Digital advertising has reached a point of saturation. Brands are constantly on the lookout to include more authentic ways of showcasing their product or services. All of this while not diluting their brand story, highlighting their USPs, and sharing the entire experience of it all. In this complicated Venn Diagram, UGC or User-Generated Content is at the center.
UGC works because it bridges authenticity, trust, and credibility. Instead of the brand singing high praises for itself, it is an actual customer sharing their experience. UGC comes in many shapes and sizes - testimonials, reviews on websites, videos, and product images shared on the users’ own handles. The beauty of UGC is that it gives power to the customers. It lets them become the storytellers.
Why UGC?
Build trust
Who is a customer more likely to listen to? The brand itself, or a person who looks, sounds, and talks like them? UGC is this digitised version of ‘word-of-mouth’ promotion that makes it build trust in the audience through authenticity. According to a study by Stackla, 86% of consumers say authenticity is a key factor when deciding what brands they like and support. The real experiences of real people is what becomes almost magnetic. These are often bare-bone, phone-shot, and in vernacular language rather than polished and professionally created ads and content. Which gives it, what GenZ calls, a relatable vibe.
Gives a boost to the metrics
People like seeing other people like them in ads and content. It makes them feel seen, as if the brand is actually talking to them. It fosters engagement through reach and likes because a potential customer is more likely to spend time on this kind of content. Additionally, through users themselves, content can reach an audience that it otherwise would not have. So, higher organic reach also becomes a benefit.
Better conversion rates
The Stackla research also shares that 79% of people say that UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions. There’s something about a customer seeing others having positive experiences that drives them to it.. Oh yes, authenticity! It greatly comforts people as well as validates their choices.
There’s more than one brand that is successfully getting such content. But two notable brands in the Indian space currently are BlissClub and Birds of Paradyes. While the former is an athleisure wear brand, the latter produces hair dye, both curated for Indian women. For both, there is high resistance in the audience to buy at a premium price before trying. However, through the community’s own experiences, they have reached the top of their segments.
How to encourage UGC?
Incentivise it
Discounts in exchange for a testimonial: who doesn’t like that? Everybody loves freebies and attention. To create your bank of UGC, incentivise the process whether it is through discounts and freebies or shout-outs and anything else that you can offer. For every tag that someone makes, the basic hygiene practice must be to reshare it. It gives the audience a reason to keep sharing their experiences.
Create a campaign
#ShotOniPhone is the simplest and the best example of a UGC campaign done well. Apple knows that people love its camera and they embraced that fact. From their social media to people’s own posts, to billboards, they have curated some of the best UGC through brilliant pictures. With a memorable and unique hashtag or campaign, you can create a property that people keep contributing to. Remember to keep it insight-driven, like Apple did.
Think community
A 30-day ‘no sugar challenge’ by a health brand, or a 10K everyday challenge by Fitbit, and ‘12 days of Christmas’ by a journal brand - these are all ideas of interesting challenges, contests and campaigns that can be done for community building. Through this process of building a habit and being part of something bigger than oneself, high volumes of UGC and organic engagement are bound to happen.
Last, but not the least, “Leave us a review”
Reviews and testimonials on websites like Nykaa, Amazon, Zomato, Swiggy and Google Reviews play a huge role in driving conversions. The challenge - people only review something, organically, if they hate it or love it. In this entire process, it becomes important to remind our customers to “leave us a review!”.
Let your customers feel seen, heard and valued, through UGC. Leveraging UGC is beyond just what it is at its face value, it is about fostering genuine connections and brand loyalty and creating a deep sense of community. When we put our audience and their needs and motivations at the heart of our strategies, we excel.
Psst! This blog was created after a lot of thought by a real person. #NoGenerativeAI