Around 720,000 hours of video footage are uploaded on YouTube every day.
You can imagine many people creating their own channels and posting a ton of stuff.
You must have come across a YouTube channel that specializes in video reviews. A lot of people have wondered about how to get free products to review on YouTube?
Here is the deal:
- Some product reviews involve Youtubers who give their account of how they found the product after using it for some time. These YouTube videos may include a complete rundown of the product’s features. Mentioning its pros and cons, and then giving a final verdict on whether the product is recommended or has more suitable substitutes.
- Other reviews may involve comparing two or more items and recommending the best one. It is also common to come across a review on YouTube that picks any claim that the product makes and then takes that product to the limit to authenticate if what the company says about the product is indeed true. For example, a review video that shows drop tests being done on a military-grade watch or a waterproof phone that is submerged in water to check the results.
Regardless of the format of the video review on YouTube, thinking of all the possibilities, you might wonder if they’re purchasing the actual product or getting free items from different companies to review.
Doing some research may reveal that some companies do give out free products to YouTube channels that do review videos in their niche. Still, these are all well-established channels that have subscribers in the thousands, if not millions.
Best Ways To Get Free Product To Review
Starting may seem like an uphill task. You might not know where to begin. But, if you’ve done all the preliminary work like creating a YouTube channel, deciding on a niche idea, gathering the required vlogging equipment to make your review videos, and learned video editing, it is time to get a free product for your first video review.
Reviewing Things, You Already Own
You may have some interesting stuff around the house that you could review on your YouTube channel.
It could be anything you got for your birthday, a graduation present from your parents or something you got last Christmas.
That way, you won’t have to make any investment out of your pocket to buy products to review. You can simply create a review video of something that you own.
Do not be discouraged if you have something that is not the latest product in your selected niche. You will find viewers for your review on YouTube.
This method is great in the sense that you don‘t spend anything out of your pocket and your channel also grows. If you continue posting review videos, companies will eventually contact you and give you free products to review as well.
Borrowing Things for Review
You find out that your best friend has finally purchased the latest iPhone or the newly released gaming headphones he was thinking of purchasing. Well, here is an opportunity.
All you need to do is borrow it from him for an hour or so and make a quick video review of it for free. The process is convenient, and you don’t need to spend a penny out of pocket for it to work.
This strategy can also give you good content for your review channel. Slowly but surely you will get enough traction that companies will start contacting you to review their products for free.
Review Products at Purchase Points
Another way that you could review products for free is if you make a review video at a particular store that sells the product you wish to review.
This is a generally acceptable way of making review videos in many countries. It is a win-win situation for both the Youtuber and the seller. The former gets free stuff to do a review of, and the latter gets free marketing and publicity.
Sound like a good deal, right?
This has become a common practice, and you may have seen review videos being shot in a shop environment.
Suppose you decide to follow this method of reviewing products for free. In that case, you can either talk about the detailed specs yourself if the seller doesn’t want to be a part of the video. Or you could get his permission to interview him and have him review the product.
As a goodwill gesture, you can mention in your review the name and location of the shop where the review is being done so that you can drive more customers to the place.
This can be a mutually beneficial arrangement and can be done long-term as well.
Establishing Your YouTube Channel
If you have a channel that doesn’t have too many subscribers yet, you could follow the tips already talked about and steadily grow your channel over time by reviewing free stuff. Of course, this requires a lot of patience and motivation.
However, once you get a respectable number of subscribers in a certain niche, relevant companies will see it as a profitable avenue to market their products on your channel. This is when they’ll consider approaching you and giving you their products to review.
There are a few different ways in which this could materialize.
1. Firstly, a company could contact you and send you their product to review for free.
In this scenario, the company is getting their product reviewed on an established channel and generating publicity while you are getting content for your channel, which will drive more traffic in your direction.
In this arrangement, the company may give you some flexible instructions about the video while letting you have most of the control of the content you make if it is positive and favorable for them.
2. The second arrangement comes in the form of paid brand deals.
What happens here is that different companies contact the channel owner and try to strike a paid sponsored deal which entails making a review video in a certain way and following company extended guidelines. These guidelines must be followed strictly for the agreement to be fulfilled.
The company will keep a close eye on the progress of the video being made for this purpose and will mostly ask to see the finished video before it is posted on a public forum.
Once you get the go-ahead, you can post the review on your channel, after which the company will either pay you, let you keep the product that was reviewed or a combination of both.
Visiting Live Events
Regardless of what niche you’re in, there are all sorts of events happening around you that you can explore.
If you can find a convention in your niche, like, for instance, a tech convention, a fitness convention, or the Namm show (if you’re into musical instruments), there’s nothing like it.
You can come face to face with the companies you want to give you free products to review on your channel.
Also, try to discuss how beneficial this can be for their company and particularly the free products you get from them.
Finally, share details about your channel and urge them to pay a visit to help make their decision easy.
Make sure that you get their visiting cards and contact details to have a follow-up discussion to decide on the products to review in the future.
Being Part of Online Panels
Another well known way to get products for reviewing is through free product testing websites.
There are several companies out there that have a panel of people who test their products for them.
These can be products that have already been released in the market or new products that require test marketing and research based on the response of focus groups or product testers.
Some of the top product testing companies include UserTesting, Influenster, BzzAgent and so on. There are many other companies out there as well that you can find by searching on the web.
To become part of the product testing panel, first, you need to check which company offers products for testing that are from your niche since each of the companies mentioned above specializes in different products.
Once you narrow down exactly which product testing companies are suitable for you, you can visit their website and fill out an application form.
You will be asked a few questions to help the company assess if you’re a suitable candidate to review their products. The company will then guide you on the way forward.
