Proven Strategies to Collect UGC (Inspire with Brand Examples)
When we talk about the current state of User-generated content, it is growing at a significant rate and results in 29% higher conversions as compared to brands without it. Isn’t that intriguing?
With digital media becoming a visual hub, it’s imperative that brand owners brainstorm over how to captivate their audience, deliver result-driven content, and improve their UGC acquiring strategies.
A whopping 62% of users are influenced by customer content. UGC campaigns can single-handedly drive conversions, sales, and brand reputation. As more and more brands see the increasing importance of UGC, they are grabbing every opportunity to not only repurpose UGC but also collect more of it.
This blog will help you take control over and collect more UGC. Let’s jump straight into it.
Who Can Help You Collect UGC?
Before we get into the sources you can use to collect user generated content, it’s important to understand who should we target while asking for reviews.
Customers
Be it, first-time purchasers or loyal followers, are the most influential people who can create content for you. The customers might create content on their own as well. There are multiple ways you can persuade your audience to share their opinion, reviews, and rating, some of them is discussed in this blog.
Employees
Your employees can be your first pick. They are already loyal to the brand and are willing to post content as per your requirements. You can ask them to share different videos, text, and images, they are always motivated to speak about the organization.
These testimonials can contain videos demonstrating how your brand instills values and what it’s like to work with you. You can repurpose this employee-generated content on your careers page to attract potential candidates while your hiring tracking drives are running.
Starbucks employees fully embrace the brand’s narrative. Starbucks CEO said employees are true ambassadors and actively create content for the brand. They are constantly guided on how and what to share which helps the brand foster a sense of belonging.
EGC led Starbucks to earn a turnover of 20% more than the industry average. Starbucks also has a dedicated Twitter feed to cater to the employee’s experiences.
Let’s see how you can collect UGC through multiple channels.
Collect, Curate and Publish Different Type of UGC
How to Collect User-generated Content? Brands Examples
User-generated content is the most trustworthy, reliable, and experience-driven content. It is valuable and highly influential and holds the capability to make or break your brand’s goodwill.
Let’s go through some ways you can effectively collect UGC.
Collect UGC through Email
Did you know 60-90% of reviews originate from email requests?
While the use of social media for business communication and lead generation is getting popular, email is still one of the most successful channels that give direct access to your audience and gathers authentic UGC.
Taking advantage of UGC in your email is a killer strategy. Let’s see how you can collect UGC through email campaigns.
Create multiple templates, personalize the requested email, and let them know what kind of content you expect from them. Send them satisfaction surveys, give them easy access to leave a review, and motivate them to rate their experience.
Moreover, you can send out post-purchase emails asking customers to share feedback on the product they recently purchased.
Brands like Credo Beauty offer 10 reward points to customers who post a review after a purchase.
Other such incentives can include a small discount on their next purchase; you can further increase the discount if they share an image.
Using UGC in the form of photos of similar products, personalized images, and suitable CTA can be a game changer.
For example, if your customers purchased a product, you can choose a compelling subject line and include text like “Share your feedback to help other shoppers.” etc. you can convince them to take surveys or answer some questions as well.
Collect UGC through the Website
8 out of 10 people are influenced by UGC, which impacts their purchase decisions. The website is the first point of contact and can be used to make a good impression and collect UGC.
Moreover, product pages with reviews have a 106% higher chance of conversion than those without UGC.
Incorporate UGC on the website, such as on the product page, to facilitate users’ access to product-specific reviews and help them make an informed decision without delay.
Brands like Athletic Greens have a dedicated “Write a Review” section on their product pages, making this a good opportunity to encourage users to share UGC themselves. It not only encourages them but also makes it convenient for the users to share their thoughts.
Incorporating UGC on product pages, checkout pages, etc., is a good strategy. Taggbox also provides a SnapUp to give visitors easy access to upload UGC directly on the website. This feature allows users to post text, images, and videos without shuffling between websites.
