ASLU 033: Why You Need a Media Kit For Your Creative Small Business

Photo by Ella Jardim on Unsplash

Photo by Ella Jardim on Unsplash

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Editor’s Note: Some links in this article are affiliate links. Full disclosure is located at the end of the article.

In Episode 33 of the podcast regular guest host Heather Travis is back and we sit down to talk about media kits and why your creative small business needs one.

Media kits are often associated with bloggers or digital content creators but they’re a powerful marketing tool all creative businesses should have. But you don’t want to confuse your media kit with a press kit, a rate card or a sell sheet (we’ll talk about those in the episode as well!

Just looking for the resource links for this episode? Scroll right down to the bottom and you’ll find the full list!

Listen To the Episode

Here’s a direct link to Episode 33 - or you can listen via the players below:

What is a media kit?

Let’s start at the beginning. What exactly is a media kit?

A media kit is a document that you can send to potential customers or collaborators, vendors, wholesalers, brands, markets or anyone who needs to understand your business better. The goal of your media kit is to allow you to put your best foot forward and introduct your business to people you would like to work with. It tells them who you are and what your business does along with where you run your business and why you run your business - all while including key hits of information about your business like:

  • who you reach

  • who your target audience is

  • the community you interact with

Your media kit that should work in tandem with your rate card, product sell sheets and press kits. All of these pieces should complement each other and build on each other.

Press Kits, Rate Cards and Sell Sheets

Ok… so what are press kits, rate cards and sell sheets and how are the different from a media kit?

While a media kit is meant to introduce your business to somebody new, it generally doesn’t profile your products or services in detail, or share the costs or rates for those products and services and it doesn’t focus on specific, time sensitive information. That’s where the other pieces come in.

Press Kits

Press kits are usually put together and sent along with a press release to let… wait for it… The Press know about something new with your business that’s time sensitive. These might include:

  • a book release, new product launch, a new album release, a seasonal collection launch, conference or workshop, gallery show or market opening, etc

  • a milestone or special moment for your business like a significant anniversary or an industry award

  • a social initiative that you are spearheading or taking part in like the launch of a charity or fund raiser

  • a major collaboration - like if Target has pegged you for their next fun product collaboration

Press kits will include all the pertinent information to that event or milestone and give a journalist or writer all the information they need to produce a piece for publication or broadcast about your time sensitive moment. You are quite literally trying to get press coverage for something important that’s happening in your business. Your media kit may be sent along as part of the press kit for further background information on your business.

Rate Cards

A rate card is very common in a service based business like digital content creations (bloggers, YouTubers, Instagrammers), graphic design, photography, or copy writing.

Don’t dismiss rate cards if you’re an artist or a maker. If you teach classes or do private commissions, you may still have need for a rate card.

Rate cards outline what you charge for specific services, either a la carte, by package or you may have an item on your rate card for custom work or commissions that doesn’t specify an amount but requests people inquire directly.

Rate cards may accompany your media kit in certain situations but it most cases, you’ll send them out after having an initial “get to know you” conversation with a potential client. Your media kit will usually go out first and you’ll follow it up with your rate card after those first conversations have happened.

Sell Sheets

Sell sheets are almost always for product based businesses although there may be some instances where a service based business will use them as well.

A sell sheet is created for each unique item you sell and it’s meant to present to wholesalers and retailers to give them all the information they need about that product before determining whether or not to carry it. It might include things like the UPC number, the wholesale price, the suggested retail price and projected margins, the frequency with which people may purchase it, colour or flavour options, etc.

If you’re presenting to a brand new wholesaler, retailer or market space, you may also include your media kit with your sell sheets as a way for your potential customer to get to know you better.

How Long Should Your Media Kit Be?

Most media kits are in the one to two page range but they can be as big as 25 pages. It all depends on what you do and where you do it. They’re usually served up in PDF format but you may want to have a few printed to give to people at certain meetings.

Your media kit can be tweaked and you can send different versions out to different people. Think of it as a resume that you tailor depending on what job you’re applying for. In some cases, you might want to send a very concise 1 page kit out and in others, a more in depth 5 page kit might be a better idea.

What Goes In Your Media Kit?

One of the keys to a good media kit is making sure you collect the right information to put in it!

There is certain information out there about you that’s easy to google like, how many social media followers you have. And while you will want to include those stats, you don’t want them to take up a ton of real estate on this short document. What you do want to focus on is the info that’s not easy to google:

  • it’s easy for anyone to see how many Instagram followers you have but what’s not easy to see is what your engagement rate is with those followers so include that: how many followers engage with your posts, your stories, your reels or your IG lives. (not how many people see them but how many actually interact with them and how they interact. The same goes for your other social accounts.

