SHOW TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is automatically generated by Descript.  Any errors or omissions are unintentional.

[00:00:00] Jeff Sieh: Hello, folks. Welcome to Social Media News Live. I’m Jeff Sieh, and you’re not.

[00:00:05] Conor Brown: And I’m Connor Brown, and this is the show that keeps you up to date on what’s happening in the world of social media and more.

[00:00:12] Jeff Sieh: Have you ever wondered how to construct a media kit that truly embodies your brand and catches the eye of industry leaders? Maybe you’re curious about the key components that elevate a media kit from functional to fantastic. Or maybe you’re ready to learn how to express your distinct value to attract your dream collaborations.

[00:00:31] If those questions resonate with you, Then you’re in exactly where you need to be. Today, we are thrilled to feature Cassie Tucker, an expert in media kit design whose adept crafting has guided creators to the forefront of their niches. Now, Cassie is going to be divulging her journey, her expert insights, and the best tactics for creating a media kit that stands out.

[00:00:51] So sit back, clear schedule, clear mind, and get ready for this week’s episode of Social Media News Live. Cassie, how are you doing today?

[00:00:59] Cassie Tucker: I am doing great. Super honored to be here today. So thank you. And I already saw Connor today. So we’re going to a lot of Connor today.

[00:01:07] Jeff Sieh: all the time. That’s right. so it’s right. It’s Friday. Got to watch Connor. so if you don’t know who Cassie Tucker is, I’m so excited to introduce you. She combines her former Disney cast member experience with nearly a decade of marketing expertise to make magic for her clients. As a marketing consultant and through prior experience, Cassie has worked with national and local business across businesses across the United States to create effective content strategies.

[00:01:34] And make messaging optimizations that take a brand’s digital presence to the next level and help businesses resonate with their target audience. Cassie, again, thank you so much. I’m so excited because I saw your, media kit presentation at Momentum. It was fabulous. And I’m so excited to dig in a little bit deeper today.

[00:01:50] Cassie Tucker: Thank you so much. I’m excited as well. It’s a great topic and something I love, love sharing with others.

[00:01:56] Jeff Sieh: Awesome. And something else that I love to share myself is our amazing sponsors, Ecamm. If you haven’t checked them out, you really need to. They have an incredible new update that has a bunch of stuff. If you want to check them out, go to socialmedianewslive. com forward slash Ecamm. And by the way, Ecamm is going to be joining.

[00:02:12] Me at a meetup that we’re doing right before Pod Fest. we’re gonna do it, at the parks. I think we’re gonna do it at Hollys Wood Studios with my friend Paul Gower. And if you wanna be a part of that, even if you’re not going to Pod Fest, come out and see us at the parks. You can find out more about that@jeffc.com slash pod fest meetup already.

[00:02:30] With that outta the way, let’s go ahead and jump right into this. Cassie, kind of explain in your view, what makes an effective media kit

[00:02:41] Cassie Tucker: Yeah, so there’s a lot of things and obviously a lot of that depends on who you are, your brand, what industry you’re in, but also the brands that you’re targeting. But in general, the three things that I would say just overall, number one is simplicity. So you want to remove the fluff. I like talking about media kits.

[00:03:01] Almost like a job resume. So whether you’re currently in the corporate career space or you were in the past, you kind of understand the gist of how resumes work. And the goal is to get straight to the point as quickly as possible and to only include the information in there that really resonates and is compelling and is relevant to the person receiving that or the brand receiving it.

[00:03:23] So simplicity is number one, make sure the details you have in there. Matter and, they’re necessary. Number two is storytelling. So we were talking earlier on my show with Connor about the importance of storytelling. Storytelling is an amazing way to captivate your audience, to communicate clearly who you do or who you are, what you do, and why you.

[00:03:46] You can do that with your media kit as well as with the pitch email, which we’ll talk about here in a little bit. And lastly is personalization. So going back to the resume reference there, you want to make sure that your media kit is tailored to the brand receiving it. And so making sure that you do your due diligence, you research the recipient, you make sure that The pitch that you’re creating is captivating that person receiving it because ultimately what someone is asking themselves when they receive your media kit and your pitch email is what’s in it for me?

[00:04:23] And so you got to be able to answer that question, clearly and quickly. And that certainly does take some research, but it, it matters.

[00:04:32] Jeff Sieh: awesome.

[00:04:34] Conor Brown: That’s great. And I know we talked so much about personalization, so I love that notion of for each individual you’re sending it to, create the media kit for it, right? You can have your template, you can have your basis, but you know, spin it up a little bit so it actually appeals to them. For someone who’s just starting out, Cassie, and wants to create a media kit and put their name out there, One tough thing that you might run into is that you don’t have a lot of prior examples or experience or testimonials, which so many people look for.

[00:05:06] How would you say someone could compensate for that lack of, you know, direct testimonials from brands that they might not have worked with at all in their media kit to still set themselves apart?

[00:05:19] Cassie Tucker: Yeah, absolutely. I completely understand that if you are getting started and you’re very new in your space or even new to just working with brands and you don’t have testimonials to speak to that quite yet, first thing I would say is there are ways to gather those without, doing the hard work first.

[00:05:37] So one thing that I always recommend, whether you’re a service provider, a speaker, you’re an influencer online, and you’re looking to land Some sort of partnership. one thing you can do, I know it doesn’t sound super fun, but you can offer some, partnerships or solutions or products or whatever it is that you’re doing for free at first, just to gain feedback.

[00:06:00] And so if you can do that, even just a little bit, you know, obviously I wouldn’t recommend gathering those from family members or anything actually go out to your target audience. It’s the people that are similar to who you do a paid collaboration with and offer something to them. Hey, I’ll create a reel for you just to showcase your product.

[00:06:19] If you would just write a quick three sentence or even two sentence testimonial to socialmedianewslive. com. Speak to, what I did for you. And a lot of brands are really eager to welcome that. if you’re a speaker, same thing. Hey, I’ll come to your event next week. It’s I’m local, I’ll show up and I’ll present for 20 minutes.

