UGC is an invaluable asset, despite the fact that, more often than not, it’s free to come by. What’s more, there are plenty of businesses out there who are currently sitting on a pile of excellent and compelling UGC and may not even realise it.
UGC stands for ‘user-generated content’, and it covers a long list of different formats from product reviews posted by customers to your site to testimonials, reviews posted on third-party sites, social media posts, discussions in forums and videos.
In essence, the term refers to any content created by a customer or client that talks about your brand directly, or about one of your products or services. Sometimes, this sort of content will appear right in front of you – say, a product review – while, others, you’ll have to go looking for it. For instance, the international coffee brand Starbucks frequently searches for posts made by customers, even if those customers have not directly tagged the brand in their posts.
Why? Because UGC targets the social proof phenomenon – the incredible power that your customers have to convince other people of your brand’s value. More so than any marketing campaign, social proof has the power to boost your reputation among target audiences and generate more loyalty and engagement among your followers.
First, however, you have to find a way to showcase your UGC within your website design, rather than leaving it to gather dust.
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Curate UGC in interactive galleries
This is something a number of high-profile brands have embraced already and, when it’s done right, it can be incredibly effective. For instance, the high street fashion brand Monsoon and its Accessorize brand realised that many of their customers were posting great, candid photos of them wearing Monsoon’s clothing to social media. Spotting an opportunity for some compelling social proof, the brand began to curate those posts within an on-site gallery.
For convenience, the brand includes links on each post to the articles their customers are wearing in the photos, so viewers can ‘shop the look’.
This technique needn’t be reserved for e-commerce sites, however. For sites about particular places, such as wedding or sporting venues, it’s just as effective to create a gallery that showcases the venue in action. If past clients are willing to share photos and videos with you, then few things will prove more compelling to new visitors. -
Showcase your best testimonials on your landing page
Simple, but powerful – displaying a few ringing endorsements from your happy customers is a great first impression to make on incoming visitors. Some research suggests that 9 in ten customers are more likely to trust what a customer says about a business than what a business says about itself. Testimonials posted in prominent places give a great introduction to your products or services, your values, and your ability to meet customers’ briefs – along with the emotional connections you have formed.
In fact, some estimates suggest that including customer testimonials on your site could improve conversions by around 34%. -
Embedded social feeds
If you’re already reposting your customers’ UGC onto your own social channels, then you’re halfway there. While Instagram, Facebook, and the platform formerly known as Twitter are all great places to put UGC to work, your website is the perfect complement – not least of all because landing pages need to be capable of converting prospects in a matter of seconds.
By embedding your social media feed in your site and ensuring it updates in real time, you capture a more dynamic, cohesive impression on your site. Customers can see real-world examples of the ways in which your brand impacts customers, and they can feel spurred on by the power of harnessed social proof.
Provided your social feed is well curated, an embedded social feed can help to boost trust, lower your bounce-rate, boost the efficacy of your social media marketing efforts, and keep your site full of fresh, quality content.
There are many more things you can do with UGC rather than letting it gather dust on the shelf – and there are plenty of ways to encourage customers to start generating more UGC on your behalf. From running contests and challenges to ensuring that you’re proactive about interacting with customers who post spontaneously about your brand, it’s rarely difficult to generate a wealth of compelling UGC.
And why wouldn’t you? When social proof is more motivating than virtually any advertising campaign even the best marketing team can come up with, you’d be a fool to waste it.
