MAY 24, 2024

Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

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Get It Together for Sponsors, Advertisers, and More

If a sponsor or advertiser reached out, would you be ready?

Even if they aren’t knocking on your digital door just yet, you should have a business “resume” ready to go. Different than a website or a link tree page, a media kit pulls together all the information that a prospective brand would want to know about working with you and your content business. A professionally presented media kit also goes a long way in differentiating you from your content competitors.

Spend a few hours doing these five things, and you’ll be ready to go whether you’re pitching the brands for partnerships or they’re reaching out to you.

1. Tell your story: You don’t need to tell a lengthy origin story, but you do need to explain why your business exists. Explain it in a few sentences. Need some help? Reread your ​mission statement​.

In content businesses, the entrepreneur is often a big reason a brand wants to do a sponsorship, pay to advertise, etc. So be sure to add a bio of you in a paragraph or bulleted list.

2. Pull the audience data: What’s most attractive to potential partners about your business is the audience. They must understand your target audience and how they interact with your business.

Quantify the audience in all its forms (social media, subscribers, students, etc.) How many people do you reach on each platform? Detail relevant demographic information (location, for example, can be important for brick-and-mortar retailers).

Qualify the audience for the brand by sharing the analytics of their interactions with your business. How often do they open your emails? How many times do they click? How many convert through your ​calls to action​?

3. Detail the opportunities: What could a brand buy? Sponsored content? Live ad read in a podcast? Course sponsorship? Newsletter ad? Partnership packages with multiple opportunities? List them along with the specifications of what they need to provide.

Also, include pricing. You can give a range and note the exact pricing depends on the total partnership opportunity. Some creators give discounts for frequency or bundling. Others use a range to accommodate future growth. If you don’t change your prices, be exact. Otherwise, just give potential partners a general understanding of what they might pay.

4. Add more proof: ​Testimonials​ from previous sponsors and advertisers demonstrate that your content business delivers results. Comments from your audience show brands the level of interest and even fandom you have.

5. Design the kit. With all the information ready to go, you’re ready for design. Don’t get overly creative. Simplicity is best. Brand reps don’t want to (and won’t) spend a lot of time trying to figure out where to find the information they want.

But invest in a professional look. If you don’t have the skills, work with a graphic design freelancer or use one of the free templates from ​Canva​ and ​Adobe Express​, which have a wealth of free templates. (Tip: Looking through template options also can help you understand what elements to include in whatever final presentation you choose.)

With your media kit finished you’re ready for distribution. Dedicate a section on your website to partnership opportunities. Upload your media kit, making it available as a downloadable PDF and incorporating the content directly on the page so a download is not required. Include a link to the media kit in your social media profiles. And print some copies, too. You can bring them along to in-person events or mail them the old-fashioned way to prospects – it’s a great way to stand out from the digital-only crowd flooding inboxes.

Helpful Resources:

• ​​Why You Need a Content Mission Statement​​
• ​​CTAs: Ask Your Audience To Do Something​​
• ​​How To Use and Ask for Testimonials​​
• ​​Media Kit Helps YouTuber Roberto Blake Snag Sponsor​​

– Ann Gynn

Got a media kit in your business? We’d love to see and share it with The Tilt community. Reply to this email or send a note to [email protected].​
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Plus, with Memberful you always retain full control and ownership of your audience, your brand, and your business.

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• We talk about how to go from notes to action in this week’s ​Tilt Your Business podcast​ at 12 p.m. EDT Tuesday.
• Joe talks about ​six things he’d be doing right now in content marketing​. (Content Inc.)
• Joe and Robert discuss the ​incoming lawsuits over AI and the death of the internet (again)​ as we know it. (This Old Marketing)
• Matt and Lauren ​debate the value of book reviews for increasing your sales​, boosting your book’s discoverability, and providing social proof for new readers. (Publish & Prosper)
• Are you ready to see your name on a book cover? 👀 We can make that happen! At Tilt Publishing, our services are designed for newsletter creators, podcasters, YouTubers, and content innovators like you who are eager to expand into print, ebooks, and audiobooks. ​Find out more here​.