in working with you based off your pitch email.
Setting Your Rates AS AN INFLUENCER
As stated before, you shouldn’t not include prices on your media kit. The influencer media kit is for the brand to get to know who you are, what your brand is, and what you can offer. Now, some brands may ask for a rate sheet, and I know influencer who do have them, but I am someone that is not a fan of a rate sheet. IMO – rate sheets, like including your rates on your media kit, are limiting. And if you share your rate sheet with a brand and they keep it on file, you’re now stuck with those rates when they do reach out to, and at that point, you may have changed them.
You want to try to maintain as much negotiating power as possible.
Things to Consider for Your INFLUENCER MEDIA KIT
DIGITAL MEDIA KIT VS. PDF MEDIA KIT
When you’re ready to make a media kit, you’ll always want to have a PDF version, but one thing that you may want to consider is creating a digital influencer media kit. You can see an example of my digital media kit on my media kit page.
The benefits of having a digital media kit are that:
- You can update it quicker than it would take update and download your physical media kit
- You can link directly to it in your signature
- If you SEO optimize the media kit, it is searchable and brands can find you
- You can link directly to social media posts, blog posts, and other pages on your website with ease
And the only downfall that I have encountered with mine is that if you’re filling out a form online on a brands website to apply for partnership, you can’t upload it because it’s not a physical document, but I have only seen that with travel forms and it’s not as common as you may think. I still keep a physical one on hand, but I don’t update it as often, and only do when I see a form that requires it.
My media kit was created by chloedigital – and you can have them create one for you too. Just leave me as a referral and they’ll hook you up!
MEDIA KITS FOR DIFFERENT NICHES / CONTENT CREATION
One other aspect that I have advised some of my clients to do is as they are expanding their partnerships to create different media kits based off of different services offered and past brand experiences. In the past, I have had a media kit for my general lifestyle content and then I created a separate one specifically for my travel pitches. This was because I offered different services. I can create drone footage for travel content, but it’s not something that I would offer to do for my general lifestyle content. Additionally, a tourism board isn’t interested that I worked with Walmart, just like Walmart isn’t interested that I worked with a tourism board.
FINAL CHECKS & UPDATING
Finally, when you have a finalized media kit, make sure that you’ve gone through and checked spelling and grammar. Remember that this is a professional document, and as a content creator, brands want to see that you pay attention to detail.
And don’t think that you need to update your media kit weekly. My advice is to update it every 30 days as that’s when you’ll see the biggest change in your analytics if there are any.
