The ultimate guide to creating an Instagram Media Kit that works in 2021
There’s no doubt about it: if you want to work with cool brands, you need to have a kick-ass media kit.
Why? Your media kit is the main tool to show yourself, your work, and its results in the best way possible. If you pay attention to detail and present yourself professionally, you will stand out from the crowd and show brands you are serious about your activities as an influencer.
Brand collaborations will follow. Pinky swear!
This guide is packed with actionable tips and will teach you everything you need to know. We’ve done all the research, so you can focus on creating your own killer Instagram media kit that will get you brand collaborations.
Pro-tip: don’t skip our pro-tips, as they are filled with truly valuable tidbits. Trust us, if they weren’t, we would have just called them ‘tips’.
Let’s dive right in!
Table of content
- What is an Instagram media kit?
- Why do you need a media kit?
- Do micro-influencers also need a media kit?
- Why do brands want a media kit?
- What should you include in your media kit?
- What should you never include in your media kit?
- How do you create a media kit that will get read?
- What are the best tools to create your media kit?
- When to use your brand new media kit?
1. What is an Instagram media kit?
A media kit is like a resume for your Instagram career. It is a document that tells brands everything they need to know about you, your achievements as an influencer, and key Instagram stats.
Like a resume or CV, it can be as short as one page or multiple pages long. This will depend mainly on how much experience you have as an influencer. An Instagrammer who just started out will have a one-page media kit, while a creator who collaborates with many brands will have a longer one.
2. Why do you need a media kit?
It’s actually quite simple: if you want to collaborate with a brand, you need to have a media kit. Just like you wouldn’t have an Instagram profile without a bio, you shouldn’t apply/look for a brand collaboration without a media kit.
It makes you look professional, and it shows brands why they should work with you. Look at it as your opportunity to shine. Together with your introduction email, it is an essential tool you can use to show yourself to brands in the best way possible.
Let’s be honest, who doesn’t want all of the above?
3. Do micro-influencers also need a media kit?
Absolutely, yes!
Media kits are less common amongst smaller influencers, so they are guaranteed to have an impact. Especially for smaller creators and influencers, as they are a great way to make yourself stand out from the crowd.
A professional-looking media kit will show brands you are serious about your Instagram career and brand collaborations. It shows them you are a good match and have the potential to grow and develop, which makes you worth the investment. It might even make you a brand ambassador in the long run!
4. Why do brands want a media kit?
There are basically two main reasons why brands ask influencers and creators for their media kit.
Firstly, brands want to be sure that the Instagrammers they are partnering with align with their views on creativity and their values.
Secondly, brands want to be sure that your audience and their target audience overlap. When brands invest in influencer marketing, they want to be sure that your audience is active and likely to respond positively to what you’ll be posting about on their behalf.
Brands want to invest in influencers that are relevant and actually reach potential customers – and not just anybody – in a way that suits the brand’s image. Therefore, they want to confirm that you are a match.
5. What should you include in your media kit?
- Your contact details
This may seem trivial, but you’d be surprised how many influencers forget to mention their key contact details. Make sure to include the basics like your email address, phone number, physical address, and of course your Instagram handle.
If you have a good-looking website or blog, or you have other social channels that you’re proud of, you can also include them.
Pro-tip: don’t forget to update your media kit regularly, especially if you move or change your phone number!
- About yourself and your Instagram page
Just like your Instagram bio, your media kit’s bio is extremely important.
It is probably the first thing that brands will read when they scroll through your media kit. Your bio should show who you are, what you stand for, what you are passionate about and what your Instagram goals are. Not an easy task! But the better a brand or marketer knows you and what you stand for, the more they will want to work with you, and the more successful the partnership will be.
Try to keep it short as well, so that it’s accessible to read. We recommend keeping it between 40 and 100 words (if you prefer to count characters instead of words, that’s around 240 to 600 characters). By comparison, on Instagram itself, you only have 150 characters at your disposal.
- Instagram pictures and a picture of yourself
This is your chance to showcase the best pictures on your Instagram feed. Give brands a feel of your visual style and show off your talent.
Make sure to also include a headshot of yourself in your media kit, even if your Instagram feed does not normally feature pictures of yourself. While pictures of interiors, plants, or cars showcase your niche and aesthetic and generally what your Instagram feed is about, it doesn’t show who you are as a person. And in the end, we all like to put a name to a face.
