The Product Sampling Campaign application

Overview

The Product Sampling Campaign application is a digital questionnaire that requests specific information from applicants. The applicants' answers will help you get to know the experts more personally before accepting them into your campaign and sending free products.

Experts who apply to your campaign are encouraged to:

• Be informative: The more detail they provide in their application answers, the better.
• Be authentic: They should incorporate their personality to the best of their ability in their application answers. If you approve them, you need to trust that they'll speak authentically about your brand after they experience your product.
• Provide value: They should focus on the value they will provide your brand for participating in the campaign. For example, if they're skilled at taking high-quality and authentic photos, they could share examples of their work in their application.

You can include a mix of different question types in your application. Once you align on the essential information you need from expert applicants and get the hang of the application question types, you can quickly build out your application in the Advocacy Platform.

Here's an overview of the five available application question types below.

Multiple Choice: Single Answer

Single answer questions provide a dropdown list of options that allow respondents to click only one answer. They allow respondents to scroll through the answers and select one choice that applies to them. This question type provides an easy way to display a list of multiple choice answers without overwhelming your respondents. Here are example questions and answers you could ask:

• What size do you typically wear in pants?
  • XS, Small, Medium, Large, XL, XXL, Other
• How would you rank your level of expertise in photography?
  • I am a beginner, I am an intermediate, I am experienced, I am a professional, Other
• How frequently have you purchased a product from our brand?
  • I have never purchased a product, A few times, Many times, Other
• How frequently do you post to your Instagram account?
  • Never, At least once per month, At least once per week, Daily, Other

However, a common drawback of multiple-choice questions is that they force you to limit responses to a predetermined list of options, which can cause bias in your results. You can solve this problem by adding an "Other" answer option and a Text: Freeform Answer question beneath the multiple-choice question where the expert can provide more information (e.g., "If you selected Other in the previous question, please provide more detail below."). 

A Multiple-Choice: Single Answer question includes four default answer options that you can customize. 

• Type the answer options in the provided textbox fields (255 characters maximum)
• To insert additional answer choices, click + Add Answer Choice at the bottom of the list
• To delete an answer choice, hover your cursor to the right of the answer and click the trash can icon that appears
• To shift the order of an answer choice, click the six dots and drag and drop it up or down to the preferred location

Here's an example of how a Multiple Choice: Single-Answer question can look:

Multiple Choice: Multiple Answer

Multiple answer questions provide a list of options that allow experts to click one or more answers. They enable experts to scroll through the answers and select all choices that apply to them. This question type provides an easy way to display a list of multiple choice answers without overwhelming your respondents. Here are example questions and answers you could ask:

• What outdoor activities do you regularly participate in?
  • Hiking, Biking, Walking, Climbing, Skiing, Snowboarding, Other
• What activity do you predict you will wear our socks for?
  • Hiking, Snow Sports, Gym Training, Trail Running, Other
• What type of environment do you predict you will wear our socks in?
  • Cold climate, Warm climate, Dry climate, Humid climate

However, a common drawback of multiple-choice questions is that they force you to limit responses to a predetermined list of options, and this can cause bias in the results. You can solve this problem by adding an "Other" answer option and a Text: Freeform Answer question beneath the multiple-choice question where the expert can provide more information (e.g., "If you selected Other in the previous question, please provide more detail below."). 

A Multiple-Choice: Multiple Answer question includes four default answer options that you can customize. 

• Type the answer options in the provided textbox fields (255 characters maximum)
• To insert additional answer choices, click + Add Answer Choice at the bottom of the list
• To delete an answer choice, hover your cursor to the right of the answer and click the trash can icon that appears
• To shift the order of an answer choice, click the six dots and drag and drop it up or down to the preferred location

Here's an example of how a Multiple Choice: Multiple-Answer question can look:

Text: Freeform Answer

This application field requires experts to type an answer in an open text box and doesn't provide any pre-set answers. You can customize the copy to ask a question or make a request. For example:

• How many Instagram followers do you have?
• If you've purchased from our brand in the past, which product did you buy?
• What type of camera will you take pictures with?
• Tell us why you prefer our brand over other competitors?
• Tell us why you should be selected to receive a free product.
• Do you work with any other brands? If so, please list them below.
• Enter your date of birth.
• Please provide a link to your portfolio, website, and/or blog.

After your application is published, you can review experts' responses individually in the Applicants tab of your Campaign Dashboard. 

Here are examples of how a Text: Freeform Answer can look:

Shipping Address

Select the Shipping Address question to quickly populate all of the fields necessary to capture expert applicants' shipping information. The default shipping information includes the following six rows as freeform text:

1. Address 1
2. Address 2 (optional)
3. City
4. State/Providence
5. Postal Code
6. Country (optional)

Note: There is not a dropdown menu of all States/Providences and Countries.

You can customize these rows if needed, but the default information will comply with most shippers. 

• To delete a row, hover your cursor to the right of it and click the trash can icon that appears
• To change the order of a row, click the six dots and drag and drop it to a new location
• To make a row optional, unclick the checkbox next to Required; to make it required, click the checkbox

Here's an example of how a Shipping Address question can look:

Instagram Account

Select the Instagram Account question to capture the applicant's Instagram profile link in their application.

The expert must click Connect to authorize their account and populate the application with their Instagram profile link. The expert only has to do this once during their tenure on ExpertVoice. If the expert already connected their Instagram account on ExpertVoice, they will not need to do this again.

After an expert connects their Instagram, you will be able to view the connection and click through to Instagram to explore the expert's profile there.

Here's an example of how the Instagram Account question can look:

How to create an application

When configuring your product sampling campaign in the Campaign Manager, you'll design the application in the Application step. Here you can add one or more questions to your application and see a preview of what the application will look like to target experts. 

1. On the Application step, click Add Question to expand a dropdown menu of question types
2. Select the question you would like to customize first
   • Multiple Choice: Single-Answer
   • Multiple Choice: Multiple-Answer
   • Text: Freeform Answer
   • Shipping Address
   • Instagram Account
3. Add as many questions as you would like to the application (limit of 50 questions)
   • To change the order of a question, click the six dots and drag and drop it to a new location
   • To make a question optional, unclick the checkbox next to Required; to make it required, click the checkbox
   • To delete a question, hover your cursor to the right of the question and click the trash can icon that appears
4. Preview how the expert-facing application will look on the right-hand side of the page
5. When ready, click Save & Continue