[00:06:38] If you just give me some feedback and share a testimonial. So there’s ways to gather those that are a low hanging fruit versus feeling like you have to get those paid collaborations and receive testimonials that way first. But I still understand if you don’t quite have those yet, there’s a couple of things that you can do.

[00:06:55] You know, number one, your messaging as I was talking about a minute ago is super, super important. So although you may not have advice or points to where someone is sharing why you, you can share why you. So making sure that again, your story is compelling enough.

[00:07:17] That’s going to be super compelling. There are other little things too that can speak to your expertise. So if you have any awards or accolades that you’ve received in the past, press mentions, anything to where you’ve been featured. And then also the biggest thing that is a non negotiable, in my opinion, no matter if you have testimonials or not, is content examples.

[00:07:38] Especially if you are a content creator and that’s what you’re pitching to someone, showing that you have done work like that in the past and showing examples. Of the work that you provided to other brands, whether it’s for free or it’s paid, that really gives the brand or the person receiving that, media kit a clear, clear example of what you can provide to them.

[00:08:00] same with speaking. If you have video or speaker reel, we say that in, in this space of just a compilation of a couple of the different virtual and in-person speeches that you’ve given really showing. Speaking and having an example of that expertise that you’re speaking to is going to be incredibly important for increasing your authority in that space.

[00:08:22] Jeff Sieh: That’s really great advice. And one of the things, and I wish I would have done this earlier in my journey, and I did it, at the, even at the last Momentum where I spoke, is I asked what, at the end of my talk, and even, in a group later, I said, Hey, would you just like, say, if you like my talk, can you leave me a recommendation on LinkedIn?

[00:08:40] I’m still waiting for that, Connor, by the way. but, but it really did a great job because it gave me like four or five ones that are really fresh. It’s my, my latest talk and I can use that. In the media kit, like you were saying, so I think one of the things we, we tend not to do is forget to ask, like even when you’re doing a virtual, maybe a virtual event where you’re speaking there, it’s still ask the sponsors or the people who asked you to do it.

[00:09:02] If would you, Hey, would you just go over to LinkedIn and like, leave me a review? I really appreciate it. So, and most of the time they always will do that. So that’s great advice, Cassie.

[00:09:10] Cassie Tucker: Absolutely.

[00:09:12] Jeff Sieh: the question, one of the questions I have is, you know, there’s so many, it’s, it’s so loud anymore online, you know, influencers, everybody is clamoring for something.

[00:09:22] So how can content creators Differentiate themselves and their media kits from a landscape that is just so saturated. Like, one of the things is testimonials that really are, like you just talked about, are very specific to you. But what are some other ways that you can set yourself apart in your media kit?

[00:09:39] Cassie Tucker: Yeah. So I think the biggest thing is taking a step back first before you even develop your media kit is making sure that you know exactly who you are and what your brand is. I think if you can’t answer the question why you’re different or why you, it’s, it’s going to be really hard to convince. That person receiving your media kit that you’re different.

[00:09:59] And so make sure you’re answering those questions to yourself internally. You take a day or a couple days to, discover that and how you can communicate that to someone. And so it’s compelling and it’s relevant initially. I love the StoryBrand framework and there’s some really awesome exercises to go through to be able to develop that messaging.

[00:10:21] And so that’s a tool that you can use online. It’s free. There’s a brand script. that you fill out a couple of different questions and you can really get some clarity and also get feedback from other people. Ask them, is this compelling? Does this make sense? Is it clear? Is it concise? and that’s something that you can do initially.

[00:10:38] And so brand message is huge. Why are you different? Having that written out clearly on there is going to be incredibly, incredibly important. And you know, the other thing too, there’s a number of different things that you can kind of set yourself apart with, but we talked about content examples. So that is one is honing in your creative expertise or the style of creative that you put together, showcasing that and sharing with the brand why that’s going to help push their brand forward.

[00:11:11] I think the other thing too, that can set you apart. I always recommend to people, especially when they’re getting started. startuppress, Patreon and you wanna start on your own

[00:11:25] patreon, you can go through these steps really quickly. and use 20 dollars of Bitcoin

[00:11:42] So I want to know if that person actually cares and if they’ve even shared the brand organically in the past too to kind of prime their audience for that product. So those are just a couple things. And then personalization too is another one. When you’re reaching out to someone, making sure that your media kits Personalized as well as your pitch email because we all know how many messages and emails we receive every day, especially thinking about LinkedIn.

[00:12:06] I mean so many sales messages. And a lot of times you can tell it’s just a copy and paste and the message that they sent shows that they didn’t actually pay attention to what you personally do. And so just by making those.

[00:12:24] So that contact is, Jeff sie’s name is Jeff Seo and so as a volunteer at Clubhouse my role is upfront for our broadcast people.

[00:12:29] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, that’s awesome. One of the, before we go a little further, I want to just, on that note about you starting out with brands you really love. That’s how I was able, you know, when I started this show, is I had been using Ecamm for such a long time. I just said, hey. Would you, is this something we could work together on?

[00:12:45] And they said, yes. And so that was like, you people are like, I can’t find a brand deal. I think what you said, Cassie, is so spot on. If you’re a fan of a service or a product or something, reaching out to them first and you probably have shared that stuff organically in the past if it’s, if you’re passionate about it and it can make a huge difference and you never know until you ask.

[00:13:04] So that’s one of the things that I think is really important. I’m glad you brought that up.

[00:13:09] Conor Brown: That’s also why Jeff reached out to Spanx

[00:13:13] Jeff Sieh: Yes, exactly.

[00:13:14] Conor Brown: he? Of course.

[00:13:15] Jeff Sieh: to the Jeff line. It’s, it’s extra fabric. It’s, it’s like a tent. You could use it as a tent as well. So go ahead.

