A brand just emailed you. They want to collaborate.
The first thing they'll ask for (or the first thing you should send without even being asked) is your media kit.
What you send in that moment tells the brand whether they're working with a professional or someone who will accept whatever they offer. And brands love the latter.
Most creator media kit templates floating around the internet are missing the most important page: the one that tells the brand what you charge. This guide is a section-by-section walkthrough of a complete creator media kit template, including the rate card half that most guides leave out entirely.
What Goes in a Media Kit vs. a Rate Card
A media kit and a rate card are two distinct documents that often get combined, and that combination is worth understanding before you build anything.
Your media kit is your professional profile. It introduces you, your audience, your platforms, and your performance metrics. It answers the brand's question: "Who is this creator, and does their audience match ours?"
Your rate card is the pricing page. It answers a different question: "What does it cost to work with her?"
Many creators send one without the other. They send a beautiful media kit with no pricing, which invites the brand to anchor the conversation at whatever number they had in mind. Or they send rates with no context, which gives the brand no reason to value the work.
The most effective format combines both. The media kit builds the case for your value, and the rate card closes it with a number you can stand behind.
The Creator Media Kit Template: Section by Section
Section 1: The Cover Page
Your cover page is not decorative. It is the first 10 seconds of your pitch.
Include:
- Your name or handle
- A professional photo or branded image
- Your platforms and follower counts
- A one-line description of what you create and who for
Example: "Lifestyle and wellness creator — 83K TikTok / 131K Instagram — helping women in their 30s build habits that actually stick."
That single line tells a brand your niche, your platforms, your size, and your audience. That's four questions answered before the brand turns the page.
Section 2: Your Audience Metrics
This is where most media kits either oversell or undersell. Brands are not primarily interested in your follower count. They care about your audience's behavior and composition.
Metrics that brands actually care about:
- Engagement rate — the percentage of your audience that actively responds to your content. Brands compare it against creators of a similar size in your niche, so show it even if it isn't high.
- Audience demographics — age range, gender split, top locations. Pull these directly from your platform analytics. If most of your audience is women aged 25–34 in the US, that's the line you lead with.
- Average reach per post — this is more honest than follower count, and brands know it.
- Platform breakdown — if you're active across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, show each platform's metrics separately. They are separate audiences and separate deliverables.
Pull these numbers from your native analytics and screenshot them or enter them manually. Updated numbers matter. A media kit with January's stats sent in October reads as someone who hasn't paid attention.
Section 3: Content Showcase
Three to six examples of your best branded or brand-adjacent content. High-quality images or screenshots. If you have prior paid campaigns, include one or two with brand logos visible — with permission or where the content is already public.
If you haven't done paid brand deals yet, include organic content that demonstrates your brand aesthetic. Brands are evaluating whether your content looks like something they'd be proud to have their name on.
Section 4: Previous Brand Partnerships
A simple logo row or brief list. You don't need to include deal terms or performance metrics here — this section signals that you've done this before and that brands have trusted you.
If you're newer to paid work, skip this section rather than padding it. A blank section is better than one that raises questions.
The Rate Card: The Pricing Half of Your Kit
The rate card is where most media kits stop being useful, and it's exactly where yours needs to be specific.
A rate card is a separate document — or a dedicated final page of your kit — that lists your deliverables, your base rates, and your add-on pricing. It should be formatted as a professional PDF, not pasted into an email body.
Base Rate Table by Deliverable
Here's what a complete rate table looks like for a mid-tier creator on Instagram and TikTok:
| Deliverable | Rate |
|---|---|
| Instagram Reel | $2,800 |
| Instagram Feed Post | $1,450 |
| Instagram Stories (3-frame set) | $850 |
| TikTok Video | $2,000 |
Selah's benchmark rates are calibrated against published 2026 pricing guides, including Influee and Hootsuite.
These are base rates. They cover content creation, your audience, and one round of revisions. They do not include add-ons.
Add-On Pricing
Add-ons are where most creators leave real money behind. A brand that wants usage rights, exclusivity, or the right to run your content as a paid ad is asking for something that goes well beyond a single post. Each of those things has a price.
Usage Rights The right to repurpose your content in brand-owned channels (website, email, ads) is priced as a percentage of your content fee per month. Paid usage rights — where a brand runs your content as an ad from their own account — run 40% of your content fee per month. For a 90-day term, that's 53% of your fee added to the total.
Whitelisting / Spark Codes When a brand runs ads directly from your account, you're not just licensing the content — you're lending your name, handle, and credibility to their ad spend. Whitelisting is priced higher than standard paid usage, because the brand is paying you to absorb the reputational cost instead of them.
