User-Generated Content: How to capture your audience’s attention with UGC
User-Generated Content (UGC) plays a pivotal role in shaping brand narratives. Most brands use UGC to boost brand awareness and build a community. Others embed it as social proof across their website and marketing efforts to influence purchasing decisions. This article will dive into the benefits of user-generated content and how brands can leverage UGC within their marketing strategy.
What is User-Generated Content (UGC)?
UGC is original content created by customers (at no cost to you) and published on social media or other channels. It comes in many forms, including images, videos, reviews, and testimonials.
When consumers post about a brand on social media, they can massively influence their followers’ buying decisions. This is similar to when a friend recommends a product, you tend to trust their opinion as it’s more trustworthy.
Benefits of User-Generated Content?
Authenticity
Consumers are becoming more aware and skeptical of traditional marketing methods and prefer to see more authentic and relatable content. UGC provides that genuine authenticity because it’s real people, sharing real experiences, in their own words. This genuine content resonates with consumers audiences, building trust and credibility that can’t be replicated.
Drives engagement
Whether it’s through likes, comments or shares, audiences become active participants in shaping a brand’s narrative. Consumers are likely to have already built a loyal following base within a specific niche. Therefore, when sharing their opinions on a product, their audience will actively engage due to already having that trust.
Social proof
With the changing algorithm on TikTok and Instagram, brands are constantly competing for users’ attention. And when there is a constant stream of content coming through, It becomes difficult for brands to get noticed. Therefore it’s recommended that brands post at least 2-3 times a day which realistically, not everyone has time for.
To get around this, brands can leverage strategies like influencer gifting, and receive a large volume of UGC from real people talking about their experiences with your product. You can then reshare this organic content onto TikTok and Instagram daily, increasing your content production and the chances of being seen in front of your target audience.
Customers want other loyal customers to validate their purchases, and nothing can achieve this like UGC can. The great thing about UGC is that you can get your shoppers to do the work for half the time and resources it will take you to create the content which can almost guarantee conversions.
Influencer Gifting: Enhancing User-Generated Content
Brands can harness the influence of key individuals within their target audience through gifting strategies. By offering products to influencers aligned with their brand values, companies can stimulate organic content creation and amplify their reach.
How to amplify User-Generated Content?
Amplify UGC into paid social ads
By pairing relatable content with the increased exposure of an ad, you can get extra exposure out of the content. You can also turn the content into a shoppable ad on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest or TikTok, where shoppers can click the image to buy the product.
Reshare the content on your website and social channels
Reposting content onto your social channels and displaying them on your website is a definite must! Reposting UGC reinforces social proof. This doesn’t mean if UGC came from Instagram you have to reshare it on Instagram; cross post this content across all applicable channels. When consumers create positive content, you can reshare this onto your brand’s social channels. Displaying their content can build trust and brand loyalty amongst your audience
Add content to your newsletter
Consumers who have already signed up to your newsletter are already interested in your products, some might already be loyal customers and some may be further down the funnel. Including UGC in your newsletter may help those who aren’t ready to buy move further down the line as you’re showing authentic content from real people giving their honest opinion and reviews about your products.
Stream of content
Through tags and posts about your brand, you’re able to receive an abundance of content that you can repurpose on your website and brand channels. This is a great way to reduce time spent on content creation and brainstorming as UGC is just at your fingertips!
Example of brands leveraging User-Generated Content
Glossier
Here’s a great example of how user-generated content makes your brand authentic and relatable. Beauty brand Glossier drives engagement with its social content by encouraging customers to get vulnerable and share their selfies.
The beauty brand relies more on customer-submitted imagery than it does on models and product shots. Users eagerly take to social media to post photos of themselves using and wearing Glossier products.
For example, when the brand launched its Mega Greens Galaxy Mask, thousands of users shared selfies of themselves in the mask with the hashtag #maskforce, which Glossier reposted on its own social accounts.
Fenty Beauty
Fenty, which was founded on the concept of ‘beauty for all,’ connects with its audience through video tutorials from users, influencers, and Rihana herself, as well as a branded hashtag #rihgram with over 14,000 user-generated posts.
Along with encouraging and sharing UGC on social media, Fenty Beauty also creates ads for its products by combining reviews and comments from verified customers.
The Result: This customer-centric strategy has resulted in the business gaining 10.9 million Instagram followers in no time.
Several consumers now discover beauty products on social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube, so it’s no surprise that Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty turned to UGC to drive engagement and sales.
Shopfluence
Influencer gifting platforms like Shopfluence can help you easily generate UGC at scale. By having the ability to track posts from your influencer campaign, provides you a volume of user-generated content to repurpose on your marketing channels! By using Shopfluence and leveraging influencer gifting and strategic content repurposing, brands can build a compelling narrative that resonates with their audience and foster long-term brand loyalty.
If you’d like to find out more about Shopfluence, please get in touch with matt@dyzio.co or book a call below!