Latest / Influencer Confidential / What Brands Actually Want to See in Your Media Kit in 2027 #316

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What Brands Actually Want to See in Your Media Kit in 2027 #316 · Influencer Confidential

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Influencer Confidential by Sidewalker Daily. My name is
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Speaker 1: Nina Zeta and I will be your host. I love
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Speaker 1: working with brands and influencers on all things business strategy.
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Speaker 1: Are you ready to learn what it takes to work
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Speaker 1: in this influencer industry and see behind the curtain? Well,
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Speaker 1: let's jump in. As someone who has seen hundreds and
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Speaker 1: hundreds of media kits coming from the brand side, deciding
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Speaker 1: if I wanna work with a creator, and also someone
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Speaker 1: who is a co-founder of a design studio of Media Kits.
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Speaker 1: I am going to share with y'all what brands really
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Speaker 1: want to see in Media Kits in the coming year,
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Speaker 1: moving forward and beyond, because I feel like there is
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Speaker 1: so much outdated information all over and people are just
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Speaker 1: kind of winging it. And the creator economy has changed
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Speaker 1: a lot. Since we first got started in it, and
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Speaker 1: fun fact, we were one of the first people ever,
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Speaker 1: literally ever, to write a blog post on the keyword
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Speaker 1: media kit. Even just the other day, I got an
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Speaker 1: email from many chat or someone being like, let's make
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Speaker 1: a media kit. And I was just like, this industry
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Speaker 1: has changed so, so much. Even though we are experts
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Speaker 1: here in the creator economy, I feel like it's really
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Speaker 1: important for y'all to understand that there is no guru,
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Speaker 1: there is no one way to And really the best
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Speaker 1: way is based on data and testing. One of the
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Speaker 1: things we always pride ourselves in Sidewalker is helping you
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Speaker 1: guys critically think, right? Obviously we have expertise. We like
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Speaker 1: to share that expertise, but then we want you guys
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Speaker 1: to take what we share and test it. Try, flex, move,
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Speaker 1: because everyone's businesses are different. And I think that's important.
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Speaker 1: There's no cookie cutter way. And that's why we've never
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Speaker 1: sold media kit templates because everyone listening is different. And
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Speaker 1: everyone has a different angle to add. And everyone has
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Speaker 1: different slides that they may need. Everyone's media kits are
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Speaker 1: going to look different, right? And anyone that tries to
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Speaker 1: sell you just like a one-stop shop cookie cutter thing,
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Speaker 1: to me, it's just that ain't it. In Sidewalker Daily land,
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Speaker 1: design matters. And I have to be upfront about that.
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Speaker 1: And that's not why we have a design studio. We
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Speaker 1: have a design studio because of the demand that we
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Speaker 1: saw come that people are like, oh my gosh, like
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Speaker 1: I want custom beautiful design assets to use to sell. Okay.
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Speaker 1: So let me drive that point really hard. A media
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Speaker 1: kit is not for your friends. It's not for your family.
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Speaker 1: It's not for your follower. It's for someone to see
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Speaker 1: and decide if they either want to work with you,
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Speaker 1: if they want to get on a call with you,
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Speaker 1: and ultimately if they want to pay you. So for us,
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Speaker 1: a media kit is a sales tool. It is a
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Speaker 1: revenue generating asset. It makes you money or it doesn't, right?
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Speaker 1: Like that's how serious we see media kits. Now you
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Speaker 1: can try a media kit that is poorly designed, see
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Speaker 1: your conversions, and then see one that has strong design
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Speaker 1: elements and see your conversions. Because what my goal here
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Speaker 1: at Sidewalker Daily is, is to get you guys a
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Speaker 1: response when you're sending pitches, or if you're at a
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Speaker 1: conference to get a brand to want to work with you,
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Speaker 1: or if a brand hits you up and you send
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Speaker 1: your deck, they now want to get on a call
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Speaker 1: with you. It is a sales tool. It is psychological
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Speaker 1: and design matters. Now let's talk about what we want
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Speaker 1: to put inside this media kit moving forward. based on
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Speaker 1: our expertise and our understanding of what we think works
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Speaker 1: the best. Rule number one, because this is an asset
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Speaker 1: that your follower does not see, that your community doesn't see,
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Speaker 1: that no one really sees, and it is written for
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Speaker 1: marketing directors, social media managers, people that are on the
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Speaker 1: influencer marketing team, whatever, it needs to be done with
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Speaker 1: them in mind, not your follower in mind. So this
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Speaker 1: should live throughout the entire process of your media kit.
