Product manufacturers use a variety of marketing and promotional techniques to find prospective customers. Product testing is one such technique used by almost all product manufacturers. Their products are tested not only by the journalists but also by the common people and influencers. You can become one such tester and start receiving free products for testing and reviewing.
How to Get Companies to Send You Products to Review?
If you have been wondering about it, the following information will help you. Understand all aspects of it before you proceed to test products. It takes time to build your reputation in this field but once you become adept in it, you will be receiving lots of products to review. Best of all, you are allowed to keep those products and some companies will even pay you for your valuable inputs.
The Purpose of Product Promoting, Testing and Reviewing
Why Product Manufacturers Promote Their Products?
People buy any product only when they come to know about it. Manufacturers have to market their products to inform their prospective customers about it. A marketing campaign includes a variety of marketing and promotional solutions like advertising, social media posts, participation in trade shows, reduced product price, extra stuff, gifts, free promotional materials, and giving away the main product for free during the promotional campaign. All these marketing solutions help increase the sales of the product and improve the brand value of the company.
What Is Product Testing?
While a product manufacturer may think a new product made by it is flawless and has only beneficial features, it still needs validation from actual users. It benefits from user reviews that help convince other buyers. Reviews written by the product manufacturers are not taken seriously because they always write positively about their products. People trust the opinions of independent and impartial reviewers more. This is the reason product manufacturers offer their products for free to the journalists covering their industry.
They also send it to the influencers and some common people. All these people test the products they receive for free from the manufacturers. They post their reviews online and help promote the product. These reviewers not only receive the main product for free but may get rewarded in other ways as well. You may receive the rewards in the form of cash, gift voucher, merchandise or a promotional product.
Who Needs the Product Reviewers?
What Types of Companies Seek Product Testers and Reviewers?Product testing offers are available from the manufacturers, sellers, entrepreneurs, publicists, marketing agencies and public relation firms. They offer discounted or free products for testing and/or review. The product may include the full product or a sample of it. They are looking for general product testers, website owners, journalists, bloggers, online publishers and social media influencers.
Two Types of Product Testing
These tests are performed for two purposes. The first goal is to validate the product features or benefits. There is no promotional aspect to it. These tests are simply done to check the product before it is released in the market to the general public. It helps manufacturers find out the flaws, faults and risks associated with their products. Do not worry about such risks. All these company?s products have already undergone lab, usage and other tests. They have been certified and received approvals from the relevant government departments. They are safe to use. Just make sure you follow the usage instruction and recommended precautions.
The second goal of product testing is to promote and market it. Manufacturers give away their products for free to the reviewers. The reviewers are expected to post their reviews online and promote these items through various channels like social media websites and blogs.
How Product Testing Benefits the Product Manufacturers?
Product testing is an important validation and marketing solution for the product manufacturers. People buy a new product after reading at least a few reviews about it. They look for media channels and influencers who post accurate information about new products. Reading the reviews of the product helps them understand if the product has all the features and benefits they are looking for. They learn about the drawbacks, shortcomings and risks associated with it. This information helps them make an informed decision. It benefits everyone involved in the process. The reviewer gets the views and traffic, the customer learns about the advantages and disadvantages of the product, and the manufacturer gets to connect with the potential customers.
Receiving the Products and Reviewing Them
How to Get Companies to Send You Products to Review?There are several things you can do to get companies to send you the products to review. The most important thing is that you have to bring some value to the manufacturer. Your job becomes easier if you have a good number of followers on social media websites. If you are seen as an effective influencer, you can receive a large number of products for testing and reviewing. At the same time, manufacturers are not only looking for influencers with large followings. They also send their products to common users for testing. The products are sent to a select group of people. You are not required to pay for these products or return those items.
How to Get Products to Review?
Prepare a list of the ways you can convince others including your followers. Become registered members of the ecommerce websites. You must have some authority to post your reviews at those websites. You only have to sign up with them to be able to post your comments in the product review section. Now contact the product manufacturers that seek product testers and reviewers. Make sure you contact the department or manager in charge of this testing operation at the manufacturing company. While this option can help you get a few companies to send you the products for testing and reviewing, it is a complex and time consuming process. There is an easy way out.
Joining the Product Testing and Reviewing Platforms
Join the Platforms That Connect Product Manufacturers to the Product Testers
This is the best, easiest and most convenient way to start receiving a large number of free products for testing and reviewing. There are several such platforms online. Each one works in a slightly different way so you have to learn every platform?s system. Some of these channels specialize in a particular line of products while others offer all types of products. Products are generally from the categories like household goods, home, skincare and beauty, fitness, supplements and others.
How to Select the Products?