[00:13:20] Conor Brown: so Cassie, I think one thing is when we’re want to reach out to brands, especially ones that, We admire, we might suffer a little bit from imposter syndrome. and maybe not being at the level that we perceive a brand that we admire might want to work with. So do you have any advice or feedback for influencers or, or entrepreneurs that want to reach out to a brand, but might be hesitant or concerned that.

[00:13:51] Their stats, their followers, their, you know, metrics aren’t as high or as impressive enough to share with brands, at least they think so.

[00:14:09] Cassie Tucker: It’s your portfolio as possible. That’s obviously going to be super helpful because that’s more that you can contribute to the brand, more that you can feature their products or their services, through your channels. So that’s the biggest thing. Obviously don’t feel like you have to be everywhere all at once and do all the things.

[00:14:27] Obviously make sure that those different platforms are relevant and it’s where your audience is showing up. And once… to find you on. but I think that’s the biggest thing is just diversifying and offering more. You know, a lot of times if we’re podcasters or if we’re, Instagram influencers, we think of only offering those single elements, but if you can offer and provide more to the, to the brand, that’s obviously more value that they’re receiving from you.

[00:14:55] So get creative on that. I think the other thing too, there’s so many opportunities out there for micro creators or micro influencers and Right now the age of UGC for example, so if you create content online a lot of times now brands are paying creators to just create assets It’s not even necessarily them relying on you to drive a ton of traffic to their brands and promote the heck out of that product or service.

[00:15:26] but it’s more of a creative angle to it where you’re offering up your content creation services to them for a price. So that’s a really good way to get your feet wet and kind of start to dabble in, You know, in that space, but I think the other thing too is thinking about what skills that you have that you could offer to the brand.

[00:15:46] So again, it might kind of be outside of the ordinary. Let’s say maybe this brand wants to host more events locally in different communities. Maybe you’re really organized and you’re great at planning events, even though that’s something that doesn’t necessarily align with your external brand. Maybe that’s something you could offer to them as an incentive.

[00:16:07] And so I think initially get started that way. and the other thing too, is, you know, if you haven’t done any paid collaborations per se, quite yet, affiliate marketing is a really great place to start, whether it’s for, social media creators or podcasters or email marketers. And so starting to build your statistics that way and show brands, Hey, you know, I’ve driven this many conversions or this many clicks to this brand, and it wasn’t necessarily a paid collaboration that still helps compel that brand to potentially pay you for collaboration with them.

[00:16:44] And so there’s a couple of different ways to get started, but tap into your skills, tap into a range of diversified platforms that you’re offering. And, ultimately I think the other thing too, is just offer a customized.

[00:17:02] And if you’re a social media manufacturer wanting to push down on followers before they are able to get in contact, you know, it might be a good idea to 24 hours to 10

[00:17:08] Jeff Sieh: That’s awesome. That’s great advice. so we have a great question here, from Facebook. I think this may be Katie. I’m not sure, but it says Facebook user, but we’ll just call her Katie. she goes, how critical and currently what are the channels a brand needs to focus on? Some of the brands we deal with shun away from certain platforms.

[00:17:25] That’s a great question.

[00:17:27] Cassie Tucker: Yeah. Oh man, that’s the golden question of the age, right? So obviously there’s, you know, again, Connor and I were talking about shiny object syndrome earlier this morning. There’s all of these different things coming out all the time. And even all of these platforms are releasing new features. And, you know, I can remember a time, for example, where Instagram stories weren’t a thing and then Instagram reels weren’t a thing and TikTok wasn’t a thing.

[00:17:51] And so there’s always a number of different. So, and so I think the biggest thing, number one is just paying attention to those updates. If you are in the creative space or you’re a speaker, you’re a podcaster, you are a content creator. Paying attention to the updates happening in the platforms or Spaces that you’re in is going to be incredibly important because a lot of times brands are looking to step into those new spaces or those new areas of the spaces, very quickly.

[00:18:23] And if they can communicate and work with someone who is already in that space and using it, it’s gonna be huge. So test and test early is the biggest thing I’ll say there. it, for me, it doesn’t really. I cook a lot of different dishes. It is like one of my recipe books, like, I just love to go down all different recipe I can eat the same things I would or, uh, the same things four or five years ago.

[00:18:54] and it’s fine to test other platforms. It’s cool to jump on to TikTok if you’ve never been on there and see if it works, but, really having those couple platforms that your people are going to show up time and time again for you. And also too, you know, we spoke at Momentum, a couple months ago about own channels as well.

[00:19:13] So obviously being on Instagram and TikTok is great. And if you have a big established audience there, that’s. Awesome. But having some sort of own channel as well that, you know, if, if something happens with one of the platforms, you’re not at a loss essentially. So email and website. so if you have a blog on your website, that’s one too, but.

[00:19:35] Don’t feel like you have to bite off too much more than you can chew, but really focus and hone in and be consistent on those platforms. And so if that starts for you with just email and Instagram, great, you know, start there. And I think the brand receiving your media kit and your pitch will be really impressed with the fact that you’ve shown up time and time again on those individual platforms, your engagement.

[00:19:59] Rate is great. Your community is very strong, and that ultimately is the biggest thing, for brands versus just being on 900 different channels.

[00:20:09] Jeff Sieh: I will

[00:20:09] Conor Brown: the Video Description With that one, the, the brand is clearly, if they’re shunning away from particular platforms, they clearly believe that their audience isn’t on those platforms. So it’s probably safe to say that if they don’t believe their audience is there, then maybe your audience isn’t the right fit for that product or brand.

[00:20:29] I mean, we all want to be sponsored by Ferrari, right? I’d love to have one out in the mud over here, but I don’t think my audience is going to find that very relevant. So I think it’s, it’s one thing about really, really liking a product and wanting to go out to that brand. It’s another to say, is my, is this right for my audience in particular?

