Influencer gifting is a great method to develop your brand while also building community. Let’s go over the how, what, and tools you’ll need to succeed at gift-giving.
How to Use Influencer Marketing to Grow Your Business
Influencer giving, also known as product seeding, is the practise of sending free things to a limited group of influencers. If you have a wonderful product, sending it to an influencer with a similar audience to your target audience might be a great approach to gain their attention.
Because it is a gift, this practise is known as influencer giving. It is crucial to note, however, that gifting things does not always result in a post or share. There is no assurance you will be shared because you are not in a paid relationship or under any contract – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth a shot!
Gifting and affiliates, gifting and sponsored content, or gifting alone can be combined by marketing teams.
Gifting has the opportunity to introduce your brand to new clients. The typical influencer has a 2.39% engagement rate. Micro influencers (those with fewer than 10,000 followers) had a slightly higher engagement rate of 3.86%. As the number of followers grows, so does this percentage.
As a result, if an influencer with 25k followers posts about your product, about 1000 individuals will engage with the post. If just 1% of those visit your website and complete a purchase, that’s about ten new clients. As a result, you’ll get more impressions and, eventually, sales.
What are the four processes involved in sending merchandise to influencers?
1.Conduct your research
Before you start shipping your wares to random PO boxes, you should conduct influencer study. All influencers must maintain a specific look and style of material in order to maintain their following, so ensuring that your product and their brand are matched is critical to a successful partnership. You’ll be able to tell quite fast if it will work by analysing your creator’s socials for comparable collaborations with products similar to yours.
It’s also a good idea not to put all your eggs in one basket by sending your present to numerous makers (depending on the size and capacity of your goods). This increases the likelihood of it being received and shared by their target audiences. However, avoid giving your gift to a group of related influencers with similar followings, and send subtle modifications if the product is the same—this might potentially saturate the value of your product if it’s shared by several authors, making the material feel dishonest or redundant.
2.Locate address information
The most well-known and experienced influencers will usually have a PO Box listed on their YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram accounts, but you can also look into their Shopify Collabs. However, new or micro-influencers can interact with brands via DMs (direct messaging) or the Shopify Collabs app. Shopify Collabs offers many gifting options that keep address information anonymous and influencers’ personal information hidden. Marketing teams may quickly send a gift, and the influencer can redeem it with the information maintained in their Shopify Collabs account.
In general, it is not advisable to deliver a gift without first receiving an email, DM, or other kind of communication. Influencers (especially popular ones) have been known to get weird emails, therefore communication is essential.
3.Send your present
Consider methods to make your present memorable before mailing it. Ideally, you want to make the package stand out so that people immediately recognise who sent it. It’s also a good idea to track the shipment to guarantee it doesn’t get lost and to receive confirmation when it’s delivered.
Bonus tip: Include a handwritten message with your gift. When it comes to product seeding, small details can go a long way in increasing the possibility that the influencer would share your product on their networks.
4.Please be patient.
Giving away free products to influencers does not guarantee a return on investment, and it takes time to obtain any response or return – if any at all. Don’t be discouraged if your chosen influencer(s) do not share your passion for your business; there are hundreds more that will.
What are the top ten suggestions for gifting influencers?
Many marketers and businesses have set up giving programmes, but here are a few easy strategies that have previously performed effectively for Shopify Collabs users. Use the methods that are most effective for your brand.
1. Send birthday presents
Influencers may feel more connected to firms who conduct research and provide customised presents on their birthdays or other special occasions. Teams can use Shopify Collabs to identify an influencer’s birthday, or if the creator has a large enough following, they can search online.
2. Provide a one-of-a-kind opportunity
Getting influencers involved with your company through events, product feedback sessions, and marketing campaigns is one of the finest methods to engage people in your business.
3. Demonstrate worth
Understanding why a creator should be interested in your product is a critical step in the influencer gifting process. Breaking down the value proposition is crucial because some influencers receive hundreds of gifts every month and you must stand out. Incorporate some of these responses into your customised note.
- Why would this individual choose to open my parcel above others?
- Why would we form a fantastic team?
- How does my product help their brand?
- What contribution does my product make to their content?
- What kind of content could they create if they used my product?
4. Presents for assistants or managers
Assistants are rarely recognised for their efforts. Sending a free product to an influencer’s assistant and asking them to make the request on your behalf is one method to engage them. Finding an assistant’s or manager’s contact information can be tough, but one method is to look at the influencer’s work email and cross-reference it on LinkedIn. You can also contact them via email first and request an address to ship your product to.
5. Arrange for an introduction
While introductions are a wonderful way to create a connection and start a collaboration, they are very difficult to obtain and usually require that you be running in the appropriate circles. LinkedIn is useful for folks in the corporate world since it allows you to see shared connections, but there isn’t a corresponding platform for creative. This means you may have to spend some time going through mutual friends on Instagram or reaching out to your network to see if any producers are already paired with complementary firms.
6. Make a straightforward and straightforward request.
Most crucial, be specific about what you expect from your free gift. If you don’t ask to be featured, chances are you won’t be. Influencers will not make such assumptions. Making a sincere request is one of the finest methods to achieve what you want, and if there is also evident value for the creator, your request is far more likely to be realised.
7. Hold a contest
Simulating supply and demand through influencer-led competitions is an excellent method to build urgency and exclusivity. Incorporating gifting competitions is a terrific way to get started with user-generated content, and it also provides creators with free content ideas and the chance of higher interaction – a win-win situation for you and your favourite producers.
8. Take pride in your product.
Remember that influencers will do their own research on you before publishing anything on their socials – and they will rarely work with a product they don’t know or that isn’t on brand. Send proof that your present is a well-established brand that is already popular among other creators if feasible – this creates a manufactured demand and priority. Influencers will not want to miss out on the opportunity to be at the forefront of something hot and happening. As a result, they should write more frequently and feel unique about the presents they received.
9. Event gifting
Everyone enjoys receiving a gift bag, and they are an excellent way for influencers and celebrities to obtain your product. People enjoy SWAG and freebies at events, especially if they are of excellent quality and shareable. Because most brands will be competing for attention, one great suggestion is to make your present bag or product stand out in a distinctive way. Make your present as unique as possible.
10. Gifting is not a compensated collaboration.
One thing to remember is that unless you clearly state otherwise, gifting is not a method of payment. Making expectations and requests clear from the beginning is the greatest way to alleviate tensions and lay the groundwork for a solid working relationship.
How can I tell whether it’s working?
As previously said, there is no guarantee that this technique will bring in thousands of new consumers, but there are several ways to track the results of gifting.
- After you’ve sent your presents, assess your UGC (user-generated content). If an influencer has mentioned you in a video or post, you should notice an increase in impressions or interaction. If you haven’t seen an uptick in interaction after six weeks, think about researching and gifting a new set of influencers.
- Some marketers encourage influencers to regift outdated items or products that they are no longer interested in or use. This can result in increased organic traffic and word-of-mouth sales.
- Many teams give discount and affiliate codes as well as prizes for the influencer to distribute to their audience. This is an excellent tool to track sales and identify your most effective influencers.
Gifting influencers is a successful, simple, and low-stress marketing strategy used by some of the world’s largest corporations. When it succeeds, it may bring massive organic development to your small business or, at the very least, raise awareness and establish long-term partnerships that can benefit both you and the creators you admire.
