If you are an eCommerce marketer or an owner of an eCommerce store, then you are already aware of the skyrocketing significance of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is the way to go for any eCommerce business planning to follow digital marketing trends in 2023.
However, today, being just aware of the idea of influencer marketing is not enough; you also have to always be up to date with the latest influencer marketing strategies, which are constantly evolving. One of these strategies is something called product seeding, which, in simple terms, means influencer gifting.
In this article, we are going to discuss the concept of product seeding, its importance, benefits, how it works, and how to properly use it for eCommerce businesses.
Table of content:
Product seeding, also known as influencer gifting, is an influencer marketing tactic that revolves around brands sending free products to selected influencers. In return, these influencers might post pictures and videos that include reviews about the products.
However, one of the important keywords that should grab your attention in this definition is the word “might”. When influencers receive gifts from brands in the context of product seeding, it does not create any obligation on them. In other words, brands send gifts to influencers knowing that they are not obligated to post about it but hoping that they will.
The way product seeding works is very simple:
In addition to all the general well-known benefits of influencer marketing, product seeding has some additional specific benefits that eCommerce businesses can leverage. In the following points, we show you some of these benefits.
Product seeding can be a great kickstart for eCommerce brands that are entering the world of influencer marketing for the first time. To demonstrate, today, we find a lot of new eCommerce businesses wishing to reap the benefits of influencer marketing but still do not have enough budget to make paid or sponsored partnerships with influencers.
We also see eCommerce brands that have been around for a while but still can’t get the hang of influencer marketing.
In both cases, product seeding can be the answer. It is a very straightforward and less time-consuming strategy that is simple to understand and easy to implement for any brand that wants to start working with influencers.
Product seeding is a cost-effective influencer marketing strategy. With influencer gifting, you are not paying the influencer. Also, you are neither paying for an ad nor a marketing agency. The only costs that your business incurs are those related to the product itself, in addition to shipping costs.
For eCommerce marketers, the results that you can get from product seeding, while not guaranteed, are worth the costs of the product you’re sending. They believe that the benefits outweigh the costs.
The lower costs incurred here can also lead to reducing your customer acquisition cost (CAC).
Product placement is a marketing strategy in which you showcase your products or services in some form of media. Studies show that 80% of customers prefer product placement over traditional forms of paid advertising because it looks more organic.
Product seeding offers you the best opportunity for effective product placement. It does not even require the influencer to tag your brand in their stories or posts. The influencer can simply just share content where they appear using your product, and it will be great product placement for their followers.
Product seeding can help you gather a huge amount of user-generated content. It starts with the content created by the influencers with whom you share your products. Then, it spreads to these influencers’ followers who, motivated by social proof, buy the same product and start creating their own content featuring it.
There are so many ways product seeding can attract customers to your eCommerce store because it allows for the opportunity to leverage different types of marketing strategies.
Moreover, following the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines, when influencers talk about a gifted product, they disclose the fact that the product was a gift. This way customers know that the influencers are talking about the product not because they were paid nor because of any kind of obligation but because they genuinely love and enjoy the product. This increases customers’ trust in your brand, which attracts them to buy from you.
Product seeding allows your eCommerce brand to build good and strong relationships with influencers. Sending a gift to an influencer without asking for anything in return is a great way to start a partnership with them. Instead of just basing your relationship with influencers on transactions and obligations, product seeding adds trust and authenticity to the equation.
Moreover, the fact that, with product seeding, influencers are not obligated to post about the product means that they will only post about it if they like it. This is very helpful in identifying the right influencers to work with. Influencers who post positive reviews about your gifts without you asking are the ones who you should be making long-term partnerships with.
Product seeding can also involve you sending gifts to content creators, loyal customers, and frequent buyers who can provide you with product reviews. These reviews are a great form of eCommerce customer testimonial that you can display on your website or social media platforms.
Another benefit you get from product seeding is honest feedback. To demonstrate, even if the influencers or content creators to whom you send the gifts do not like your product, they would likely provide you with constructive criticism that you can use to make your products better.
In this part of the article, we gathered some of the best practices and tips that will help you reap all the previously mentioned benefits of product seeding for eCommerce.
The choice of who you send your products to is probably one of the most critical decisions in the whole product seeding process.
It does not matter whether you send your products to influencers, content creators, affiliates, loyal customers, frequent buyers…etc. What matters is that you send your products to someone who shows an interest in the type of products that you’re selling. The aim behind this is to increase the likelihood of this person liking and enjoying your product; and hence, increasing the likelihood of them positively talking about it.
Tips:
In today’s world, there is no way to separate eCommerce from personalization. Fortunately, the digital age now offers endless opportunities for personalization.
One of the product seeding best practices for eCommerce is to personalize the gifts you send to influencers. We indeed said that there is no guarantee that influencers will post about your gifts; however, that doesn’t mean there is nothing you can do to increase the likelihood of them doing it.
One of the ways you can increase your chance of influencers posting about your gifts is to show them that you care. In other words, make the influencer feel that they are not just an unfamiliar name in a long list of other unfamiliar names to whom you are distributing a bulk of gifts.
Tips:
Imagine with me that someone is coming for dinner at your house for the first time. Wouldn’t you want to serve them the best dish you can make?
Well, it is the same thing with eCommerce product seeding. It is all about first impressions. That is why you want to send the best products that your eCommerce store has.
Tips:
Good communication is the key to building long-lasting relationships, which is all that we want when dealing with influencers.
Tips:
As we said in the previous point, communication is important. However, always remember that these influencers are not obligated to post about your gifts. You are indeed trying to build a relationship with them. But, within the framework of product seeding, there are no strings attached.
Tips:
When influencers post about your gifted products, that means your product seeding campaign is succeeding, but it does not mean that your role has ended. Your product seeding can still take you to more success if you know how to leverage the content that influencers create featuring your product.
Tips:
There is no way of knowing whether your product seeding campaign has succeeded or not without evaluating it. Evaluation is what will allow you to optimize your influencer gifting techniques.
Tips:
Final Thoughts:
It is clear now that the benefits of product seeding are too significant for any eCommerce business to miss. In other words, influencer gifting is something that should be sought by any eCommerce business trying to find its way into influencer marketing.
In this article, we have shown you the numerous benefits of product seeding, we have told you about the best product seeding practices and tips for eCommerce, and we have also offered you a great marketing automation tool that will facilitate the implementation of all this.
