How to Navigate Influencer Gifting in a Pay-to-Play Economy

In the last decade, product seeding (also known as influencer gifting) has become a popular tactic for brands to boost their business. By seeding products to influencers, brands have been able to build relationships with new creators, generate online buzz, and get critical feedback — all in a cost-effective way

Today, however, there are many challenges that come with influencer gifting programs. From concerns around overconsumption to candid conversations about fair pay in the creator economy, it’s trickier than ever to set up a gifting program that drives meaningful business ROI — while not stepping on the toes of influencers and their audiences. 

At our latest webinar, our Head of Marketing Strategy, Magda Houalla, shared her expertise on how to craft a winning gifting program that tackles these challenges head-on. Keep reading for the top takeaways, or watch the webinar on demand for a deeper dive. 

Top Challenges (and Solutions) of Influencer Product Seeding

Over the last few years, we’ve heard from brands that there are 3 main challenges they face when running a gifting program. The good news is that there are several ways to overcome these challenges, as listed below.

Challenge 1: Lack of response from creators

You’ve reached out to influencers offering to send them free products, and you get no response. You follow up, and still nothing. If this sounds familiar, try out some of these tactics.

• Work with nano-creators and existing customers. These smaller creators are typically more excited to receive free products than macro-creators who get dozens of PR packages on a weekly basis. By reaching out to nano-creators and customers, you’ll likely get quick, eager responses. Plus, algorithms on platforms like TikTok often push smaller creators to virality — so if nano-influencers and everyday customers post about your products, your brand can still garner high engagement.

• Give no obligation to post. Send your products to influencers with no expectations that they’ll post or create any content around your brand, especially if you’re not sending them a high-value product. But make sure to provide clear ways to engage should they choose to do so, such as your @handle, a branded hashtag, or a discount code for their followers. This is a great way to create a surprise-and-delight experience for creators and build your brand affinity, while still encouraging action.

• Personalize your outreach as much as you can. Creators get a lot of emails and DMs everyday. To stand out in their crowded inbox, make sure your outreach is as personalized as possible. Address them by their first name, and include why you think they’d love your products. The nittier and grittier, the better. Check out our blog, Getting Ghosted? How to Get Influencers to Respond to You, for more outreach tips.

• Offer cost-effective incentives. For example, you can give each influencer a unique affiliate link or promo code if they choose to post about your products, giving them the opportunity to make affiliate commission.

Challenge 2: Low post rates

Your influencers have received your package, but none of them have posted about it — a product seeding nightmare. To avoid this situation, ensure you add these touches to your seeding campaigns.

• Provide content thought starters. Include both physical inserts and an email sequence outlining the different ways that the influencer can engage with you if they love your products. This could entail including content themes — such as a try-on haul for fashion brands or a #GRWM for beauty brands — that have performed well for your influencers in the past. This will get their creative juices flowing to actually post about your products.

• Get creative with your packaging. Send unique, personalized packages to create experiences that are easily shareable, and perhaps even FOMO-worthy. For example, Rare Beauty sent out a buzz-worthy PR package to influencers last year, not only including their latest “Positive Light” collection, but also custom initial earrings personalized to each influencer. This is the perfect way to get influencers excited about opening up your products and compel them to post about it organically on their own social channels.

• Include a note from your CEO/founder with deeper insights about your brand and/or products. This is a great way to tell your brand’s story in a personal way, making your brand much more human and approachable. Remember, your marketing should be built by real people, not by a faceless corporate entity. 

• Offer to buy their content. If you have the budget, tell influencers that your brand may buy their content for ad usage if they choose to create content around the PR package. This is a great way to incentivize influencers to create content around your products. 

Challenge 3: Overconsumption backlash

In recent years, various creators have started calling out overly lavish influencer PR packages as wasteful and a poor reflection of a brand’s commitment to sustainability. Consumers can see it, too, as influencers post about their “PR closets” filled to the brim with unopened, unused products they received from these gifting campaigns. In fact, influencers often have to resort to donating oreven throwing out many of the products they receive in their PR packages.

As reducing environmental impact becomes more top of mind for all of us, implementing sustainable influencer gifting practices is crucial going forward. Here are our suggestions.

• Make your packaging actually sustainable, and make it clear to influencers that you’re using eco-friendly practices — whether you’re using biodegradable bubble wrap or your package is 100% recyclable.

• Less is more. Remember, quality always means more than quantity. Particularly if you don’t have a large budget, cherry pick a handful of well-aligned influencers to send your products to. You don’t need to send your products to thousands of influencers who won’t post. Additionally, use a tool like Aspire’s Creator Product Selection feature to allow creators to select the items they want for the product seeding campaign. Whether it’s the right size of jeans, the perfect shade of foundation, or their favorite flavor of kombucha, creators can receive the exact product they want, minimizing waste. 

• Offer more opulent gifts to customers and brand loyalists. Recently, some brands have been sending influencers lavish gifts, such as Hermès bracelets. However, If this type of gifting is in your budget, we suggest sending them to your most loyal customers who have been with you since the beginning. Rewarding brand loyalists will go a lot further than gifting designer items to influencers you’re working with for the first time. 

Don’t spray and pray — gift products with intention

Navigating influencer gifting in today’s pay-to-play landscape is more complex than ever, but with the right approach, brands can still see significant returns. Successful gifting isn’t just about sending products to anyone and everyone — it’s about providing real value and building genuine relationships with creators who align with your brand. 

During the webinar, Magda also shared her recipe for product seeding success, ways to measure the ROI of gifting programs, and lots more. To dive deeper into these insights, watch the webinar on demand.