How to Use Social Media for Sales: Seed Product or Service Review Copies to Leaders
You may have noticed at LockerGnome that we review a lot of gadgets and other forms of technology. Many of these new products are review copies sent to Chris Pirillo as review units, or apps we are offered or request to demo at no cost. By asking us to review the product, the developer is placing the product in front of an extremely large audience that is known for sharing content with its audience. The end result is that information about the new product or app reaches hundreds of thousands of people, whom are likely the target audience for the product itself.
This is a tried-and-true tactic for introducing a new product to a specific demographic. It works very well in the technology industry, as well as via bloggers in other industries like fashion, beauty, home, and family. Seeding product or review copies with key influencers who reach an audience similar to your product’s target demographic is a relatively free but highly effective form of advertising. Your only cost is the review unit, but this cost can easily be recouped after thousands of viewers read about your product and share the blog post on their social networks. You can expect that, if you properly seed a review unit, at least a few of these thousands of readers will convert to a sale.
While most reviews tend to positive (primarily out of a blogger’s fear of losing the chance to review a product again), don’t be surprised if someone offers a negative review of your product. However, you can use this review as an opportunity to critically assess the negative features, especially if this aspect of the critique was a common theme amongst many reviews. This is also a good chance to utilize best PR practices and use the commenting features of the blog to gracefully and politely clarify any issues you think they missed or were wrong about.
Seeding product or service review copies to influential leaders is a great way to not only gather initial feedback from experts about your new product, but also reach a large section of your target demographic that may convert to customers.
