What is an Influencer media kit?

When courting brands as an influencer, it’s important to note that what you’re trying to sell them is, well, YOU — your personal brand, your social following, and, yes, even your face. In order to be effective in your “ask,” you’re going to need what is known as a media kit. Today we’re going to do a deep dive into What An Influencer Media Kit Is so that you’re good and ready with it when the time comes. Let’s dive right in!

What is a media kit for influencers?

For lack of a better metaphor, a media kit is like your digital business card-meets-resumé-meets-educational pamphlet. It’s where you share valuable details about yourself to businesses that are interested in working with you on brand deals. 

Basically, you’re wrapping up all of the vital information they could want (think: social following, engagement rates, portfolio examples, and brand story) in a pretty, tidy package. It’s where you get the toe in the door as you sell your services. 

But for just a second, let’s take a step back in time. 

If you did well on your standardized tests in high school, chances are you received some beautiful glossy pamphlets from colleges that wanted you to attend (and give them your money). 

Or maybe you once splurged on an extravagant trip, so now you receive brochures from expensive resorts or cruise ships. It could be that you received some literature when you started investigating buying a house in a gated community. 

These are all perfect examples of media kits. 

Now, think back on what they looked like. I imagine they were aesthetically attractive and showcased the finer points of each sales proposition (e.g. the average salary of graduating seniors from a college, the delectable restaurants available on the cruise ships, or the shared amenities and the stats on local school districts for a neighborhood).

What I’m trying to drive home here is that your influencer kit is your primary marketing material. It should be equal parts visually stunning and educational. The whole point is to make brands thirsty for what you, and you alone, have to bring to their proverbial table.

What should be included in an Influencer Media Kit?

In your influencer media kit, you’re going to want to share lots of things including but not limited to case studies from past projects to highlight the sponsored content you did (e.g. a blog post with stellar SEO, a Tiktok video, or a set of Instagram stories). You’ll also want to share about information such as your audience demographics and any additional information about your brand. 

As Timi Nadela says, “Be clear about what you have to offer. Ask yourself beyond basic products or services, what are you really selling?” Show off your expertise, experience, authoritativeness, trustworthiness, aesthetic, and overall vibe.

Let’s dig in a little deeper:

1. The Basics: your personal name, brand name, email, and phone number.

A must have item on your media kit is your full name & contact information. Make sure to put both your email address and phone number in a prominent, easy-to-find spot. You want to make sure the brand can contact you as soon as they want to hire you!

2. Your brand story and bio.

This is a section where you want to talk about what your brand is all about. What is your mission statement? Who are the people you serve? How do you serve them? What makes you uniquely qualified? As the late, great Coco Chanel said, “In order to be irreplaceable, one must be different.”

Talk about your history — your education, your upbringing, your past work lives. Give them a good picture of who you are as a person and what you as a brand represent. Show them why you’re different than all the other voices in the crowd.

If you’re a mommy blogger, talk about your kids and what led you to want to share your journey with other moms. 

If you’re a fashionista, drop names of fashion houses you used to work or intern at, or the photo of you in Vogue’s Street Styles section. 

Or if you’re a recipe developer, talk about your cooking style or the dietary restrictions (e.g. gluten-free, vegan, etc.) that made you want to start teaching home cooks how to do what you do. The point here is to get personal. 

3. ALLLLLL your socials & audience demographics.

Link to all of your channels — your website/blog, your Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest, or YouTube. Make sure you’re giving them a summary of how many followers you have on each channel and your typical engagement rates in addition to links.

If you have a blog (and you should have one), include Google Analytics  information about your page views. Make sure you’re also including any press coverage you’ve received and link out whenever possible. 

Go a step further and make sure to break down your demographics — where do your followers live? How do they identify? What age are they? These are all important data to brands who are trying to target a specific slice of humanity to sell to.

4. Your portfolio.

Link out to past client projects (if you have them). Better yet, include some testimonials from previous clients. This is not the time to be timid. Brag about all the amazing things you’ve done in the past!

This is also a great place to highlight the services you offer. You don’t have to be everything to everyone, but you need to communicate what it is that you DO. How do you partner with your clients? Do you do TV or radio? Do you make content strictly for the brand (UGC) or only on your socials?

Include examples of your work like pictures, blog posts, and/or videos. Make sure you throw in a few photos or videos with your face in them. Again, being an influencer is all about making connections and getting personal, so let the brands see YOU!

As Kimora Lee Simmons so eloquently put it, “All women are goddesses, and it’s just a matter of letting that goddess-power shine — and if you don’t try to be the biggest and baddest damn goddess you can be, you are selling yourself short.” Use your media kit as a mirror to shine your inner goddess out into the world!

5. Last but not least, K-I-S-S!

Remember that acronym, “Keep it simple, sunshine?” Make sure you’re conveying lots of useful information, but keep it to no more than 2 pages. Feel free to link out to supplementary information for clients to dig deeper if they want, but don’t overwhelm them. 