  • basic contact info (spell your name right!)

  • logos of brands, clients or retailers you have worked with or markets you have taken part in or galleries you’ve appeared in

  • awards or accolades you’ve received

  • a very brief bio

  • logos of publications or broadcasts you have been featured in or on.

  • deeper insights into who your followers, customers or clients are: location, age, income brackets, are they parents or grandparents? Are they single? Are they professionals? Entrepreneurs? Stay at home moms? Do they have pets? What kind of car do they drive? Do they drive at all? Are they urban or suburban? Are they eco-conscious? Budget conscious? Do they want to be wrapped in luxury?

  • Newsletter stats including your list numbers and your open rate (these are not easy to google!)

  • Average amount a customer spends with you if they buy things from you and the price range of your products.

  • How many repeat customers you get

  • Demonstrate what all this information means to the people looking at your kit. Yes, you have 30K Instagram followers but so what? Yes, you did a gallery show but how many paintings do you sell? And to who? What does all the information mean to the person looking at your kit? Connect the dots for them so they don’t have to do it themselves.

  • What makes you special?

Not Sure Who Your Customer Is?

Sign up here for the And She Looked Up newsletter and get our free Customer Avatar Worksheet to help you define who your customers are and then you can start working to ensure your branding, your marketing and your media kit all support your work!

Keep it Concise and Visual

As we’ve mentioned, media kits are short on real estate so you want to keep them concise and as visual as possible (and if you are a visual artist of any kind, please make your kit visually appealing!). Use an image to demonstrate a point rather than words. Instead of typing out how many social media followers you have, use logos and numbers. Use logos of the companies you’ve worked with or the publications you’ve been featured in.

Use graphs or charts to demonstrate numbers. Have beautiful imagery of your products or art in use. Include a professional head shot. Think of it almost as a Power Point presentation - if you had to present your media kit through a slide show at a conference, would you fill it full of dense text? No! You’d use highly visual, bite sized pieces that get your point across!

The visual appearance of your media kit should match who you are as a business, a creative and a brand. This is very important, particularly in the artistic or creative field. Make the recipient “feel” your work.

Be Aware of the Language You Use In Your Media Kit

When real estate is at a premium like it is in your media kit, the written language you do use is very important. Use it to paint a picture. The example we mention in the episode is for somebody selling expensive paintings they might say their clients are investing in their homes or they’re house-proud or they are looking for investment pieces. Those words can conjure up a very specific type of person.

Update Your Media Kit Regularly

While nobody expects you to update your media kit daily, it is important to update it regularly - quarterly is a good guideline! An outdated media kit can make you look like you don’t take your business seriously or appear unprofessional (even though it just might mean you’re very busy!).

You can put a note in the footer with the date the kit was last updated.

If you have experienced some type of event that has caused your social following to jump dramatically or your sales to sky rocket, update your kit immediately and perhaps mention that in your kit and what caused that big leap!

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collaborate with purpose

a media kit can help you kick start purposeful collaborations!

When Do You Send Your Media Kit Out?

Media kits generally aren’t sent out en masse. It’s usually something you’ll send out upon request from a potential client, collaborator, advertiser, retailer, journalist, conference organizer, a podcaster etc. It’s a way introduce your business but also a way to respond to similar questions quickly, professionally and on brand.

Getting Help Making Your Media Kit

If you’re not sure where to start with your media kit there are lots of places to get help. You can hire a professional (I help people create their media kits - you can always hit me up!) or you can find a wealth of templates online from resources like Canva, Etsy or Creative Market.

WARNING: if you use a pre-made template make sure you alter it enough to reflect your branding. Templates are based on trends - your branding should not be. If your branding, logo and whole look and feel are bold, bright and colourful, your media kit shouldn’t be muted pastels. You want your media kit to scream who you are visually so don’t fall into the trap of current branding trends, however pretty they may be!

There are lots of examples of media kits online - simply google “media kit for photographers” or “media kits for lifestyle bloggers” or “media kits for artists” and you’ll find lots of example. You can also try looking on Pinterest for ideas.

You can also reference this article over on the site of my other business, Food Bloggers of Canada, where several bloggers generously offered up their media kits for inspiration. The piece is older and the media kits likely look much different now but it will give you an idea of different ways you can lay your information out!

And remember your media kit will evolve as you evolve and that’s perfectly normal and expected!

Resources mentioned In the episode

This site is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for the site to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites. This site is also a Canva affiliate.

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Podcast EpisodeMelissa Hartfielsmall business, media kits, marketing, Y1S2Comment