{photo by Staura. Feel like everyone just wants a free hand-out?}
How to Evaluate and Sample Request or Giveaway Sponsorship Request
You'll know your business is starting to grow when bloggers begin taking notice. There's nothing like a little publicity to introduce your brand to new customers. As your brand grows you're sure to begin getting requests from blogs that either want to review your products or give your products away in a contest to their readers.
Before you head to the post office with your valuable merchandise, you may want to ask yourself "what's in this for me?" On the face of it, the opportunity to get a blogger to review your products sounds good. The opportunity to sponsor a giveaway practically for free also sounds like a pretty good deal. All it's going to cost you is your product and postage.
The trouble is saying yes to every request that comes in starts to cost money and you may never see any returns. That's why it's important to carefully evaluate every request for free products and make sure that before merchandise goes out the door, odds favor that there will be some return on your investment.
Not all blogs are created equal and unfortunately a lot of so-called bloggers are simply interested in free products and they really have nothing to offer you in return. So how can you tell the difference between a scam and a golden opportunity?
Traffic Quantity
A blogger or website with no real traffic to speak of has nothing to offer you. They can review your products all day but if no one is reading their posts, who cares? Before you give your products to a website or any publication, find out how large their audience is. Consider that only about 1% of e-commerce website visits result in sales. Now consider that probably less than 1 in 4 people reading a website are even likely to go from the review of your products to your website. What does this mean for you? A blog that has 400 visitors today will send you 100 visitors at best (probably a lot less) and one of them might make a purchase.
To make the review pay off for you, you probably want to work with blogs that consistently get thousands of visitors each day. You need a statistically large enough audience to see your products in order to make even one sale. *editor's note: a beneficial opportunity doesn't hinge on the amount of immediate sales only though- remember that exposure of your brand to a large audience can build your business presence and help people remember your shop when they're ready to purchase down the road.
Traffic Quality
The amount of eyeballs a publication or website gets is not the whole story. A blogger with a devoted and engaged audience is far more valuable than a blogger with tons of casual traffic. What this means is you are better off getting reviewed by a blogger with a very loyal audience of a few thousand versus a blogger with a large, but disinterested readership. To clarify my point, I could start a blog today and advertise on tons of high traffic sites. I could push my website traffic through the roof but most of it would be represented by first time visitors who may never come back and don't particularly value my opinion.
Associating with an Established and Relevant BrandA blog with an established brand not only has high traffic and a devoted audience, it has a consistent overall aesthetic and target demographic. Modish is a brand. Most of the online DIY retail scene knows Modish and they're familiar with Jena Coray's aesthetics and writing style. We know she's likely to prefer a handmade linen dress in chocolate and sky blue to a pair of black and silver urban, high top kicks with graffiti splatters.
What does this mean for you? Before you give your products to a blogger for review or giveaway sponsorship, carefully consider how their brand fits in with your brand. If you do crass, offensive humor buttons, Modish is probably not even a blog that belongs on your press list. If a blog with an audience that is mainly moms with young children comes calling, this is probably not your target demographic either.Making your Assessment
Now that you've got all these factors to consider, how exactly do you handle requests for free merchandise? At Ex-Boyfriend, we usually take a look at a blog asking for free stuff and try to get a sense of the blog's style. Is the blog attractive or junked up with tons of ugly graphics and poor site design? Does the blog get many comments on its posts? Does the blog write about t-shirts similar to our own?
If we can tell right away the blog is not for us, we send a polite response thanking the blogger for their interest and letting them know that we do not have any merchandise we can send them at this time. Why bother writing back at all? Why not let them have it for obviously wasting your time? Everyone is a potential customer and it's always a good idea to be polite. The last thing you want is an angry blogger telling the world you were nasty to them.
If you aren't sure whether it's worth it to give your product to the blogger, email them back and ask some questions. Ask them how long they've been blogging, how many site visits and page views they get each month, ask them to describe their blog's target audience. If they approached you to sponsor a giveaway, ask how they plan to promote it. Let them know you have a limited supply of press samples and you have to make sure you reserve them for the press that is most relevant to your brand. The answers to these questions should give you a good idea as to whether this blog is worth the investment.
If you're still on the fence or your products are expensive, see if
the blogger can return the sample after her review. Offer to enclose a
pre-paid mailer. This move is a little risky but a reputable blogger
will probably agree to return a sample. If the blogger won't agree to
this, chances are she's more interested in a free gift than objective
journalism anyway, and you may want to carefully consider whether what
she has to offer is worth the cost of the free product.
Meredith Keller helps her partner run Ex-Boyfriend, an indie t-shirt company. She also maintains the photoblog Indie Parade and manages co-op advertising websites for indie business owners.
