Ahh, the media kit. You know you need one, but you've been putting it off. What exactly goes in a media kit? More importantly, what makes brands actually want to work with you?
A media kit is your professional portfolio as a content creator — your resume, your portfolio, and your rate card rolled into one document. When done right, it positions you as a serious business partner, not just someone with a phone and a ring light.
The difference between creators who land premium brand deals and those who don't often comes down to presentation. Your media kit is frequently the first impression a brand gets of your professionalism. Make it count.
Quick answer: A strong creator media kit includes your bio and key stats, audience demographics, engagement metrics, content examples, brand collaboration history, and a clear pricing section. The pricing section is where most creators undersell themselves — and it's the one part that determines whether brands treat you as a vendor or a partner.
What Goes Into an Effective Media Kit
Bio and key stats
Your opening section tells brands who you are and why they should keep reading. Include a short professional bio (2–3 sentences), a headshot, your primary platform and follower count, and the niche or category you create in. Keep it tight — brands are reading dozens of these.
Audience demographics that matter
Brands don't buy your following. They buy access to your audience. The more specific you are here, the more confidence you give them:
- Age breakdown: not just "18–34" but actual percentages per age group
- Gender split with percentages
- Top geographic locations at city and country level
- Household income or purchasing behavior if your analytics surface it
- Interests and behaviors beyond your niche category
Skip the generic "my audience loves lifestyle content." Instead: "68% of my audience shops online weekly, with 45% purchasing beauty products monthly based on social media recommendations." The more your audience description reads like a brand's target customer brief, the easier the yes becomes.
Engagement metrics beyond follower count
Follower count gets your foot in the door. Engagement metrics are what sell the deal:
- Average engagement rate across your last 30 posts
- Story completion rates and story engagement
- Comments-to-likes ratio (a signal of audience quality)
- Save rates on feed posts (signals content utility)
- Share rates (signals viral potential)
Present these as percentages, not raw numbers. "4.8% average engagement rate" tells a cleaner story than "2,400 average likes on a post."
Content portfolio
Show 6–8 of your best posts from the last 90 days. Include a mix of formats (Reels, carousels, Stories), a mix of organic and sponsored content if you have both, and variety within your niche. Don't cherry-pick only your viral content — brands want to know what they can realistically expect, not your best-case outlier.
Brand collaboration history
If you've worked with brands before, this section builds credibility fast. Include brand names you've partnered with, campaign results when you have them (engagement rate, click-through, traffic driven), and the type of partnership (gifted, paid, long-term ambassador).
New to brand deals? Skip this section for now — a blank collaboration history is better than a fabricated one. Your audience quality and content portfolio carry more weight than most new creators realize.
The Pricing Section Most Creators Get Wrong
Here's where most media kits fail. Creators either skip pricing entirely, or they list generic rates that don't reflect the full value of what they're offering.
Include your rates. Brands have budgets. When you make them email back and forth for basic pricing, you're adding friction that many won't push through. Presenting clear rates also sets the anchor — it shapes what they consider a reasonable ask before they even reply.
Format your pricing as starting rates by deliverable type:
| Deliverable | Suggested Format |
|---|---|
| Instagram Reel | Starting at $[X] |
| Instagram Stories (3-pack) | Starting at $[X] |
| TikTok Video | Starting at $[X] |
| YouTube Integration (60s mid-roll) | Starting at $[X] |
| UGC (no posting, brand use only) | Starting at $[X] |
The "starting at" framing gives you room to negotiate up based on the specific campaign brief.
To know where your starting rates should land, here is a directional tier table by follower count:
| Follower Count | Instagram Reel (Base Rate) | TikTok Video (Base Rate) |
|---|---|---|
| 50K–100K | $900–$2,000 | $800–$1,800 |
| 100K–200K | $2,000–$4,000 | $1,800–$3,500 |
| 200K–350K | $4,000–$7,000 | $3,500–$6,000 |
| 350K–500K | $7,000–$10,000+ | $6,000–$9,000+ |
These are base content fees only. The add-ons in your media kit are what turn these starting points into what deals are actually worth.
Separate your content fee from your usage rights
This is where most creators leave money on the table — and the most common, most expensive mistake in creator pricing. Your content creation fee is what you charge to make the post. Your usage rights are what you charge the brand to repurpose, advertise with, or amplify that content beyond the initial post.
Brands are hoping you'll bundle everything into the content fee. When you do, you're licensing your content's commercial value for free.
Your media kit should show these as distinct line items:
- Content creation fee — what you charge to create and post
- Usage rights — what you charge for the brand to run ads, repost, or repurpose (typically 50–100% of your content fee per month, depending on type)
- Exclusivity — what you charge to pause competing brand work
- Whitelisting / Spark Code access — what you charge for ad access to your account
Listing these separately in your media kit doesn't mean you'll charge for all of them on every deal. It means brands can't pretend they don't exist.
A Real Example: What a Full Deal Actually Looks Like
Creator profile: 130K followers, lifestyle niche, 3.2% engagement rate.
Brand ask: One sponsored Instagram Reel, 30-day usage rights for paid social, 30-day category exclusivity (beauty/skincare).
| Line Item | Rate |
|---|---|
| Instagram Reel (base content fee) | $2,600 |
| Usage rights — 30 days, paid social | $780 |
| Exclusivity — 30 days, beauty/skincare | $660 |
| Total | $4,040 |
A media kit that only shows the Reel rate would have anchored the brand to $2,600. By listing usage rights and exclusivity as separate line items in the rate card, the creator framed the conversation around a $4,040 total from the start — before the first email was sent.