Exclusivity If a brand asks you not to work with competitors during or after the campaign, that restriction has a fee. Thirty days of exclusivity typically adds 30% to your base rate. A 90-day window adds $1,100 on a base rate of $2,800.
Link in Bio A link in bio placement directs your audience to the brand's site for a set period. That's high-conversion real estate and should be listed as its own line item: 10–15% of your rate per month.
Rush Delivery If a brand needs content inside a week, that disrupts your schedule and compresses your creative process. Rush delivery adds 50% of your content fee.
A Real Deal Breakdown
A complete quote, with every variable accounted for, looks like this. Creator profile: 100K Instagram followers, lifestyle niche.
Brand ask: One Instagram Reel + three Stories, 90-day paid usage rights, 30-day category exclusivity, link in bio for one month.
| Line item | Amount |
|---|---|
| 1× Instagram Reel | $2,800 |
| 1× Instagram Story | $850 |
| 1-month exclusivity | $1,100 |
| 3-month paid usage rights | $1,500 |
| 1-month bio link placement | $420 |
| Total | $6,670 |
Without the add-ons, this creator might have quoted $2,800 and called it done — leaving the usage rights, exclusivity, and bio link unpriced. The line-item breakdown is how you show a brand exactly what they're getting, and why the total is what it is.
Build a rate card brands will respect →
How to Position Yourself as a Professional
The way you present your media kit and rate card tells the brand how to treat you in the negotiation.
Send a PDF, not a Google Doc link. A PDF signals that your rates are considered and final, not a draft you're hoping they'll approve. A Google Doc suggests you built it 20 minutes ago.
Separate your media kit from your rate card. You don't have to send your rate card with every initial outreach. For cold pitches, send the media kit first and include rate card on request or in your second message. For inbound inquiries from brands, send both together — they already want to work with you.
Date your rate card. Include a "rates current as of [month, year]" line at the bottom. This gives you a natural reason to update it, and it signals that your rates are based on current market data, not a number you pulled from thin air three years ago.
Don't include a rate range on the rate card itself. A range invites the brand to anchor on the lower number. State your rate. If a specific deal warrants a conversation about scope, have that conversation separately.
Selah is built for the creator side: you should be paid what you're worth, and your media kit should say so clearly.
Sending Your Kit: Timing and Format
Send your media kit before you negotiate, not after you've already quoted a number verbally. The kit is the context that justifies your rate — it's much harder to walk a brand through your audience metrics and deliverable quality after the conversation has already anchored somewhere.
File size matters. A media kit PDF should be under 5MB so it doesn't get flagged by corporate email servers. Compress your images before exporting.
If a brand asks for your media kit and you don't have one ready, don't send a half-finished version. Buy yourself 24 hours ("I'll send that over tomorrow with the most current stats") and build it properly. A rushed kit can do more damage than sending nothing.
For a practical starting point on what metrics to include and how to present your audience data, the guide on what to include in a media kit covers the full picture. And if your primary platform is YouTube, the YouTube media kit guide covers the subscriber-specific metrics that brands actually use to evaluate YouTube integrations.
Once your kit is built, the rate card is the piece that does the heaviest work. It's the document that converts a brand inquiry into a negotiation you're ready for. Selah builds that PDF automatically — from your deliverables, your add-ons, and your rates — so the number you send to a brand is the same number the pricing logic says you should charge.
Build a rate card brands will respect →
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a creator media kit template include? A complete media kit includes a cover page, audience metrics (engagement rate, demographics, reach), a content showcase, previous brand partnerships, and a rate card with base rates and add-on pricing. The rate card is the most commonly missing section.
How is a media kit different from a rate card? Your media kit is your professional profile — it introduces you and your audience to brands. Your rate card is the pricing document that lists what you charge per deliverable and what add-ons cost. They work together: the kit builds the case for your value, the rate card closes it with a number.
What metrics do brands actually look at in a media kit? Engagement rate, audience demographics (age, gender, location), and average reach per post carry more weight than follower count alone. Brands also want to see platform-specific data if you're active on more than one.
Should I include pricing in my media kit? Yes. A media kit without pricing invites the brand to anchor the conversation wherever they want. Including a rate card — as a separate page or attached PDF — keeps you in control of the opening number.
How often should I update my creator media kit? Update your metrics at least every three months, and review your rates every six months or whenever you land a deal that pushes your market rate higher. An outdated kit with last year's follower count signals to a brand that you're not actively managing your business.