When To Gift Influencers
Let’s break down the pros and cons of gifting campaigns.
Since influencer marketing has surged in popularity, there’s been a healthy debate about whether influencer gifting is valuable. Some argue that gifting is an important way to spread brand awareness, while others would rather spend their marketing budgets on guaranteeing influencer posts, but the truth is there is a time and place for gifting influencers.
Here are the benefits and setbacks to influencer gifting campaigns so you can determine if gifting is the right move for your brand:
Pros of Gifted Campaigns
Less costly than a paid campaign: This is the most obvious benefit to gifting influencers. If your brand does not have a lot of budget to devote to influencer marketing, shipping out press packages is a less expensive option. Even if you splurge on fancy packaging, the cost of shipping and materials will be far less than contracting influencers to post.
Builds organic relationships: When influencers received gifted products without any expectations of posting, they’ll oftentimes feel more comfortable posting about said product. More importantly, gifting is a great way to allow influencers to test out the product and determine on their own if they like what they’ve received. This is incredibly beneficial for new beauty brands or anything that an individual can test out firsthand, because it gets the product directly into the hands of the influencer.
Cons of Gifted Campaigns
No guarantees: When gifting influencers, you are leaving a lot up to fate. Gifting rarely includes contracting influencers, and without any formal agreements in place, there are no promises that the influencers you are gifting will post about—or even use—your product.
Can’t control the narrative: With that being said, you also cannot control how an influencer may speak about your product. Whether they use the wrong hashtag, create subpar content, or even speak negatively about your product, once the item is sent, you have zero control over how it is talked about as no contract is required without payment. This is a large obstacle for luxury brands, especially, who want maximum control over how their brand is represented.
Hard to work with bigger influencers: Gifting is most effective when targeted toward micro influencers, who will be more appreciative of a free gift and likely to post. Influencers with larger followings, however, likely have more paid partnerships under their belt and are savvier to the intentions behind gifting, so odds are they’ll hold out for paid deals and won’t give away valuable tagging for free. However, if your brand features high-value items like designer clothing or furniture, or if the influencer in question is a natural fan, bigger influencers may be willing to give a shoutout.
The bottom line: gifting is a more cost-effective option and a great way to build natural relationships with nano and micro influencers, but there are no guarantees regarding the quality of the content created, or even that gifted influencers will post at all.