Media Kits: A Blogger’s BFF

I can’t believe after all this time I’ve never written a post about media kits! And shout out to Allison Hodges for requesting I do. For those of you who don’t know, in simple terms a media kit is an elongated version of your elevator pitch (who you are, what you do, and how you can help) and a breakdown of your stats.

Every blogger should have a media kit in order to be considered for a brand collaboration. Instead of trying to convince a brand you’re worthy of their time and marketing dollars, let your numbers do the talking.

Facts tell, stories sell and that’s the approach you should have for every potential collab. You can reel brands in with your facts (stats) and then you sell them through your stories (unique content). And yes it is as complicated as it sounds, but that’s why only 4% of bloggers “make it” and the majority of bloggers quit after their first year.

If you want to be a blogger you need patience, you need talent, you need strategy, and a media kit to package it all together.

Why you need a media kit

Media kits show brands you’re a professional blogger and you know what you’re doing. Like you, brand reps have an extremely busy schedule so the shorter and simpler you can make your media kit, the better. In fact, I’ve shortened my media kit to a “one sheet” (literally one sheet of all my info).

Media kits are a to-the-point overview of your blog, your demographic, social media following, etc. They make it easy for brands to determine whether working with you will prove ROI or not.

You may be thinking ‘But I only have 400 followers’ or ‘My numbers are embarrassing’. If you have less than 10K followers, a media kit is still helpful. The worst thing that could happen is you don’t land a collab, but instead you’re put on the brand’s radar as an up and coming micro-influencer. The best thing that could happen is the brand is really impressed by your professionalism and chooses to work with you despite your “low” numbers. Regardless, you have nothing to lose.

What you should include on your media kit

Your media kit can include anything and everything you want. However, like I said before you don’t want to make it too complicated where the brand clicks away after the first page.

You want a simple, easy to read media kit that includes key stats about your blog. You only want to include relevant information, don’t just plug numbers in to plug numbers in and don’t include a 2 paragraph write up of what your blog is about. Your bio should be 1-3 sentences – that’s it! And your stats should only include notable numbers (if you only have 5 Facebook likes, that’s not necessary to include).

Media kit must haves:

Bio – who you are, what you do, and how you can help

Monthly blog views – how much traffic your blog gets a month

Contact info – your name, email, and blog URL

Social media followers – broken down by platform (Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, etc.) but only include the platforms you actually have and are worth mentioning (I wouldn’t include any platforms that have less than 100 followers)

Conversion rate – how many sales/clicks you make in a month (this will show brands their ROI if they choose to work with you, you can determine your conversion rate through any affiliate platform)

Media kit bonus material:

Past collaborations – a list of the brands you’ve collaborated with in the past (only include notable or well-known brands like Coach, Forever 21, Nordstrom, etc.)

Demographic – women/men ratio, where they’re located in the world, and how old they are (this will help brands determine if your audience is their target market)

Instastory stats – how many people view your story, swipe up, engage, etc. (because video is king)

Alexa ranking – how your website ranks in the world and country (a tool that shows how your social media following translates to your blog traffic)

Social Bluebook value – how much your sponsored content is worth based on your engagement/followers

Fohr Card rating – used to determine how authentic your following is (identifies ghost followers and fake accounts)

Just to reiterate – if you don’t have a certain platform or your numbers are really low on a platform, don’t include it on your media kit. You don’t want a media kit with lots of 0’s or blank spaces.

However, if you’re determined to share all your numbers, position them in a way that sets you up for success like “Twitter: 20% monthly growth” or whatever your growth rate is. Brands love to see growth.

How to pitch your media kit to brands

The best way to send brands your media kit is via email, of course. And you can do that through finding the email address on the brand’s website or social media. Usually, especially if a brand is newer, there will be a collab or press email in the brand’s Instagram bio that you can use.

Once you’ve gotten an email address, you want to shoot the brand an email with your media kit attached. Don’t ask if the brand wants to see your media kit, just send it! You don’t want a ton of back and forth with the brand, you want to make this as easy as possible for them. With that said, your email should be short and to the point since brands get hundreds, if not thousands, of emails a day.

And if you can’t find the brand’s email, slide in their DMs. DMs are always fun because they’re more personal and a little less formal. Plus you will almost always get a response.

Be professional yet memorable in your introduction. Try different variations of the same email or DM to see what draws in the most responses (this is called A/B testing) – different subject lines, different opening lines, etc. But most importantly yet cliche: be yourself.

You are are the ultimate selling factor of your blog so give it all you got, baby!

Do you want a media kit? If not, check out the services section for a custom media kit and use code NABMEDIA for $20 off. 

xx

shop the look