A Case Against Influencer Seeding & What's the Other Cost-effective Alternative

Product seeding — sending free products to influencers who, in turn, might post about your brand, generating content and potentially boosting sales — sounds like an ideal strategy for emerging DTC brands. It appears cost-effective & a win-win for brands & influencers.

But the reality of influencer marketing is far more nuanced and challenging.

The traditional approach of influencer product seeding is difficult to execute effectively because of three reasons —

🎁 Paid partnerships and extravagant influencer gifts have become the norm.

🎲 Relying on the hope that influencers will voluntarily and enthusiastically promote your product is a gamble.

💸 The success of this strategy often hinges on distributing a large volume of free products, a tactic that can significantly eat into your cost of goods sold (COGS) without any guaranteed return.

How can you fix it?

In this post we're looking at influencer product seeding with a pragmatic lens. Our goal isn't to advocate for paid partnerships as the alternative but to critically assess the pitfalls of influencer product seeding. We'll explore viable alternatives and strategies that can help DTC brands adopt a long-term approach & avoid 'hope-based' campaigns with product seeding.

Here are two alternatives to traditional product seeding that might give you better results and predictability:

🛒 1— Offer products at cost-of-goods

Offering products at cost-of-goods means that influencers are given the opportunity to purchase your products at their manufacturing cost. This price is typically much lower than the retail price but covers the basic expenses incurred in producing the product.

This works especially well if you have an expensive product and can’t just send 100’s of products for free.

👏 Why is it better than traditional influencer seeding:

• Unlike seeding, where products are sent for free, this approach ensures that you're not losing money. You're not making a profit, but you're not losing money either.
• By investing their own money, even if it's a nominal amount, influencers are likely to be more committed to reviewing and promoting the product. It filters out those who are only interested in freebies.
• Influencers are more likely to be genuinely interested in a long-term relationship with your brand. This genuine interest can lead to ongoing collaborations and you won't have to keep finding new influencers for every campaign.
• This approach also shows that your products are worth buying, not just worth receiving for free, which can strengthen your brand's reputation.

💌 How to approach influencers with this offer

Reach out to influencers with a personalized message explaining the unique opportunity to purchase your products at their cost of production. Highlight that you're reaching out to a selected set influencer. Influencers often value exclusive access to products.

Be transparent about why you're offering this model instead of free products. Talk about your interest in long-term, authentic partnerships and quality content instead of one-off collaboration.

Here's an email template you can use to craft your message:

Hi [Influencer's Name],

I'm [your name] from [brand name]. We've been keeping an eye on your content and love how it aligns with our brand because [your brand values].

That's why we're extending an exclusive offer to you.

We're offering our product [product name] at a cost-of-goods price, giving you an amazing 75% off our retail price. We believe your audience will benefit from a review of these products.

If you're interested, I'll send you a special coupon for your purchase, along with a discount code that you can share with your audience.

We're collaborating with a select group of influencers, and you're one of them! This is a unique opportunity for both of us to collaborate more in future. Reply with 'yes' and I will send over the special coupon codes with a link to purchase.

Cheers,

[your name]

Sending this message and keeping track of replies, then following up with hundreds of influencers manually can be a frustrating and time-consuming process. But you can make this process more efficient with tools like SARAL.

SARAL offers an email drip feature that allows you to automate the entire outreach process.

You can set up a sequence of follow-up emails to be sent automatically at specified intervals. This ensures consistent communication with influencers without the need for manual intervention each time.

Even though the process is automated, SARAL allows for personalized emails. This means each influencer feels like they're receiving a message tailored specifically for them. Click here to know more about it & claim your free trial

Make sure you delight the influencer with small gestures like a hand-written note when you ship their product. It will help you create a long-lasting relationship with them.

⭐ 2 — Create a dedicated landing page for ambassador program

An Ambassador program is when you engage with a creator to promote your products on a long-term basis and compensate them by sharing a percentage of the sales they made, exclusive perks, discounts, invites to launch events, etc.

Since ambassadors are rewarded based on the sales they generate through referral links or discount codes. This means you're primarily paying for actual results (sales) rather than just visibility or engagement.

You don’t pay if you don’t get sales.

One of the main components of the ambassador program is your dedicated landing page for ambassadors.

👏 The benefits compared to product seeding are:

• You'll generate inbound interest by creating a dedicated landing page for your ambassador program.
• You'll attract more engaged and committed partners. They'll know upfront what is the commitment required from their end, and how they can benefit from it.
• You don't have to negotiate and communicate with each influencer 1:1. Efficiency and effectiveness in managing the ambassador program, will lead to quicker results and less time spent on administrative tasks.

🚀 Examples of dedicated ambassador program pages that have helped DTC brands grow their sales

70% of Revolve's revenue is generated through its ambassador program.

Pura Vida runs a successful ambassador program with a network of 126,000 micro-influencers (as of 2021).

In 2019, the Sephora Ambassador Program generated a staggering 70,000 Instagram Stories and over 10,000 in-feed posts. What's the secret behind Sephora's ability to create such widespread engagement? — their ambassador program.

To replicate a similar ambassador program landing page for your brand, you can use tools like SARAL.

How to attract ambassadors for your brand:

Just because you've created an ambassador program landing page doesn't mean creators will know about it. You'll need to promote your program amongst the ideal influencers for your brand.

Here are some ways to do it:

• Post on your social media accounts about it.
• Send an email to your list in case there's an influencer who's part of it or encourage people to share the information with influencers they might know.
• Include it in your post-purchase emails sent to customers. They might be interested in becoming brand ambassadors or know someone who would be.
• Run ads on your landing page. It will put your influencer marketing on autopilot.
• Put it on your website as part of your navigation menu.
• Encourage your current ambassadors to refer other influencers by offering incentives. This can help you tap into their networks.
• Participate in online forums where influencers and creators hang out. Share valuable insights and casually mention your ambassador program.
• Attend industry-related events and conferences to network with potential ambassadors in person. You can also sponsor such events to gain visibility.

Wrapping up

It's time to shift towards a more long-term, sustainable approach. That means moving away from the unpredictability of product seeding, and building enduring relationships with influencers.

In practice, this involves:

• Building partnerships that offer clear value to both parties.
• Focusing on influencers who are genuinely interested in your brand and its success.
• Using strategies like cost-of-goods offers and ambassador programs to foster deeper connections.

To carry out your influencer strategy well, you'll need the right tools like SARAL — an all-in-one influencer marketing tool made specifically for DTC brands that want to stay away from unprofitable marketing tactics.

With SARAL, you won't get bogged down with too many details of execution. Set things up once, and then you can spend more time on the big decisions and building good relationships with influencers. Check it out for yourself here & claim your free trial.