As a blogger, you need a media kit or press kit if you want to introduce yourself to various companies and PR agencies. But what exactly do the companies want to read? What better way to introduce yourself to a company than as a blogger? Always assuming the company or PR agency wants to work with bloggers. But how to introduce yourself in the best possible and real way in a media kit? What does the reader of the media kit expect?
For my blogger workshops and blogger trips that I have recently organized for companies with a fashion bloggers and lifestyle bloggers, I have requested from various bloggers each in Media Kit. I didn’t expect to run into a major problem with this, as many bloggers haven’t needed a Media Kit yet.
However, when I see which companies the bloggers already work with, I honestly have to ask myself if these companies actually don’t care what reach a blogger has? Because as a blogger you are measured by your visitors and followers and additionally by the blog design and the external presentation. Some companies unfortunately still use the principle of “Who knows who can blog…” and it is simply invited without sense and reach for the brand.
Since I have to justify costs (e.g. for hotel nights and meals) for the blogger trips and blogger workshops that I organize and conduct, the reach of the blogs should be corresponding. If a blog has only 10 or 20 blogposts online, it is of course more difficult to recommend a blogger than a blog that has already written 100 blogposts and ten reports on the topic or for products in the direction.
For the introduction of the bloggers I submitted the media kits and it was very noticeable how many differences became visible. Also reaching me were statements like “… I had to present a “MEDIA KID (?!)” to a company and first had to look up what it is”. Although I won’t offer you a direct template here, I can give you a few pointers for your own media package.
Sure there are two or three templates for media kits for bloggers available on the internet, but if you get an identical media kit from twenty or thirty fashion bloggers, the reach and followers are almost identical – it still becomes hard to distinguish. A media kit is meant to showcase the blogger, not offer a copy of another blogger. Just like you don’t copy the blog layout 1:1, you shouldn’t do it with the media kit either.
Your media kit is there to showcase your blog and you. The customer wants to get an idea of you and your blog. Similar to an application, you advertise yourself as a blogger in the media kit (regardless of whether you are a food blogger, fashion blogger, travel blogger or lifestyle blogger).
Therefore, it is up to you how you present yourself. What you want to put in the foreground and what is rather incidental for you. You are so unique in this world that I would advise you to adapt your media kit also by design to your style itself. There is no mandatory design and no rules for a media kit, but there are some things you can use as a guideline.
Media Kit for Bloggers
What belongs in a regular media kit and what items you need for your media kit, whether online or offline, you will find in the following points. It is not a mandatory requirement, but just a thought guide – regardless of whether as a media kit for a fashion blogger or travel blogger.
Image – Profile picture for Media Kit
First of all, you should have a nice picture of yourself. One where you can look into the eyes (without sunglasses). Ideally, it should also be your profile picture, to generally strengthen the recognition value on the Internet.
Choose a picture on your blog, which presents you well, with which there may be you on Facebook – people want to remember the blogger and connect something with it. The image is the first impression I get when I work with bloggers not yet personally known.
Description – Blog & Blogger
Introduce yourselves and the direction of your blog in a short descriptive text. If you want to target many companies abroad, you should write your media kit directly in English or offer it in two languages in perpetuity.
Your professional background, age, blog age and blog orientation are interesting for readers. How often do you blog? What are your main topics? Always keep in mind that many companies have many media kits in their hands every day and employees also have little time to read every text completely.
It’s all about facts and not a long essay on the first page. If I want to learn more about the blogger, I can find it later in the media kit or visit the blog directly and save the blog under favorites.
Visitors – Unique Visitors
Thanks to Google Analytics it is possible to get information about your blog readers. Of course it is interesting for companies to know how well known your blog already is.
Here you enter the Unique Visitors (number of people who come to your blog in a month – no matter how many pages and how often they come by) and Visitors (here returning visitors in a month are counted). The “Time on Page” also shows how long each visitor spends on your site on average. The “Pages per Visit” shows how many pages an average user clicks on.
If you want to give meaningful numbers, then you should give the last months in numbers. It is not bad if your blog is also declining once. Weather, new blog design, switch from Blogger to WordPress and vacation periods can have a serious impact on your blog traffic.
Also the ratio of female/male, as well as the age structures are crucial for many companies. The Page Rank is not changed by Google and loses more and more importance.
A blog that has only been online for twelve months and already has 10,000 visitors a month can have a different message for the company than a blog that only has 10,000 visitors even after three years.
For blogger cooperations with companies, I also like to look at how the blogger and the blog are developing. I also like to suggest a smaller blog that has potential and is “special”. Rather trust the blog a little and grow together as a company with the blogger.
Social media followers
It is quite interesting how many followers and fans you have collected in the various networks. How much power do you have as a blogger in your community when you share a piece of information with your followers. Even though the importance of some networks, such as Facebook, Google+, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat is always hotly debated, you should always include them in your media kit.
Of course, values like Klout or Kred are just as important for companies. If I want to market a very expensive product and use bloggers, of course you have to consider if a blogger with 10,000 followers in the 12-16 age group is more important than another blogger with 2,000 followers in the target group for the product e.g. between 28-38 years old.
An example would be e.g. also with a higher follower number, as on my blog a product like camping tents could be presented worse than on an outdoor blog with 20% of my reach.
In addition Bloglovin gets a higher and higher value for many companies. For blogs at Blogger.com it was GFC (Google Friend Connect) for a long time, but since more and more big blogs have switched to WordPress, Bloglovin numbers in the media kit are certainly no mistake.
