The Pros and Cons of Setting Up a Blogger Review Program
Business owners, small-scale artisans, webmasters, and other internet professionals, gather 'round. There's something of varying popularity that's worth discussing in detail, and that's the blogger review program.
Finding the best way to get the word out
Hypothetically speaking, let's say you run a small-scale beauty care company with about 15-20 different products to treat both general and specific issues - like lotions for daily use as well as ones to treat eczema naturally or something similar.
Maybe at first, you started selling products to friends and family. It grew to friends of friends, maybe some teachers, and probably a few neighbors. You've got a website, social media, and a pretty loyal, if small following.
Whether these products are sold on Etsy, a custom website, or on Amazon, you've got a good product and you want to sell.
So how do you gather steam?
Usually at this size, growth can be difficult. Clearly, the best thing to do is get people trying the product. They'll love it if they try it.
Just like affiliate programs, free samples, and other online marketing ideas, there are pros and cons. But before you go setting up a blogger review program, be sure to read all the way through.
Blogger Review Program - What is it?
Essentially, a blogger review program offers a free, usually full-size product (or series of products) in exchange for an online review on a blog. This review is usually shared through social media and newsletters, which should help you generate some traffic and sales. If this program is attached to an affiliate program, you may even set up your own sales agent going out to sell your product for a small commission.
This sounds great, right? It can be.
The Pros
1. Rapidly Increase Market Exposure
Need to go from A all the way to Z overnight? A review with the right blogger can get you some major traction across a wide variety of sites.
2. Target Extremely Specific Niches
Plus, you can target your ideal customer if you work with the right brands. Focus on sourcing all-natural, organic, and non-GMO ingredients? Find bloggers who share your passion to connect with readers/customers who will be half-sold before they even read the details. This is extremely powerful.
See your product on real people. (morguefile/taliesin)
3. Build Website Authority with Backlinks
Search engines will start to treat your site with more authority when they see other respected sites linking back in. This can improve your PageRank, which makes it even easier to connect with customers searching for your targeted keywords.
4. Generate Positive Reviews on Amazon, etc.
Although there are Federal Trade Commission regulations on what you may ask a reviewer to do, just getting your product out there can lead to positive reviews from happy customers. This makes your products look more enticing and trustworthy to hesitant buyers.
5. Work with Dedicated Bloggers
If you really "wow" a blogger with your products, you just might find your best ally working for you.
Except...you've got to set up everyone for success. Even if you're working with the right bloggers, what's really in it for them?
The Cons
1. Higher Quality, Higher Cost
If you find a blogger who really sells your products and with a passion, they're not going to do it for free. And no, a free tube of lip balm won't cut it. If you don't have an affiliate program or some way to compensate bloggers continuously, there's no real reason for them to bring up your name ever again past that first product review.
Plus, many high-quality bloggers are far too busy to fuss with reviews for free products. You'd need to be willing to pay sometimes into the thousands of dollars for a post on a major blog. There are great opportunities with blogs of all sizes and budgets, but recognize that some opportunities will require further investment.
2. Account for Loss
Bloggers are busy people with crazy lives. Even if they have every intention to review your product, they just might not get to it right away...if ever. Recognize that you might only get 1 review out of every 5 items sent out. It could be higher, but there's no guarantee you'll get a review until that post is up.
3. Questionable Content
There are some terrible product reviews on the web. The bloggers indicate their proper FTC disclosures, but the quality is low. They never really get the writing right - both grammatically and from a marketing perspective. There's no call-to-action, no strong photo, no "must have this" moment. Basically, the blogger got something for free just for letting people know you exist.
That's not really the best sort of publicity and if the quality is really low? The review may do more harm than good.
Watch out for starting something bigger than you can handle right now. (morguefile/krosseel)
4. Negative Reviews
Bloggers must be free to offer their own unique perspective on the product, which means there may be good reviews and bad. Although bad reviews are generally unusual to find in the blogger review world, they can happen.
5. Free Stuff Scoundrels
All it takes is a quick Blogger account and a couple of slap-dash posts for a blogger to be able to use that online "real estate" as leverage. There are blogs out there that almost exclusively review free stuff they get from companies. These reviews can be good quality, but usually...they're not. These opportunities aren't always worth the effort and expense involved.
6. Increased Workload
Just like you might never see reviews from some bloggers, you won't hear back from the good majority of them. And if you solicit them unexpectedly, a sales pitch from an unknown company can feel over-the-top and way too salesy. Expect to hear back from about 10% of bloggers. There are ways to increase that a bit, especially if you do your research and really learn about specific niches, but err on the side of caution.
[pullquote]Are you really ready to take on this extra effort or hire someone to do it for you?[/pullquote]
So what should you do?
At the end of the day, it's always worth a shot. At the beginning, you'll probably work with one or two bloggers on a case-by-case basis. Do a trial run before establishing some huge effort that may or may not be worth the effort.
Really, sympathize with the blogger. Ask yourself why they should commit to your products and whether or not you're really able to offer the support they require financially or in other ways. Set everybody up for success and things will go much better. Try establishing a series, becoming a blog sponsor, or hosting a contest.
Blogger review programs can be great for some businesses, but do your research beforehand. Most importantly - develop relationships; avoid flings.