Media Kits and Email Pitches

Taylor Talks Newsletter - 7/13/2020

It is the third week and I have some great content for you! Particularly, I have an exclusive offer for you to have the media kit I have! There will be a free webinar and discount offer to subscribers only. Taylor Talks is about learning more about blogging and/or influencing. I will share EXACTLY what we do to land press trips and brand deals, share email pitches, and more. I don't know everything but will tell you all the knowledge I gained.  Before we dive deeper:  1) Terms and Conditions are at the bottom. Please read that.   2) We created an access portal for you so that you can view past Taylor Talks in case you are new here or the Newsletters get lost from your inbox. Visit this link to sign-in and view. Only subscribers to this Newsletter can view this page!! Woohoo! 3) ANNOUNCEMENT FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY:  I have collaborated with the founders of my media kit (InfluenceKit) to offer you a FREE webinar on how to use the platform, an extended FREE trial, a 30-day free trial (normally only 14 days), and 50% off your first three months.  Brands are just like us; they want to know what they're getting for their investment. Reporting impressions is the industry standard for internet marketing, and up until now, bloggers have been a black hole of information. InfluenceKit helps increase sponsorship revenue by proving your value with gorgeous, automatically-updated reports. Your sponsors will love them, and you’ll stand out from the crowd.  USE MY LINK https://www.influencekit.com/taylor SO THAT YOU CAN GET THE DISCOUNT CODE AND EXTENDED TRIAL!!! Make sure you sign up first before attending the webinar. Come prepared with questions.  Webinar Information:  Friday, July 17 at 3:00 p.m. CT https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9443111261

Alright, let us get into today's topic... email pitches and media kits In last week’s email, your homework was to go and draft an email pitch to a hotel, restaurant, or any brand you want to work with in the future. I am going to give you a rough template of the email, the first email pitch I ever sent, and my current email pitch now. TEMPLATE First, let us say this...DO NOT COPY AN EMAIL TEMPLATE THAT IS ON THE INTERNET. You will get rejected and it looks fishy af. I think it is important to tell you how to structure your email. Our pitch is super professional with tons of WTL flair. However, you can use this basic template as a skeleton and add your own creativity to it.  Nobody wants to read a boring email, so research all that you can about who you are emailing and personalize/tailor the email to them: Hi [Contact Name},  Introduction (2-3 sentences): Talk who you are and what you want. Don’t be shy. Include dates and times you will be the area. Body (Cut to the chase here): Go into detail about your blog and social media. Highlight your biggest accounts first.  Past travel work. You need examples of previous trips WITH ANALYTICS so that the brand can know what you are about. But wait, what if you've never been on a trip before? How can you include this? SEE MEDIA KIT SECTION.  What you can offer: This is the time to highlight your biggest accounts with the most metrics again. Have a special thing about you? Play it up. Insert your media kit via link or attachment. What you want - This is where you will say what you want, sponsorships or money, in exchange for xyz.  Conclusion (1-2 sentences): Keep it short and close off the pitch. MY FIRST PITCH I sent my first pitch to a tour company out in Napa/SF. My mom, sister, and I were going to be there anyway for our annual family trip so I thought, "Hey, let's try and pitch some places to work with."  Below is the email: I had 1,000 followers, 3,000 page views, and 600 blog subscribers at the time!!! Looking back on it now...me emailing them with 1K followers is ballsy. I had no idea what I was doing but I thought I could provide value and ROI. 

The company didn't respond to this particular email BUT they did end up working with me in 2018 and 2019 after they saw my blog post.  Couple thoughts on my first email:  1) I needed more social proof! 1K is not enough for a big market like Napa/SF! When I went back in 2018 and 2019, I had 6-9K followers.  2) My email is not divided into sections. I needed bullet points or something to keep the PR rep focused on what I am saying.  3) I asked for a trade-for-trade. Which at the time made sense. I had 1K with average engagement. The tickets were $100-120 each and I requested 3 of them. However, I offered way to much for 3 tickets! As I grew, I published a blog post and vlog for them in exchange for 3 tickets.  MY MOST RECENT, FULL TRAVEL PITCH This was sent in February before COVID-19. Right now I have hotels reaching out to me but if I was going to send a pitch I would include compensation and limit how much content I would create. I would base it off of compensation and what perks I am getting.

MEDIA KIT Just because you have a blog, doesn’t mean you deserve sponsored travel. Everyone and their mom has a blog. In order to land paid or sponsored travel, you need to show value. Brands love to see Return of Investment (ROI). So show them what you are worth! You are saying, “Hey if you host me, I can provide value to your brand through my work.” This is where your media kit comes in. Remember we mentioned that in the email pitch? Your media kit is like your resume. Our media kit is digital so in the email, we place links to our overall media report and media reports to each city we’ve been to in that calendar year. In this report it lists analytics for impressions, views, engagement, hours spent reading the blog and etc. Be sure to register to InfluenceKit and use my link to get an extended free trial and a discount: https://www.influencekit.com/taylor  In the past, we made media kits on Canva, a graphic-design tool. It is free and easy to use. Include metrics from your blog’s Google Analytics and social media. We would also list past collaborations in the kit. If you design it on Canva, keep your kit to 1-2 pages max. It is industry standard to refrain from approaching brands for sponsored travel until you have value that you can offer in return. For example, if you want to stay at a hotel for one night and it costs $800 per night, you need to provide $800 worth of services that you can offer them. We like to offer above and beyond so think $1000+. If you have a new blog with zero page views and under 1K following on social media, brands will not see any value in you because your audience reach is small. However, you can build this up. Which brings us to our next point! If you don’t have any metrics to put in your email or media kit then we advise that you gather and showcase unsponsored travel-related work that you have done before. Maybe you have blog posts that you've written that have done really well. Find the analytics for it. For example, we have been doing unsponsored travel since 2015. Here are some of the places we have been:

Orlando Los Angeles Napa San Francisco Miami San Diego Houston Spokane Chicago Seattle (super old post, haha!) When we first started pitching, we picked a few posts that did well and included the data from them in the email.

HOMEWORK: Reach out to me with any questions. This newsletter was long! Send me any comments or questions you have.  Don't forget! We created an access portal...  for you so that you can view past Taylor Talks in case the Newsletters get deleted or lost from your inbox. Visit this link to sign-in and view. Only subscribers to this Newsletter can view this page!! Woohoo! If you have specific requests you would like us to talk about, send it our way.  NEED MORE HELP ASAP? Schedule a Zoom call with us if you need personalized help pitching to brands, finding brands, analytics, advice, resources, and more! We will tell you exactly what works for us. Seriously. No fluff or beating around the bush. What to know how to travel for your blog? We got you. Need help writing a pitch email? Let's edit it together. 

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