You can choose to engage vendors as part of your sampling program. Vendors can be:

  • Suppliers or manufacturers who provide products to sample, ship products to members, or both
  • Your in-house shipping team, who will fulfill product requests to program members

If you plan to use an in-house team to manage fulfillment, skip the procedure in this topic and add a vendor instead. You must designate a contact at your company who will be notified when the campaign has ended. They will be sent the fulfillment distribution list. This contact cannot have the same email address as any other Sampling portal admins or members.

If you need to add multiple vendors, the most efficient way to accomplish this is to create and upload a comma-separated value (CSV) file that contains vendor information, though you can add vendor accounts one by one.

Be aware that the following email templates are used when a vendor is invited to participate in a sampling program:

  • Vendor registration invite email (this template is modified in the following procedure)
  • Vendor registration confirmation email
  • Vendor registration reminder email

Before beginning

Create a CSV file that contains the following information:

  • First name
  • Last name (surname)
  • Email address
  • Company

Here is an example:

CSV File Example

Inviting vendors

  1. Upload the CSV file:
    1. Log in to the sampling portal with your admin credentials.

    2. Click Vendors at the top of the portal and then click View Vendors. Or, click Invite Vendors on the View Vendors page. The Step 1: Upload CSV page is displayed.

    3. Click Choose File to select the CSV file.

    4. Click Upload File to import the file.
  2. Map each data field in the CSV file to a field in the Bazaarvoice database:

    1. On the Step 2: Map Data Fields page, select an option from the drop-down list under CSV Columns that matches the database field name (under DB Fields). For example, for the Firstname DB field, select First from the drop-down list.

      After you make selections, preview data is displayed above the fields so that you can see how your data is mapped.

    2. Repeat step a for each database field.
    3. When finished, click Import Data.
  3. Customize the email message that will be sent to vendors. This step is optional, though you might want to use certain text or images.
    Note: The content of this email message comes from the "Vendor registration invite email" template, which is available on the Email Templates page.
    1. On the Step 3: Customize Email page, provide the following:
      • Subject – Include a clear and compelling call-to-action so that recipients understand what you are asking them to do. Use 9-14 words, if possible, and be cognizant of spam filter triggers, such as special characters, all capital letters, and so on. This field allows up to 50 characters.
      • Header (title) – Provide a clear and concise title to the email message. You can specify up to 50 characters.
      • Body – Include a single call-to-action to limit distractions from other marketing messages. Provide clear and concise messaging so that vendors can quickly identify the action you want them take. You can specify up to 200 words.
      • Banner image – Upload or reference a JPEG file that is 600x200px. You must have the license to use any images, graphics, and logos you provide.
    2. When finished, select Next.
  4. Review and send your invitation to vendors:
    1. On the Step 4: Send Invitations page, enter one or more email addresses in the Send test email to: field. To specify multiple addresses, separate each address with a comma.
    2. Select one or more campaigns in the Invite to Current Campaigns area. After a vendor registers, they will receive invitations to the campaigns that you select here.
    3. Select Send Invite Emails to send the invitations.