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Speaker 1: So what do I mean by that? Instead of saying
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Speaker 1: things like an about me page, right? Like I love
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Speaker 1: travel and I was a teacher for 13 years and
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Speaker 1: I really enjoy sharing with my audience about, you already
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Speaker 1: lost me, right? You want your about to be like,
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Speaker 1: if you had six sentences to get the attention of
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Speaker 1: the person on the marketing side about wanting to know
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Speaker 1: who you are, strategically and intentionally, how would you mark
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Speaker 1: that about, right? Speaking about your audience authoritatively, speaking in confidence, right?
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Speaker 1: So your copy needs to be more confident all across
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Speaker 1: the board and really direct about who you serve and
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Speaker 1: what you do. If you're listening and you're like, well, Nina,
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Speaker 1: I don't have a following or my following is small,
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Speaker 1: look for that cumulative stat, right? So like maybe saying,
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Speaker 1: and in the last 30 days, I've generated over 100,000
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Speaker 1: views and counting. or we've gone viral this month. Every
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Speaker 1: single area of your media kit should be written and
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Speaker 1: made with the fact that this is going to the
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Speaker 1: people on the marketing side, right? Even simple things like
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Speaker 1: having a slide where you show your short form video.
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Speaker 1: You know, recently we had creators even get a little
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Speaker 1: bit more bold with their headers. Instead of saying things
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Speaker 1: like portfolio, right? They're saying sample short form content brands love.
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Speaker 1: Like speak to them in that way, right? So that
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Speaker 1: is one of the biggest pieces of advice I could
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Speaker 1: give you leaning in to your media kit. It is
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Speaker 1: a sales tool. So use copy. That is really strong
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Speaker 1: and shows your professionalism and your competence in your work.
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Speaker 1: You want to make sure your media kit is easy
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Speaker 1: to scan. No one reads, right? It is like skimmable quick.
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Speaker 1: The idea here is you send a pitch. You're like attached.
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Speaker 1: You'll find my media kit with Examples of past partners
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Speaker 1: and content I can produce for you all. They click
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Speaker 1: the media kit. They're not going to go and sit
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Speaker 1: and read your life story, right? They're going to do
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Speaker 1: a quick scroll, quick, quick scroll. So things need to
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Speaker 1: be scannable. There needs to be font that really stands
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Speaker 1: out in terms of maybe a statistic or a number, visual.
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Speaker 1: We're talking images and visuals on every single page. page, right?
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Speaker 1: Then if they're interested in you, they're going to go
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Speaker 1: do a second round through and read, you know, the pieces.
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Speaker 1: But the very beginning is a quick skim, y'all. Is
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Speaker 1: it built to skim? And that's why so many people
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Speaker 1: get so shocked when they look in our course and
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Speaker 1: they're like, oh my God, your media kit, some of
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Speaker 1: them are 10 pages. Like what? And I'm like, you guys,
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Speaker 1: it's not 10 pages of a written essay or a thesis.
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Speaker 1: A lot of it is content. It is such a
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Speaker 1: visual experience, right? We have very minimal, you just where
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Speaker 1: it needs to go. You are a content creator. You
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Speaker 1: are an influencer. You're someone selling content. It needs to
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Speaker 1: feel visual, right? So take your time to be able
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Speaker 1: to build that visually. And if you guys are visual learners,
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Speaker 1: by the way, and you want to see inside media
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Speaker 1: kits I have designed to build your own, I will
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Speaker 1: leave a link to our pitching program below. It's our
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Speaker 1: Pitching to Brands Master Course. We have Tons of media kits, portfolios, proposals,
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Speaker 1: case studies, mood boards, all of that. This is our
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Speaker 1: program that teaches you how to build media kits from scratch.
