Last week we talked about product trade partnerships and I gave my tips and tricks for those partnerships. There are definitely benefits to those partnerships and I fully believe that you shouldn't count them out. There's always room for negotiation, adjusted deliverables, and ongoing partnership. Remember that if you don't ask, the answer will always be no.
This week, I wanted to build on our conversation and deep dive into the world of media kits.
What is a media kit? It's a blogger resume essentially. It's a way to showcase your creativity, talent, metrics, and rates associated with your content creation across your engaged channels.
Where do I get a media kit? You can hire someone to make you one like my friend, Melanie Smith, or you can make one in applications like Canva depending on your bandwidth and creativity. I created mine in Canva with one of their many templates and I go in at the beginning of every month and update it with brand partners, metrics, and every few months I update prices where are applicable.
What do I put in a media kit? As mentioned above, it's a resume of sorts. However, you definitely want to communicate your brand and your visual content capabilities in your kit as well. I made mine two pages and included my baseline prices broken down to start conversations with brands as well. Below are the bones of mine to give you an idea.
What should I leave out of my media kit? My advice is to keep it easy and breezy. Whether you're entering into a product trade partnership or a paid partnership, you're asking your contacts to engage in business with you - so act like it.
When do I send my media kit? Sometimes a contact will ask for your Media Kit and sometimes you have to bring it up. It really depends. But as I've mentioned before, if you wouldn't send an email to your boss don't send it to a potential business partner. Have a nice introduction to why you're sending your Media Kit such as in the middle of the email after you have a greeting portion, "does your team have a budget for paid partnerships? I have attached my Media Kit for your team's review." This opens the floor to negotiate deliverables, potential payment, and deadlines.
One of my biggest tips for negotiating (all of which will be covered in the next blog post in this series) is to look at yourself, what you offer, and real ROI for potential business partners. Whether you're charging $100 or $1,000, is a company paying you that much money going to yield results for them and be mutually beneficial? If you're not going to drive website visits, clicks, and potential sales, you need to take a step back and examine your branding and how you're relating to your audience. Everyone thinks they deserved to be paid and it's because you work hard to create content! But to be able to charge money for content deliverables you need to be able to make your case. That's why it's important to have metrics on your Media Kit.
There's a lot that goes into the backend of blogging and it can definitely be overwhelming! It's important to remember that it's okay to slow down, take a breather, and practice self-care. You're going to find your way and you're going to grow your blog. All of these posts will always be available on my page for reference and as always, I'm here to answer any questions! Happy blogging ladies!
