A media kit is not a portfolio. It is a sales document. The job of a media kit is to give a brand marketing manager enough information in 60 seconds to decide whether to keep the conversation going. Most creator media kits fail this test because they are formatted as portfolios, packed with content the brand will not read, and missing the specific numbers that drive a yes or no.
What the brand marketing manager actually does
When a brand-side marketer opens a media kit, they spend roughly 30 to 60 seconds on first review. They are looking for three things in a specific order. First, audience demographics. Does this creator's audience match our customer base. Second, engagement signal. Does this audience actually pay attention. Third, past brand work. Has this creator shipped real campaigns and what did they look like.
If the kit cannot answer these three questions in the first two pages, it gets closed. Everything else, including production samples, awards, press mentions, and the creator's bio, is supplementary. Lead with what the marketer needs to make the decision.
What goes in the first two pages
Page one should be a clean cover with the creator's name, handle, primary platforms, and one sentence positioning. Then immediately into the audience snapshot: total reach across platforms, audience age range, gender split, top geographic markets, and household income range if available. Visual format. The marketer should be able to take this in at a glance.
Page two is engagement and content data. Engagement rate by platform with the platform's median for context. Top performing recent post for each format you offer. Average impressions per post by format. Comments to like ratio if it tells a positive story. Any conversion data you have from past campaigns (affiliate clicks, custom code usage, attributed sales) is the highest value information you can include.
Past brand work matters more than aesthetics
The single most underused page in most media kits is the past work section. Brands want to see specifics: which brands have you partnered with, what the deliverables were, what the campaign was for, and any performance numbers you can share. Even simple metrics like "drove 4,200 affiliate clicks in 30 days" are vastly more valuable than aesthetic screenshots.
If you do not have past brand deals to reference, lead instead with organic content that performed. The marketer is looking for evidence that you can move audiences. Organic performance counts.
Pricing belongs at the end, in ranges
The mistake most creators make is putting fixed dollar amounts on a media kit. The mistake on the other extreme is leaving pricing out entirely. The right approach is starting at ranges by deliverable type, listed at the back of the kit. This anchors the brand at a defensible number while preserving room to negotiate the actual deal.
Use ranges like "Single Reel: starting at $X" with the lower bound being your floor and the upper bound being a healthy stretch. Include line items for whitelisting, usage rights extensions, and exclusivity premiums. Brands will read the entire pricing section if it is concise and reasonable.
Format and design
Two to four pages, mobile-readable, designed in your brand colors but not over-designed. The marketer is reading on a phone half the time. Long PDFs do not get read. Layouts that hide content under decorative graphics do not get read. Heavy stock images do not get read.
The right tools are Figma, Canva, or even Google Slides exported as PDF. The right format is PDF, no live links required. Send via email attachment or a personal Notion or website page. Avoid driving brands to third-party platforms (Linktree, generic media kit hosting) which signal you have not done the work to build a proper professional asset.
Update quarterly
The single highest-leverage upgrade most creators can make to their pitch process is updating their media kit on a quarterly schedule. Numbers change. Past work compounds. Last quarter's average engagement is more credible than last year's. Add an updated date in the corner of every page. Brands that see a kit dated within the last 90 days take the creator more seriously.
What to cut
Things to remove from your media kit if they are there: long bios beyond two sentences, lists of every press mention you have ever received, screenshots of follower count milestones, brand wishlists, "fun facts" sections, photos of the creator in non-relevant settings, multiple pages of decorative imagery, generic mission statements. Every page should answer a question a brand has. Pages that do not are noise.
The right media kit is short, specific, and updated. It treats the brand marketer's time as scarce and makes the case for the deal in the first thirty seconds. The creators who win the most brand work are not the ones with the most beautifully designed kits. They are the ones whose kits answer the marketer's actual questions before being asked.