Previous cooperation partners and target group
Specify your previous collaborations to make your target audience understandable. You can also provide and show example collaborations here. Have you attended any special events? Which brands are you particularly proud of and what are your goals? Which brands can you credibly and authentically convey to your readers without it seeming contrived.
It’s perfectly normal for the number of “testimonials” on the blog to grow longer and larger, and for your media kit to grow over time. Just make sure that the testimonials and examples only appear in the back of the media kit.
Many companies want, just like me, when I select bloggers for blogger workshops, blogger collaborations or blogger trips, also first get a quick impression with numbers and then get to know the interesting bloggers, also by examples.
Photos, texts and also information about the cooperations. How many words did you write, how was it shared, how often was the blogpost read. Be transparent in the mediakit – as a company or consultant you do not have much time per blog, the more points already explain themselves, the better.
Further education and experience
Of course, any kind of further education is also interesting for companies. For example, do you have experience with SEO and know how to make a blog post well findable on Google? Have you perhaps also been on blogger journeys? Maybe a magazine or newspaper has already reported about you and recommended you? Maybe you were already active as a speaker or there was a TV feature with you?
If you are a beginner and still have little experience – just want to learn it too, it is also no problem. Also I could not answer many things in 2010 or the references were not yet available, but with time the field is growing and it is no disadvantage to have old examples in the media kit. Companies also like to see that the blogger has developed – and if there are pictures with pink hair, then stand by it…. 🙂
Size for the media kit – PDF file or JPG or DOC
A frequently asked question is always – in what format should I create the media kit or even send media kit. Usually the PDF format is used, especially if the media kit contains a lot of pages. The option to save the files in PDF format is offered by Word, PowerPoint, Excel, as well as Open Office or Pages for MAC. Often this option is not created at “Save as”, but under the option “Export”.
There is no golden rule for the file size in PDF format. You always just have to consider how big you yourself would like to keep the file. Many companies and employees work more and more mobile and if a media kit needs 30MB for 4 pages, you should urgently check the format. There are several programs or plugins to save your PDF file of the media kit smaller.
One rule is actually, the media kit should not be larger than 10MB. Many files are sent by email and should not slow down communication unnecessarily. If employees of PR agencies need half an hour after the weekend to download all the files, they will certainly not be very motivated to call up your kit.
How many pages your media kit should contain – is not specified anywhere. For some fashion bloggers and travel bloggers one single page is enough, other bloggers have many examples in the kit and so it can be 8-12 pages (or like me even more…) 🙂
Publish prices for advertorials in the media kit?
Some bloggers specify fixed prices for advertorials in their media kit. It is not a must to negotiate prices already in a media kit. As with any other application in real life, salary is always an interesting topic. Also, approximate prices for advertorials or videos are difficult to present. If one gives a “from … to…” value, the partner naturally wants to get the favorable value.
Rather, offer the partner different packages separately if interested (e.g. blog post without or incl. social media sharing, etc.). However, if you should not make a difference between a small online store and a big brand, then of course you can give your prices directly in the kit. Please remember that your links to companies that have paid for them are always “No-Follow”, so you won’t be penalized by Google.
If you offer banner advertising space, you can of course also specify and explain it here. Since it is here alone about the clicks and ads, you can call the prices here of course also directly. Many companies consider to book the space monthly, for a fixed amount or based on CPC (cost-per-click) or CPM (cost-per-thousand-impression). These options (CPM/CPC) are primarily interesting for large blogs and magazines. The price can also be neglected in the media kit.
Excerpts from the Media Kit directly on the blog
A frequently asked question – should I display my media kit completely or in excerpts on the blog transparently. This, of course, you have to weigh for yourself. I used to have my media kit transparent for download on the site with all kinds of examples and also numbers.
Gradually, however, my package was downloaded more and more and I got “thank you notes” from other bloggers – “how nice your kit is – I’ve made my media kit the same now, thanks for the help”. This email came within a few months from some bloggers (just from the travel blogger segment), so I decided to produce a new kit and only publish excerpts for the companies directly transparent on the website and like to send the whole package immediately by email.
The advantage of direct numbers is of course that companies can immediately get a first impression how your reach is or if you just fit for the target group without having to request a media kit in a roundabout way first. I also like to quickly look at a clearly discoverable page where I get all the information about the blog and the blogger, before I first request all the examples by email.
The downside of being transparent is of course, not only companies can see and estimate your numbers and reach, but also other blog readers. Some PR agencies decide directly on the basis of numbers that may not correspond to the idea and would then perhaps reject you, even though the media kit contains great examples.
You will never get it 100% right for the different collaborations and therefore it is simply your decision how you want to present yourself and your blog. It’s your blog and your work and you can only decide for yourself how you want to present yourself.
Personal Blogger Media Kit
As a blogger you don’t necessarily need a media kit, but it is advisable to offer a media kit if you want to earn money with your blog and get out of the hobby status. How to present yourself is of course up to each blogger. Some bloggers are very good at self-staging and self-promotion – others are often surprised at how professional they appear through a media kit.
Especially in recent months, one notices with many cooperations always directly, the blogger is prepared and works professionally or the blogger presents itself interesting to the outside – does not know the matter at all. Upon request, many bloggers directly receive the media kit in a short time sent, other bloggers need 10-14 days – and then send a page as a Word file.
However you design your media kit, I wish you a lot of fun blogging.
