UGC: new drivers of influence 

Customer reviews, consumer videos, influencer posts, verbatims… User Generated Content (UGC) is everywhere. This type of content has the greatest impact on consumer purchasing decisions. This article takes a look at why and how you should build a marketing strategy based on User Generated Content. 

UGC, the king of marketing content 

Over the past few years, UGC has come to the fore in the world of marketing. 

Definition of UGC 

UGC means “User Generated Content“, i.e., all content generated online by users and consumers.  

User Generated Content can take on various forms:  

• Comments and customer reviews posted on online shopping sites or review platforms such as Verified Reviews by Skeepers. 

• Consumer videos including feedback, unboxing, immersive videos, etc.  
• Social media posts or stories mentioning a product, service, or experience with a brand, by general social media users or influencers partnering with the brand.  
• Customer feedback collected via satisfaction surveys and customer studies. 
• Etc. 

UGC is the opposite of brand content 

User Generated Content, whatever its form, is the opposite of brand content. And that’s what makes it so powerful. 

Consumers are less and less trusting of content published by brands, which they see as too promotional, or even worse, misleading. This of course applies to advertising, whose ROI is following a downward trend. But it also includes marketing emails and other traditional marketing content.  

Consumers want user-generated content, whether on the internet or social media, created by ordinary people or influencers with a large following. UGC is seen as more authentic, transparent, and objective. 

A few figures about the importance of UGC 

All recent studies point to the significant impact of UGC on the buying process:  

• According to Nosto, for example, 8 out of 10 consumers say that UGC strongly impacts their purchasing decisions. 
• Another study by Crowdtap shows that User Generated Content publications generate 6.9 times more engagement on social media than brand posts. 
• According to Gartner, more than 80% of consumers say that UGC enables them to discover products, trust more in brands, and enjoy a better experience. 

6 reasons to develop a UGC marketing strategy 

User Generated Content presents lots of benefits, as mentioned above. 

Here are the 6 main ones: 

1 – An improved customer experience 

UGC, in particular customer reviews, can provide you with a goldmine of information. Analyzing them will help you understand your customers better, as well as their needs, expectations, and preferences, to then identify what to improve in your customer experience.  

2 – A more authentic dialog around your brand 

UGC is a guarantee of authenticity and credibility for your brand. Prospects trust customer reviews and testimonials far more than traditional promotional messages. As we’ve said before, consumers place particular value on peer-generated content. 

3 – Strengthened trust and customer engagement 

You can forge a strong relationship with your customers by taking UGC seriously, encouraging your customers to post reviews, asking some of them to make consumer videos, and forming partnerships with professional and genuine micro-influencers. Your customers will repay you by being more engaged, loyal, and likely to buy from you. 

4 – Boosted brand visibility 

UGC boosts brand visibility… for better or for worse. Hence why it is so important to implement a User Generated Content marketing strategy and work with your best customers to ensure that they create positive UGC… It would be wrong to assume that companies have no control over the content published by consumers!  

5 – Reduced marketing costs  

By embracing UGC, you can reduce the production costs linked to traditional marketing campaigns (e.g., advertising). Users create content free of charge that promotes your products and services. Not only are UGC campaigns more effective than traditional advertising, but they also cost significantly less…  

6 – Helps adapt to new consumer behavior  

Consumers today want social proof to back up their purchasing decisions. UGC is the perfect solution to provide objective and independent information about your products and services. 

A UGC strategy example: L’Oréal 

In 2019, L’Oréal launched a campaign to promote its “Bambi eye” mascara via Skeeper’s influencer platform. That famous cosmetics brand chose several influencers with between 5k and 10k followers and launched a campaign on Instagram, YouTube, etc. 

The campaign aimed to reach the widest possible audience by encouraging micro-influencers to generate as much UGC as possible. The operation resulted in 361 posts, with an estimated overall reach of 4.7 million people and an engagement rate of 4.3%.  

What we can learn from this example:  

• Brands can implement effective strategies to “indirectly” generate UGC to promote their products and services. You can’t demand User Generated Content, but you can control and encourage it. 
• Social media is currently one of the most powerful ways to generate viral UGC. 

This approach, based on influencer marketing and social media, goes hand in hand with the other approaches mentioned above: 

• Running campaigns to collect customer reviews from satisfied customers. Check out our 4 tips to collect positive customer reviews to find out more.   
• Asking your best customers to create feedback videos, which you can then edit and display on various channels: product pages, social media, emails, etc. Read our article on this approach that is often overlooked: “How to use user-generated videos to talk about your brand?” 
• Deploying ultra-targeted satisfaction surveys to collect precious information about your customers and use satisfied customer verbatims in your communications.

  

There are several things to think about if you launch a UGC strategy. Our blog includes lots of articles covering each of these areas to work on, such as influencer marketing, consumer videos, customer reviews, surveys, etc. Go take a look, you’re bound to find what you’re looking for! And if you have any other questions, feel free to get in touch. 

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