[00:20:51] Jeff Sieh: And by the way, that, that question was from Nazeem. Nazeem, thank you for stopping by. I appreciate you, my friend. And he goes, great advice. I agree with that. One of the things, when you’re talking about, you know, even when I was talking about, like, with, Ecamm, is one of the things I was able to say to them, and you mentioned this for, like, small influencers when they’re starting, is like, I was able to say, like, you’re not just sponsoring, like, my live show, but it’s also going to be on YouTube and Instagram and repurposing.

[00:21:16] I’m going to put you everywhere. And so when you’re smaller and starting out, that’s a great way. I think to really, you know, utilize what you have and promote it. one of the things you mentioned, on the question of like what, you know, what platforms are using, one of my favorite resources to find brand deals is Justin Moore’s email.

[00:21:34] If you guys don’t know who him, he has it called Creator Wizard and he has these brand deals that he lists out. And one of the things that I’m seeing is TikTok and Instagram Reels, a lot of brands are asking for. And so I think, but you can pick a lot of them will say, well, you know, I want Pinterest too, or, or whatever.

[00:21:50] And like what Cassie was saying, if you have some of those platforms, like, listen, I’ll, I won’t only do this, but I’ll do this as well. I’ll even go on these platforms. Then you might be able to get the, your foot in the door and kind of differentiate yourself. Let’s see if I need to fill out any of these in just a little bit longer.

[00:22:21] At all, you probably need to have a media kit. So what do you do when a sponsor, Cassie says like, Hey, we want to work for you, but what are your numbers? And you feel like you don’t have those numbers at all. Like you have like, my mom’s, you know, really likes my posts. I mean, what do you tell, what do you tell people?

[00:22:39] do you ignore the numbers and try to shift it in a different way? Or so how do you, how do you overcome that barrier when you first get started? Because there are people looking for those micro influencers right now.

[00:22:50] Cassie Tucker: So number one, the thing to think about is it brands are all looking for different things, right? The large massive brands may be looking for someone who has a huge audience and following and engagement rate. another brand may be only looking for email subscribers. The only brand may only be looking for micro influencers who have a really engaged audience.

[00:23:11] And so it’s really hard to know at. First, what those brands may specifically be looking for. that’s not to say that you shouldn’t, you know, have something to show for that, but I think the biggest thing that I would say to that question is just. Again, diversify and offer more if you have to at first and then go from there.

[00:23:35] affiliate partnerships as well is a great place to start like I said because ultimately you are going to run into roadblocks where a brand will tell you no because You don’t have the numbers they’re looking for and that’s okay. It’s just a not a good fit at that time but if you can start number one So if you are consistently working to build your brand in your community, no matter what, eventually you will get there to a place where those dream brands will want to work with you.

[00:24:02] the other thing too, and paying attention to what those brands are currently doing across platforms is again, you might be able to offer some sort of UGC to them. So when we say UGC, we are talking about user generated content. And so maybe you’ve noticed that the brand is I hope you found this learning very fun and useful.

[00:24:27] You can click the link in the description below and it’ll take your credit FIGHTING! You’re promoting them and take photos in three different locations for you and offer them to you for this rate. Again, that’s a really great place to start and it kind of shows and works on your collaboration skills, your communication skills with, with that team.

[00:24:55] And, you know, again, it’s content to put on your media kit to show that you have worked with brands in the past. I told this story at Momentum, but I have a podcast and we’ve been going at it for a while and podcast sponsorships are tricky, right? There’s a lot of brands looking for very high numbers.

[00:25:13] In that space. but what we have done over time is we have worked to build our community on a couple of very niche, platforms. So one of them being LinkedIn, we have the podcast of course, and we also have an email list. And so what we have been working to do is we’ve been working to land page. but we’re not just focusing on podcasting.

[00:25:35] Hey, we’ll mention your brand one time, during the span of a 20 minute episode and you’re going to pay us X. We say, hey, we’re not only going to do that, but we’re going to include you in our email list. We’re going to post about you a couple times on social. And, you know, not everyone does this, but I do some photography on the side.

[00:25:54] And so we even offered, Hey, Don’t let them take you back. So it doesn’t really mean you need to be doing these things in the beginning, but ultimately don’t let it let. Make you lose steam. You know, continue aiming for community, building that community consistently, showing up for your people over time.

[00:26:25] And if that is your number one goal, your community and your numbers are going to grow just naturally. And you’ll get to the point where you’re going to be able to land some of those really big, dream worthy brands.

[00:26:35] Jeff Sieh: That’s awesome. That, that, I wanted to hit that hard because of, you know, you don’t know they’ll say no unless you ask. And so many times I’ve, when I first got started, I just didn’t ask when I should have, and stuff could have happened instead of waiting. So, if you get anything from this, just ask. You never, all they can do is say no, right?

[00:26:52] I mean. You know, you’re not any worse off by asking. So, thank you, Cassie. That’s really, really great. So, I want to move on to this next segment when we’re going to talk about, kind of strategies for outreach. You mentioned before kind of an email for some of this stuff to, that kind of goes in hand in hand with your media kit.

[00:27:08] So, how can a content creator, like, effectively personalize their media kit pitch and kind of cut through that noise and not end up on the spam folder, like you said, we get all those LinkedIn things. I have people wanting… pitching to be a guest of my podcast, they have no idea what the podcast is about.

[00:27:23] And I’m like, okay, yeah, that’s not going to work. so what do you, how do you stand out with, like this personalization that you mentioned?

[00:27:31] Cassie Tucker: Yeah, so it’s definitely tricky and it’s, it’s a, it’s a trial and error game, right? So, I think the biggest thing too, like I said, is tapping into those brands that you’re already using on a regular basis. Cause that’s easy, right? You’re able to quickly speak to, how you’ve used the product or. How you resonate with the brand or why the story was compelling to you when you initially came across the brand.

[00:27:55] So that’s a great place to start first, but let’s say it’s a brand that you don’t have as much experience, using or working with. the biggest thing is just. So make sure you’re taking the time to discover the brand’s mission, vision, the products that they offer, the type of people that engage with the brand online.

