Beacons Media Kit vs Rate Card: Which One Brands Want

A Beacons media kit vs rate card question lands the moment a brand replies to your Beacons page, and the two are not versions of one document. A media kit is who you are and the proof behind it. A rate card is the prices, shareable as one link. This guide defines both, names the moment a brand wants each one, and answers whether a Beacons-style page replaces either.

What is a media kit and what is a rate card?

A media kit is a short document about you. Your name and niche, where you post, follower counts, engagement, three to five of your best pieces, any brands you have worked with, and how to reach you. It is the CV and the portfolio in one file. Plenty of creators add a prices section at the end, and just as many leave prices out and quote per campaign.

A rate card is only prices. One deliverable, one number: a TikTok video, an Instagram Reel, a set of Stories, a UGC video you never post on your own account. The useful ones price the three things brands ask about after they have said yes, which are paid ads on top of the post, usage rights on the content, and exclusivity in your category.

The rate card is usually one section inside the media kit, not a rival to it. What creators are actually choosing between is which one to send, and when.

Which does a brand open first: Beacons media kit vs rate card?

A brand that has never heard of you opens the proof first. It wants to know whether your audience is its customers, whether your work looks like something it would post, and whether you look like someone who turns up on time. The number only starts to matter once those three land.

Headcount is not the credential it used to be, at least not on the money side. Upfluence looked at 47,515 creator applications across 730 brands in early 2026 and found follower count was one of the weakest predictors of what a creator quoted, while engagement quality led the field (Upfluence Creator Intelligence, Q1 2026). A kit makes the same case on the page: the samples and the engagement figures do the work, and the follower count sits beside them rather than leading.

Small accounts get opened too. Influencer Marketing Hub's 2026 benchmark data reports that 53.8% of brands name nano-influencers as their preferred partners (Influencer Marketing Hub), so a kit from a creator with a few thousand followers gets read rather than binned.

So the order is simple. The media kit goes first when you are the unknown one in the conversation. The rate card goes first when the conversation is already about money.

When should you send a media kit and when should you send a rate card?

Match the artefact to the moment, not to whichever one you finished last:

• Cold pitch to a brand you have never spoken to: media kit. The brand is deciding on fit.
• Application form with a media kit field: media kit, with prices inside if you have them.
• Brand replies asking for more info or your deck: media kit.
• Brand asks what do you charge in a DM or email: rate card, plus one line answering its exact deliverable.
• Scoping a campaign with deliverables and dates named: rate card.
• Brand asks about paid ads, usage rights or exclusivity: rate card, because those are lines on it.
• Existing client rebooking you: rate card only. They already know who you are.

The message that answers a rate question without dumping the whole kit on someone:

Hi [name],

Thanks for asking. My rate for one TikTok video with one round of
revisions is US$400, with 30 days of use on your own channels
included. Paid ads, exclusivity and extra videos are priced on top.

Full rate card here: [link]

If you send me the deliverables and the dates, I'll quote the exact
number.

[Your name]

Can a Beacons page replace a media kit and a rate card?

For the media kit half, largely yes. Beacons builds a media kit inside the link-in-bio page you may already share, pulls follower and engagement figures from connected accounts so they refresh themselves, and hands it out as one link. The core media kit costs nothing to build; paid plans on Beacons buy extras such as a custom domain. That covers the proof, the samples and the contact details without you exporting a PDF every time a number moves.

For the rate card half, no. An auto-updating page proves who you are and still does not say what the job costs, unless you type prices into it yourself. And a public page shows every visitor the same content, while a rate card sent inside a deal thread can list the exact deliverables that brand named.

The gap brands feel most is the three riders. Usage, ads and exclusivity are priced per deal, they change the number, and a page built for browsing rarely carries them. That is why a Beacons-style page works as the media kit and still needs a rate card beside it. Brand deal negotiation scripts show how to hold those riders when a brand pushes back.

How do you build both today?

Five steps, in order. The first three take an afternoon.

1. Write the media kit in one sitting. Six sections: who you are, where you post, audience and engagement, three to five best pieces, brands you have worked with, and how to reach you. The influencer media kit template has the section order and what goes in each one.

2. Put numbers on the rate card. Deliverable by deliverable, with ads, usage and exclusivity as their own lines. The creator rate card guide covers the structure, and the creator rate calculator gives you a starting number when you have nothing to work from yet.

3. Make the rate card one link. A brand should open a URL and see prices, not open an attachment and scroll. The Creator List's rate card is in your own currency. It is early-stage software built for the deals you already have, so judge it on one real deal rather than a feature list: 14-day free trial, then a monthly plan (pricing).

4. Link the two together. The kit ends with your rate card link. The rate card ends with a line about who you are and a link back to the kit. Whichever one a brand opens first, it finds the other in one click, and your Beacons page can be the kit side of that pair.

5. Send the right one today. Take the moment list above, pick the brand already in your inbox, and send the artefact that moment calls for before the day ends. The brand collaboration email templates cover the wording for each of those moments.

What makes a brand ignore a media kit?

Six things kill a kit before the second paragraph, and all six are fixable this week:

• Numbers with no date on them, so the brand cannot tell whether they are current
• Follower counts with no engagement beside them, which do not show whether anyone is watching
• Prices hidden behind a line that only says rates on request
• Six pages of brand story when a brand is skimming ten creators in an afternoon
• Samples chosen for what you like rather than what the brand would run
• No next step, so the reader has to work out how to reply

A kit that is one page, dated this month, with three samples and a rate card link at the bottom beats a designed deck every time.

Your next action is small. Open the template, fill the six sections, put your prices on one link, and send the kit to the brand that already replied to you. Once the kit is sent, the brand deal tracker apps are the next thing to sort out.