Want to broaden your customer base and enhance sales for your small business without blowing your budget? As businesses turn to social media as the ultimate selling platform, the influencer box has emerged, spawning a brand new platform for innovative packaging. These influencer marketing kits are designed to gain exposure by providing a memorable unboxing, shared on the influencer’s social media pages for all their followers to see.
However, there are several aspects to consider when going this route. Budgets, high-quality designs with limited manufacturing volumes, and tight deadlines are among some of the issues you'll have to contend with. But one of the most important aspects of influencer unboxing videos is, well, the box itself.
Today, we're going to give you a clear overview of influencer boxes, the benefits of using them, as well as how to design them. This is the latest craze in modern marketing, so don’t get left behind.
What Is an Influencer Box?
Influencer boxes are custom-made boxes or kits mailed to social media influencers (or if you have the budget, celebrities) to promote your products and overall brand. The use of social media influencers to promote your product has been shown to raise brand recognition and increase actual sales. Did you know that almost half of consumers depend on influencer recommendations when making purchases? If that’s not enough to convince you, 82% of consumers rely on social media networks for guidance when making purchasing decisions!
A successful campaign requires research into your target demographic and superb design. Your influencer box should, without a doubt, mirror your brand. For example, an influencer beauty box should be designed with a high-gloss finish and a luxury feel. Remember, the whole point is that the influencer is going to either post photos or videos of your box, including the products and the box itself.
The Benefits of Using Influencer Boxes
Influencer marketing is the practice of promoting to, with, and through influencers to spread brand messaging to target audiences. Here are some benefits you can expect by sending out an influencer box:
It Increases Brand Awareness
When sending out an influencer gift box, your brand will be front and center for all of that person’s followers. Since you'll likely be targeting an influencer with millions of followers, you’ll see huge growth in your brand's visibility. With this increased brand awareness, the influencer's followers are sent to your brand’s pages to discover more about your business, as well as the products or services you provide.
It Builds Trust
Influencers have garnered a reputation as experts in their respective field, which is why their followers trust them when it comes to product recommendations. This trust between an influencer and their followers translates to trust in your brand. Ever heard of word-of-mouth marketing? This is the new age of word-of-mouth marketing, except the “word” about your brand is reaching hundreds of thousands (and sometimes millions) more people than the old-fashioned “tell your friends” marketing. Collaborating with an influencer who can send a message to your target audience indicates that your company is an authority in your field and builds trust online.
It Comes with a Good ROI
Influencer packages allow brands to attract more customers and scale up by increasing their visibility, resulting in a greater return on investment than traditional marketing channels. Compared to standard marketing and PR strategies, sending a product box to an influencer doesn't cost much, but can have serious ROI in the long run. While investing in an influencer box is an initial (albeit small) investment, the increased visibility and trust will result in your profits rising as well.
Types of Influencer Boxes
The influencers you choose and the goals you establish for your campaign are both important considerations when deciding what gifts to send. Gifting based on mutual interests can help you and your influencer achieve common goals. In some instances, offering smaller gifts before signing a contract is a terrific approach to uncover influencers who are passionate about your business before formally engaging with them. Here are some influencer box ideas to get you started.
Influencer Boxes with a Personal Touch
Consider making the gifts you provide more personalized. Based on what you've learned about each influencer, personalizing a box helps you develop a deep relationship with them. As a result, their posts regarding your items will feel much more genuine.
Furthermore, because many influencers connect with one another (especially influencers within the same fields), they’ll know if you sent a templated letter with the same gifts. As a result, pay attention to the influencer's brand, niche, hobbies, and philosophy while building your box. Personalization doesn’t take much, but it will definitely pay off.
Free Product Demonstrations
Do you have a new product lined up for release? Combine the new product with existing goods or create a themed box with your new product as the main attraction of an influencer unboxing. New products present the ideal opportunity to incorporate the influencer box approach into your marketing campaign.