The good thing about this way of reviewing products is that you not only get free stuff to review but you may also get paid for your services.
In some cases, you get actual products or maybe a tester or trial version that you must assess and then submit a review.
However, in almost all cases, you get to keep the products which is an added advantage of this method.
Contacting Companies to Give you Free Stuff for Review
This is perhaps the most direct approach, and if it works and you’re able to impress the company with your YouTube product reviews, this can actually become a long-term thing.
However, there are several steps that you need to go through to get the ball rolling.
1. Firstly, you need to scan YouTube and look for sponsored videos in your specific niche.
These should be easy to identify since Youtubers are bound to disclose when they make sponsored videos. You need to go through as many product reviews as you can and then make a list of the brands that are being talked about.
This way, you can find out which companies to target since they are open to Youtubers reviewing their products and are already sending people free products to review.
2. Once you have your list of the best companies whose products are being reviewed frequently, it is time to approach them to review products that they specialize in.
To contact these companies, you need a systematic approach. It is always good to maintain an excel sheet for the next steps.
You can begin by visiting each company’s website and trying to find their contact details. Most websites have a “contact us” tab where you can get all the information you need. Some company websites also have this information in the footer section. As you find the contact details, you need to enter them in your excel sheet for the next step.
3. Next, you need to contact the company by writing an email designed to convince them that you are the right person for them to be extending their products to review. The email’s text needs to be chosen carefully.
Ideally, you could start by first introducing yourself and your channel while also mentioning the niche that you specialize in. You could then bring their attention to the review video you saw, the product it was about, and the channel’s name that made you contact the company. This will assure them that sending free products to review is beneficial for them and that they may consider having a similar arrangement with you.
4. Lastly and most importantly, you could share your channel’s statistics to really swing things in your favor.
You could mention the number of subscribers and viewing hours that you’ve had in the past 6/12 months. The language and tone should be courteous.
Also, it’s better to avoid lengthy emails and come straight to the point.
5. You need to repeat this step for all the companies in your excel sheet to maximize the chances of a response. Once all the emails have been sent out, it is time to wait for an answer.
How long you wait is key because although you need to strike while the iron is hot, you need to give enough time for the relevant contact person to respond.
The ideal waiting time would be 3 to 4 days or even a week. Your excel sheet would come in handy as you could mention the date the first email went out in each case and the probable date for a follow-up email.
When you feel that you’ve waited long enough, you can send a follow-up email to each company. Again, the tone should be polite and positive.
You can start by inquiring about the initial email that you sent and reassuring the contact person that you are keen on having a mutually beneficial arrangement with his company in the future.
Here’s the deal:
Thinking outside the box is what separates successful people from the rest. You, too, could try and be innovative to figure out other ways to get a response from the contact person. This could be done on social media accounts. LinkedIn and Twitter are great avenues for this approach.
Before a company contacts you, you must make sure that you have created a few YouTube videos of yourself reviewing products to show off your talent and skill. You can even have these posted on your YouTube channel. If you have your own website, you could make a video portfolio and share the link when required.
6. When you eventually do get a reply by following the steps above, it is time to discuss in detail with the company their guidelines and requirements.
You want to follow these to the letter so that you end up reviewing free products from this company on a regular basis. These instructions may include doing a detailed unboxing, doing a rundown of the features, keeping the sample product in plain sight throughout the video, etc. When the agreement between you and the company is good to go, you will be sent some free products.
When you create videos of this sort, make sure they are professionally made with plenty of lighting, exceptional sound, and video quality with no noise or distractions. After all, you need to score more of these free products to get your channel going.
You could also ask the company contact person if you could put an affiliate link in the description of the sample product review. That way, you could be driving potential customers on the company website to generate sales and, in return, be earning a commission.
When your review video is ready and you have gone through all the company guidelines, you can first share the finished product with the company. So that if there are any last-minute changes, they can be reviewed and fixed. You are now ready to post your review on YouTube.
FAQs
Will I Get to Keep the Free Sample Products I Receive From Companies to Make Review Videos?
How Can I Get Companies to Approach Me Directly to Review Their Products?
How Do I Get More Companies to Give Me Free Products for Review?
What Are Ideas To Get Free Stuff For Reviews on YouTube?
You could get free stuff to review by following any of the steps below:
- By reviewing something you already own
- Borrowing something from a friend/family/acquaintance and reviewing the product
- Reviewing products at sales outlets
- Growing your channel so that companies approach you
- Visiting conventions and networking with company reps
- Applying for free product testing opportunities on company websites
- Approaching companies directly to send you free products for reviewing
How Do I Approach Companies Directly To Get Free Products For Review?
- Find out which companies use video reviews to market their products on YouTube
- Get contact details from their websites
- Contact them via e-mail and share details about your channel
- Send a follow-up e-mail after waiting for an adequate amount of time
- Try to get in touch on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Once you get a response, make your video as per company policy and guidelines
- Release view after getting go ahead from the company
Conclusion
The article discusses in detail how to get free products to review on YouTube. If you continue following the various steps above, chances are that you’ll keep getting more products to review, which will make your channel grow.
It is of the utmost importance to repeat the process with other companies as well so that you can drive more traffic to your channel. Make lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with companies and continue to get free products from your niche to make videos.
The key to all this is consistency. Do not get discouraged if you don’t receive any products to review at first. It may take a little while to get going. Know that persistence pays off!
Glen Beker
I am Glen and I’m a 100% tech-addicted guy, Blogger, Video Editor and Entrepreneur. I spent a lot of my time learning how to properly edit videos, I've tested a lot of vlogging equipment and now with my team, I share all these tips with you.
