How to Get Free Products to Review on YouTube - The Complete Guide
Aug 17, 2021
Have you ever wanted to learn how to get free products to review on YouTube? If so, you've come to the right place.
One of the things that attract many people to becoming content creators is the chance of getting free products and working with brands. Many people believe you must have a large audience to receive free products, but this isn't the case.
In this article, you will learn:
How Do YouTubers Get Free Stuff?
How to Get Free Stuff to Review on YouTube
Read on and learn everything you need to know about getting free products for YouTube product reviews.
How Do YouTubers Get Free Stuff?
So, how do YouTubers get free stuff? Do they get it sent to them by brands, or do they reach out to employees at companies and ask for free products to be sent to their PO box in exchange for promoting the products in videos?
Typically, brands and advertisers will send their products to YouTubers and request that they be featured in one of their videos. Sometimes, YouTubers will also be paid to promote these free products in the form of brand deals.
Often, products are sent to the PO box of a YouTuber when there is no paid brand deal set to take place. For paid and structured brand deals, it's more common for products to be sent directly to the office or home of the content creator.
Also, for paid brand deals, conversations between a content creator and brand take place before a product is delivered. A product does not get sent to a YouTuber before payment details and video details have been agreed upon.
How to Get Free Stuff to Review on YouTube
Believe it or not, the easiest way to get free stuff to review on YouTube is to simply reach out to brands and ask for products. Of course, getting products will be easier if you have an established audience, but even small channels present value to brands looking to gain more attention for their products.
Here's how to get free stuff to review on YouTube:
- Find companies with a history of working with YouTubers
- Visit their website and find their contact information
- Write your initial outreach message
- Scale the process
- Send a follow-up email
- Create a review video
- Inform the company when the video is complete
- Review products you already own (optional)
Let's go over this process in more detail.
1. Find Companies With a History of Working With YouTubers
While more companies are becoming open to working with content creators, it's much easier to convince a company that has done so previously to work with you. Knowing this, you should focus on finding companies with a history of sending products to YouTubers and working with them in the past.
An easy way to find these companies is to simply look for review videos in your niche. Content creators must disclose when a video is sponsored, so watch videos to determine if they are sponsored or not. Sponsored videos will also contain a link to the sponsor website in the description box, which can make finding company information much easier.
2. Visit Their Website and Find Their Contact Information
Once you've found a company that has worked with content creators in the past, you'll need to find some contact information. Often, contact information can be found on a company website in the form of a contact form or an email address. Usually, the contact page can be accessed through a website footer.
If you browse a company website and cannot find a contact page, consider finding out the name of an employee (preferably in the marketing department) and connecting with them on social media. LinkedIn and/or Twitter are two platforms that lend themselves well to doing this.
3. Write Your Initial Outreach Message
Whether you are reaching out to a brand through a contact form or an email, your initial outreach message should be the same. The goal of your message shouldn't be to get a "yes" right away- it should be to get a response.
Your initial outreach message should look something like this:
Hi [NAME],
Recently, I came across a video from [CREATOR] featuring your product- I thought it was great! I had never heard of your product before, so the video helped your brand get on my radar!
I was just curious- is there any chance you'd be interested in furthering your influencer marketing efforts? I own a tech YouTube channel and would love to work with you to bring more attention to your brand and product!
If you're interested, I'd be happy to send over some channel statistics and analytics.
Hope to hear from you soon!
As you can see, the objective of this message was not to get a definitive "yes" from the brand. This message is meant to get you on the radar of the brand and to gauge interest. After all, some brands try working with YouTubers a few times and decide it's not right for them.
4. Scale the Process
After crafting a template similar to the one above, your next goal should be to find a large number of companies that you can reach out to. The more companies you reach out to, the higher chance you will have of successfully getting a response.
Just remember, your outreach messages must be personalized to each brand you contact. Personalizing your outreach messages will show brands that you're interested in what they do and will improve response rates.
5. Send a Follow-up Email
Sometimes, contacts at companies will miss your message in their email inbox. Often, the inboxes of marketing departments tend to be full and difficult for employees to manage. Knowing this, it can be a good idea to send a follow-up email to contacts if you have not received a response to your initial message.
There is a lot of debate about the correct time to send a follow-up email. However, in most cases, it's ideal to wait 48 hours or longer before sending a follow-up message. It might be a good idea to wait a week or two depending on the company you're contacting.
Your follow-up email should look similar to this:
Hi [NAME],
I sent you an email a few days/weeks ago and wasn't sure if you missed it in your inbox? Just figured I'd reach out and see!
As with most follow-up messages, the goal is simply to gain the attention of the individual you're attempting to contact. If they open this message, they'll be more likely to scan their inbox for your initial message.
6. Create a Review Video
If you receive a response to your messages and manage to get a company to send you a product to review or include in one of your videos, your next objective should be to create the video.
Often, brands will include some general guidelines for you to follow when creating a video featuring their product. Follow these guidelines and any specifics that were agreed upon when working out the deal with the company.
Along with this, try to ensure that your review video is not rushed and contains no mistakes. Remember, this initial review video is a great way for you to establish a relationship with the company and show that you're worth working with.
7. Inform the Company When the Video Is Complete
After creating and uploading your review video to YouTube, you should inform the contact you worked with that it is complete. Typically, companies will request that you upload the video in the unlisted mode so it can be reviewed before it is released to the public.
Sometimes, you will not get a response instantly to your confirmation email. In this scenario, you should wait until the company has a chance to review your video before publishing it. The last thing you want to do is upload a video and ruin your relationship with the brand if there are things you need to edit out of the video or change to make it brand-friendly.
8. Review Products You Already Own (Optional)
If you're a brand new content creator, it might be worth reviewing products you already own to become familiar with the process of creating review videos. Also, doing this will help you build an initial audience and show that you know how to create videos that brands will be happy to have their products featured in.
As a side note, don't let not having brand new products stop you from creating videos. You don't need to have the newest iPhone or gaming console to put together a valuable video that people will enjoy watching.
Conclusion
You now know how to get free products to review on YouTube. While the process of finding brands to work with does take time and effort, if you repeat the process enough times and can provide value to companies, there is a good chance that a brand will send you free stuff to review on YouTube.
