What is Product Seeding, and Why Should You Use it?

How Product Seeding Increases Sales and Business Outcomes

By integrating seeding into an influencer marketing campaign, brands can achieve several important goals. Let's investigate.

Cost-Effectiveness

Perhaps the most attractive quality of gifted product campaigns is the cost (or lack of it). The only expenses are labour and postage. It's significantly more budget-friendly than sponsored posts or hiring brand ambassadors, where a single post can cost £1,000+. This means that seeding allows you to run a large-scale campaign for a small price.

Better Visibility

Product seeding increases brand visibility by leveraging the reach and influence of selected influencers. As they share product reviews with their followers, they reach a wider audience beyond the company's immediate audience. This increased visibility can lead to increased brand awareness and recognition.

Increased Trust

Seeding enables brands to leverage the trust and authenticity that influencers have developed with their audiences. When influencers share content about seeded products, their followers perceive it as a personal or word-of-mouth referral rather than traditional advertising. Their genuine relationships, paired with authentic recommendations, mean that product seeding acts as social proof, increasing the brand’s credibility and trustworthiness while fostering a positive perception of the brand among the influencer audience.

Engagement and Purchasing

Seeding by sending free products offers an opportunity to increase engagement and conversions. Influencer posts will feature engaging content that resonates with their audience and increases the likelihood of active interaction, such as likes, comments, shares, and even direct purchases. This increases reach while also creating a deeper bond and loyalty with the target group. Brands can also repost influencer posts to increase their engagement rate with the best content.

Seeded Content Acts as Reviews for Reposting

Product seeding doesn't just create great content on Instagram or TikTok. It also gives you content to repurpose for SEO blog posts, email marketing, and in-store promotions. If you choose the right creators, your product seeding campaigns will generate authentic endorsements that act as testimonials for your entire marketing campaign.

“If you’re not repurposing the influencer content that influencers are posting on your behalf, even if you are paying them to post and you don’t have usage rights, you’re literally lighting money on fire.” - Cody Wittick, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Kynship, a performance marketing agency

Influencer Relationship Builder

You might be unsure how to run an effective influencer campaign in real life. Yes, the basics are straightforward, but which creators can truly reach potential customers? What if the sponsored content doesn't bring in any buyers?

With product seeding, you let influencers take the reigns. You can even allow them to choose their favourite product from your catalogue, making it more likely that they'll enjoy the product and share content.

A product seeding campaign is a great starter. It's low-risk and allows you to try out different types of creators to find the right one.

"Giving influencers more access into the brands themselves and actually having them be a part [of the team], especially as the relationship matures and they trust them. They can see them as an extension of their marketing team." - Cody Wittick, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Kynship, a performance marketing agency.

The Template: How does product seeding work?

Successful seeding campaigns require a well-defined strategy, careful selection of influencers, compelling and shareable content, and ongoing monitoring and optimisation to maximise impact.

Here's a step-by-step guide:

1. Goal setting:  As with all marketing strategies, the first step is to understand your goals. Do you want to find influencers who resonate with a specific product offering or create general brand awareness? Which communities are you hoping to reach? Where are they active: Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok?
2. Identifying influencers: You must find the right creators. Their audience should match your target market (and intended target group), and they should be able to help you reach your pre-defined objectives. For example, check the creator's engagement rate product sentiment to ensure they foster genuine relationships. These influencers can be experts, industry leaders, celebrities, or KOLs. They should also be people who are likely to enjoy your product.
3. Making contact and establishing a relationship: Next, approach the identified influencers. The most effective way to reach out is often with personalised messages or emails asking whether they are interested in your brand or product. This will show the KOL that you're respectful and genuinely interested in their content. It also prevents environmental waste. Establishing a relationship and highlighting the value of the content is key to convincing influencers to participate in the seeding process.
4. Create a beautiful gift: The best product seeding approach will give the influencers many good reasons to create content. That means appealing packaging and presentation boxes. However, make sure that the packaging isn't too different from what the consumer will receive,
5. Influencer network distribution: Once influencers have agreed to participate, they then share your content with their followers and networks via various platforms, such as social media, blogs, newsletters, or websites. The aim of this distribution is to reach a wider audience and generate engagement.
6. Monitoring and optimisation: Throughout the seeding campaign, you must monitor the results of the shoutouts. This includes measuring the performance and engagement metrics of the content shared. Is it all positive product feedback? Is the content improving brand awareness and sentiment? Analyse the impact, identify effective strategies, and, if necessary, make adjustments to optimise the product gifting strategy for better results.

