How to know if real gold? Take a bite. How do you know if an influencer is legit? Check out their media kit. These are the rules of life.
Having an informative, engaging, and impressive media kit is one of the best ways to close professional deals as an influencer. And knowing how to spot a great media kit is one of the best ways to form meaningful business partnerships.
So, for people involved in both sides of influencer marketing, here’s everything you need to know about building an effective media kit.
What is an influencer media kit?
An Influencer Media Kit is a document that influencers and content creators share with brands when discussing potential partnerships.
A good media kit should:
- Showcase your strengths
- Prove that you have active online followers (for example, by including subscriber statistics)
- Emphasize the value you can bring to a potential client
Simply put, the purpose of a media kit is to convince others (companies, employees, and other influencers that you could potentially partner with) that you have the following, strategy, and confidence needed to grow their online presence—and, in your turn, make them money.
Ideally, a media kit should be short and to the point (like a resume). This is a visually appealing and concise snapshot of your online presence and accomplishments.
Media kits are usually exchanged in PDF or slideshow format, but again, if it’s a slideshow, it should be short! Think of it more like a flashy commercial than a full length movie.
Let’s ride.
5 Reasons You Need an Influencer Media Kit
1. Give the impression of a more professional
Later in this post, we’ll give you advice on how to make your media kit awesome, but the fact is that having one will make you more professional as an influencer.
Just like an email with your own domain name or ordering a snack at the table, media kits make you look like a boss: they show that you are prepared, experienced and ready to cooperate.
2. Get Better Brand Deals
Professional media kits lead to professional brand deals and you are more likely to get a good partnership with a good media kit.
Think about it: if your kit shows the value you can bring, you have more negotiating power when it comes to negotiating royalties. Being able to provide concrete examples of what you’ve done for other companies is a valuable asset to closing a new deal.
3. Communicate more effectively
Sometimes social media work can be a numbers game (and no, we’re not talking about how many followers you have).
If you’re approaching a lot of companies about potential brand deals, or if you’re approached by many brands, you’ll need a media kit ready. Your kit is a one-step hack to show potential partners everything they need to know about you, and having a kit like this means you don’t have to exchange emails and DMs over and over to share the same information over and over again. Just send them a comprehensive media kit and you’ll be left with more questions to answer.
4. Stand out
Your media kit sets you apart from other influencers just as much as your content does. The creativity and conciseness in your media kit showcases your skills in action, and you can use your media kit as an opportunity to stand out from the crowd.
Imagine Elle Woods perfumed pink paper, but digital. What seems to be hard?
5. Gain confidence
Anyone can experience self-doubt at any point in their career, but chances are if you’re a micro or nano influencer (10,000 to 49,999 followers or 1,000 to 9,999 followers respectively) you’re suffering from impostor syndrome.
Don’t worry too much. Simply putting together this kit, which is basically a beautiful celebration of everything that makes you incredible, can get you in the right mental state to go out there and get that bread.
What should be included in an influencer’s media kit?
short biography
This is perhaps the most important part of your kit – it should come first, as it will form the viewer’s first impression of you as an influencer.
Include your name, where you live and what you do – your interests, values and experience matter here.
List of your social media accounts
A list of your social media accounts (with links!) is an essential component of a media kit. We hope people viewing your kit will want to see you in action, so giving them a clear route to your content is key.
Your performance statistics
As much as we may believe that quality is more important than quantity, when it comes to social media, statistics still matter. Accurate numbers will help your potential customers decide if your reach and engagement is in line with your brand goals.
Make sure you have included:
- The number of your followers. It’s important, but not as informative as…
- Your engagement metrics. This shows how many people are actually interacting with your content (and proves that you haven’t bought all your followers). For a detailed guide to engagement rates and other important stats, check out our Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok analytics guides.
- General audience demographics. What is the gender breakdown and where does your audience live? How old are they? This will help businesses determine if there is a match between your followers and their target audience and let you know if you are the right fit for their brand.