[00:28:18] So you can kind of comb through and look at the people that are connecting most with that brand on social media, the type of content they’re creating. The collaborations they’re doing, the campaigns they’re working on, really showing that you’ve done the work and you’ve done your research. Again, going back to the job hunt reference there, I’m pretty sure most people listening would not step into a job interview.

[00:28:43] Jeff Sieh: Right. Right.

[00:28:52] Cassie Tucker: Go to

[00:29:01] justin. com. If you’re you go to some tips on how to get started. So certainly look for the but it’s always important to keep in mind it’s important to go to someone. But if you could find a direct connection to someone on the receiving end, that’s going to be even more helpful. And the other layer to that too, if you could even do some research on that person receiving the email, don’t get stalkerish, you know, don’t go too deep.

[00:29:27] But if you could kind of comb through their LinkedIn really quick, see where they went to school. If there’s a connection there, see the brands that they’ve worked with, the work that they do. And so making that human to human connection as well, and I promise you getting through to a human versus just a general inbox that receives probably hundreds to thousands of emails a day, it’s gonna be a lot easier to do that.

[00:29:49] And there’s some really, really, really great tools out there, to help you do so. And, but LinkedIn, a lot of times people’s contact information is available, to them there on the platform. and so that’s a great place to start to human connection as well as just tailoring and doing your due diligence and research.

[00:30:09] Jeff Sieh: Very cool.

[00:30:10] Conor Brown: That’s really cool. You know, one thing that I always struggle with is, the notion of, well, why would they care? Right? Like. Why would they want to work with me? And, and I also don’t want to be presumptuous that, that they do, right? So I’m always like, Oh God, it’d be nice if you could, you know, work with me or, or here.

[00:30:30] Well, I think so many people are also nervous that they don’t want to come off as strong or forceful by sending an, you know, an unsolicited media kit to, to a brand or, or something like that. So, so how do you gauge when you can do that, Cassie? Like. Not being, overtly in your face, but coming off as maybe proactive or, or not presumptuous, but what are your strategies and, and kinda mindset around that?

[00:31:01] Cassie Tucker: Yeah, so technically speaking, if you think about email inboxes and how they work, you know, there’s a lot of different layers of protection that a lot of businesses have on what they can receive in their inbox, especially if an attachment is included or even a link is included, and depending on where it’s coming from.

[00:31:18] And so, Unfortunately, we don’t have the power to control those elements, but a lot of times, unfortunately, some of those elements will flag the email in that person’s inbox, or it won’t even get to them in the first place. so I would test, I think, depending on the scenario, if you see an open call for influencers, obviously, Facebook and all other platforms that offer tools.

[00:31:45] You can send questions by email and chat, or even sign your information to a COVID 19

[00:32:04] Check your email If you’re listening to to, to get what they have and to take advantage or whatever, not saying you are, but I think, you know, ultimately, if you are really personalizing that outreach and, and, you know, making it not feel gross and it can be like, think about the, the messages that you’ve received in LinkedIn or what have you like.

[00:32:27] Think about the things that people have said to you and make sure you avoid some of those elements that make you feel a little gross. so that’s the biggest thing. but a lot of it, honestly, is just trial and error. You just have to test a number of different message styles. And I think, too, you know, You could do a discovery outreach email initially if your goal eventually, we keep talking about Nike, but if your goal down the road is to work with Nike, maybe making that one to one connection with someone on LinkedIn or reaching out to them and just saying, Hey, really love what you’re doing.

[00:33:00] Thanks for all the work that you’re creating, the creative work that you’re developing and just making that first personal connection and over time fostering that relationship. Obviously that’s, The long game, but relationships ultimately here are key. And I could tell you, I wish I could tell you that, just cold pitches all day long is going to land you a million different opportunities.

[00:33:23] It can, but ultimately the end of the game is just relationships are so important. but if you don’t have that relationship developed yet, first try to spark it. And even if down the road, your goal is to work with Nike, but you. Either A, don’t feel like you’re quite there, or you want to work on your brand a little bit before you get there.

[00:33:43] Spark that relationship now and down the road, that’s going to be very important for you.

[00:33:48] Jeff Sieh: I think that is so key.

[00:33:50] Conor Brown: So funny about that. Just one quick anecdote. So on LinkedIn, I go by R. Connor Brown because go by my middle name, but for, you know, the government wants me to use my first name for everything. So anytime I get a LinkedIn message and it says, Hi there, R. Connor, I’m like, no one would ever actually call me this, right?

[00:34:12] No, you can’t just look at that and be like, well, he clearly wants to go by this. No, it’s a brand new sort of thing. So I know, oh, they didn’t, Take any time or it’s automated and it just scraping off my profile. So it starts even with that, that salutation and thing like that. And when I see our Connor in my inbox, I immediately delete it.

[00:34:30] I don’t even pay it time of day.

[00:34:32] Cassie Tucker: Oh my gosh. And spell the person’s name correctly. That’s the other thing too. I’ve, I’ve gotten that so many times where, you know, my name, it’s short for something longer, but C A S S I E. I’ll get emails where it’s C A S E Y or C A S S E. And I’m like, listen, that’s the first thing you need to do is spell the person’s name correctly.

[00:34:51] And, and, you know, that’s, it’s a first impressions. So it’s important.

[00:34:55] Jeff Sieh: I used to use it when, so when I was in college, I got my first credit card, you know, and I went over the limit and I remember they would call and say, is Jeff Sye there? And I’m like, no, this is Bob, his roommate. He’s not here. He’s never here. So that always is handy.

[00:35:10] Conor Brown: Great. Good fun.

[00:35:11] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, so we’ve got another one of our, of, Momentum attendees, Kira says, I love the idea of diversifying what you offer to sponsors beyond a mention in a video or podcast.

[00:35:23] So creative. Love it. Yeah, that is great advice. In fact, it reminds me of, like, what you said earlier, Cassie, is that, you know, it takes, it takes time. You can’t just like, hey, buy my stuff, or hey, sponsor me. and one of the things, I keep going back to Ecamm, because they have such a great community, but one of their employees, Doc Rock, who’s, you know, he runs a lot of their stuff over there, he started just inside the community helping other people, like with his comments and, hey, if this doesn’t work, you should try this and this.

