Is it time to put your influencer gifting strategy under the microscope?
If you already do product gifting, you know how many moving pieces there are.
While gifting and seeding are effective ways to earn UGC, we've seen firsthand how brands struggle to scale without sinking time into shipping out orders and updating spreadsheets.
Given the legwork involved, it's totally understandable why brands are laser-focused on tracking ROI and results from gifting influencers. That's why we wrote this post to help!
In this post, we’ll cover:
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Let's say you're not seeing the results you want from sending products to influencers.
Maybe it's all taking too long or you're getting a lack of "useable" influencer content.
Either way, you need to uncover what's holding you back and make tweaks to your strategy. It's well-documented how product seeding works and the same applies to gifting influencers.
Food for thought: we've worked directly with brands who consistently send hundreds (or thousands!) of products to creators in exchange for user-generated content month after month. Getting to that point involves a well-oiled influencer gifting strategy and certainly doesn't happen by accident.
To kick things off, let's dig into the most important aspects of a gifting strategy and common challenges we've heard and seen firsthand from brands using our influencer gifting platform.
So much of a successful influencer gifting campaign boils down to product choice.
Think about it. The common thread among the best influencer gifting examples is that creators are genuinely enthusiastic about what they’ve received. That enthusiasm and delight translate into more engaging influencer content.
The best way to delight influencers is by sending them products they actually want. That means avoiding one-size-fits-all influencer kits.
Instead, take the time to ship products that speak directly to a creator's target audience. For example, a skincare brand might gift products for sensitive, dry skin to creators known for discussing their skincare routines. The brand is more likely to get authentic and in-depth product reviews as a result.
The takeaway? You need to send the right products to the right creators. The key is to align your product with the influencer’s genuine interests and needs.
Yes, sending products to influencers at scale can be complicated. That's a big understatement.
We often talk to brands who send influencer gift boxes to ~20 creators per month and see decent results because they've put in the time to nurture those relationships.
Gifting beyond a handful of creators is where problems start to snowball, though.
Packaging influencer boxes. Selecting products. Timing shipments and tracking orders. It's a lot.
When you're taking the time to do all above but you're not 100% certain about what you're going to get in return, you're right to be anxious. Especially given the time involved.
Couple that with lost orders, products arriving broken and creator posts that whiz past your deadlines. Suddenly, your gifting efforts become more trouble than they're worth. For example, a food brand might send out seasonal flavor collections to dozens of influencers at once but struggle with coordinating its deliveries. This leads to expired products that creators are stuck with. Yikes.
Tight deadlines are particularly problematic when coordinating shipments for a product launch or time-sensitive promotion. That's why brands that do gifting at scale should consider leveling up beyond DIY fulfillment and shipping as soon as possible.
We'll bite: influencer gifting can result in wasted products for brands that aren't careful.
There are plenty of recent headlines and criticism of influencer gift boxes that go overboard or totally ignore the logic of what's being shipped. For example, we've seen beauty brands send entire foundation sets to a creator who can only use one shade.
Another example would be a food brand sending a variety of snacks to an influencer with dietary restrictions, resulting in wasted products that the influencer can’t even try.
This is what we call the "spray and pray" approach to influencer gifting.
And it's probably the fastest way to tank your product gifting efforts before they even have a chance to see results.
This again highlights the importance of selecting the right products for the right influencers.
Properly researching and matching products to an influencer’s preferences can minimize waste and increase positive responses. This process can be streamlined further by a product gifting platform that actually targets and segments creators based on their personal interests, lifestyle and product preferences.
"Uh, is this working?"
Without a measurement strategy or the right tools, gifting can feel like an ROI black hole.
The reality, though? There are plenty of metrics you can gather to track influencer gifting.
Defining ROI depends on your goals for influencer product gifting campaigns, but consider how you can measure success based on:
Here are additional signs that your gifting collaborations are working which are all measurable and related to the goals above:
All of the above can be monitored as part of your influencer reporting. However, another issue that holds back many brands' influencer gifting strategies is that they're stuck in spreadsheets.
If you're tracking influencer gifting in spreadsheets, you risk your creators' information becoming outdated almost instantly. This also makes tracking progress a time-sink as you pull data and results from your influencer content manually.
Brands that gift products but can't track which influencers post about them will miss out on understanding which products resonate with audiences and result in the most repurposable content. This is yet again where a platform can really help.
Sticking to FTC guidelines for gifted products is a must-do when gifting influencers. Proper disclosures, using explicit phrases ("paid partnership") and gifted collab hashtags work all fall under the umbrella of understanding the rules of influencer gifting.
Making sure you and your creators are compliant can fall by the wayside when you collab with lots of influencers. However, ignoring these rules is non-negotiable to avoid potential compliance issues or even fines. Not to mention maintaining your brand's reputation.
Doing influencer gifting right requires attention to detail.
But improving your results and posting success rate may not be as difficult as you might think.
Consider low-hanging and creative opportunities to tweak your influencer gifting strategy without totally reinventing the wheel. Below are seven suggestions based on the results we've seen helping brands run thousands of gifted collabs.
Anything you can do to make a meaningful impression on creators is a plus.