- Instagram stats
Brands want to know what they get in return when they work with you, so they will want to know your key stats. Include your up-to-date follower count and your average engagement rate.
Don’t worry if you don’t have many followers. Follower numbers are not the most important number for brands, many care more about the personal engagement you have with your community. Don’t know what your engagement rate is? It is the percentage of followers or viewers that like or comment on your posts.
Plus, depending on their goals, budget, and product, some brands will want to collaborate with very big influencers like Charli D’Amelio, but some would prefer to work with smaller creators. It’s all about finding a good match.
Pro-tip: your media kit will look less cluttered when writing 8K followers or 8000+ followers, instead of 8273 followers. Both tell the same story, but the first one looks easier on the eyes.
Bonus pro-tip: read up on engagement and the benefits of working with micro-influencers, so you can incorporate some of this wisdom and use it to your advantage in future brand deals!
- Audience demographics
For brands and marketers, audience demographics are the most important part of your media kit.
Once you have piqued the interest of a brand, they will want to know whether your followers are the type of people they want to reach. Brands want to be sure that there is an overlap between your followers and their audience.
That is why the more specific you are, the better. List where your followers are located, how old they are, and what percentage is male or female. Or include screenshots of your Instagram Insights.
Don’t know where to find this data? Or don’t have access to it? If you switch to an Instagram Business Profile, you’ll have all of the above and more at your fingertips – literally!
- Past collaborations
If you’ve already worked with brands in the past, you should definitely include some examples in your media kit.
Sharing past collaborations gives brands an idea of how you work with brands and what you can do. You can share some examples of sponsored posts or content you created for a campaign. Or share a shortlist with logos of brands you worked with.
If you can, include some results of your campaigns. How many comments or likes did your sponsored post or story receive? Including these stats will show a brand how professional you are, and that you care about making an impact for them.
If you don’t have any previous experience, don’t worry, just include some images from your feed to show the brand your work and aesthetic. Everyone has to start somewhere!
- Collaboration options and pricing
Good news! If brands get to this part of your media kit, it means they are really interested in collaborating with you.
That means they will want to know in which ways they could collaborate with you. And what you expect in return.
Collaboration options include – but are not limited to – event attendance, content creation, seedings or barter campaigns, ambassadorships, CPI deals, affiliate programs, brand mentions, sponsored posts, sponsored stories, IGTV, Reels, TikToks, product reviews, giveaways, and social media takeovers.
If you have more creative ideas on how to work with brands, make sure to mention them! Brands are always looking for fresh and new ideas to cut through the noise.
Give brands enough options to choose from, but don’t include collaboration ideas you don’t enjoy doing. It will show in the end result when you are less enthusiastic about a collaboration, making both you and the brand unhappy.
Per collaboration option, mention how much you charge. While this might feel uncomfortable at first, brands prefer to know what to expect. So it is best to be upfront about it.
Pro-tip: always make sure you keep some room for negotiation. If brands want to get a package of multiple posts and stories, they will expect a discount on the total price. When you already list your absolute bottom line in your media kit, this will be impossible.
Bonus pro-tip: be specific and transparent in your pricing! Does your rate include tax or not? How about travel expenses?
- Anything else that makes you stand out
Do you have a solid website? Have you been featured in the press recently? Do you have other social channels where you have built an engaged audience? Do you have your own product line? Are you a good writer? Are you an expert in your niche?
Consider adding any skills or additional channels you have to your media kit that can add value for brands you want to work with.
However, do not include extra info just to include extra info. Ensure that you only include info relevant for brands, which will increase your value as an influencer. While you might enjoy putting videos of your holiday trips on Youtube, it is probably not interesting for brands to know that you have 15 subscribers on Youtube – even if one of them is your very hip and tech-savvy grannie. Go grannie, though!
- Terms and conditions
Do you have specific terms and conditions for collaborations? Then it’s best to mention them straight away. For example if you want to keep the intellectual property rights of content produced, or you want to delete Instagram posts from your feed after a certain time period, or if you have specific requirements in terms of payments.
This way, you are sure not to waste your own time or the brands’ time, and you are both on the same page if you do decide to collaborate.
- Last updated
Last but not least, include a ‘last updated date’ in your media kit, mentioning the month and year you last changed your media kit. This way brands know the information in your media kit is up-to-date.
Pro-tip: make sure to update your media kit (at least) every couple of months 😉
6. What should you never include in your media kit?
What should you never include in your media kit?