After joining such a platform, you have to select the products you want to receive for reviewing. Most of these channels let you choose the types of products you want to receive. Choose products that you can review properly. You will write a better review if you like using the product. Keep in mind that some manufacturers will send only the trial size or sample of a product while others will send you the full product. The first category will generally cover food and skin care products while the latter category covers electronic, electrical and appliance products.
Submitting the Review
How to Submit Your Reviews?Check the instruction given at the product testing platform?s FAQ section to learn how to submit your product review to it. It will have a special web form to submit the review. You should write down your thoughts earlier in a text document separately and save it to ensure your review is not lost during the submission process due to Internet disconnection, web form multifunction or other issues. Follow the review writing format and instruction given to you.
How to Write a Product Review?
Write the review logically. Start with the basic information. Address the main concerns you have about the product. Mention its benefits as well. You have to provide your opinion about how potential customers will receive it and what problems they might encounter when using it. Give your opinion about the extra features or components that can make the product more useful and acceptable to the potential users. These insights are valuable to the manufacturers. If multiple testers report the same issue, it can mean a genuine and big problem with the product. Include some relevant information as well. For example, information about the packaging, handling, first appearance, assembling and disassembling are useful to the manufacturer. You can mention the issues encountered in getting the product ready for use.
Questions to AnswerDoes the product take too long to complete its operational process? What problems you encountered while using it? Is it easy to clean and maintain? Do you notice any safety issues or other risks? Are you able to understand all its usage instructions given in the manual? Should it include some more information about a particular thing? These details help the manufacturer improve its product. An honest review is what the manufacturers need to improve their products.
Related Parts of This ProcessSometimes you may be asked to participate in a community discussion through the web program you joined. The manufacturer may contact you for clarification about some issues raised by you in your test report. You have to answer these questions. Some manufacturers even offer additional rewards in addition to the product sent for testing. The information about any such reward will be made clear to you at the start when you join a product testing project.
Social Media Influencers Receive Better Deals
Become Active on Networking WebsitesThink from the manufacturer?s point of view. Why any manufacturer would send you its product for free? The only reason can be user feedback or promotion. What type of person a manufacturer will choose to review and promote its product? It would be someone who can help connect with a large number of prospective customers.
If you are active on social media websites and have excellent following, you are a good candidate for the product tester and reviewer position. You may have a popular blog read by a large number of people. Develop your profiles on popular social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and others.
You can go further and develop email marketing program. If you have a large number of people on your email list and regularly send them promotional materials through your weekly newsletters, your job becomes easier when approaching a manufacturer or research firm to send you its product for testing or reviewing. Work hard on increasing your online followers.
Develop channels in your area of interest and expertise. It will help you attract a large number of followers, readers and viewers online. Post contents that others want to read and view. It encourages them to follow you.
Review Products Regularly
It will help you get noticed by the product manufacturers, sellers, resellers and wholesalers. They use different types of tools and information to find reviewers and influencers who attract lots of followers, readers and viewers. If your website or social media channels regularly come up high in online searches for the keywords relevant to a manufacturer, it will approach you to review its product.
Initially, start reviewing products without any incentive or request. Review the products you purchase for your own use. It will help you refine and polish your product review writing. What information should you provide in your reviews? First discuss the basic details. Provide details of the product?s features. Write its pros and cons. Give information about any shortcoming, flaw or fault.
These details help people planning to buy that product. They can determine if the product?s benefits outweigh any minor flaws or risks. Always write factually correct data and cite sources where needed. Once you have developed such a channel and posted lots of valuable contents that attract readers or viewers regularly, you will find it easy to approach the manufacturers for reviewing their products. They can see the value in getting their products tested and reviewed by you.
Finding the Manufacturers and Platforms That Pay for Product Testing and Reviewing
How Do You Find Such Manufacturers?First decide the type of products you want to review. Search their manufacturers through the ecommerce websites and online directories. Start building a list that has the names and contact details of the manufacturer. Once you approach them, keep notes of your interaction. Do not approach them again if they are not interested or decline your request. Some of them do not deal directly with the product testers and reviewers. Approach these manufacturers through the channels that connect the manufacturers to the testers.
How to Avoid Disappointment?Make sure you understand the terms and conditions. Read the project details carefully to learn what types of products you will receive, whether you can keep the product or have to return it back, how you will be rewarded, and if you have to submit the review through a particular web form or post it online through your own social media accounts or blog.
Some companies send products only for testing and not for reviews while others send mainly for reviewing and not for testing. In case of the product testing, you will usually receive a new product that has been developed recently for a new launch in the market. The manufacturer wants opinions of a sample group of users to know if it has made the right product and if that product has some flaws that went unnoticed during the product development phase.