Your aim is to develop connections with influencers and build credibility and genuine relationships with their audiences. This increases the likelihood of content being noticed and shared by a greater number of users, enabling you to reach a broader target group than with traditional marketing methods.

Also of interest: discover how to run an effective, target-hitting influencer marketing campaign!

Product Seeding Example for Fresh Ideas: Fast-Growth StartUp Scent Lab's Hyper-Effective Strategy

Scent Lab, founded by Ariana Silvestro, entered the competitive fragrance market in 2022 with an ambitious goal: to redefine how consumers discover and purchase fragrances online. In its first year, the company brought in $1 million in revenue, an impressive feat for a startup in a highly competitive industry.

Challenges: Fragrance products like candles and perfumes face a unique barrier—customers can’t fully understand the product without smelling it. Overcoming this sensory gap was critical to Scent Lab’s success.

How Scent Lab Used Product Seeding for Success

The brand partnered with influencers and encouraged user-generated content (UGC) to expand its reach. Customers were incentivised to share their experiences, effectively turning them into brand ambassadors. This social proof drove awareness and built credibility in a crowded market.

"That's how we do all of our influencer promotion. It's all seeding. We seed, we seed, we seed. Some of them we get great content out of, some of them we don't. But at the end of the day it's all about getting that product in their hands." - Scent Lab founder Ariana Silvestro

Scent Lab hosted engaging events like a "Spin to Win" contest where attendees could win a free candle. These events didn’t just attract attention—they converted participants into loyal customers. Winners shared their experiences with friends, creating a ripple effect of brand awareness and “stickiness.”

Scent Lab’s product line, including candles and perfumes, naturally lent itself to repeat purchases. By delivering high-quality products and maintaining strong customer relationships, the company encouraged repurchasing, which became a cornerstone of its revenue model. This made them confident that influencers who were seeded products may also become customers themselves who would continue promoting the brand.

Product Seeding Best Practices

A good seeding strategy requires careful planning and execution to maximise the effectiveness of the broadcast. Here are some key elements, in addition to those already mentioned above, to consider when developing a successful seeding strategy:

• Define clear objectives: Clearly define the objectives and desired results of the seeding campaign. Whether it’s to increase brand awareness, increase the number of visitors to your website, generate new leads, or promote a specific product or service, clearly defined objectives will guide the strategy and enable success to be measured.
• Target group research and targeting: Conduct in-depth research to understand your target group’s demographics, interests, behaviours, and preferred channels. This information helps identify key influencers who are strongly represented in your target group.
• Find the right influencers: Check the creator's previous collaborations on all platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. It's best to choose creators who don't collaborate with too many creators. This may render the content inauthentic. In addition, specify creators who will have problems solved by your product. For example, a beauty company wanting to launch a product seeding campaign for a dry skin cream should identify users with that issue.
• Build relationships: Building authentic relationships with influencers is essential for successful seeding. Take the time to understand their interests, delve into their content and establish mutual trust and respect. A personal approach and networking can help foster these relationships.
• Set up incentives and offer added value: Offer KOLs exclusive incentives or benefits to encourage their participation in the seeding campaign. This could be exclusive access to new products or services, financial compensation, or the opportunity to participate in the design. By offering added value, you demonstrate a mutually beneficial collaboration.
• Diversify channels and formats: As we said, use different channels and formats to distribute your content. These can include social media platforms, blogs, podcasts, video-sharing platforms, or industry-specific websites. Adapt the content to the platform concerned and ensure it’s easy to share and optimised for different (mobile) devices.
• Consider growing the campaign with affiliate codes: A logical next step to product gifting can be offering promo codes or affiliate links that pay influencers a commission for the sales they bring in. If you decide to work with influencers further, ensure you provide content guidelines and a contractual obligation.

