Someone asked this question earlier and it has since been removed. Before it got taken down I started writing an answer and... now it's 2000 words so maybe I'll make it an ebook or just save it for whenever someone asks.
But I thought I'd throw what I wrote up here and see if anyone has any other thoughts or suggestions. I am only a geek blogger so my experiance is mostly with comics, manga, events, DVDs, and some fashion items.
Let them come to you
You might think that only big websites get contacted directly and that us small guys have to do all of the work reaching out, but I am here to tell you it is possible. I used to run a website that was more of an entertainment news site than a blog. Multiple writers were reviewing multiple TV shows, movies, and more. One day I randomly got a press release from a big publisher. Curious, I replied asking how/why I got put on the list. I got a quick apology and was told that I got put on the list because one of my writers reviewed a show that they are involved in distributing. Then I was assured that I’d be taken off the list. I was like, “Hold on! We want to be on the list, just weren’t sure how we got on it.” I’ve been on the list ever since getting the occasional press release.
A lot of those press releases were about new products that the company was about to release. They often ended with a bold, sometimes red, line that said some variation of the following: “Review copies are available. Contact me if you are interested.” Years later - when I rebooted my website as a smaller, personal blog - I had still been on the list. I told them of the change and pretty soon I started getting copies of books, movies, and other products on my doorstep.
It never hurts to ask
Most of my media contacts were made by me simply reaching out to the right people. I’ll be honest, a few times I just sent a message to a company’s Facebook page and got a response that way. Some company websites will have a form specifically for media requests. In my experience what helps the most is to send e-mails directly to the people involved. Finding those people is the challenge. You want to look for terms like marketing and public relations. Some companies have a contact page that lists e-mails for different departments and their members. Other times you have to guess. If you send it to the completely wrong person there is always a chance that they’ll forward you to the right one. Twitter is another great resource. A lot of employees of big companies have Twitter profiles with their place of work and job title right in their description. Follow as many of these people and see who is tweeting about their products/companies to find them.
Once you have found a way to get in touch with someone, you have to make a good first impression. Do not ever, ever send a quick e-mail that sounds like a child begging for free stuff. Introduce yourself, say who you are and what your blog/podcast/YouTube is all about. Tell them who your audience is and why you love their products. Identify specific products you’d be interested in reviewing. Put a link to your website - that should be obvious but you’d be surprised. Also, if they are interested with you the first thing they’re going to ask is for your address so put that in your introduction e-mail and identify it as a place to send materials too. Not only does this remove a few email steps, but these people are busy and don’t have time to hunt down your address. You may get no response from anyone and then find a package on your porch a few days later.
If you don’t hear back within a week, I say keep asking. You’d think they would block you if you keep asking and aren’t taking the hint, but I recently got on a press list with a company I had given up on after sending probably twenty different e-mails to different people. There is also a chance that if you try again at a later date they might think you’re more valuable. So gain another thousand followers, update your site so it looks beautiful, and try again!
Hit the show floor
Not everyone in marketing at a big company has time to look for media influencers, nor do they have the time to answer every single e-mail they get asking for free stuff. The best way to make contact is face to face interaction. Unfortunately most big companies are in big cities and you can’t exactly walk into Marvel Comics and say, “I’d like to see someone in PR.” The best place to find the right people is at a big convention. Unfortunately the kinds of comicons that have big companies present are also only in big cities, but usually there are a lot of big companies there so a single trip to any one major con can be worth it.
I went to New York Comic Con in 2017. There were so many big companies there that I can’t say I even saw all of their booths. But the ones I did see I followed a very simple rule: give a business card to anyone who looks important. In most cases someone in marketing and public relations is working those booths so usually they are the ones you want to talk to. Introduce yourself as a blogger and actually hold a conversation with them. You’ll be surprised how many of these people actually really love meeting influencers. After the show send them all a modified version of the e-mail discussed previously. Reintroduce yourself, say how nice it was talking to them, and once again describe how you would like to work with them.
