Media Kits and Rate Cards for Small Creators: What to Include and How to Price

Brand partnerships are one of the main income sources for creators, and you do not need a huge following to start. Many brands actively prefer smaller creators with engaged, specific audiences. But to be taken seriously, and paid fairly, you need two things: a clear media kit and a confident sense of your rates.

This guide covers both, plus the contract basics that protect you.

What a media kit is for

A media kit is a short document, usually one or two pages or a simple web page, that tells a brand who you are, who your audience is and how you can work together. It saves time on both sides and signals professionalism.

It is not a CV, and it is not a place to inflate numbers. Brands increasingly ask for screenshots of analytics or access to verified data, and discovering inflated numbers ends relationships quickly.

What to include

1. Who you are, in two sentences

What you make, for whom, and what makes your perspective distinct. "I make practical sewing tutorials for beginners who want to make clothes they'll actually wear, focusing on simple patterns and affordable fabrics."

2. Your audience

Brands care more about who your audience is than how big it is. Include:

• Platforms and follower or subscriber counts, rounded honestly.
• Engagement: average views per video, average saves/shares per post, newsletter click rate.
• Demographics from your analytics: top countries, age ranges, and gender split if relevant to the brand.
• Audience interests, from what you know: "Most of my audience are hobbyist sewists in the UK and US who buy fabric online monthly."

Use recent data (the last 90 days) and say so.

3. Content examples

Show three to five of your best pieces, ideally including any previous brand collaborations, with results where you have them: "Tutorial featuring X's fabric: 48,000 views, 2,100 saves, 320 link clicks."

4. What you offer

List the formats you offer: dedicated video, integrated mention, carousel, Story set, newsletter feature, blog review, usage rights for the brand's own channels. Clear options make it easier for a brand to say yes.

5. Your values and boundaries

A short line on what you will and will not promote: "I only partner with brands I have used or tested, and all partnerships are clearly disclosed." This attracts the right brands and saves you from awkward conversations.

6. Contact

Your business email. Make it easy.

Optional: rates

Some creators include a rate card; others prefer to send rates on request so they can tailor quotes. Including "starting from" prices can filter out brands with no budget.

How to estimate your rates

There is no universal formula, and rates vary widely by niche, platform and region. Several common starting points are useful as sanity checks rather than rules:

Views-based estimates

Estimate the typical views a sponsored piece will receive, then apply a rate per thousand views (CPM). Creator CPMs vary enormously by niche: finance, technology and business audiences usually command more than general entertainment. Look up current published surveys and creator rate reports for your platform and niche, and use them as a range.

Engagement-based estimates

For visual platforms, engagement can matter more than views. A post that reliably gets hundreds of saves from a specific audience may be worth more to a niche brand than a post with more views but little interaction.

Time-based floor

Calculate how many hours a sponsored piece will take, including briefing, scripting, filming, editing, revisions and reporting. Multiply by an hourly rate you would accept for skilled freelance work. That is your floor. Never quote below it, regardless of what other formulas say.

Value-based adjustments

Increase your price for:

• Usage rights: if the brand wants to use your content in its own ads or website, that has significant extra value. Price it separately and time-limit it.
• Exclusivity: if the brand asks you not to work with competitors for a period, you are giving up income. Charge for it.
• Rush timelines and extra revisions.
• Whitelisting or "partnership ads", where a brand runs paid ads through your account.

Bundles

Packages often work better than single posts for both sides: a video plus two Stories plus a newsletter mention, for example. Brands get more touchpoints; you get a larger, more predictable fee.

Negotiation basics

• Let the brand share its budget first if you can: "What budget do you have in mind for this campaign?"
• Quote a range or a package rather than a single low number.
• Do not apologise for your rates. Explain what is included.
• Be willing to walk away. Accepting underpaid work makes it harder to raise rates later.
• Gifting is not payment. Free products in exchange for content are acceptable only if you genuinely want the product and are happy with the trade. You are never obliged to post about a gift.

Contract essentials

Always get the agreement in writing, even for small deals. Check that it covers:

• Deliverables: exactly what you will create, on which platforms, and how many revisions.
• Timeline: draft dates, approval dates, posting dates.
• Payment: amount, currency, due date (for example within 30 days of posting) and whether any is paid upfront. For new clients, asking for 50% upfront is common.
• Usage rights: what the brand can do with your content, where and for how long.
• Exclusivity: whether you may work with competitors, and for how long.
• Approval: what the brand can and cannot require you to change. They can reasonably correct factual errors about their product; they should not be able to require you to give false opinions.
• Disclosure: confirm that you will label the content as advertising in line with platform rules and the law where you and your audience are.
• Cancellation: what happens if either side cancels, including a kill fee if work has started.

If a deal is large or unusual, it is worth paying for a review by a lawyer familiar with creator contracts.

Disclosure is not optional

In many countries, advertising rules require that paid partnerships, gifted products and affiliate links be clearly disclosed. In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority and the CMA publish guidance for influencers; in the US, the Federal Trade Commission does. Use platform tools such as "paid partnership" labels and clear words like "ad" or "sponsored" at the start of captions. Disclosure protects your audience's trust and your own legal position.

Keeping records

Keep a simple spreadsheet of every partnership: brand, deliverables, fee, dates, invoice status and results. It helps with taxes, helps you raise rates over time, and gives you case studies for your media kit.

Updating your kit

Update your media kit every three months or after any significant change. Fresh numbers, recent examples and new results all strengthen your position. As your audience and results grow, raise your rates. Many creators wait too long to do so.