[00:35:51] And Ecamm noticed and eventually hired him and now he’s on staff. And so, your, your idea of like starting small and then working… With those brands going, going along the way, I think is, is really, really key. Is there any other things that you would suggest for like, if you have a dream brand, you know, Connor wants a Ferrari in his driveway.

[00:36:09] so like, what are some other tips that you could share on like initiating a conversation? Cause that’s where it starts. It’s not like it’s, and it’s more than like a cold pitch. Like, Hey, like how do you initiate that initial conversation with a brand that you really eventually want to work with?

[00:36:26] Cassie Tucker: Yeah. So I think one thing that is going to be really helpful is, you know, there’s that saying dress for the job that you want, right? So if you can start creating content with that brand without even having a paid collaboration, even if you love the brand and you’ve never thought about creating. content with their products, start doing it, you know, show what you can create with that brand.

[00:36:51] Because again, those visualization examples of what you can create for that, that business is going to be huge. Obviously you can share examples using other products and other services, but if you literally use that brand or you want to use that brand, start creating content. Start telling your audience about it.

[00:37:09] Start showing how you’re using it. Get creative with the type of content that you’re developing using that product. Because if you can genuinely become a organic ambassador of that brand, a lot of times, brands are way more eager to work with someone like that versus someone who just reaches out with ever.

[00:37:27] using the product, right? And a lot of times too, I’ve seen that lead to the brand reaching out to the person first. So that’s a whole nother opportunity to keep in mind too. If you really start engaging and connecting with that brand, commenting on their post. Sharing your story about how you’ve used the product or the service, that’s gonna definitely connect and, and, you know, with them.

[00:37:51] So, and I think going back to, I know I sound like a broken record, but going back to the element of crafting your pitch email, simplicity is important. You know, if you send an email and it has. Seven paragraphs and it’s going on this dissertation all about yourself and how great you are. And that’s obviously awesome and you want to back up the authority of what you do and why what you do is working and why it’s compelling.

[00:38:17] But ultimately, again, the brand is asking themselves, what’s in it for me? How can you.

[00:38:25] And if you’re not answering that question, someone’s going to have to start going into the guessing game, and they’re going to do more work trying to figure out how, how you’re going to fit into the bigger picture for them. And so if you can go ahead and initially just answer that question and answer it very quickly in the email, that’s going to be huge.

[00:38:46] the other thing too is email subject lines are obviously really important too. You know, if you think about your. Please don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to our channel! Working that in that way is another really good thing. and so there’s a different, there’s a few different things that you can try, but ultimately the thing I always tell people is just test, test, test, send out a bunch of emails, see what’s clicking, see what’s working.

[00:39:24] but ultimately focus on that subset of, of brands that you’re already utilizing in your day to day, including that story into your outreach is going to be a great place to start. And then you can kind of go from there.

[00:39:36] Jeff Sieh: So real quick follow up on that. I want to just come a little bit on the format of the email because I think what you said is really, really key is offering, telling the brands what you are going to offer because it’s about them. They don’t really care like how great you are and you’ve been on all these shows or whatever.

[00:39:50] They want to know what you can offer the brand. So would you put what you offered like in bullet points at the very, very top? How do you usually format? That email.

[00:39:58] Cassie Tucker: Yeah. So I think the biggest thing is you want it to be, Yeah. I think for when it comes to narrating videos, it’s one about serendipity. that are funny from your videos, But it works. it works if you create the right conversation, Speaker pitching to event planners, or you are a creator pitching to most of the time marketing teams or influencer managers, people’s times are tight.

[00:40:39] They don’t have a lot of extra time on their hands to go back and forth with someone. And so if you can kind of, again, create that email in a short, concise, compelling way as quickly as possible, and even offering to them, Hey, if you’re interested, I have more details in my media kit. Maybe in your initial email you have as.

[00:41:02] And you to get a or some of the past work that’s going to be really helpful, but short is key and bullet points are always usually my go to. And so that’s a good way to start. But again, test, you know, try a couple of different formats. Maybe it’s, headlines with two short sentences underneath and you have a couple of those, you know, whatever you feel like makes sense and whatever’s getting some sort of a reaction or response.

[00:41:26] And then you can kind of go from there.

[00:41:28] Jeff Sieh: Awesome.

[00:41:29] Conor Brown: That’s awesome. I know Jeff and I, we’re both Amazon influencers, so we get a lot of emails from brands wanting us to review stuff, and they are some crazy emails, and that’s amazing. I’m not looking at the product that you’re even talking about if this email is not making any sense at all. You know, you, you’ve crafted your, your media kit, right?

[00:41:51] You’ve got your, what you think is your perfect email. You send it out into the world to the brands that you want to work with. What’s a realistic time frame to not only respect, expect a response to come from a brand, and more so, how do you not come off as pushy? Right? Like, what’s a reasonable amount of time to, I’m not going to say anything, but now I’m going to reach out, and then subsequently, how many times do you do that without coming off like a creep?

[00:42:22] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:42:24] Cassie Tucker: For sure. Well, first of all, I do not recommend sending emails, especially on the weekends. Like, don’t, don’t do that because your email is going to get buried. It’s not going to get looked at, at least until Monday. And Monday mornings are usually a big flooding of the inbox. And so, try to avoid to Thursdays and Fridays.

[00:42:41] I don’t love sending out pitch emails either. I try to stick with Mondays or Tuesdays just at the top of the week, maybe early in the day. So it hits their inbox first thing. and so that’s kind of the aim again, test and just kind of see what, what makes the most sense. But in terms of the turnaround time, I wish I could guarantee.

[00:43:00] If and when a brand would respond and when they’ll respond, it’s hard to say, but in my experience, honestly, a couple days, is usually what I’ve seen, because sometimes brands will take the time to look at it, share it with their team, maybe look at it again, let it sit in their inbox. so I’ll typically not respond or not follow back up until five to seven days after I send that initial email.