Moreover, when people post something, it is automatically displayed on the website, encouraging more people to upload UGC.
Run a Hashtag Campaign on Social Media
It is a fast-growing platform where things and trends change every second. Keeping up with them can be tricky, but it gives you many new and unique ways to create diverse content regularly.
With so much popularity, it is a hub for UGC. People love to voice their opinions and share their experiences, providing a good opportunity to collect UGC through social media. One such method is hashtag campaigns. Create a unique for your brand, create a buzz, and see your hashtag being used like never before.
You can ask people to post content about their experience, product reviews, or ratings. Hashtags can be used to host contests and giveaways. Offering incentives in exchange for reviews is also a great motivator for users to share UGC.
For Example,
GymShark created #GymShark66, a 66-day challenge to encourage people to form good habits. This challenge captured the lifestyle and motivated people to adopt healthy habits. The results?
This hashtag has over 250 million views on TikTok and about 8,00,000 posts. This is just another amazing example of collecting UGC through social media.
Use QR Codes to Collect UGC
You can display QR codes all around your store, emails, etc., using which people can share their feedback. They can scan these codes and be redirected to the feedback form, where they can share reviews and photos if they like.
It is not only convenient but also a unique approach to asking for reviews. People tend to scan QRs out of curiosity, and more people might end up sharing their reviews.
Gather UGC through SMS Marketing
Another great way to ask for feedback is by sending an SMS. Your timing is important when sending an SMS. Sharing feedback-related SMS after their purchase, post-delivery, etc., makes a lot of difference. If you share a review SMS at odd times, the response rate tends to be low. In the meantime, consider learning about the difference between SMS and MMS to use the perfect one for your audience and meet their needs properly.
You must have experienced getting a text message, right after you leave the store or finish purchasing online regarding a feedback link. This is usually the work of a review platform, automated software that sends SMS automatically after checkout.
SMS marketing is especially effective in obtaining UGC if your brand offers a cross-platform app built with Flutter. Both technologies support the possibility of sending SMS to iOS and Android users.
Collect, Curate and Manage All UGC Assets
How to Amplify UGC Once Collected?
So, now that we understand collecting UGC a little better, how about we amplify it?
Include UGC on your social account, repost, and share reviews provided by existing customers to not only amplify the results but also encourage new customers to share UGC themselves. Social posts containing UGC have a 35% more engagement rate as compared to other posts.
Outdoor Voices shares posts that contain UGC and display how their products are both functional and stylish.
Product pages that incorporate UGC see an increase in their conversion rates by 74%. Brands like RareBeauty use an animated reel of customers to showcase how their lipsticks and blush look on a variety of complexions.
You should also use UGC to spark interest in your cart abandonment emails. Use product-specific UGC to convince customers that their items are worth the wait and that they are worth it.
Alo Yoga is a yoga clothing brand that uses abandoned cart emails to flaunt product-specific UGC. They embed UGC of the products that were left behind in the cart. It not only sparks up interest but also encourages customers to “Shop the Instagram” and see how others have been wearing their products in real life.
One of the best ways to repurpose UGC is through social ads. But first, once UGC is collected, determine which kind of content you wish to repurpose and get UGC rights for those images or videos. The Internet is a sensitive platform; we do not wish to hurt sentiments or get any lawsuits against our brands, which is why acquiring rights to repost users’ content is the best way to use it in social ads.
ODX club is an online dating site that consistently runs ads. They started scaling spending on multiple advertising platforms and saw UGC ads performing better than traditional ones.
Source: ODXClub
By showcasing UGC they saw a significant increase in their monthly downloads and saw a decrease in their CPA of about 41.38% compared to basic ads.
It’s a Wrap!
We have reached the end of this blog. Now that we know so much about collecting UGC and repurposing it, let’s start with small steps like asking for reviews via SMS and emails and then move further with a large-scale hashtag campaign.
Collect, Manage & Utilize UGC
