What is the best way for a business to promote itself? If others do it, especially if it is authentic and honest. How can brands achieve this? One way is to involve influencers in the process. But aren't they required to be well familiar with the brand and its products for the promotion to be credible? The answer is, of course, yes. And this is where influencer gifting campaigns, or product seeding, come into play.
The success of a gifting campaign relies heavily on product fulfillment, and it really matters what kind of product it is, how and when it reaches the influencer, and how it is presented. Don’t expect creators to rave about your goods if it appears on their thresholds in a dull, generic cardboard box at the last minute. Furthermore, don’t get your hopes up if you haven’t taken considerable time and effort to choose a product that is relevant to the creator.
A bit of creativity, personal touch, and attractive packaging can make a positive first impression and you've got the ball rolling. Are you ready? Let’s roll it!
Why Is Product Fulfillment Important in Gifting Campaigns?
Influencer gifting partnerships are relatively inexpensive because you pay the creators with free products for their social media posts. Influencer testimonials can efficiently boost a brand’s credibility, amplify users’ anticipation and substantially grow sales - if creators already know the product or service they are endorsing or have left with enough time to test them. And the latter is where some collaborations fail.
Oway sent haircare products to @katrina_spence_hair
Influencers who are introduced to your products in a timely - and attractive - manner are more likely to create high-quality posts that enhance your customer base and improve your brand awareness. Even though your products or services are fantastic, if you don't put thought into your product fulfillment strategy, your gifting campaign will fail.
How to Choose Products for Gifting Campaigns?
Influencer gifting campaigns are the favored choice of many small businesses with modest spending options and rookies with minimal or no experience in influencer marketing. Even so, it is imperative that you prepare diligently for cooperation. In order to find out what kinds of products you can promote, you must consider what you aim to achieve. Additionally, to maximize the campaign’s success and authenticity, you must pick the right creators, and get to know them before making a proposal. Shortly, the selected product should reflect your brand’s values, match the creator’s niche and appeal to the target audience.
In more detail, you need to consider several of the following factors before you make a decision.
You must identify a collection of products your target audience will receive well. For this, you have to research the market and analyze audience demographics, including gender, age, and location, and psychographics, like interests, hobbies, and preferences.
Your goals will shape your product selection. Are you aiming for increasing brand awareness? You may decide to showcase a range of goods. Do you want to drive sales? It's better to stick to a few carefully selected products or exclusive services.
To further reinforce your brand identity, choose products that align with your brand values and messaging.
Pick products to which influencers can relate and endorse genuinely.
Select quality goods that offer value and are visually appealing.
Consider storage, handling, and delivery options based on the items' size, material, and expiration date.
Giftings are affordable but you still need to calculate the overall costs of production, packaging, and shipping.
Successful Product Fulfillment: Best Practices and Services
To benefit from the partnership, you need to keep in mind two things: packaging and timing matters. Mail your products on time and unharmed. This way, the creator has ample time to try them out and come up with content ideas, including text, photos, and videos.
A package by Lush to @lukesamsowden
Secondly, strive for a positive impact with your packaging and create an unforgettable experience. You can make a big difference if an influencer receives your freebies in a box that matches your brand's image and design. Using custom packaging you can encourage them to create an unboxing post and write a product review. Taking care of such details can deepen your relationship, grow their audience and put your brand in the spotlight, a win-win scenario for both parties.
Services and tools for product fulfillment
Yes, we know you’re busy but influencers are too. Chances are, they receive demo products from other businesses as well, so make your swag box stand out from the crowd. There are numerous custom packaging and sticker printing services and designing tools that facilitate product fulfillment.
Packlane
The company offers mailer, product and shipping boxes in custom and traditional sizes. Their boxes are made of different materials based on their intended use. While mailing and shipping parcels are made of durable cardboard, product boxes focus more on easy customization and looks. Packlane even offers 100% recycled and recyclable packaging and a free sample kit. Businesses can tailor their packages by choosing the size and material, coloring, and adding images and logos.
Customizable shipping boxes by Packlane
Sticker Mule
An online design and printing service making custom merchandise creation fast and easy. Sticker Mule offers a variety of tools for making stunning designs, removing the background from photos, enlarging images without damaging quality, and printing. Besides, businesses can create custom stickers, labels, packaging tapes, bubble mailers, and much more.
noissue
With noissue, companies can tailor packaging to their brand’s image while they take care of the environment. Noissue offers an abundance of packaging and mailing items from sustainable materials taking into consideration the business needs of the industry. Businesses can design stickers, flyers, cards, tags, and custom wrapping and tissue papers as well.
Custom tissue papers by noissue
How to personalize a gift?
Your package's exterior must reinforce your brand image; the interior must mirror the creator's character and preferences. This is where your detailed influencer research can help you personalize the gift. Getting acquainted with the creator’s feed and content and understanding their style will help you create a tailor-made package. Here are several tips that help your packet stick out:
Personal message: Just to make the experience more special, include a personal handwritten note in your parcel, expressing your gratitude to the influencer and ensuring them of your support. You may provide additional information about the product. By the way, don’t fret about your handwriting! There are many online services, like Handwrytten and Simply Noted that enable you to create beautiful handwritten cards. They even have Shopify integration, so if you are a Shopify merchant don’t miss out on this opportunity and create personalized cards for your customers too.
Personalize the products: Make sure to send the creator goods that they will use and enjoy. If you have a hair care business, and the creator has curly hair, send them conditioners, hydrating products, or detanglers.
Sweet treats from @mjbakesglasgow to @fancysomefoodie
Track Fulfillment and Delivery
All right, you’ve arrived at the last stage of your product fulfillment: shipping and tracking your packets. Here are four things to consider:
Minimize the risk of delays and damage and find a reliable shipping company.
Necessarily, choose a company that provides tracking information.
Email influencers once their box is mailed and share with them the tracking code and estimated arrival date.
Follow up on influencers and make sure the packages arrived on time and in good shape.
Manage and track product fulfillment via an influencer marketing platform
If you are using an influencer marketing platform with e-commerce integration you can monitor your product shipping. Plus, you can handle all communication with creators in the same suite.
Set up your e-commerce store in HypeAuditor’s platform and monitor your product delivery
Conclusion
With this knowledge, you should be able to create an impact with your product fulfillment strategy. Remember to align your product with your brand values, select your most desirable products, and pay attention to your packaging. Personalize your delivery boxes and send influencers products they will be able to honestly promote.