[00:43:27] To your point, Connor, you don’t want to respond. Sound pushy again. I’ve had people in my LinkedIn inbox where it’s every day and they’re, they’re literally saying to me, all right, day three of following up day four. And I’m like, listen, that’s not helping. I, and I don’t quite feel bad for that . So, so that’s one thing.

[00:43:44] Obviously you don’t wanna be just. All over the place with that. So, I would give it a few days. If you don’t hear five to seven days, maybe stick with seven. Follow back up. Be super kind and concise in your follow up. a lot of times for me, it’s the follow up email that gets a response. I do get responses in my first initial email, but sometimes if you just bump that email back up to the top of someone’s inbox.

[00:44:09] And that’s what’s helpful because, again, we don’t know how many emails these people are receiving on their end and so a lot of times it’s just a matter of right place right time, getting it to the top of their inbox when they’re in there and that’s when they see it. So, follow up is fine, I’ll typically do two, maybe three follow ups and then I’ll kind of end it there because it, honestly by the third email if someone hasn’t responded.

[00:44:30] Unfortunately, it might be time to move on, but two emails is more than okay. And I just give it, you know, a few business days until you circle back up.

[00:44:39] Jeff Sieh: It’s awesome. One of the things I would say, and this is from Connor Nye’s, Amazon Influencer stuff is you also got to think about seasonality. Like when stuff is going to start hitting for the holidays or whatever. Like I have been, I luckily enough, one, it was last year I did a, I think for, cause I knew Black Friday was coming up and that was going to be big on Amazon.

[00:44:57] Everybody wants to be on Amazon on Black Friday. And so I was able to reach out to some brands and say, Hey, I’m going to go live on Black Friday on Amazon’s platform. why don’t we partner together? And they were very open to what that suggestion and sending product and all this sort of stuff. So also be thinking about like, when does it hit?

[00:45:15] And a lot of times it hits, they’re thinking about those sales way before you do. So just kind of know the brand cycle. Like stuff on Pinterest hits a lot earlier than it does on Facebook. And so you got to think about different times for different sales or, or when products are going to be promoted on those different platforms.

[00:45:31] So that’s really good. As well, Cassie, so thank you. let’s really quick, because Cassie, so much, I could go on this for this forever. This is so much fun. let’s talk about media kit design, because when you were at Momentum, you had some great, and they were gorgeous examples of media kits, and how you put them together.

[00:45:48] so can you talk about a little bit crafting a media kit from scratch? Like, what tools do you like? Platforms you find most effective, for like a professional, but like something that most normal people can do. some things that you like to use.

[00:46:03] Cassie Tucker: absolutely. Well, thank you for that. First of all, my favorite tool really is. Canva, I love Canva. And so that’s an example that I gave you all at Momentum was using that platform. A lot of times you can use Canva for free. I personally love the pro version. I think it’s 12 a month or something like that.

[00:46:21] And the amount of things you can do on the platform is endless. And so for me, that’s one of my must have tools. I will not get rid of that platform for anything. If you’re a little bit more design savvy and you have used the Adobe. print products in the past. Adobe Illustrator is another one of my favorite ones.

[00:46:38] If I have something that’s a little bit more nitty gritty or print, I will always go to Adobe. I don’t love Canva for print products yet. I’m sure they’re going to be working on that, but if you need to print anything, even though this is kind of unrelated, go to Adobe. but having Adobe skills in general is really important.

[00:46:58] So those are the two platforms I will typically start with, but in terms of design tips, Again, going back to the resume reference, simple is important. You know, you don’t want to have too many elements on your media kit that is super distracting and takes away from the main content that you are trying to get across.

[00:47:20] And so having extra icons and this and that scrambled all over. If your eye has to go in a zigzag and back up pattern to read information, it’s probably not a good idea either, so making sure that someone can read from left to right and it’s pretty simple and all the information is easy to find, there’s headlines across your document that share what that, content is all about in that specific section, is also, also super, super important, and so, again, simple is key.

[00:47:52] I know a lot of times people say, one page is, This is really important. I haven’t found that sticking only with one page is so important. WordPress guides, lunch session is out right now, so if you’re trying to get started late in the week, you can start early through the week. If you’re really busy on a busy day, you would So if you have a lot of different offerings, you have a blog, you have social, you have a podcast, et cetera, it’s probably going to go longer, but you can also, when you’re going to send that pitch to someone, you can maybe tweak or cut out some sections of your media kit, depending on who you’re talking to.

[00:48:34] So those are the biggest things. And then lastly, which I shared at Momentum as well, is making sure that the branding of your media kit is. Into your business brand. So if your brand you use blue and white and yellow, for example, don’t use pink and green and your media kit. So making sure everything ties together is incredibly important because you want to create that consistency and you’ll start to become known for this brand aesthetic or style.

[00:49:03] You know, have your logo on there, create that connection and that recognization with your brand. so those are just a few quick little design tips there for your media kit.

[00:49:13] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, those are great.

[00:49:14] Conor Brown: Those are awesome. I know you mentioned, you know, the importance of keeping it, you know, not too, too long and keeping it consistent and not a whole lot of icons or craziness. But Cassie, are there any other like common design mistakes that you’ve seen that just are a no go when assembling a media kit?

[00:49:35] Cassie Tucker: Yeah, I think that’s the biggest thing. Distraction is, is one, you know, photos are good because again, people are usually pretty visual. and then ultimately besides that, I think just having information that’s. I know this kind of goes beyond design per se, but including too much information in your design that is not necessary is also going to be, really distracting.

[00:50:01] I think the other thing too, you know, because seeing smiling faces and the connection with an audience visibly is, It’s, it’s really huge a lot of times to brands and showing how you resonate and you’ve built this community. So if you have photos of you connecting with people in person or whatever, speaking, if you’re a speaker or podcasting, showing that is huge.

