Sending free product to creators is the cheapest form of influencer marketing, and the easiest to waste.
Gifting, also called seeding, means sending your product to creators with no fee attached, in the hope they will share it. Done carelessly it is a box in a pile of other boxes. Done well it produces honest content, new relationships and a shortlist of creators worth paying later. Here is how to run it properly.
Gifting is not a paid deal
The first rule is the one most brands break. A gift is a gift. If nothing is paid and nothing is signed, the creator owes you nothing: not a post, not a date, not a script.
- You can ask. A friendly note saying you would love to hear what they think is fine.
- You cannot require. Once you need guaranteed posts, approval or usage rights, it is a paid collaboration and needs a written agreement. See influencer contracts.
- Disclosure still applies. A creator who posts about a gifted product should say it was gifted. Make that easy by saying so in your note.
Choose the right fifty, not the biggest five
Seeding works on volume and fit, not fame. A realistic share of creators will post, so the list matters more than anything else.
- Already your customer type. They buy and talk about products like yours without being paid.
- The right location. For a local business, check that their followers live nearby. Ask for a screenshot of top audience cities.
- Real engagement. Comments from real people, not just likes.
- Smaller is often better. Creators with a few thousand engaged followers post about gifts far more often than large ones. More in micro vs. macro influencers.
Ask before you send
Never ship to an address you found online. A short message first does three things: it confirms they want it, it gets the right address, and it starts a relationship.
- Say who you are and why you thought of them, in one specific sentence
- Offer the product with no obligation
- Let them choose the flavor, shade or size where you can
For a shop, restaurant or studio, the gift is a visit. Invite them in, let them choose from the menu, and make it easy to book.
Make the box worth opening on camera
- The hero product first, not everything you sell
- A handwritten note with their name. It gets filmed more than the product.
- One card with the essentials: what it is, how to use it, your handle, and a code or link for their audience
- Packaging that photographs well and arrives intact
Skip the long brief. One line on what makes the product different is enough.
After it arrives
- Check in once, a week later, to ask if it arrived and what they thought. Do not chase a post.
- Engage with anything they share: comment, repost to stories, say thank you.
- Ask permission before reusing content. If you want it for ads or your website, that is a paid usage conversation. See UGC ads.
- Keep a simple tracker: who received what, who posted, what it led to.
Turn the best into partners
Seeding is also a low-cost audition. The creators who post without being asked, whose audience responds and who are easy to work with are the ones to bring into a paid, ongoing relationship. That is how a creator roster gets built, and how an affiliate program finds its first members.
What to measure
- Response rate to the first message
- Post rate: how many recipients shared something
- Cost per piece of content, including product and shipping
- Code or link use, and new followers in the days after
- Creators worth a paid partnership
The bottom line
Pick creators who already fit, ask before sending, make the box personal, never demand a post, and turn the ones who respond into long-term partners. Gifting works when it is treated as the start of a relationship and not as a free advertisement.
Want a gifting program built for your brand? Let's talk.