Another great quote from Coco Chanel, “Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.” Show them your elegance by demonstrating a little restraint on your media kit. My advice is to ask for the help of someone close to you to help cross out any extraneous information so you’re only offering up la creme de la creme.

What is the main purpose of a media kit?

A good influencer media kit is full of valuable information. It should speak for you. Put another way, it should make your case when you can’t be in the room when decisions are being made about brand deals. 

It helps advise potential brand partners if you’ve got the target audience they are looking to get in front of. It shows potential clients what your aesthetic is. And, if it’s a really good media kit, it’ll reflect the best parts of you.

As Sahndra Fon Dufe said, “Whatever you are looking for is also looking for you…Be available and ready when it shows up.” On that note, go get your media kit ready. For real.

Pro tip : If you’ve loved this article, sign up for my weekly newsletter HERE. It’s full of industry insights, brand negotiation tips and scripts, events I’m attending, perspective on how to grow your Influencer business and more. I keep it pretty scrappy and real – would love you to join us over there! CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP.

What is an Influencer Media Kit FAQs?

What is the primary purpose of a media kit?

The primary purpose of the media kit is to sell you and your brand. It should tell potential clients why you’d be a great fit for them based on your audience demographics and how successful your past projects were. 

Make sure you use your case studies — those projects are full of important information for potential partners. The media kit should also include links to your social media platforms.

Are media kits still used?

Yes!!! They’re very useful and even if you don’t receive a lot of requests for one, it’s valuable to have one handy. Bonus points if it’s downloadable from your website and available for potential customers or brands who want to hire you.

What are influencer kits?

An influencer kit is another name for your media kit or press kit. These days it’s a digital document, ideally no more than 2 pages that is shared with potential brands who are planning out a future campaign. 

An influencer kit is a way to sell yourself when you’re not in the room where decisions are made. It showcases your experience, your vibe, the types of content and projects that are a good match with your brand and how business owners can get in touch with you. You showcase your company in an influencer kit.

Why is a social media kit is important?

A social media kit (also known as a media kit) is important because it helps tell your story to brands when you’re not in the room. You never know if the person you or your manager has been speaking to will be in the room with all the agency decision makers to sing about why you’re a great partner. Assume they won’t be and make sure all relevant information on your digital media kit can shout from the rooftops about you. 

What is a media kit vs press kit?

A press kit is used to share information and promote an event, an organization, a person or a new product. It tends to be more time-sensitive, meaning that perhaps there’s a date attached about a new restaurant opening or a political candidate campaign launch. 

Oftentimes a press kit will include photos & other marketing materials or media assets to help with the promotion of whatever the press kit is announcing.  Nowadays it’s usually a digital press kit that is emailed out to one’s network which can be shared via a press release. Journalists use press kits and press releases to help them write articles for media coverage. 

A media kit is more like a business card or client portfolio, in the sense that it has contact information about the Influencer and is used to showcase an influencer’s talent and profile when a brand is deciding on a campaign. 

It’s a document highlighting past projects, campaign accomplishments, who your brand is and what you’re all about along with information on your audience and how brands can partner with you. Think of your media kit as a way to get in front of potential partners when they are making talent hiring decisions.

What is a media kit in advertising? What is a media press kit?

A media kit is a digital collection of photos, logos, brand colors and any other digital assets to help promote a brand or Influencer. Small businesses will often have one to help promote their company.

What is the difference between a press kit and a press release?

A press kit is a collection of photos, digital assets, logos and information all located in one place (the press kit) that often times accompanies a press release. A press release is a one-time announcement about something that is usually time-sensitive. By sharing a press release along with the press kit, the person involved is hoping to get the event or person they’re talking about into the news in different media outlets like TV, radio or print.

How to make a media kit? How to make a press kit?

There are two ways to make a media or press kit. The first is to hire someone who can design it for you. If you’re new to being a social media influencer, you want it to be one page. Then, as you grow and do more projects, you can expand to 2 pages. 

The other way to make a media kit is to use a media kit template which can be found on Canva for example (affiliate?). They’ll have free templates that you can use. Don’t worry about it being super fancy or elaborate. Basic is fine so long as you have the important info on it such as contact information, case studies and audience demographics. Definitely make sure you have the elevator pitch of your business. What are you all about? Who do you speak to and serve?

Before you make your own, find another example or two or three media kits. There’s no right or wrong design or layout but I think it’s great to see how others have done it to get some inspiration. Goes without saying, don’t copy them!

What is the most important aspect of a media kit?

I believe the most important aspect of a media kit is your contact information! When you include your phone number and email, double — no, TRIPLE check — to make sure it’s correct. All too often I see or learn about a brand that was trying to partner with a content creator and they had their phone or email wrong. *FACEPALM* Don’t let that be you, mkay?