Seasonal Gift Boxes
If you don't have a new product coming out but want to get into influencer box marketing, base your influencer PR boxes on upcoming seasonal holidays as part of your marketing strategy. Holidays often involve big sales or the need for gifts, making the weeks leading up to a holiday the perfect time to start promoting products. No seasonal holidays coming up? Plan the delivery to coincide with a particular event in an influencer's life, such as a birthday.
How to Make the Most of Influencer Boxes
One of the most important parts of influencer box marketing is choosing the right influencer, which means you’ll need to identify your target audience. You'll need to make a list of high-value targets that are relevant. Using hashtags to locate influencers who are already interested in what you sell may be quite beneficial.
When evaluating an influencer for your needs, there are a few questions to ask yourself.
How Big is Their Following and How Engaged Are They?
Naturally, you'll want to get your items in front of as many people as possible, but influencers with millions of followers can be expensive. Luckily, finding content creators with a large following isn't the only option. Micro-influencers with smaller followings but better engagement rates are sometimes much more cost-effective for smaller businesses.
Is Their Branding In Line With Yours?
Before signing a contract with an influencer, you want to take steps to thoroughly vet them and ensure that they are a good fit for your company's brand. You have to ensure that the tone of their content appropriately aligns with your brand's positioning. For example, if your brand is family-friendly, make sure to find an influencer who echoes that sentiment in their posts.
How Frequently Do They Post? Do They Work With a Lot of Different Brands?
This might indicate whether or not an influencer is interested in collaborating with you. Influencers with a lower ratio of sponsored material to personal postings appear more authentic to their followers, which can help your company sell more.
Tips for Designing Custom Influencer Boxes
Simply said, your influencer kit should be unforgettable. Consumers are bombarded with influencer unboxing videos daily, which means your box needs to stand out from the crowd. The influencer (and their viewers) should be excited and intrigued by your packaging, as well as the unboxing experience as a whole. Use these tips to make your influencer box memorable, gain more engagement online, and increase your customer base.
Don’t Skimp on Quality Packaging
When creating an influencer box, the most important thing is that your products arrive safely and undamaged. The only way to protect your items is to invest in high-quality packaging. At Epic, we use different board thicknesses and box construction methods depending on your required weight, size, and transportation method. Our packaging is designed to ensure your influencer box is strong enough to survive long journeys around global transportation systems.
Additionally, the design of your packaging is crucial. Don’t send a plain, brown cardboard box. Invest in a quality gloss or lamination finish to highlight your brand’s custom designs. Make sure you follow your brand’s color schemes, avoid crowding the packaging with too much design, and do not forget your logo and/or company name.
Product Organization
When designing influencer boxes, you have complete control over the unpacking experience – and you should. The unboxing experience is meant to be just that: an experience. The revealing of items is crucial as it not only dictates whether the experience is just fine or great, but also because it will be advertised to millions of people online.
Make sure the package is easy to open, well-organized, and that the material is presented in a logical manner. However, keep in mind that protecting items takes precedence – do not pack items in such a way that they risk being damaged or broken. The best influencer boxes reveal the contents in a logical order, or by telling a story. When an influencer opens the box, the first thing they should see is a custom message from your company on a high-quality card. Last to be disclosed might be the most valuable or most unique product.
Messaging and Branding
The best influencer boxes guarantee that influencers utilize campaign-specific terminology, incorporate hashtags, campaign keywords, and explicit content in your unique packaging.
Keep the messaging honest while yet being personal and on-brand. Try printing hashtags on the inside of the box or discuss use of hashtags with the influencer when drafting the contract. You can also use QR codes on your packaging to direct influencers to a customized landing page, invitation, or other digital aspects of your marketing campaign.
Design Your Influencer Box with Epic
There’s no denying the fact that consumers are paying more and more attention to packaging. At Epic, we'll help you build your influencer box around your products and brand messaging. Our custom boxes and packaging solutions allow you to build the perfect box with your brand as the center of attention. Get in touch with Epic and start promoting your brand today!