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Speaker 1: So if that's interesting to you and you need to
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Speaker 1: see examples, you can go ahead and check out our
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Speaker 1: program for more. One of my favorite things of a
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Speaker 1: media kit nowadays is having slides depending on when you
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Speaker 1: want to use them, right? That doesn't mean you need
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Speaker 1: to send out the big kit all the time. So like,
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Speaker 1: let's just say you are working with a brand and
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Speaker 1: they specifically asked you for UGC. right? And they don't
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Speaker 1: want to know about your book or the other things
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Speaker 1: that you may have. Those may be slides that you
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Speaker 1: want to remove for that one pitch that you're sending
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Speaker 1: if they come to you and you're responding to them, right?
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Speaker 1: You may want to have different versions. Maybe you have
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Speaker 1: a media kit that is for your lifestyle work, one
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Speaker 1: that is for your travel work, right? So you can
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Speaker 1: have multiple media kits as well that are customizable depending
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Speaker 1: on who you are sending that media kit to. You
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Speaker 1: want the brand that receives it to be able to
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Speaker 1: have an aha So if you pitch the Four Seasons
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Speaker 1: and all of a sudden you're sending them a deck
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Speaker 1: with all these beauty photos, they're like, I don't get it.
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Speaker 1: Why are you sending me this? So you don't want
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Speaker 1: to have thousands of media kits, right? But you do
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Speaker 1: want to have at least a few different versions depending
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Speaker 1: on the industry and category you are pitching. Another thing
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Speaker 1: that so many media kits are still missing is linkable content.
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Speaker 1: I recently saw a media kit of a YouTube creator.
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Speaker 1: There were no thumbnail examples, no videos that I could
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Speaker 1: click and watch. You're making it extra for the client
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Speaker 1: to have to go and research you. So if you
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Speaker 1: have a slide on your media kit that's like sample
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Speaker 1: YouTube videos, put four thumbnails, make them clickable, and that
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Speaker 1: way the client can access the content they need right away. Now,
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Speaker 1: when it comes to talking about your audience, you guys,
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Speaker 1: obviously the more information you have about your human, the
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Speaker 1: better outside of the standard analytics that the platforms give you.
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Speaker 1: I will say I really love like cumulative data. I
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Speaker 1: think brands like to see like a big picture too.
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Speaker 1: If they want print screens and they want screenshots, they
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Speaker 1: will ask you for them. I don't think this is
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Speaker 1: the place to do so. Again, screenshots are not very visual,
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Speaker 1: nor are they exciting to see in a deck. I mean,
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Speaker 1: it's just kind of a bit of an eyesore. But again,
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Speaker 1: if they ask you for them, you can provide them.
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Speaker 1: You create a Google folder that has those updated screenshots.
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Speaker 1: The deck is being used in outreach to get the
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Speaker 1: brand to respond. If you need to supplement with screenshots,
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Speaker 1: you can always do that. Now, one thing I've had
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Speaker 1: a lot of creators in my inner circle community do
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Speaker 1: a little bit more of is do more surveys to
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Speaker 1: their audience. The more you know about your audience, the
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Speaker 1: more information you can add to your media kit. So,
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Speaker 1: you know, asking them, guys, like, what are some of
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Speaker 1: your favorite hobbies? What are things that you love to do?
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Speaker 1: Did you guys go to college? We call these psychographics.
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Speaker 1: You can even do these through just polls on Instagram stories,
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Speaker 1: learning about your human so that when you have an
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Speaker 1: audience slide, in your media kit, you can really speak
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Speaker 1: about your human with data, with numbers. We even had
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Speaker 1: an influencer send out a survey being like, would you
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Speaker 1: guys like quickly fill this out? I'm dying to know
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Speaker 1: about you guys who follows my page. I've grown so much.