If you’re feeling shy or don’t trust that those interactions will go anywhere - most won’t - your trp to a big city con wont have been wasted! Every booth at a big convention will have so much free swag. So much. True story: NYCC opened at 10 AM on Friday. I went to meet my brother for lunch at noon and already had to go back to my room because my bag was full. By the end of the weekend I had so much free stuff that I threw away my clothes to fit it all in my suitcase. Most booths will have posters and bookmarks, but if you hit up the book (as in not comic book) publishers, then you’re gauranteed to find a lot of ARCs (advanced reader’s copy.) These ARCs are designed for, among other things, bloggers to review. All of the ones I have seen have been paperbacks with incomplete illustrations/graphics and uncorrected typos. Some booths will just have a stack or even a big box filled with them for you to take as many as you like. Some will give one out with the purchase of something else. Others will have special events that you have to line up for to get one. Once you have locked down a relationship with the right people, ARCs may be one of the kinds of items you get sent.
Become a rep
Full disclosure I have never been a rep and don’t exactly know how it works. This is something I have mostly seen in the “bookish” side of blogging, specifically Instagram, and usually involves companies that produce subscription boxes, candles, bookmarks, and other bookish items. Form what I’ve gathered one becomes a rep after a “rep search” where you have to do a public “application” and show off your Bookstagram skills and prove why you should be a rep. Once chosen a rep will get free subscription boxes or a large supply of candles or something like that. You also might get a discount code to tell your audience to use. The number of reps at any given time is limited, as is your time as a rep. Again I have never experienced this before so I can’t speak from experience.
About events
Getting a press pass to a convention or tickets to a movie premiere is not the same thing as getting a manga boxset mailed to you. However, the principles are the same. Review events and eventually the event hosts may reach out to you. Contact people who put them on and you may get two free tickets. Some sites may have a form to fill out and apply.
While you may need to do a bit of work before you get those coveted reserved seats, there are some resources where virtually anyone can get free tickets to early movie screenings. Advance Screenings and Gofobo are the two most common ones. Usually you just sign up for e-mail updates and wait for the notifications to come in. Sometimes you might have to enter a contest of some sort, but other times all you have to do is click a button and instantly get two tickets to an early screening. Some of these events have been weird, a couple have asked us to turn in our phones beforehand and seating is not usually guaranteed so get there early.
Don’t expect anything ever
This goes without saying, but you are not guaranteed to receive everything just because you ask for it even if it’s from someone you have an established relationship with. Remember that first company I mentioned? (The one that put me on their list without me asking?) A few times I’d respond to their press releases with interest in review copies. I think after the fourth time they finally asked for my address. They asked for it a few more times before I eventually got something in the mail and even now, years later, sometimes items still don’t show up. One company hasn’t sent me a review inquiry in ages. Another said they had to reel back on how many review items they were sending out.
That’s another thing to be mindful of; it costs a lot of money to produce and ship out items for free, so some smallerish big companies simply might not have enough copies for even a big blog to get. Seating is limited at staged productions. The biggest, most anticipated movies never have public advance screenings. On the other hand, be prepared for anything. One company, a certain multi-zillion dollar corporation, sends me stuff without even asking probably because they have the money to just throw away a brand new hardcover on the off chance that I’ll even want to read it let alone review it.
Follow through
Let’s once again revisit the first company that put me on their list and started sending me stuff. I had requested so much stuff early on and never got anything delivered that I started requesting anything they e-mailed me about. Then one day I got a DVD of a movie that is a sequel to a show I had never heard of. Luckily the show was on Netflix so I could get caught up, but I was so completely confused and not following anything about it so it took me so long before I actually got a review published. I’ve since pulled back the wide net that I cast looking for review opportunities, especially since all of their are time sensitive in relation to a release date so I don’t always have time to get them done in time and I certainly don’t want my blog to just be endless reviews. Case in point: don’t request something if you don’t actually think you’ll be able to review.
Keep the relationship
Once you have written your first review of a product you were sent for free, you’re not done yet. Send a link to whoever your media contact is and thank them for the opportunity. Sometimes they use your review and share it as advertisement. They might stick an excerpt of it in an e-mail promotion or pull a quote from it and stick it on the back of the finished product. But the biggest reason to send them your reviews is to prove you aren’t just trying to get free stuff. Brands love working with influencers and they like continuing to work with the same ones. If you don’t review a lot of things for them they may stop sending them to you or take you off of their press list. You want to work with these people for as long as you can, so show them that you’re worth it.
Submitted May 22, 2018 at 03:41PM by themoderngafa https://www.reddit.com/r/Blogging/comments/8lfjca/how_to_get_free_stuff_to_review_on_your_blog/?utm_source=ifttt
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