A seeding marketing strategy involves sending free gifts to social media influencers. Done well, it can help brands earn organic mentions and attract customers with genuine recommendations.
Graza olive oil, for instance, has achieved wide recognizability among its target audience, largely thanks to seeding. “That is 99.5% organic product seeding,” Kali Shulklapper, Graza’s brand director, said at a Combating the Creativity Crisis conference presented by Shopify. “We send product to people, and they use it. We’re very proud of the fact that we don’t pay people to use it. They could probably choose a million other olive oil brands to use, but they choose to use Graza, and that’s amazing.”
Read on to learn more about product seeding marketing, as well as how you can use this approach to develop influencer relationships and facilitate content creation.
What is seeding in marketing?
Product seeding is an influencer marketing strategy in which you send free merchandise to influencers and content creators without an explicit request to create related content. The idea is that if the influencer likes the product, they’ll mention it organically on their socials.
As a business owner, you can use product seeding to develop influencer relationships and increase brand awareness. Brands typically send free products to a large number of influencers with the hope that at least a small portion choose to create content featuring the product.
Laura Thompson, founder of the natural skin care brand Three Ships, prefers content seeding over paid influencer partnerships. In her experience, paid posts often fail to justify the cost, but seeding tends to generate high-quality content. “Seeding works very well because it’s authentic,” she says on Shopify Masters. “People will post about the product if they really love it.”
When influencers choose to post, Three Ships sets them up with affiliate links so that they can earn commission payments. This helps create strong relationships that the brand can turn to again and again.
How product seeding works in marketing
- Identify creators who are a fit for your target audience
- Send out your products
- Let creators publish content in their own voice
- Measure the results and nurture valuable relationships
- Scale your seeding program
Product seeding involves casting a wide net to increase the odds that recipients will create and share content. Here’s how the process typically works:
1. Identify creators who are a fit for your target audience
Use third-party tools, such as an influencer marketing platform or social media analytics tool, like Hootsuite or Sprout Social, to research influencers’ audience demographics. Shopify Collabs, for instance, can simplify the process of identifying influencers. Brands can use Collabs to search a library of creators and filter results by relevance, keyword, social media platforms, and audience size.
Target popular content creators that appeal to your target audience across categories. Consider starting with nano-influencers (1,000 to 10,000 followers) or micro-influencers (10,000 to 100,000 followers). Despite their relatively small followings, they can punch above their weight when it comes to engagement.
On an episode of Shopify Masters, Pia Mance, founder of the accessories brand Heaven Mayhem, recommends choosing influencers based on brand fit rather than follower count. Her team gut-checks potential content creators by considering questions like, “Why do we want to gift this person? Do we like their style? Do we like the way they speak about it?” In her experience, considering the emotional reasons to partner with an influencer yields the best results because the content they create feels organic.
2. Send out your products
Be intentional when it’s time to reach out to your potential partners and offer sample products. Julianne Fraser, founder and CEO of the boutique marketing agency Dialogue NYC, recommends sending personalized communications rather than “blasting a thousand people with a mass email.”
At a panel at the April 2025 Combating the Creativity Crisis conference presented by Shopify in New York City, Julianne said that taking the time to send thoughtful pitches to a smaller number of creators yields the best results. “We all get generic sales emails every day,” she said, so take the time to establish a one-on-one connection and express why you want to work with someone. This approach can help your message break through the noise.
Shopify Collabs can also help businesses manage creator outreach and gifting in one place. Collabs includes email outreach capabilities and a dedicated gifts feature that lets brands send free products to creators on their connections list.
3. Let creators publish content in their own voice
To generate authentic, organic content, influencers need creative freedom. Running a seeding campaign requires letting go of control and welcoming honest feedback. Resist the urge to share talking points with your creators. Instead, focus on providing any helpful context, such as new product developments or unique benefits, that might encourage influencers to create their own content.
This approach helped the olive oil brand Graza increase brand visibility with natural product placements. On Shopify Masters, brand director Kali Shulklapper credits the company’s social media success to organic product seeding.
Instead of paying influencers to share olive oil-focused content, Graza sends free products. As a result, their signature green squeeze bottles are naturally featured in numerous cooking videos whenever a creator chooses to use the oil. Their product isn’t always the focus of the recipe, but the resulting content feels authentic and depicts the experience of actually cooking with Graza.
4. Measure the results and nurture valuable relationships
Monitor results once influencers start posting content. Tools like Shopify Collabs can help you track which creators post about your product, along with metrics like content reach and associated revenue. You can also generate affiliate links so that creators can earn revenue from successful content. Providing a way for your partners to earn can help build strong, lasting relationships with content creators.
5. Scale your seeding program
As your seeding program grows, look for ways to simplify relationship management. A workflow automation tool like Shopify Flow can help reduce the manual labor associated with influencer communications. With the Shopify Flow + Collabs integration, brands can schedule automatic emails to follow up on gifts or congratulate affiliate partners when they make their first sale.
Monitor results and refine your list of content partners. Remove creators who consistently share off-brand content or don’t post at all. If certain influencers generate exceptional results, consider offering them premium products or a more favorable affiliate rate. Experiment with different influencer niches and establish a recruitment cadence for onboarding new partners, so you always have creators and content in the pipeline.
Seeding marketing FAQ
How does influencer seeding work?
To practice influencer seeding, brands send free products to multiple influencers or content creators without a formal contract. Recipients aren’t obligated to post but may share organic content if they appreciate the product. This approach can help build brand awareness and develop influencer relationships.
What is an example of seeding marketing?
The luggage company Peak Design uses a seeding strategy to generate hype for product launches. The brand sends samples and embargo instructions to bloggers and content creators prior to launch. This approach helps create a sales frenzy when products go live.
What is the difference between gifting and seeding?
Product gifting and product seeding both involve sending free samples to influencers or content creators. Product gifting can refer to one-off, individual gifts. Seeding is a specific gifting strategy aimed at generating content. It typically involves sending products to a large number of creators with the hope that some of them share content and honest product feedback.
