We often help our clients hire influencers who can organically promote their products and bring more online awareness to their brand. You might think your following is too small to be an influencer, but in the age of micro-influencers, that’s not true. People are more likely to buy a product from someone they know and trust. And brands aren’t as concerned with the number of followers as they are the engagement you get out of those followers, which has a direct connection to how much your followers trust you. If you only have a couple thousand followers, but 50% of them are consistently commenting on and liking your posts, you could be a highly effective influencer. How can you turn this dedicated following into paychecks? Perfectly curated pitches to brands you love. Let’s work out how to do it.
Media Kit
Creating a media kit should be your number one priority if you want to pitch yourself to brands as an influencer. In the same way that you would take a resume to a job interview, you need a media kit to pitch to a brand. What's a media kit, you ask? Here we go.
A media kit is a compilation of what you bring to the table as an influencer. It will include your values and goals, all of your social media stats, and any past influencer work you’ve done … see, just like a resume. But because we are working solely in the digital world, your media kit needs to be designed in a way that looks great and supports your personal brand.
A great place to design a media kit is Canva.com. They even have preset media kit templates. If you already have your own set of brand colors and fonts, make sure to use those in your media kit. If not, head to websites like Coolors.co for color inspiration and Typspiration.com to get font ideas.
Here’s a basic list of things to include in your media kit:
Bio: This should be no longer than a paragraph. Make sure you include what you do, who you are, and what your goal is as an influencer. This is your chance to show off who you are and what makes you unique from other influencers.
Number of Followers: Be honest. Do not fudge this number. You will get caught, and no one wants to work with someone who starts out telling a fib.
Engagement: (Average # of Likes + Comments)/Followers x 100
Ex. If you have 2,000 followers and you get an average of 250 likes per post plus an average number of 15 comments per post, your Engagement would be 13.25%. (We know; it's a lot of math, but you can do it.)
Who is your Instagram audience? This stat is called “Demographics”. This will include a few things that can be found in the Insights section of your Instagram profile.
Which gender makes up most of your following?
What age group makes up most of your following?
Where do most of your followers live?
These can be listed in text form, but we suggest creating an eye catching infographic. Here’s an example of ours.
Weekly Impressions: You can find this in your Insights section too, under the Accounts Reached tab. This helps brands know how many people on average are seeing your post and stories. If your engagement number is lower than you'd like, but your impressions are high, adding this metric is a great way to boost your media kit.
BONUS TIP 🔥: If you also have a blog, website, Facebook page, or other platform where you get a lot of engagement, include all the metrics listed above for those platforms in your media kit. Some brands will be interested in being featured on these platforms as well. Influencing goes well beyond Instagram.
Past Campaigns: Your media kit should also include any past influencer campaigns you’ve been hired for. List every brand you’ve worked with, but also highlight a few that were particularly successful. Make sure to list the the engagement level you had on past campaigns. When a brand sees that your audience has connected with you in the past, they’re going to want to take the chance on you with their brand.
If you haven’t done any past influencer campaigns, never fear. Try listing some positive reviews you’ve received from your followers. Do people consistently comment that they bought products you posted about? Mention that in your media kit!
Contact Information: Be sure to list your email, phone number, and social media handles in a separate section. Don't think that just because they're listed in a separate part of the document that people will remember them. You want to be very easy to get in touch with.
Brand Research
Picking the right brand is half the battle. Scroll back through your instagram feed. What do you post about most? Always showing off your new outfits? Pivot your brand research to the fashion industry. Lots of makeup tutorials? Look for makeup and skincare brands. After you compile a list, you need to pair that list down to brands that have similar values to yours. If sustainability is important to you, remove brands from your list that don’t make sustainability part of their platform. The more values and interests that line up between you and a brand means a more likely partnership.
Do some digging on the brand's website to find the contact info and name of the brand's PR/Marketing Coordinator. If your email can be addressed to a person, (instead of a general submissions email address or a DM) it's much more likely to be read. Plus, you will show your attention to detail by going that extra step. Oh, and pleeeaaase spell their name right.
Introduction Email
This is the big moment. The email is the pitch. And it starts with your subject line. Make sure your subject line includes your name and a CTA. Engage them immediately.
The next step is to introduce yourself. In a few sentences, sum up who you are, what you're passionate about, and how those passions led you to discovering this brand. If you can connect your passions to the brand, you will have an easy transition to talking about what you love about the product/brand. Make sure you mention how your values align with the brand's values. Have you used the product before? Let them know! Tell them unique details you love about their product that others might not notice. They will appreciate the time you took to engage with their product.
End your email with another call to action. Ask them if they'd like to discuss starting partnership with you. Maybe mention that you have a first time collaboration rate you'd love to share with them if they're interested. Even though you have your contact information in your media kit, be sure to put it either in the last paragraph of your email or in your email signature. Don't forget to attach your stunning media kit (as a PDF, not a word document or jpeg).
Now Go Influence!
This may seem like a lot of work, but the beautiful thing is after you've built your media kit and done your research, pitching yourself to brands will be a breeze. Remember the tips in this article, and you'll be sure to be making worthwhile partnerships in no time. You've got this.
