If you’re a blogger, aspiring or professional, here’s why you need a media kit as part of your blogging tools and resources.
One of my favourite things about blogging is the ability to collaborate with other bloggers and brands that share the same values and interests as I do. I’ve had the opportunity to partner with some amazing companies so far, including Sephora Canada and Vancity Credit Union.
So how do you land these collaborations? Well, there are many ways to do it: outreach on social media (literally, slide into their DMs), emails, maybe even a soft referral! But regardless of how you do it, you’ll always need one thing once you get their attention… a media kit! Along with your partnership pitch, your media kit acts as support and evidence as to why they should want to collaborate with you.
Enter the media kit.
What is a media kit
A media kit is a 1 or 2-paged document that lists key information about you, your blog and your brand. It’s a modern day business card, if you will, that answers who you are, what your niche or specialty is, and most importantly, why other bloggers and brands should want to work with you.
It can be as simple or elaborate as you make it—ideally it should be a reflection of what your brand is—and most frequently includes an image of you (so people know who you are) and a few images from your blog or social channels.
Skip straight to the good stuff and download my free media kit template
What your media kit must include
So on that note, here’s the information I strongly recommend you should include in your media kit if you’re a blogger:
- Your blog’s name
- Your blog’s tagline
- Your blog’s logo
- Your picture
- A short bio (anywhere from one sentence to a short paragraph); be as fun or as silly as you like—this is where you can let your personality shine!
- Who are you?
- What experience do you have?
- What makes you unique?
- Blog statistics:
- Monthly unique pageviews
- Average time on site (i.e. how long a user spends reading your articles)
- Audience demographic (i.e. female vs. male ratio)
- Social media statistics:
- YouTube
- Brands you’ve worked with in the past
- Contact information
- Phone
- Optional: Mailing address (This isn’t mandatory if you’re concerned about privacy however I’ve found this to be helpful)
What your media kit could include
I’m on the fence about this information; there are some situations that call for it and some that don’t, so I end up tailoring my media kits per pitch and opportunity. That being said, here’s more information that you can also choose to include in your media kit:
- Expanding on the brands you’ve worked with in the past, what type of partnerships were they? What type of opportunities did you work on (i.e. was it a sponsored blog post or did you go away on a media trip?)
- What services do you offer and what are your rates per service? Do you offer packages?
- Do you offer any advertising on your website?
- Are there any more statistics that are worthwhile sharing? For example:
- Number of email subscribers
- Engagement rate
- Audience interests
- A one-liner elevator pitch explaining what you can offer and why you’re the best person to work with.
As I mentioned above I don’t like including that information in my media kit unless the situation calls for it. Instead, I include it in my personalized pitch in the body of the email. That way I can tailor each piece of information for the blogger or brand I’m pitching.
Skip straight to the good stuff and download my free media kit template
How do you make a media kit
The first part is finding inspiration. What do you want your media kit to look like? How are you going to integrate your brand colours? Are you going to make your media kit one or two pages?
Pinterest [insert link to my board] is an amazing place to start and I’ve seen so many amazing documents to pull elements from. Tools like Canva and Pages (the Mac equivalent of Word) also offer standard templates, although I’d strongly advise using these documents as a basis for your media kit but changing significantly. Lots of people use these without any changes at all and the last thing you want is for your media kit to look exactly the same as hundreds of others. You can also purchase a template from Etsy—these ones are great—again, just remember to tinker with them a bit so yours is unique.
Once you’ve figured out what you want your media kit to look like, then you have to make it! I started with a template and adjusted it in Photoshop. Canva is also an amazing free tool that allows you to make 99% of the edits you would on Photoshop. My only issue is that you can’t set up marking tools or gridlines to ensure all your elements are aligned.
So, after tinkering around, here’s what I made. What do you think?
This used to be one of my earlier media kits. I spent a few hours tinkering around, and landed on a layout I really liked. Now I’m giving this template away to you FOR FREE.
All you need to do is click on the link below. You can thank me later for this time saving hack, and maybe even send your friends my way. Now go on and get pitching!