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Speaker 1: And she said that people actually filled it out. Now
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Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be a crazy Google form, but
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Speaker 1: just like a couple of questions. Now this is going
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Speaker 1: to give you insight on who your human is. It's
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Speaker 1: really great data for you to even use to pitch
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Speaker 1: to brands. and it's information you can use on your
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Speaker 1: audience slide in your media kit. So the more you
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Speaker 1: know about your person, the more dynamic your audience slide
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Speaker 1: is going to be. Don't forget, guys, media kits get
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Speaker 1: passed around in agencies. So if you are sending a
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Speaker 1: PDF version, make sure it is compressed so it can
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Speaker 1: go through the emails. Make sure you have your contact
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Speaker 1: information on the last page or somewhere in the deck.
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Speaker 1: So if they're looking to reach out to you, you
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Speaker 1: may send your media kit to someone and someone else
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Speaker 1: ends up reaching out. You wanna make sure you have
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Speaker 1: your contact information in there because again, people are always
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Speaker 1: forwarding things around. You do not want to come off
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Speaker 1: as a hobbyist And that is why design is so
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Speaker 1: critical in the deck. Now, if you have testimonials from
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Speaker 1: past partners, include them. If you have results from anything
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Speaker 1: that you can, make that case study. If you have
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Speaker 1: strong examples of content that have converted well for someone
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Speaker 1: else or a past partner, all of it, include it,
10:37
Speaker 1: include it, include it. Because here's the thing, your media kit,
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Speaker 1: the whole point of it in outreach is what? To
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Speaker 1: get a response. So Your story is going to be
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Speaker 1: very different than your neighbor's story. And it is a
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Speaker 1: positioning game. And don't let the number of pages stop you, right?
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Speaker 1: You may need more pages to tell your story, but
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Speaker 1: that doesn't mean including your life story and a bunch
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Speaker 1: of texts, right? It just means like creating a space
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Speaker 1: where your media kit does not confine you, but allows
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Speaker 1: you to actually present yourself. I did just want to
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Speaker 1: mention also, if you guys are Amazon influencers or affiliates,
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Speaker 1: or if you have or if you sell for yourself,
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Speaker 1: you can also include that in your media kit. I
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Speaker 1: recently had a business owner who has a full-on business
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Speaker 1: and now she's doing brand deals separately with her personal brand.
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Speaker 1: And I was like, let's include some business stats from
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Speaker 1: your business of like what your business has generated and
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Speaker 1: like how many units you've sold of your own product.
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Speaker 1: Because if you're selling millions of dollars in your own product,
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Speaker 1: it shows you know how to sell. So we wanna
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Speaker 1: include that in our deck. And that's why, guys, you
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Speaker 1: have to think critically about yourself and how you're gonna
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Speaker 1: be able to add value to your media kit and
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Speaker 1: your client. We're all different. So making sure that piece
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Speaker 1: of you stands out in your deck. I'll end on this.
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Speaker 1: If you had a resume and you had a past
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Speaker 1: job experience that wasn't bad, you're probably not gonna include
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Speaker 1: it on your resume, right? It goes with your media kit.
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Speaker 1: This is a sales tool. If you have 300 followers
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Speaker 1: on a platform and you're not gonna even sell it,
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Speaker 1: don't include it. Only include what is going to make
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Speaker 1: you shine, what is going to make you stand out,
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Speaker 1: And what is going to make you get a response?
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Speaker 1: Like I said, y'all, if you need support on anything
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Speaker 1: media kit, whether it's us designing it for you, or
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Speaker 1: you want me to audit your current media kit, anything
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Speaker 1: like that, go ahead and get on a call with
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Speaker 1: our success manager. She will share with you about our
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Speaker 1: design studio. She'll share with you how I can get
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Speaker 1: involved in your pitching. If your media kit's good to go.