[00:50:23] But I think the biggest thing ultimately is examples of your work. You can include maybe collages or what have you in the media kit itself. So it creates that connection. From here, you are automatically notified as soon as you join in the news crew. Why is this square in my design? Why is this photo in my design?

[00:50:56] Why is this headline in my design? Does it make sense? Is it telling a story all the way throughout? those are ultimately the biggest things that I like to ask myself just before that goes off and goes out to someone.

[00:51:07] Jeff Sieh: Awesome. So, one of the questions that I was thinking about, because hopefully we are continuing to grow and continue, you know, in our, in our growth and have more numbers and all that stuff. So how often do we need to update this media kit?

[00:51:22] Cassie Tucker: Yeah, so at most every single time you send it out, or I like to kind of send pitches and waves per se, so I’ll kind of go through and I’ll, I’ll send a bunch of emails obviously tweaking as I’m, as I’m sending those. so at most every time you send it out or every quote unquote wave that you’re sending those emails out, at minimum monthly.

[00:51:43] If you are a podcaster or social media creator or even blogger and you’re including any sort of updated relevant stuff, Statistics in your media kit, the goal is to make sure those are updated and relevant. So, and it’s to your benefit too, right? So if you last week had, uh, 500 streams of your podcast and this week you have a thousand, you know, making sure that those, those numbers are the most compelling and updated and relevant as possible.

[00:52:10] and those metrics change over time. And same with your audience. I know we didn’t talk a whole lot about audience demo, but making sure that the people that are following you and engaging with your content, that they’re, included in that media kit as well. So making sure that the locations, the ages, the genders are all up to date as well.

[00:52:32] because the biggest thing too is you want to make sure that ROI of your campaign is going to be reflective of your updated data. So number one is don’t fluff your numbers. I wouldn’t do that. and also just make sure they’re updated and they’re timely, because it’s going to help you ultimately down the road.

[00:52:50] Jeff Sieh: Awesome.

[00:52:51] Conor Brown: So Cassie, you know, you’ve talked about the importance of personalizing a media kit when you go out to each brand, but like, where’s that balance and that efficiency if we want to standardize media kit, but we also want to update it for each brand? Like how detailed are we getting with, with those personalized ones?

[00:53:12] Cassie Tucker: Yeah. So number one, I would say it’s okay to have a couple different versions of your media kit, depending on the type of brands or the type of audiences that you’re reaching out to. So that’s probably. So, to go about it, just because you have it ready to go, and maybe you just tweak a couple small things initially.

[00:53:32] because maybe you work in fashion and you have one for clothing and you have another one for jewelry or, or what have you. So speaking to those different industries and really showing that brand exactly what you can do for a brand just like them is going to be important. The other thing I would say too, Besides your stats being updated, the content examples are really the only other big thing that should be changing on a semi regular basis.

[00:53:59] Because if you’re changing your story every time you send to a new brand, there’s probably something wrong with your brand message. And it may be time to kind of tweak and optimize that because ultimately the people in the brands working with you, there should be some sort of. Synergy between their audience and yours.

[00:54:17] There should be a connection. your audience should resonate with them and vice versa. There should be some sort of synergy there. So ultimately, the idea is not to completely overhaul your media kit every time you send it out, because there should be some sort of. Fluidity between the brands that you’re reaching out to.

[00:54:34] but having a couple different examples or even having pages that can be cut out depending on who you’re speaking to is gonna be important. You can also maybe break your pitches down, by segments. So maybe you have a group of. The clothing brands that you’re reaching out to, and then maybe you have jewelry.

[00:54:53] So maybe Wednesday, I say, okay, today I am gonna only reach out to clothing, brands and I have a media kit that’s kind of tailored to that group. Or maybe next week I’m only gonna do speaking engagement pitches and I have, educational groups that I’m reaching out to. And so I have my media kit that’s kind of tailored to that group.

[00:55:12] so that’s the biggest thing I would say is just have a couple different versions, but try not to change your message a whole lot, just make sure that you do have examples of your work and also the data is as updated as possible too.

[00:55:25] Conor Brown: Love it.

[00:55:26] Jeff Sieh: awesome. That is awesome. So, we have my friend Mia Voss saying, this is a great conversation. Loving all this info. Unfortunately, we have run out of time. Once again, this needs to be like a day long show. I think sometimes it’s just amazing. Cassie, thank you so much for all your great information and.

[00:55:43] Everything that you’ve taught and shared with us today. I want to give you plenty of time to let people know where they can find you, what you’ve got going on, anything you’d like to tell people where they can find more about Cassie Tucker.

[00:55:54] Cassie Tucker: Oh my goodness. Well, first of all, thank you both for having me. I am incredibly honored, super, super stoked to have been here today. But yeah, a couple different platforms. So the biggest thing, for me is LinkedIn. I love LinkedIn, so I’m Cassie Tucker over there. my podcast is Marketing Happy Hour.

[00:56:11] That’s marketing happy hr.com to find all things that, and besides that, yeah, I think that’s pretty much it. Those are the two main places that I’m at. But LinkedIn and the podcaster. Are big. Yeah. Thank you.

[00:56:23] Jeff Sieh: Connor is going to be on your show not very long ago. And I know Lou and I were just on not too long ago either. So make sure you guys check out those episodes, comment on them, like, let it give her a rating and review and, and leave some comments on there. That always helps podcasters out. Connor Brown, where can people find the amazing Connor Brown?

[00:56:40] Conor Brown: You can find the amazing Conor Brown at www. opinion. com and across social media at www. opinion. com for all your Disney travel planning needs.

[00:56:51] Jeff Sieh: Awesome. Thank you guys so much for this show. It was so much fun. thank you, Dustin, Kira, Mia, Tacey, everybody who joined us today and those people who are watching the replay, we appreciate you. We wouldn’t be able to do this show without you. And with that, we’ll see you guys next time. Bye everybody.

[00:57:12] Cassie Tucker: Perfect.