How to Create a Beauty Blog Media Kit

Posted on Apr 13, 2012

Just as marketing execs have brochures, bloggers require media kits.  But for the blogger who’s skilled mostly at writing, making a visual presentation can be daunting.

 

Here’s what you need to do to create a beautiful media kit with all of the information you need:

1.  Use PowerPoint or Keynote.

Although you will eventually be sending your document as a .pdf to potential advertisers, it is easiest to make your media kit with slides in PowerPoint or Keynote, and then save as a .pdf.

2.  Design the following slides:

• Title page - Blog name, address, logo and tagline
• About page - What is your blog’s mission?  What types of posts do you feature?
• About the authors page - Whether you have separate teams for management, editorial, or writing, or it is just you, what makes your blog team special?
• Target audience - Age, gender, median income level, educational level, country of residence.  Use Alexa for this if you do not know.
• Statistics - For credibility, use Google Analytics only.  List follower counts for your blog (monthly views, visits, and unique viewers).  Also list follower counts for Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc., and e-mail/RSS feed subscribers.
• Awards and recognition -  What awards have you won?  Any mentions in major magazines or by other blogs, as well as companies with whom you’ve worked on campaigns, count.
• Ad types and rates -  The rule of thumb used to be that the total sum of all of your ad earnings per month should be your number of monthly views divided by 100.  So if you receive 100,000 views/month, that would translate to $1,000/month.  Unfortunately, I have talked to beauty and fashion bloggers who have earned much more – and much less – than this standard rule of thumb.  Once you determine a goal for how much you’d like to make, divide this amount into a top banner ad, ads between the posts, sidebar ads, sponsored posts, and footer ads to figure out how much to charge for each type of ad.  You can also offer the entire site for days or weeks at a time.  If you feel like you’re asking too much, always state “These rates are negotiable,” and do a follow-up with the client within 2-3 days to see what s/he is thinking about your rates.
• Contact info - Your name, e-mail, phone.

3.  Add in screenshots of your site, as well as high-res images of your logo.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but in a media kit, it’s potentially worth thousands of dollars.  That said, your website is real estate and the client is thinking about renting!  You want to show as many photographs as possible of what s/he is getting for his/her money.  If you really want to seal the deal, do a mach-up of one of the company’s existing ads on your site, just to give them a mouth-watering preview of what a partnership with your site might look like.

4.  Follow up.

A media kit is not a deal-closer.  You or your sales team must be the closer.  Wait 2-3 days and ask what s/he thought of the media kit.  Make it clear that you are willing to negotiate your rates and your terms to best fit the needs of their campaign.  Remember:  From the day you accept an advertising agreement, you are a business, not just a blog.  As a savvy businessperson, you must work to best accommodate the needs of your client while still remaining true to your own beliefs and interests.  If you can’t honestly rave about a product or a company, don’t agree to work with them in the first place.  I learned this the hard way – I used to review everything honestly, good or bad, but now, I only work with companies I can say something wonderful about.

5.  If all else fails, ask for help from PR and marketing execs.

Beauty bloggers have a friend in many beauty PR execs, who are often willing to quickly look over a media kit to help a major blogger out.  After all, if your blog does better, their companies’ products will get more hits – win, win!  So ask PR execs you’ve worked with, as well as fellow bloggers, for their honest opinion.