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Speaker 1: and support you. We want to help you guys. This
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Speaker 1: is what we do. This is our life's work and
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Speaker 1: we can't wait to work with you. One of the
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Speaker 1: things we pride ourselves on in Sidewalker Daily are our testimonials,
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Speaker 1: you guys. We don't run any ads. So our whole
12:36
Speaker 1: business is word of mouth, right? And referral based. And
12:39
Speaker 1: I just got a few testimonials in for our design
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Speaker 1: studio team. You guys know we create custom media kits
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Speaker 1: here at Sidewalker Daily. They take so much time. There's
12:48
Speaker 1: so much work, but they are so very gorgeous. And
12:51
Speaker 1: our clients are always happy. And I wanted just to
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Speaker 1: share with you some testimonials that came into my inbox
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Speaker 1: this morning. Working with the Sidewalker team on my media
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Speaker 1: kit was hands down one of the best decisions I've
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Speaker 1: made for my brand. I am absolutely in love with
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Speaker 1: every aspect of it. I can proudly say that my
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Speaker 1: media kit now reflects my work beautifully. It's professional and intentional.
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Speaker 1: From the design to the color palette and the content
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Speaker 1: and layout, every single page feels purposeful and editorial. It
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Speaker 1: truly captures my brand at a luxury level and positions
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Speaker 1: me exactly how I've been wanting to show up in
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Speaker 1: the world. Clarice is an absolute genius at what she does.
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Speaker 1: She understood my vision. She elevated it beyond what I
13:30
Speaker 1: could have ever imagined. And the process was so enjoyable.
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Speaker 1: If you are serious about your brand, and you want
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Speaker 1: to be positioned at a higher level, investing in a
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Speaker 1: professional media kit with the Sidewalker team is a no brainer.
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Speaker 1: They took mine to the next level. Thank you guys again.
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Speaker 1: I am so grateful. This was Lisa Gay Shakespeare, a
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Speaker 1: client of ours who is amazing and obviously loved her
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Speaker 1: media kit. We also got this testimonial from Petra. Working
13:54
Speaker 1: with the Sidewalker team was an amazing experience. The entire
13:58
Speaker 1: process was so clearly outlined. The team was extremely pleasant
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Speaker 1: to work with. I couldn't be any happier with my
14:04
Speaker 1: new media kit. Clarice was always so thoughtful, what was
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Speaker 1: important to me, and it really came through in her
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Speaker 1: final design. I could have never achieved this on my own.
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Speaker 1: They took away so much stress and guesswork off my plate,
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Speaker 1: really turned my media kit into a masterpiece representation of
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Speaker 1: my brand. This is a no brainer, you guys, if
14:23
Speaker 1: you want to take your business to the next level.
14:26
Speaker 1: I love how both testimonials I just shared use the
14:28
Speaker 1: word no brainer. These are women who have invested in
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Speaker 1: their assets and they're pitching in their brand and now
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Speaker 1: have a media kit they feel confident sending out. So
14:36
Speaker 1: if you need support with custom design, you're busy, you
14:39
Speaker 1: don't have the time, you want to pitch and you
14:42
Speaker 1: want to make money, right? Because this is an investment,
14:45
Speaker 1: one that is going to pay off when you start
14:47
Speaker 1: using it, go ahead and get on a call with
14:49
Speaker 1: our success manager. Tell them what you're looking for. They
14:52
Speaker 1: can tell you how we can support you. And we
14:54
Speaker 1: just can't wait to work with you. Design is something
14:56
Speaker 1: that means so much to us here at Sidewalker. And
14:59
Speaker 1: we look forward to having you as our next testimonial.
15:02
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you did, make
15:05
Speaker 1: sure to rate, review, and subscribe to our show and
15:08
Speaker 1: visit sidewalkerdaily.com for more resources on all things influencer marketing
15:14
Speaker 1: and social media. Until next time.