I would love to offer bloggers the opportunity to review some of our products, but I'm looking for a certain level of journalistic professionalism and targeted marketing. We often get requests for free products to review. Some are so compelling that I happily send stuff off right away. Others...don't quite hit the mark. I typically look at your email to me, then your facebook, blogs and Youtube channels to determine several things before sending product to review.
1. Did you just send me a form letter that doesn't even mention my company or what sort of products you want to try out? C'mon, put in a little effort. I want to know that you didn't just CC me a mass email that you sent out to hundreds of companies, hoping that a few will bite. And while we love to hear, "I just love your company and would like to share my love with my followers..." I would prefer to hear, "I am putting together an article on XYZ products or techniques and your (specific product) is relevant to this article because...."
2. Are you in the face and body art industry (or salon/spa/ gift retail, etc...)? I am honored that you want to try out our products, but our products are mostly geared towards a very specific market segment. If your blogs/videos are about hunting and fishing, or just everything in the world that you love, there is a very slim chance that any of your followers are the type of customer that we try to target. Tell me about the focus of your blog and what kind of people follow you.
3. How many followers do you have? I'm not saying that I wouldn't send a newbie blogger something to try out and review, but you do need to have a certain amount of good content and peer interaction on your blog or facebook for me to believe that you're not just fishing for free product.
4. How will it benefit me? I get a lot of, "My followers would really love it if..." I know they would love it. We have great products, lol. When you're trying to pitch your services, you have to remember that although I want this to benefit you and add valuable content for your readers, winning me over is not about how it will benefit you (or your followers). It's about making me understand how it will be good for me to invest in you. This is important to understand when marketing any product or service to any potential customer. Hint: good photos, good editorial, and several links to my website or specific product pages are what I'm hoping to see when I've sent you free products to review.
5. I don't always have time to follow up on the websites who have reviews of my products. It would be really great to hear some feedback on what your followers had to say about your review. I don't expect all reviews to be 100% positive, and we need to know if any problems exist that can be fixed. We like to hear the praises too. Sending us a follow-up is a good way to ensure that I remember you and would consider sending you other products to review.
Here's an article that gives some great advice for writing product reviews.
Better Product Reviews