- Fake information
Whether it is fake follower counts, inflated engagement rates or collaborations that never happened, lying on your media kit is always a bad idea.
With tools like Social Blade, it takes brands only seconds to check if you are faking your stats.
In the long run, being dishonest will seriously hurt your reputation. Brands might blacklist you, or you might get kicked off influencer platforms. Or as your mother might say: “The truth will always outrun lies.”
- Too much or irrelevant info
Media kits should be short, to the point, and most of all relevant for brands who want to work with you. Don’t bury the good stuff under a pile of irrelevant information.
While you can definitely mention that you already collaborated with 27 brands, there is no need to list every single one. Rather, pick the two collaborations you are most proud of, and show the impact you made for these brands.
Pro-tip: after you have written all the copy for your media kit, read it again and think critically: is every single sentence helping you tell your story, and does it convince a brand to work with you? If that’s not the case: cut it out.
- Typos
Yes, this might make us sound like Captain Obvious – or even worse, your English teacher – but we will tell you anyway: make sure to thoroughly check your media kit for typos and grammar mistakes.
As with resumes, typos are a big no-no in media kits.
Pro-tip: ask friends or family to do a final check before you send out your media kit into the world.
7. How do you create a media kit that will get read?
An unprofessional, cluttered or messy design is the easiest way to make sure marketers will never read your media kit. First impressions are everything, and this is no different for media kits.
Your media kit should match your online personality. It needs to look professional and feel like it is made by one and the same person. The easiest way to make your media kit consistent with your overall Instagram aesthetic is by using the same style, tone, fonts, and color palette as on your Instagram feed.
You can get as creative as you want. There really are no limits, as long as your media kit reflects your personal brand and style.
8. What are the best tools to create your media kit?
Now that you know what should go in your media kit and how it should look like, it’s time for the fun part: designing it!
There are multiple options, depending on your skillset, patience, or how much time you have.
- DIY: design it yourself
If you are gifted with design skills, Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator are great tools. They allow you to completely personalize your design according to your personal brand and style.
Don’t own Photoshop or Illustrator? No worries, there are plenty of free tools out there you can use! Online tools like Canva or Figma are easy to use and they have freemium versions that let you export your work to pdf for free.
Or you can simply use a program you probably already have on your computer, like PowerPoint or Keynote. While these programs may not be the most versatile tools, they will get the job done. The best part? No need to waste time figuring out how everything works, as you probably already know how to use them!
- Use a template
A quick google search will yield many results for media kit templates – some free, some for the price of $10 to $30. If you decide to go for a template, make sure to choose a template that will fit with your overall Instagram aesthetic.
Pro-tip: don’t use templates from the first page of Google results, as those are the templates everyone uses!
- Outsource
You can also have it professionally designed. This will ensure it looks professional and polished and will make you stand out from the competition.
A quick google search can put you in contact with designers in your area, or you can use an online designer marketplace such as 99 designs.
Whatever option you choose, make sure you will be able to update your data easily in the future. There’s no point in having a designer make you a beautiful media kit in Photoshop if then you have to use old-school Paint to update your stats because you cannot edit the document.
Pro-tip: no matter how you create your media kit, make sure to export the final version to PDF format, so everyone can open your file.
9. When to use your brand new media kit?
Hold your horses! Once you have finished your media kit, it’s time to celebrate. We recommend a piece of chocolate cake with a candle on it for these types of occasions.
And then it’s time to get back to work: turn that media kit into brand deals!
So what’s next? First of all, upload your media kit to your Dropbox or Google Drive, or email it to yourself, so you can access it anytime, anywhere. You never know when an opportunity may arise.
Then, send out your media kit to brands when they reach out to work with you. If you’re active on a marketplace for influencers, you can also upload it there. Finally, you can also proactively send your media kit to brands you would like to work with. But that’s a whole ‘nother topic.
Final pro-tip: Does the idea of making a media kit make you feel like you’re about to climb Mount Everest? A.k.a. a tad overwhelming? Let us help you out!
Influo has a unique ‘autofill’ media kit template that uses API to collect your data – only with your permission, of course. That way, you don’t have to fill everything in by hand, you still have complete control over your stats, and you can set up your professional Instagram media kit in a jiffy.
On top of that, this feature is completely free for all creators, big or small, just like the rest of the Influo platform.
Sign up now to start making your media kit!
