What's a Media Kit & Why Every Influence Should Have One?
If you’re a blogger or desire to be one, one of the first things you must invest your time in is a media kit. A rock solid media kit helps outline your blogs motives, direction, and style to sponsors & advertisers.
Why? With demand must come supply. The average spend on influencer marketing programs in 2016 was more than $51,000 per campaign based on a recent report by RythmOne. Advertisers received 4.4% increase in EMV (Earned media Value) by collaborating with influencers. So as an influencer if you want to get a ride on this hot train, you better spend some time to set up a bulletproof media kit.
1) A New & Improved Resume or business card
It’s your “who, what, where, when, why?” Although not each ‘W’ has to be in your kit, the point is to be able to showcase who you are as a blogger and what your blog is all about in one snapshot. Think about what’s on a resume, add some interesting photos, and a testimonial or five for added credibility; the more the merrier. Businesses will take you more seriously if you have a media kit handy. Click here to check out the top 5 things you have to include in your media kit.
2) Saves Time
Time is money and money is time, and it’s also a luxury that can’t be bought. Your media kit is your time saver. On it, you can showcase your niche or demographics which will help sponsors recognize if they’d like to collaborate with you or not. Businesses will appreciate you saving them the time too. A concise and tasteful media kit that can be understood in one glimpse is exactly what PR and marketing reps will be looking and asking for.
3) Best Foot Forward
It’s no secret that giving a memorable first impression for that job opening will help you stand out from the crowd. Having a polished media kit can instantly tell businesses that you mean business and that you’re prepared. It’s like saying you turned this hobby into a profession. It also shows that you’re dedicated and a reliable blogger, one of the most important aspects as to why these marketers want to do business with you. Professionalism never goes out of style, so when you are stepping forward on your best foot, make sure you have a nice pair of dress shoes to go with it. Click here to check out my live media kit I created via Sidebuy.
4) Numbers Numbers Numbers
Businesses like to see numbers, so numbers they shall get. This is where you can showcase your statistics and be creative with how you display them on your media kit. It can be from the number of current followers on social media or number of visits your blog had in the past month. Of course, the more 0’s you have after the first number the better it is to look at. Don’t be put off just because you may not drive much traffic, that does not mean you don’t bring in effective influence with the numbers you do have. 100 followers with 30 turnovers against 10,000 followers with 10 turnovers sounds like a win to me.
5) To be Heard is to be Known
Like a megaphone, a media kit is a tool to help amplify your reach via emails. Our new IKit assists in this task. What better way to stretch your blogs arms and legs to new opportunities with your favorite brands. Businesses are actively seeking for collaboration with bloggers, and if you don’t have a way for them to reach you, you’ll never grab their attention. As your blog grows, various marketing reps will approach you by asking for a media kit, and being able to send them one in a short span of time is better than ‘wait, I’ll have to pull something together.
6) Terms & Conditions
Get right into the nitty-gritty part of the media kit. This is where you can lay out your terms & conditions, payments, product/service details. It’ll help smoothen out the entire process of discussing business as it can be used to answer FAQ’s that sponsors will question you one way or another. It can also help relieve some stress for you of not having to always remember your own terms & conditions. Also, check out these 10 tips to monetize your blog.
7) Practice Makes Perfect
You should treat your media kit like any other important post you’re creating. Constantly editing and revising your media kit is a good place to practice your aesthetic, design, and writing techniques for your future posts. It helps you review and learn from your past stories, and refine on the upcoming ones. Continuously learning is essential in becoming successful in anything. There’s always room for improvement.
