Brand advocates aren’t just loyal customers; they’re often willing to recommend your product or service to others. Their praise for your product is usually done via social sharing.
As a brand, one of many ways you can motivate advocates to advertise for you through product seeding and gifting. While some brands treat these two concepts as one and the same, there are differences. Look at the definitions of each and learn when to deploy them.
What is product seeding?
When your brand sends an advocate a product unannounced without any expectations, it’s product seeding. Essentially, you identify a handful of creators in your niche, send them a particular product, and wait and see what happens. Some might take it upon themselves to endorse your product on social, but there’s no guarantee.
Usually, brands turn to product seeding to connect with customers and develop long-term advocate relationships. Your free product is meant to plant a “relationship seed” to nurture a partnership that likely involves multiple campaigns.
Cosmetic companies often use product seeding to build a team of advocates who can regularly promote products on social. A beauty brand sent its 2-in-1 lipstick and blush to a handful of advocates, hoping to see which ones produce high-quality content and which might be a good fit for a long-term partnership.
Now, the brand can review the content, watch engagement, and see how the advocate interacts with followers, all as a low-risk assessment of the creator’s interest and skills.
What is product gifting?
With product gifting, your brand sends a free product to an advocate with the expectation of a product-for-post trade. Your brand will select advocates and connect with them before mailing the product, asking them if they’re interested in receiving a free product in exchange for an endorsement on a particular platform. If they agree, you’ll send the product and watch for a promotional post shared by each advocate. In many cases, brands provide a promo code to encourage purchases.
Product gifting is best for one-time campaigns where you need a quick boost in social content. Typically, your brand needs posts and reviews by a specific deadline or to coincide with an event, like a new product launch. You’re usually trying to “produce a buzz” and aren’t planning to connect with advocates beyond this campaign.
What do product seeding and gifting have in common?
Product seeding and gifting do share commonalities. In both product seeding and gifting, your brand:
- Identifies advocates that share your niche, voice, and target audience.
- Sends advocates a free product.
- Does not provide any additional compensation beyond the free product.
How do product seeding and gifting differ?
As you can see from the definitions, product seeding and gifting are different. The primary differences lie in communication and the resulting expectations.
With product gifting, brands communicate with advocates before sending products and establish their expectations for content. The outreach is transactional. Your brand is willing to provide a free gift, but not without something in return.
With product seeding, brands send a gift with no strings attached. The focus isn’t on content creation, it’s on establishing a relationship. Usually, brands use product seeding to test the waters for a long-term relationship, meaning you plan to work with the advocates on continued campaigns.
Mobilizing your brand advocates
Customer advocates are often an untapped marketing source for brands. Identifying advocates and sending them free products is an effective way to mobilize them on behalf of your company. However, finding advocates and encouraging them to support your product is not always easy.
An advocate marketing platform like Zuberance can help. With this platform you can invite your loyal advocates to a dedicated hub. Your advocacy program can boost brand affinity, generate influential social content from actual customers, drive reviews and referrals, and gather feedback with an all-in-one solution. Want to learn more? See how Zuberance could benefit your company today.
