My business email has been flooded recently with sponsorship and product review requests. My business page wall has been flooded as well. I thought it might be helpful for those of you who run these types of pages, to get some tips and advice for how to go about doing this. I have worked with companies like Biokleen, Ergo, Rockin' Green and Ella's Kitchen before, so I am not new to the review world. As a business owner, I am not new to the sponsorship world either!
Requesting to do a product review
Product reviews are a great way to spread the word for fairly cheap. But the cost of giving things away start to add up. Especially when choosing to offer a "giveaway" item with each review item. You will find that every business has their own plan for this type of marketing.
If you are willing to buy the review item, some companies will kick in a "free" item for giveaway. Larger companies are more likely to sponsor the entire review/giveaway. Personally, I don't mind sending the free item. But I ask that you pay shipping costs so I don't go broke. For the giveaway, it just depends on how my business is going at the time and how much I can afford. Many businesses operate that way too. Be flexible.
DON'T post on a business page wall asking to review their item. Business should be done via emails. Most businesses have their contact info readily available. Some even have emails just for review/marketing. So check that out before shooting off an email to the wrong address. Chances are, you won't get anywhere.
DO send an email telling the owner about yourself and your blog. Tell us what the focus of your blog is. Cloth diapers? Earth friendly products? Why would my product fit into your blog? How many followers do you have? What other businesses have you worked with? And don't forget to provide a link to your blog AND facebook page so we can check it out. Sometimes including stats is helpful too!
Requesting sponsorship for an event on your facebook page.
Again, DON'T post on the wall of a business page asking for sponsorship of your event. This comes off as spam, or as if you are just trying to get other fans to your page. Most of the time, these posts are hidden or marked as spam. And if it happens too frequently, you may be removed from a page.
DO send an email to the business owner. Tell them about your page and the event you are holding. How many fans do you have? Why would I be interested? And again, how does my product fit into your business page? If your page is a jewlery business, my hats probably aren't going to help you much.
DO be flexible on prizes, and take into account your own page size. There has been a sudden influx lately of people requesting prize sponsorship where the value MUST be $20.00 or more. AND I MUST offer free shipping. AND I MUST ship within 7 days. Be realistic with these expectations. Commanding a prize like this works for a page who has over 10,000 fans, but not as well for the page with 1,000 fans. Why? It's simple. After participating in a 10,000 fan event, I gained roughly 15% of that 10,000. That's 1,500 fans. Then lost some and have steadily maintained a 1,000-1,250 increase. That's about 10%. That's a typical rule of thumb that I follow. If your page has 1,000 fans, I am probably only going to gain and keep 80-100 of those fans. On a good day.
That said, it is not likely that I am willing to shell out a $20.00 prize AND pay the shipping AND put all of my paying customers on the back burner to ship the freebie.
I have turned down several events lately, simply because their prize restrictions are just too much to ask of a small business like myself. Be flexible. If a person offers a coupon code for 50% off in their store, that is an excellent prize for a fan page with 1,000 followers. I have yet to experience a disappointed person with a 50% off code. And not one of my codes has ever gone unused. Take that into account.
DO be authentic in your email. I received 4 emails in a 1 hour time period the other day from 4 different email addresses that all read EXACTLY the same. Word for word. I denied them all, because I honestly thought it may have been the same person looking for 4 different prizes. I feared it was either spam, or a person looking to get and keep something for free. If you have seen someone else's email that you think is really cool and works for you, make it your own. Change it, or else you are likely to get denied and you are likely to have your email clicked as spam. You might not even reach that person again!
Posting your event/deals/giveaways/offers etc. on other business pages
In general, it is bad form to do this without so much as taking the time to introduce yourself to the page owner. Some pages don't feel comfortable with this. It draws traffic away from our business pages, and away from the main goal: to sell OUR product. Again, some other pages are ok with it, but you should always ask them first. It's not hard to build a relationship with page owners. Sometimes swapping shout-out for shout-outs is a quick way to get some traffic! An email with who you are/what your advertising is the best way to go.
There are some pages though, who are dedicated to announcing your deals and sales for you! Again, EMAIL THEM FIRST! If the page owner doesn't know you, you might be removed. I am working on compiling a list of pages who would LOVE to work with you!
Best of luck!
-Bekki
some very good points!
ReplyDeleteLove this! Thank you for clearing things up!
ReplyDelete