The test reports help them avoid future financial and legal troubles. They avoid product recalls that can be very expensive and damage the reputation of the company for a long time to come. An economical product testing project helps them save time and money. It helps them protect their reputation in the market and increase their brand value. They can make the required changes in the product early to avoid such troubles. It helps make their product more useful and reliable. The retail vendors prefer selling products that have been tested by the actual users and received good reviews.
The Selection Process
How Do Companies and Research Firms Select Product Testers?When you approach such a company, you will be asked to fill a web form. The platform seeks some personal details which help it choose the right candidates for testing a particular product. For example, if a company is looking to launch a new makeup product, it will select you only if you use such a product.
If you are selected for the product testing and reviewing, you will receive a notification through email or phone. Reply to confirm you are ready to participate in that project. The platform will select you and send the product for testing by mail. You get a week or two to evaluate the product. You may receive the product feedback form initially or at the time of submitting your test report. Some companies simply require a short written review. The type of response needed from the product testers differs from one company to another.
Earning Money Writing Product Reviews
Can You Earn Money Testing and Reviewing Products?Some companies not only let you keep the products they send to test; they also pay you for testing and reviewing. You can earn anywhere from $5-$500. It depends on the type of company, the product testing project, and the value you bring to the table. Do not limit yourself to testing physical products only if you want to make money from this venture.
Be ready to test and review other things like websites. When reviewing a website, you will be asked to test its features. You have to provide your opinion about navigation, ease of use, color theme, links and other elements. You may be asked to test the website?s text forms for ordering and other processes.
You can even get paid to watch movies and videos. These testing offers are launched by the video and movie streaming websites. Some companies need testers to test their system, process or service in the real world. Some hotels and resorts offer free stay to successful influencers for posting reviews and pictures of their stay at their social media accounts.
List of Product Testing and Review Platforms
Names of Platforms That Seek Product TestersThere are several such platforms online. They help you get companies to send you the products you can review. Most of them simply require you to sign up with them for product testing and reviewing. Provide your information accurately when filling your profile data. Your interests, expertise, job field and other data are used by these websites to determine if you are suitable for a particular product testing project. They want to select people who will provide the best test reports and reviews. Following is a list of some of these platforms.
ProductsForReview.comIt connects companies with the reviewers, journalists and bloggers. Companies using its services offer discounted or free products to the reviewers.
Influenster.comFill your profile data and become a member of this website. You have to review products, answer questions or share reviews through your social media accounts. You receive the product for testing. Sometimes it is only an online feedback sampling to seek the opinions of product users.
Omaginsider.comA fine place associated with the O Magazine of Oprah Winfrey. Become an ambassador of this channel. The selected ones get to try new products through its product testing programs. You can win other cool gifts as well.
Top Amazon ReviewerIt is not a direct platform for the product testers but can help you receive free products for testing. Create your account at Amazon and provide your full information in the profile. List the products you are interested in reviewing. Choose products at Amazon that do not have too many reviews. Post your reviews about these products. If your reviews receive lots of upvotes from the Amazon users for being helpful, your ranking among the reviewers will increase. You will start receiving offers from product manufacturers and sellers to review their products. It takes time to build your reputation here but after that you will start receiving lots of free products for reviewing.
Toluna.comIt will determine the type of surveys you can take based on your profile data and the influence you hold among your followers. It is mainly consumer surveys. Go to its ?Testing? section to learn more about receiving products from it for testing.
Smiley360.comJoin this program to try free products for testing and reviewing. You have to provide your feedback after using the products.
Bzzagent.comJoin it to start receiving valuable products for free. You have to provide your opinions after using the products. It offers products from many major brands in the categories of foods, consumer items, everyday use items and gadgets.
VocalPoint.comIt pays its users for surveys and product testing. You get early access to new products and deals.
MomSelect.comIt connects brands to mom influencers. It sends new baby and kid products for testing.
Momsmeet.comAnother website geared toward mothers of babies and kids. It has four options for its members. You can participate in its group program, blogger program, express program or influencer program for product testing and reviewing.
Jjfriendsandneighbors.comBecome its member to be eligible to receive free products for testing. You can participate in online surveys, discussion forums and online meets of its focus groups.
There are many other such websites that need product testers and reviewers. Now you know how to get companies to send you products to review. Follow each channel?s instructions carefully to avoid application rejection or other problems. Give it some time to see the results and rewards. You will receive better offers if you are a big influencer with lots of followers. Collectively, these platforms run hundreds of programs at any given time and need lots of product testers and reviewers. Join them now to start receiving free products for testing and reviewing.
