Read the rest of my ROI on Social Media Outreach series
Sending Products for Bloggers to Review
Many companies decide to send products over to bloggers for review. This can be an extremely cost-effective way to increase sales, get your name out, and “dip your toe” in social media.
If you do send products for review to bloggers, there are some things to keep in mind:
- When sending emails to bloggers, make sure you don’t send a bulk email to a list you’ve gotten from another source. Know each and every blogger that you send your pitch to – read their blog, and make sure your product fits what they generally write about.
- Don’t ask for the product back. Yes, Lucky Magazine returns samples. But blogs are generally a single person operation with no mailroom, no stockroom, and no significant ad revenue. Keeping samples safe is difficult – I personally had my son vomit on a bag that the PR person wanted returned.
- Accept that you won’t hear back from some bloggers, and it may take a while to hear back from others. Many bloggers get hundreds of emails a day (really) and with a family as well as other obligations, it can take a while to catch up.
- Consider offering a coupon code or giveaway to readers of the blog, but handle all of the shipping of giveaway items yourself.
ROI Measurement
Expenses: costs are the samples, shipping, and any expenses associated with contacting the bloggers.
Benefits: it may be a little difficult to track the exact sales from the blogs, unless you offer a coupon code. However, the benefits can be great. Not only will you get mentions of your product online, you may also get some search engine optimization benefits as well.
