In the early stage of your career, gifted campaigns can serve as a valuable opportunity to showcase your potential and versatility. Gifted campaigns are not just about receiving free products or services. Gifted campaigns can be a testing ground for your personal brand and your creativity. They can challenge you to align brand messaging with your unique tone of voice and your audience.

And this growth allows you to be more selective in choosing campaigns that really align with you, your brand, and your values. It's a natural progression. As your influence expands, so does the caliber of the opportunities that come your way. Righto, what are the red flags on gifted campaigns though? And what's the process you should follow when offered a gifted campaign?

In other words, you won't be paid for a gifted campaign. And we know that there can often be a mismatch between the value of the product that the brand is offering and the deliverables that the brand is expecting in exchange for that gifted collaboration. We're going to talk more about this a little later on in the episode, as well as some red flags that I want you to think about [00:04:00] before accepting a gifted campaign.

For now, let's get started on the process that you should follow when considering a gifted campaign. These steps are taken directly from the Business of Influence campaign pricing framework. The reason for this is that the process we follow for all gifted influencer campaigns can be quite similar to paid campaigns.

If you haven't listened to episode two, Pricing Your Influencer Campaign, do that once you've finished this episode. It's a really good companion podcast to what we're discussing today and it'll be linked for you in the show notes. Let's get into the process. Step number one, evaluate the brand. Research the brand and the product to make sure they align with your personal brand and your.

Is it a gambling brand, tobacco or maybe even a pharmaceutical brand? Often these brands come with some element of risk and you need to consider any reputational risk that this might pose. And what's the overall brand value? By that I mean, is it a quality brand with a good reputation or is it a brand that's unknown or worse still one that has a dodgy reputation?

Moving into step number three, evaluate the campaign. There's a few things you should consider here. Look at the communication between yourself and the brand. Has that flow of communication be easy and professional? Communication gives you an early insight. As to what you'll experience when you work with a brand.

So consider the tone, the timeliness, professionalism of the communication and see how that sits with you. Now I want you to review the brief from the campaign. Here we're talking about all the deliverables that's expected. of you from the brand. So does the brand expect multiple pieces of content across different platforms?

If you're unclear on any elements of understanding a campaign brief, we have a whole podcast episode dedicated to that. It's a bumper one. It's. Our very first episode, because that's how important it is. Have a look for Brand Collaborations 101, Understanding the Brief. I'll link it in the show notes.

Have a think about the actual price of the goods you're being supplied with and any other benefits you might be able to leverage from the campaign. Like will you be able to build your portfolio? Is there a good brand association from working with that brand? You might really, really want that product and don't have the budget to buy it. Does the gifted campaign represent value for you and not just the brand?

Has the approach by the brand come from a questionable or dodgy email address? If the email address doesn't match the brand's official domain name, or it comes through unprofessional communication channels, it can be the sign of a scam. Verify the legitimacy of the brand before you go ahead. It's really easy to do.

Just cross reference the contact details with those on the brand's website, or reach out to the brand directly through their established social media channels, just to confirm the authenticity of the offer. I constantly see messages in Facebook groups asking if an opportunity is a scam or not. Just do the legwork yourself first to confirm authenticity.

A gifted campaign does not mean you have to pay any money out of your own pocket. If the brand expects you to pay for the product, it's not a gifted campaign, it is a sale for the brand. Red flag number three, Being asked to cover postage or any other cost to receive the gifted product is a major red flag, no.

Lack of clear guidelines or expectations. So, is the brand being vague or have non existent campaign guidelines? They don't know what they're doing. It's going to be difficult to achieve success from a gifted collaboration if the brand doesn't even know what they want to achieve from that relationship.

Next, I want you to look out for pressure from the brand to provide unnaturally positive reviews. If the brand is pushing for overly positive reviews or not allowing you to express an honest opinion, this can compromise your authenticity and the trust from your audience. And also there might be some legal ramifications from that.

So no go. Demanding rights for your content without payment. If a brand is insisting on full or even partial rights to your content without offering any fair payment or attribution, again, that's a no. You want to have some sort of contract or formal agreement. Even an email outlining the terms of the campaign.Get the details of the campaign in writing.

So just disclose it. It's easy. Now we've covered off some red flags that you should be looking for, and you've thought about the overall campaign. The next step is to go through and negotiate any terms. So you're feeling comfortable that you want to go ahead with the gifted campaign. There are a couple of things that you need to clarify.

You want it to perform well. If you've agreed to do the gifted campaign, commit to it as if it were a paid campaign. Deliver what you're great at delivering. Beautiful content, good engagement, and a great result for the brand. Before we wrap up the gifted campaign, I want you to consider exploring future opportunities.

This proactive approach might leverage a single gifted campaign. into a paid campaign. So always ask, but similarly, don't be disappointed if it doesn't convert. You've still had a good experience through the brand relationship by developing your skills. And finally, as you should with each campaign, review and reflect on the campaign.

Managed well, these campaigns can lead to more collaborations. And open doors to future paid opportunities. So this marks an important step in the growth of your influencer career. Just remember that before accepting gifted campaigns that you follow a clear process to make sure that you're also getting value from the gifted campaign.

Go back and review the steps that we've discussed in today's episode. They'll be available through our show notes at the business of influence.com/ep 18. And if you want a little more support to build your career as a professional influencer, join our Facebook group, moots. That's M-O-O-T-S. Search for it in Facebook groups.