“I’m interested in sponsoring your channel — can you send me your media kit?”
If you’ve been a YouTuber for a while (or an Instagramer, Snapchatter, or Blogger), you’ve probably heard this. If you haven’t got this email yet, chances are, you will soon.
You might not have a media kit yet, so you just send interested sponsors the relevant numbers (like total followers, or views in a month) via email. Or maybe you’ve got a media kit, but you aren’t sure if it’s up to par. Don’t worry — we’ll cover all that and more:
What exactly is a media kit?
A “media kit” (also called a “press kit”) is a document that contains all the relevant information on your brand. Often, advertisers will request it before spending money with you as a sponsor, but it’s also a good idea to have it available for anyone to download on your site. If someone is covering you or your business on their own site or in an article, they’ll often look for a press kit to pull quotes from and get extra background (without having to do a lengthy back-and-forth with you via email).
What goes in a media kit:
Your media kit will cover everything that someone unfamiliar with you would want to know. You should talk about why you got started and what topics you cover (if you have a specific niche within the beauty industry like sensitive skin, or if you tend to focus on tutorials over reviews, for examples). If your primary focus for the media kit is to educate sponsors, then you’ll want to include an example or two of companies that have sponsored you before, and any results of the sponsorship. A good formula for a basic case study to put in your media kit is:
- Background on the sponsor and why they approached you — what drew them to you, over any other channel/blogger
- How you worked together (did you do a one-off post or a campaign of several, integrate their products into your existing posts, do a discount code for your audience, etc.)
- The results (number of clicks/visits to sponsor site, number of sales, if you have that data)
- A quote from the sponsor on the campaign
You’ll also want to include a few examples of previous features or media mentions — showing that other blogs and outlets have written about you boosts your credibility to potential advertisers.
Example media kit outline:
- Title page
- Introduction to you and your blog/brand/business (headshot, logo, a few sentences on what you cover and why, your “origin story” — why you started doing what you’re doing)
- Your publishing schedule — how often you publish, what days you publish, if you have any ongoing features or columns
- A “previously featured on” and “previous sponsors” page
- A one-page case study of a previous sponsorship page, if you have it
- Your brand statistics (see below)
- Sponsorship rates
Stats to include:
The hard and fast facts you should include in your media kit:
- For bloggers: Pageviews and unique visitors per month, averaged over the last 3-6 months
- For YouTubers: Subscribers, number of total views, average number of views per month, minutes watched per video (you can learn where to find all of these stats in our two articles on YouTube analytics)
- For other social media influencers: Number of followers, average number of new followers per month, average number of likes/retweets, average number of impressions per day/week
- For everyone: Reader demographics, major traffic numbers, social followers and subscribers (Facebook likes, Twitter followers, Pinterest followers, email subscribers), most popular posts/videos
How to create a professional-looking media kit:
You can use Canva to create a media kit (using their presentation template) for free, or buy a template from someplace like Etsy or CreativeMarket if you want to make extra-sure the design will look professional. Once you have a template, you simply put in the ingredients as outlined above and voila: media kit.
Want some inspiration? Here are some example roundups:
- 20 example blog media/press kits for your inspiration, via the Blog Maven
- 30+ blog media kit examples, via Katy Widrick
- 10 inspiring media kits from bloggers, via Blog Clarity
Your next steps:
Ready to get started on your media kit? Here’s your homework:
- Collect your statistics to include in the kit
- Write up your introduction and publishing schedule
- Choose a template from Canva, Etsy, or Creative Market
- Put your information and stats in the template
- Put the media kit on your contact and about pages
And of course, if you want to keep getting more tips on taking your lifestyle business to the next level, make sure to sign up for updates:
