Overview
Activities are specific actions or outputs approved expert applicant segments must complete after receiving your product in the mail.
There are two different activity types:
- Initial activities: What approved experts need to review and do before they put your product to the test.
- Content-sharing activities: What approved experts need to do after they put your product to the test.
When configuring your product sampling campaign, you can customize the instructions for each activity type in the Activities step. The primary goal of your instructions is to give the expert a high-level overview of their next steps for each activity and direct them to your campaign landing page for more information.
- On the Activities tab of the campaign landing page, approved expert applicants will see a scrollable list of what activities they need to complete, instructions for what to do next, and when to complete the activities by. The campaign landing page copy is dynamic, meaning if you'd like, you can provide different instructions for different expert segments.
- We provide default copy for each activity type, but we hope that you personalize these for your brand. You can preview what you’re creating on the right side of the page.
While there are up to six items to configure on the Activities step, ideally, the activities you select should align with your objectives outlined in your Product Sampling Campaign Discovery Brief provided by your ExpertVoice Account Executive. Please contact them for more information if you have not completed a brief.
When you're ready, toggle the activities on or off using the toggle button and customize the instructions for each.
- You can select various activities but cannot rearrange their order on the page.
- The activities cannot be enabled or disabled once the campaign is scheduled to go live or is published.
- All enabled activities are presented as "required" to the expert.
Experts will receive automated reminder emails and notifications to complete your activities.
Each of these reminders will link experts to your Product Sampling Campaign landing page with more information. Experts can also click your campaign card on ExpertVoice to access your campaign landing page.
Initial Activities
Initial activities are what approved experts need to review and complete before they put your product to the test. These activities are required for experts to complete before the content-sharing activities, and experts will receive automated messaging to complete them.
There are two different initial activity types:
- Receive the product: The goal here is to encourage experts to confirm that they got their product in the mail and mark it as “received” on your campaign landing page. It’s their first activity to complete. And as soon as the expert does this, 24 hours later they’ll get instructions with information on how they should get to know the product and put it to the test.
- Get to know the product: The goal here is to encourage experts to gain hands-on experience with your product and remind them what they need to do between now and sharing their content. We recommend you include any product-related FAQs here that the expert may have and encourage experts to use the product under the conditions you think will help them develop an informed opinion about its quality and performance. As soon as the expert confirms that they have “gotten to know the product,” 24 hours later, they’ll get instructions about their first content-sharing activity.
Here is more detail about the messages you can customize for approved experts in this phase of the campaign:
| Activity message type | Details | Message timing and cadence |
|
Receive The Product |
You can customize the Expected Ship by Date for when products would start shipping Option to supplement each expert tracking information in the Shipping management step to supplement this copy. 1,000 characters maximum Option to create different instructions for expert segments |
This message is sent once per expert, up to 30 hours after you give an expert their tracking information. Mark their product as "In Transit" in the Shipping management step and click Save. Once experts receive this message, they are encouraged to wait for their shipment and mark their product as received as soon as possible. |
|
Get To Know The Product |
You can customize the Gain Experience by Date for when experts should finish evaluating your product and start the content-sharing activities 1,000 characters maximum Option to create different instructions for expert segments |
This message is sent once per expert: Either up to 30 hours after an expert marks the package as "Received" on the Campaign Landing Page OR up to 30 hours after the campaign manager marks their product as "Package Received" in the Shipping management step and clicks Save. |
Content-Sharing Activities
Please include instructions for the initial activities approved expert applicants need to do after they put your product to the test.
These activities will be automatically promoted to approved applicants and are required for them to complete after the initial activities. The Content-Sharing Activities messaging aims to continue directing approved experts to your campaign landing page to view their next steps and post their required content.
Each message is sent once per expert, up to 30 hours after an expert completes the previous activity AND they have not yet completed it.
| Activity type | Description | Example copy to add or customize |
|
ExpertVoice Photos |
The goal is to provide experts with clear instructions for composing a photo they will upload to ExpertVoice from your campaign landing page. The photos that experts upload will be available to you in both the Campaign Manager and Content Manager. Encourage experts to spend at least a minimum time experiencing your product beforehand. Provide a deadline for sharing the photo. 1,000 characters maximum Option to create different instructions for expert segments If you're interested in re-sharing experts' published photos on Instagram later, you can download them and/or create a Snapshot of them in the Content Manager.
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ExpertVoice Reviews |
To collect reviews on ExpertVoice, the product(s) must be available in a hosted store or product catalog on ExpertVoice. If they are not, please contact your Product Manager as soon as possible to do this. Then, when configuring your Product Sampling Campaign activities, click "ExpertVoice Reviews" and insert the correct Product Name or Product Code, the product code associated with reviews produced for this campaign. You will do this in the Product section of the Activities step. Your ExpertVoice Sampling team can assist you if needed. In the instructions section, customize the default copy to provide experts with clear instructions for composing a product review on ExpertVoice. 1,000 characters maximum Use bullet points or bold the text to emphasize specific information Option to create different instructions for expert segments The reviews that experts upload will be available to you view and engage with in the Campaign Manager and Review Manager. If you have the ExpertVoice Recommendation Display set up, these reviews can be syndicated from ExpertVoice to your website if they meet your syndication criteria. |
Reinforce the following:
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External Product Reviews |
The goal here is to provide experts with clear instructions for composing a product review or feedback on your external (Non-ExpertVoice) website. The reviews or feedback that experts post will be linked in the Campaign Manager Dashboard tab for tracking purposes. However, these reviews will not appear in the Review Manager since they are published on an external website. You will need the Review Site Link, the URL to the website where your reviews will be collected. (e.g., https://__) 1,000 characters maximum Option to create different instructions for expert segments |
Be sure to reinforce:
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Instagram Posts (optional) |
The goal here is to provide experts with clear instructions for composing a photo that they will upload to Instagram. The photos that experts post will be linked in the Campaign Manager Dashboard tab for tracking purposes. However, these photos will not appear in the Content Manager since they are published on an external website. Encourage experts to spend at least a minimum time experiencing your product beforehand. Provide a deadline for sharing the post. 1,000 characters maximum Option to create different instructions for expert segments You will need the hashtag(s) to track this campaign's photos on Instagram. Experts will be asked to share any hashtags you enter here as part of the Instagram posts. Ensure the hashtag(s) are in all lowercase. |
In addition to other photo-specific messaging, we recommend:
Please include the following disclosure in your caption and elaborate on how the product performed: For example, "I received this product for free from @brand and @expertvoice in exchange for my honest review." Please share your Instagram post(s) and complete all remaining activities within the next few weeks. |
How to configure product sampling campaign activities
You'll be able to customize the instructions for each activity the expert requires in the Activities step.
- The activity instructions will be listed in order on your Campaign Landing Page. You can select various activities but cannot rearrange their order on the page.
- The activities that were selected should align with the information and objectives provided in your campaign brief and be talked about with your Account Executive.
- The activities cannot be enabled or disabled once the campaign is scheduled to go live or is published.
Click Save & Continue to save your work and advance through the activities configuration.
Deadlines that are auto-populated
In the Messaging step, the date you select for the Activity Due Date will automatically populate the following activities on the Activities step:
- ExpertVoice Photos
- ExpertVoice Review
- External Product Reviews
- Instagram Posts
You cannot have separate due dates for these activities; they will all have the same due date.
Deadlines that you will need to insert
In the Activities step, insert deadlines for the initial activities.
- Expected ship-by Date - The latest date by which you expect all products to have begun shipping to experts. You can edit this in the Receive the Product step.
- Gain Experience by Date - Encourage experts to gain experience with their product before sharing content over social media. You can edit this in the Get To Know the Product step.
In the Availability step,
- Campaign Start Date - The date when the Product Sampling Campaign landing page will go live on ExpertVoice. You can start it now or on a specific date in the future.
- Campaign End Date - The date when the Product Sampling Campaign landing page will be removed from ExpertVoice. Samplers will no longer be able to upload their activities here anymore.
TIP: To edit any campaign dates, visit the Dashboard tab of your Product Sampling Campaign or click the Messaging step in Configuration and edit it there.