UGC effectively influences engagement and boosts conversions throughout the buyer’s journey. This customer-centric content can be utilized on social media and other channels like email, landing pages, or checkout pages.
Authenticity
In today’s competitive online landscape, brands must strive for visibility and audience attention. Buyers are increasingly discerning in their brand interactions and purchases.
UGC from your customers offers unparalleled authenticity. 86% of consumers trust brands sharing UGC compared to the 12% who trust influencer-promoted products.
Avoid the temptation to fabricate UGC or marketing campaigns. Authentic content is essential for maintaining brand reputation. Ensure that your UGC originates from one of these three groups: customers, brand loyalists, or employees.
Consider UGC as modern-day word-of-mouth. Most people prioritize recommendations over direct advertising.
Brand Loyalty
People thrive on belonging, and creating UGC fosters a sense of community within a brand. This significantly boosts brand loyalty and affinity.
UGC also facilitates conversations between brands and consumers, building and nurturing an engaged community. Sharing audience content strengthens audience-business relationships, further driving brand loyalty.
Social Proof
The Fyre Festival debacle underscores the public’s distrust of marketers and advertisers. Only 32% of Americans have “fair” or “great” trust in the media, a record low since 2016.
Brands must work diligently to establish trustworthiness. Social proof is a powerful tool. This psychological phenomenon influences people to follow the actions of others.
UGC perfectly exemplifies social proof. When potential customers witness existing customers’ positive experiences, they’re more likely to try the product themselves.
Content Curation
UGC isn’t confined to social media marketing. It can be effectively used on other channels.
For instance, include UGC images in cart abandonment emails to encourage purchases. Incorporate user-generated content on key landing pages to enhance conversion rates.
For instance, include UGC images in cart abandonment emails to encourage purchases. Incorporate user-generated content on key landing pages to enhance conversion rates.
Cost-Effectiveness
Influencer marketing can be incredibly expensive, often reaching millions of dollars. In contrast, asking customers to share their experiences costs virtually nothing.
UGC is a cost-effective way to scale your business and diversify content. It eliminates the need for expensive ad agencies or flashy campaigns.
UGC enables you to connect with the most valuable individuals in your business: your audience. Many will be enthusiastic about being featured on your channel.
For smaller brands or startups, UGC offers a more affordable and manageable alternative to large-scale brand awareness campaigns.
Dig Deep : User-generated content (UGC): what it is and why it matters for your brand
5 Stellar Examples of User-Generated Content
Regardless of size, brands leverage user-generated content (UGC) to enhance awareness, increase conversions and social engagement, expand reach, and cost-effectively grow their businesses.
GoPro
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Video equipment company GoPro sustains its YouTube channel with UGC, featuring three top videos filmed by customers. As of March 2024, these videos have collectively garnered over 400 million views.
This cost-effective content has been so successful that GoPro now hosts its own awards show and promotes daily photo challenges to inspire consumer creativity.
Lululemon
Canadian athleisure brand lululemon is renowned for its premium leggings and yoga clothing. To expand its social media reach, the company encouraged followers and brand loyalists to share photos of themselves in lululemon garments using the hashtag #thesweatlife.
This initiative yielded a wealth of easily accessible UGC content for lululemon to repurpose, organically expanding brand awareness and reach across social media. One notable post, showcasing the best moments of lululemon ambassadors in 2023, motivated and excited the audience.
LaCroix
Similar to lululemon, sparkling water brand LaCroix utilizes the hashtag #LiveLaCroix to curate UGC on its social media channels. However, LaCroix’s approach is less reliant on brand loyalists, sharing content from anyone, regardless of their follower count.
This makes LaCroix’s UGC highly relatable, as audiences see themselves reflected in the photos rather than idealized brand ambassadors or loyalists with larger followings.
Well Traveled
UGC isn’t exclusive to larger, established brands. Smaller companies can also effectively employ UGC in their social campaigns. Well Traveled, a community-driven travel brand, utilizes member-generated content to highlight membership benefits, property partner quality, and exclusive offerings.
Laura DeGomez, Well Traveled’s Director of Partnerships & Brand Marketing, emphasizes the immeasurable value of member content in such a visually focused industry. The beautiful trips discovered, planned, and booked on Well Traveled serve as a powerful marketing and retention tool.
DeGomez uses UGC to visually engage members and prospective members, increase brand awareness, expand reach, and foster community. She highlights that members are the best storytellers, and whenever possible, their experiences should take center stage.
Edloe Finch
Boutique furniture brand Edloe Finch collects UGC via the hashtag #EdloeFinch and allows customers to submit photos directly to their website. These customer photos are then showcased on the brand’s product pages.
By featuring customer content on product pages, Edloe Finch provides potential customers with a glimpse of how their products look in real homes. This serves as valuable social proof, easing the anxiety of online furniture purchases.