Especially since many of the best creators are spoiled for choice and receive gifted products from a variety of brands,
Personalizing your collabs isn't a one-size-fits-all affair. Many brands use influencer gifting notes to make it happen. While this strategy is fantastic and makes brands memorable, handwritten notes aren't realistic when you're gifting hundreds of influencers.
On the flip side, sending super-relevant products to creators is actionable and scalable!
Matching products to the right products can make gifted collabs feel personalized, even when dozens or hundreds of creators receive the same influencer box.
This speaks to the importance of influencer targeting and segmentation, not to mention making sure that you're not sending the exact same group of products to all creators. By having in-depth knowledge of what products your influencers use and specific details about their interests and lifestyle, you can personalize gifted collabs at scale.
For example, Statusphere's influencer gifting platform helps brands segment and target creators based on 250+ first-party data points. That means a haircare brand can send products to curly hair products to creators based on specific curl types or pain points such as dry scalp or thinning hair. Similarly, a food brand can segment influencer gift boxes based on flavor preferences or specific dietary restrictions.
This level of targeting is a surefire way to avoid the spray-and-pray approach to influencer seeding we noted earlier.
This might be one of the most underrated pieces of any given influencer gifting strategy.
By having creators opt into gifted collabs, you can increase your posting success rate and reduce produce waste at the same time. Bonus points if you allow creators to input product preferences or require them to confirm their shipping information prior to shipping.
Making your opt-in list work still requires you to audit influencer profiles to make sure they're a good fit for your brand. Check out how Out of Print offers a form where creators can sign up for product gifting with specific instructions and requirements.
The more unknowns you can eliminate from product gifting, the better. Building an opt-in list or influencer community encourages consistent collabs instead of spray-and-pray seeding.
Presentation matters!
One of the best ways to squeeze more out of your gifting efforts is by making your gift boxes stand out. Consider how some brands go above and beyond with their influencer kits, ensuring that the packaging itself becomes part of the content.
Check out this creative, pizza-themed gift box example from Kiehl's:
The takeaway? A thought PR package not only delights your recipients but also increases the chances of them sharing it with their audience. Putting more thought and effort into your gifting and seeding kits might seem "extra" but it's a low-hanging way to get great unboxing content and positive reviews.
This tip ties directly back to product choice.
Sending sample-size products or random freebies just isn't it. The growth of product gifting means that expectations among creators are growing. Creators will not post about a product "just because" which is why it's so important to send legitimately valuable items.
For example, Ipsy will send full-sized products to influencers. This approach highlights the value of the collab to the brand and the appreciation that the brand has for its creators.
The caveat here is making sure that you don't accidentally cause more product waste by sending larger items. We'll say it again: product choice is central to your influencer gifting strategy.
Sometimes getting big results from gifting means thinking small.
We've powered thousands of gifted posts featuring micro-influencers who tend to have higher engagement rates and likewise are more likely to post about gifted products.
And as an added bonus, "smaller" creators prioritize posting about products their target audience loves for the sake of higher engagement and account growth.
Micro-influencer collabs are more scalable than gifting macro-influencers by default. Beyond that, the resulting authentic content from micro-influencers is more likely to drive engagement and is super valuable when repurposed.
In our experience, brands succeed with gifting when they embrace content variety. Considering that authenticity is vital for 86% of consumers making purchasing decisions, making micro-influencers a cornerstone of your influencer gifting strategy makes perfect sense.
Not-so-hot take: brands should treat product gifting like any other marketing effort.
That means benchmarking metrics and tracking data!
For starters, you track influencer gifting success based on points like reach, brand mentions and social keyword rankings. You can also set benchmarks for success by tracking your progress and data points related to:
Tracking all of the above means you can hit your goals for influencer gifting. By using an influencer platform to track and measure performance, you can gain insights into which gifts generate the most engagement. This allows you to refine your strategy over time.
Given all the moving pieces, automating as much of your gifting efforts as possible is a smart move.
Again, living in spreadsheets and chasing lost shipments won't help you scale.
Consider how the right influencer marketing platform can help you segment your creator lists, set up repeat gifting orders and eliminate the need to track gifting shipments manually. This frees up your schedule and allows you to focus on the nitty-gritty details of your collaborations.
For reference, here's a snapshot of what you can automate within Statusphere's gifting platform:
By reducing waste with guaranteed product delivery, you can maximize your gifting budget and achieve consistent results. Additionally, platforms can help you navigate the red tape related to rules and regulations, making your influencer gifting strategy more efficient and compliant.
Influencer gifting is a proven tactic for both building worth-of-mouth and getting UGC at scale.
Especially with the growth of UGC ads and competition in social search, brands are understandably looking for ways to get ongoing content from creators.
And if you're looking for a time-efficient way to earn authentic UGC from influencers at scale, our platform can help.
Statusphere's micro-influencer marketing platform was built specifically to eliminate and streamline the most intensive steps of product gifting and getting products into influencers' hands. This includes matchmaking, fulfillment, analytics and content rights management.
Our software removes the randomness and chaos that goes into influencer gifting. Rather than send random products to random influencers on outdated lists, we can instantly match your brand with hyper-targeted, vetted creators based on 250+ first-party data points.
Want to learn more about how our platform works? Get in touch with one of our experts to see how we can maximize your influencer marketing ROI with influencer gifting at scale.