How to know if your rates are right
The rates in your media kit should reflect current market standards for your follower tier, niche, and region — not what you charged two years ago, and not what a friend guessed. If you're not sure where your rates should sit, the brand deal pricing guide covers the full framework by follower tier and platform.
See what your rates should be before you put them in your media kit →
Your Rate Card: The Pricing Section as a Standalone Asset
A media kit is your full professional package. A rate card is just the pricing section — and it's worth having as a separate, shareable document.
When a brand already knows they want to work with you and just needs to understand your numbers, sending a full multi-page media kit is overkill. A clean, one-page rate card gets them to the answer faster. It's also the document your manager or agency contact forwards internally when seeking budget approval.
A strong rate card lists your deliverable rates by platform and format, your add-on pricing (usage rights, exclusivity, rush fees), and your preferred deal terms. It's specific enough that a brand's budget owner can read it once and know whether you fit their campaign.
Selah's rate card feature generates a professional PDF directly from your saved base rates — formatted, ready to attach to an email or share with a brand contact. For creators who update their rates regularly, it means your rate card is always current without rebuilding a document from scratch.
What Brands Actually Look For
The media kits that book deals tend to share a few things in common — and none of them are fancy design.
Specificity beats polish. A clean, simple layout with precise audience numbers outperforms a beautifully designed kit with vague stats. If your layout is Canva, that's fine. If your numbers are "my audience loves beauty content," that's the problem.
Audience alignment is the sale. The best media kits make it obvious why this creator's audience would care about the brand's product. "73% of my audience works out 3+ times per week and actively seeks supplement recommendations" is the sentence that makes a wellness brand reply. Your demographic data is their campaign ROI argument — write it that way.
Rates anchor the conversation. When you include pricing, you set the tone of the negotiation before it starts. Brands who see a rate they respect negotiate less aggressively. Brands who have to ask for rates often anchor low when they finally do ask.
Clear next steps close the loop. End your media kit with exactly what you want the brand to do: email you, book a call, or reply to confirm interest. Make the decision easy.
Media Kit Structure: Five Pages That Work
This structure consistently converts across niches:
- Page 1 — Your brand, bio, and key platform stats at a glance
- Page 2 — Audience demographics and psychographics
- Page 3 — Content examples and recent performance metrics
- Page 4 — Services, pricing, and collaboration history
- Page 5 — Contact information and clear next steps
Five pages is the maximum. Brands are busy. If the decision isn't made by page five, a sixth page won't make it. Put the most compelling number — your engagement rate or most impressive demographic stat — somewhere on page one.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The screenshot dump. Pasting raw analytics screenshots without interpretation forces the brand to do your job. Lead with the insight: "My audience over-indexes in 25–34 female shoppers in the US" — then show the data that proves it.
Outdated numbers. A media kit with metrics from six months ago signals you're not actively growing or invested in your business. Update quarterly at minimum, or any time you hit a meaningful milestone.
Generic template language. "I create authentic content that resonates with my engaged community" describes every creator on earth. Be specific about your niche, your audience's behavior, and what makes your platform valuable to brands in your category.
No pricing or vague pricing. "Rates available upon request" is a missed anchor. Brands who have to ask will often anchor below your rate when they do. Give them a starting point.
Bundling add-ons into the content fee. The most expensive mistake in the document. Usage rights, exclusivity, and whitelisting belong as separate line items — always.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I include my rates in my media kit?
Yes. Brands have budgets, and making them email you for basic pricing adds friction that many won't push through. Including rates — even as "starting at" figures — sets the anchor before negotiations begin. Brands who see a rate they respect tend to negotiate less aggressively than those who name the first number themselves. The one exception: if you're actively testing different rate levels with different types of brands, it's reasonable to show rate ranges rather than fixed prices.
How often should I update my media kit?
At minimum, quarterly. Practically, any time you hit a meaningful follower or engagement milestone, land a notable brand deal, or update your rates. Sending a media kit with six-month-old numbers signals to brands that you're not actively managing your business. If you keep your rates current in a tool like Selah, your rate card section updates itself — you're really just refreshing the audience stats.
Do I need a media kit to get my first brand deal?
No — some creators land their first paid deal through a direct DM with a simple rate sheet. But a media kit dramatically improves your close rate once you're pitching brands at any scale or applying through agencies. It signals professionalism in a space where most creators show up unprepared. If you're actively pursuing inbound deals or outbound pitches, a media kit is the difference between being taken seriously and being passed over for a creator who looks more prepared.
How many pages should a media kit be?
Five pages is the standard ceiling. One page works if your audience and rates are compelling enough to stand alone. Most effective media kits land in the two-to-four page range: bio and stats, audience data, content examples, and pricing. Beyond five pages, you're adding length the brand won't read. The goal is to make the decision easy — not to share everything you know.
What's the difference between a media kit and a rate card?
A media kit is your full professional package: bio, audience data, content examples, collaboration history, and pricing. A rate card is just the pricing section — a standalone document listing your deliverable rates and add-on fees by platform. Both have their place. The media kit goes out to new brand contacts who need to understand who you are. The rate card goes to brands already interested who just need your numbers, or to agencies routing your information to a budget holder. Selah generates a downloadable rate card directly from your saved rates — no reformatting required.
Your media kit isn't just about getting brand deals. It's about getting the right brand deals at the right price. Creators charging premium rates aren't necessarily the ones with the most followers — they're the ones who understand their value and present it clearly. Your media kit is where that story starts.