Overall, a good seeding strategy combines a thorough understanding of the target group, a thoughtful selection of influencers, the creation of compelling content, and ongoing optimisation based on data and feedback.

Kolsquare Tip: Events can be a great way to encourage additional content around a seeding campaign.

“Influencers and their communities are in high demand, especially in an environment marked by “snack content” and scroll culture. It’s a real challenge for brands to stand out. Creating events is a way of creating a real experience and a link with the brand. This not only strengthens brand loyalty, but also promotes brand awareness. The content created afterwards will be more authentic!” - Charlotte Caron, Agence Wellcom Consulting Director Influence Strategies

Product Seeding Through an Agency or Influencer Marketing Platform

Seeding isn't an overly complex type of campaign. You're not overseeing the content creation or requiring in-depth contracts here.

But there are challenging aspects, including:

• Seeding tends to be large in scale, which adds complexity
• You need to choose the right influencers to ensure effectiveness
• In-depth reporting is the only way to understand what's working (and what's not)

This brings up several challenges for brands. Without sufficient resources to thoroughly research the right collaborators or access to data for accurate reporting, brands risk launching poorly executed seeding campaigns that fail to foster meaningful relationships. Worse, this can create ripple effects—putting undue pressure on other campaigns and leaving marketing teams overwhelmed and stretched thin.

Brands often seek third-party assistance to sidestep these issues. They may work with:

• Platforms: These supply insights into influencers and campaign results. Plus, they'll unify your influencer relationships on one platform.
• Agencies: An agency will provide hands-on assistance for your campaign. This can be for specific tasks or end-to-end campaign management.

While both choices result in extra assistance, they are vastly different.

An agency will handle your campaign, acting like an extension of your marketing team. They'll think up ideas, contact influencers, and maintain relationships.

For example, they'll match you with influencers they think would work for you and consult you on their picks.

This bespoke service, of course, comes at a price, but it is the only option if you want to run a seeding campaign with very little input. This makes it a good choice for brands without the creative or logistical power to plan a strategy.

On the other hand, a platform is like adding a data specialist to your team. They're the go-to for insights into influencers and reports that empower your team to make great strategies in-house.

For example, with a platform like Kolsquare, you can search using keywords or hashtags and then filter the influencer database by:

• influencer location
• audience demographics
• hashtags used
• keywords
• follower count
• engagement rate

Then, you can access the influencer's profile to view their previous collaborations, the value you can expect to gain by working with them, and more. This gives you the data you need to understand who is best to work with.

"We relied on Kolsquare’s keyword and filter tools to target influencers who perfectly fit the campaign’s needs, saving significant time and ensuring precision in our selections." - Álvaro Blanco, Native Media

Once your campaign is up and running, you can manage every relationship on the platform, meaning you're not endlessly searching your inbox for messages. Plus, you'll gain valuable insights into the campaign's process, including cost per view, cost per mile, and ROI.

Book in for a Kolsquare demo today!

FAQ

What is the difference between product seeding and product gifting?

The difference between product seeding and gifting is intent. A marketer running a gifting campaign sends their products in exchange for content. They're not necessarily planning on working with that creator again; their goal is to generate buzz.

On the other hand, a marketer running a product seeding campaign desires connections. They want to build a long-term relationship with the creator and get them on board as a true advocate.

Discover how pairing gifting and affiliate campaigns can be an effective, low-risk influencer marketing strategy.

What Does It Mean to Seed a Product?

Product seeding is the strategic placement of free products with influencers, creators, or niche communities. The goal? To build genuine relationships that lead to organic endorsements. It’s less about immediate content and more about building loyalty.

What Does Seeding Mean in Marketing?

In marketing, seeding means distributing products or content to influential individuals to build relationships, amplify reach, and improve credibility.

What is an example of Product Seeding

A sustainable fashion brand sends its new eco-friendly trainers to ten micro-influencers with eco-conscious audiences. These influencers test the product and share their genuine experiences, creating buzz while establishing the brand as a credible player in the industry.