User-generated Content (UGC) is your customer voice, whether reviews, Instagram photos, or customer testimonial videos. Customer reviews have a significant impact on product pages’ conversion rates. But that’s not the only reason to use UGC in retail. Let’s take a look at the 5 main reasons for using and leveraging UGC. UGC as a trust-building...
User-generated Content (UGC) is your customer voice, whether reviews, Instagram photos, or customer testimonial videos.
Customer reviews have a significant impact on product pages’ conversion rates. But that’s not the only reason to use UGC in retail.
Let’s take a look at the 5 main reasons for using and leveraging UGC.
UGC as a trust-building tool
In a world where brands are trying to stand out, how do you know who to trust? The answer often lies in user-generated content or UGC.
Imagine you’re browsing an online shopping site. What do you find the most reassuring? A polished ad or honest feedback from other customers? Most people would vote for the latter.
UGC, whether reviews, photos, or videos, are authentic accounts of other customers’ experiences. They are not filtered through the prism of marketing, which makes them all the more valuable. Every comment, whether positive or negative, adds nuance to the product’s overall image.
But the real strength of UGC lies not only in its authenticity but in its ability to build trust. In a world where people are increasingly wary of traditional advertising, authentic feedback can be a decisive factor that turns a visitor into a loyal customer. Which leads us to the second benefit…
UGC as a conversion tool
According to an experiment published by Relation Client Mags, 87% of consumers read at least one customer review before making a purchase. UGC is almost always part of the buying process and its impact on conversion rates is often decisive. Customer reviews trigger purchases.
This alone should be enough to convince any brand that is not yet fully leveraging UGC and customer reviews in particular.
If you don’t display UGC on your website yet, we recommend starting with customer reviews on your product pages and highlighting positive customer feedback on your flagship product pages.
To find out more, read about how to use UGC to improve your product pages.
UGC as an SEO tool
All brands want to improve traffic to their website. SEO is one of the most effective strategies for achieving this.
But how do you improve your website’s SEO? By producing good quality, reliable content. And what are customer reviews if not good quality, reliable content?
UGC has a significant impact on SEO. A Moz study lists customer reviews as one of the 5 key factors influencing a website’s ranking in Google search results.
Including customer reviews on various pages of your website, such as your homepage, product pages, or other relevant sections, is key. And to maximize the effect of your customer reviews, don’t forget about Rich Snippets. This enables you to display your stars in Google results, which helps increase your pages’ click-thru rate. It’s worth remembering!
UGC as an insights tool
At the heart of every piece of user-generated content is a voice, an experience, and a perspective. UGC captures consumers’ authentic voices and provides businesses with a goldmine of information.
With User Generated Content, you can obtain a direct and unfiltered view of your target customers’ needs, perceptions, expectations, and friction points. Analyzing them can often reveal trends, preferences, and areas for improvement.
A semantic analysis tool also enables you to partly automate the analysis of your reviews, identify recurring themes, and pinpoint your brand’s main weaknesses and strengths. You can then use these insights to improve your products, finetune your services, or completely rethink your marketing strategy.
UGC as a community tool
In a digital world, where human interaction is sometimes nothing more than a click, UGC is a source of authenticity and interaction between consumers. UGC is more than just feedback or opinions, it brings customers together around a shared interest in a brand, its values, and its products…
When a customer shares their experience or opinion, they’re not just providing feedback on a product or service. They’re opening the door to others, inviting them to interact, share their own experiences, and exchange views. This process creates a space where customers acknowledge each other, strengthening the feeling of belonging to a community.
But what drives this sense of belonging? Seeing other consumers, just like you, express their satisfaction, trust, or even passion for a brand creates a virtuous circle; the more positive UGC there is, the more confident customers feel sharing their own experiences, which bolsters the community.
UGC brings customers together through a shared interest in a brand, creating an environment where everyone feels valued, heard, and connected.
Conclusion
Whether classic customer reviews, stories, or consumer videos, UGC has a positive impact on brand image, customer acquisition, sales performance, and customer loyalty. Most brands today understand the potential of User Generated Content. For those of you who are still unsure, we hope that this article will convince you to take the plunge and integrate UGC into your marketing strategy.
We offer a whole ecosystem of solutions for collecting UGC, including text-based customer reviews (via Ratings & Reviews), customer feedback surveys (via Feedback Management), consumer videos (via Consumer Videos), and micro-influencer reviews on social media (via Influencer Marketing).
Feel free to get in touch if you’d like to find out more about our products, services, and solutions. We’d love to chat with you about your challenges and how we can help!
