😵‍💫 UGC increases CTR by 2.4x?

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Whether you’re surrounding yourself with new fans from Prime Day or hanging out on a yacht in Greece, while in the midst of a $44B legal battle, we hope you’re all finding ways to stay out of the heat 😎

While we’re all trying to stay cool, there’s a HOT trend in digital content that is exploding. You’ve seen it increasingly across TikTok and Instagram, but it’s a concept that’s been around for years. We’re talking user-generated content (UGC), and today we’ll cover why you need to get your feet wet, and how you can fast-track it into your content strategy!

Jon

TL;DR

• UGC takes many forms, including but not limited to: videos, images, comments, and reviews

• UGC wins across conversion, reach, and cost

• Make sure to set a strategy based around marketing goals, your most popular channels, and content-sourcing methods that align to your brand

Continue reading for more tips and tricks on how to integrate UGC into your marketing, while driving engagement and improving conversion 👇

What is UGC?

UGC is content created by customers, specific to a brand’s product or service offering. Because it comes from real customers, it is both highly personal and authentic; qualities that increase customer CTR by 2.4x, in comparison to traditional, brand-created content.

While UGC video is rapidly on the rise, user-generated content takes many forms, including:

• Video reviews or how-tos

• Images of someone using or wearing a product

• Comments on a post or listing

• Reviews of a customer’s experience

UGC has exploded in popularity across both brands and consumers, 86% of which believe that UGC is the best indicator of product quality. In a landscape of ever-increasing competition, brands are focused on building trust and creating community as a means to drive loyalty and stand out amidst all the noise.

Why UGC just WORKS.

This is far from the most-recent marketing fad. As they say, the proof is in the pudding, and UGC wins across all content types when it comes to conversion, reach, and cost.

Conversion

A recent study by ZDNet shows that, when making a decision to buy, 92% of consumers prefer recommendations from their network over traditional, brand-created advertising. At their point of consideration, consumers find UGC to be 20% more influential in getting them over the line. On effectiveness alone, UGC is a no-brainer to level up your content strategy!

Reach

Since users are creating content themselves, they are much more likely to share it within their network. In contrast to content posted by a brand, which will struggle to tap in to non-followers and has a short shelf-life, UGC vastly expands a brand’s reach into untapped networks and audiences.

Cost

Marketing is expensive. Whether curating from a 3rd party, leveraging a creative agency, and paying an influencer, brands shell out thousands and thousands (or, commonly, MILLIONS) of dollars to try and build awareness and move product. UGC's cost is a sliver of that. While certain forms, like comments and reviews come for free (and can be spun up as image or video content), even paid-video from UGC creators is highly reasonable, often costing $50-500.

Getting Started with UGC

Starting with Strategy

Before you dive in head-first, make sure you have a strategic approach of how to integrate UGC in a way that compliments your overall marketing strategy. If your primary goal is improving conversion, a strategy focused on generating video reviews and testimonials could be your silver bullet. On the other hand, if your goal is to grow brand awareness, a branded hashtag that goes viral would drive massive exposure amongst an audience that is new to your products.

Picking your platforms

Similarly, you want to define the channels where UGC will be most effective. Make sure to focus your efforts on the channels where your target market is most active. This is where you will drum up the most excitement and buzz in activating your audience.

Regardless of the social channels you’re leveraging in your UGC strategy, it’s important to make the content evergreen and available in as many places as possible. In particular, integrating UGC into your website is an incredible way to humanize your shopping experience, and drive more trust at the point-of-purchase. If you’re looking for a way to surface this content in video, Novel provides a no-code solution to do just that!

Sourcing UGC

There are many great platforms out there that will help accelerate your quest to quality UGC. But, there are also more manual methods that any brand can leverage!

• Create branded hashtags that incentivize and excite your community to get involved. You'll be able to search for this content down the road, and recycle it across your channels.

• Incentive content creation with giveaways or discounts, ie "post a video of you wearing your new shoes, and receive a 30% discount on your next order."

• Convert your existing reviews, retweets, or testimonials into visual assets to be shared on social.

• Follow other Twitter accounts that talk about your space and have the same vision. The content doesn’t always need to be about your product specifically!

💪🏻 Pro tip: Using video to communicate and engage with your audience converts 86% better than static content. Try Novel today to turn your video content into a conversion machine 🤑

We hope this brief overview helps set you in the right direction, and gives you some confidence in building out a UGC strategy that works for your brand. No matter what, including UGC in your content strategy will humanize your products, drive loyalty, and help you stand out. It may take some tinkering to nail, but you will undoubtedly see the ROI in a more trusted, relatable brand!

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See you next Thursday!

Jon