You can also include:
- Average number of likes/comments you get on posts
- How much content do you post on average per week
- How much has your account and followers grown over time
Case studies of successful brand deals
This is the part where you show off shamelessly.
Include as many numbers as possible when you’re submitting case studies, including the length of campaigns, how the stats for the brand you’ve partnered with have changed, and any specific data you can provide for the actual number of people you’ve referred.
Affiliate programs are also great for this. If, for example, you gave your subscribers a unique code that they could use to discount at a particular supplier, your bundle should show how many people used your code (and how much money you made for the brand).
Obviously, you’ll want to be as positive as possible when talking about other brands you’re partnering with. Now is the time to be optimistic and inspiring.
Your rates
Your rates should be at the end so you’ve already shown your potential client what you’re worth.
The question of whether a price list should be included in a brand’s kit is controversial in the influencer and content creator community. Here are some things to consider.
The good thing about pre-quoting prices is that they show the brands you expect to be paid for your work (free products are cool, but cash is better). Because this is a relatively new and creative industry, it’s easy to get confused about a contract that doesn’t bring you economic benefit, and being clear about the rates helps prevent that.
However, promising bids before discussing the nature of the work you are doing is risky. Framing your prices as “recommended” or “estimated” will help you get more bargaining power.
In addition, you can choose not to include pricing in your media kit, but instead send them separately upon request, so you can tailor your pricing to different companies.
Photo
Chances are most of the work you’ll be doing as an influencer will be visual – that’s what grabs people’s attention and inspires them to stop scrolling. Be sure to include some high quality photos in your media kit to showcase your photography skills and your overall aesthetic.
Photos are a good visual break for the reader, and they also give brands an idea of what you’re doing.
Contacts
It goes without saying – when creating a media kit, include contact details so that brands know exactly how to contact you!
How to Build an Outstanding Influencer Media Kit
Do your research
If you are reading this, then you are already at that step. Go you! Take a look at the media kit examples included in this blog post and dig into other influencers in your community. Find what you particularly like and determine why – then you can recreate it with your own personal taste.
Collect your data
Record all your statistics and case study numbers, no matter how big or small, successful or unsuccessful. Remember to pay special attention to statistics that show engagement, not just numbers.
Reduce any data you don’t need
Honesty is the best policy, but if you feel like certain stats don’t reflect how great you are, you don’t need to include them.
Focus on the positives and how much you’ve grown, and cut out anything that won’t help you close the deal. Make sure you still have those stats recorded somewhere, as brands might ask, and you definitely don’t want to lie (yes, it’s morally bad, but being called out for it is also very humiliating).
Plan your look
Put on your art hat and plan what kind of atmosphere you are looking for – warm or cold, maximalist or minimalist? You can take inspiration from art you like (album covers, clothing brands, etc.), but make sure the style you choose matches your content. Keep in mind the color palette.
Use Template
If you are an art genius, the layout of the media kit part should be easy. But a template is a great start for those who are less experienced with editing, and many online templates are great: they’re fully customizable and don’t look like boilerplate at all. So use support and take a template – if not for use, then just for inspiration.
Our team created this free, fully customizable media kit template to make it easy to get started:
Influencer Media Kit Examples
Now that we’ve covered all the basic elements of a media kit, here are some examples of well-designed and effective media kits.
It is important to remember that there is no single way to make a media kit – each kit will be slightly different from the previous one. The important thing is that they are easy to read, pleasing to the eye and informative.
Source: Love Atiya
This influencer’s recruitment starts with her pens, some stats, and demographics. She also has logos of various brands she has collaborated with in the past.
Source: @glamymommy
This set of Instagram influencers includes the number of monthly unique visitors she has on her social media, which is a great way to show brands your audience growth potential. Her biography includes some information about her education and family, and it’s pretty clear who she is: brands that are marketed to new moms or in the fitness or beauty industry would suit her.
Source: @kayler_raez
This influencer and model’s media kit includes his measurements (good if you’re looking for a contra, as brands can send you clothes that fit you). His biography focuses on his modeling work and the Previous Works section features many of the brands he has collaborated with.