User-Generated Content: Lifehacks to Increase Conversions

This kind of content can be more attractive: it is emotional, inspirational, and attractive. Generally speaking it is more lively. Therefore, users tend to pay more attention to it.

In this article, we’ll show you how to create a bottomless source of content for your promo channels and increase the brand awareness of your company. Let’s take a look at working with UG-content from its production to making a profit.

What is UGC?

In general, it is original content created by the brand’s audience. It can be anything from comments and reviews to photos and videos. A brand can use it for marketing purposes on the website or social media for promotion. UGC often turns out to be much more effective than regular content made by the on-board content team. One of the most famous examples of using UGC is GoPro commercials.

UGC includes: 

1. User reviews and ratings of your company and products

People who have already tried the product share their impressions about the quality, usefulness, pros and cons, and the company service. It can be left both on the website or social profiles, as well as on third-party review platforms.

Customers can be encouraged in every possible way to leave feedback, for example, with a discount and other bonuses.

2. Messages on forums and all kinds of comments on social platforms.

It can be in the form of alternative feedback, a question to the manufacturer or other users. Brand representatives can also give thanks for positive feedback or help to solve a specific user’s problem.

Such questions and answers are important information worth publishing later. First, it will form a valuable FAQ. Second, it will relieve a company from the need to answer the same type of questions every time. 

3. User posts and articles.

Users share photos mentioning your brand on social networks, tagging it, or even using a branded hashtag. They feel like they belong to the brand community telling about their experience, and the company subtly advertises itself through photographs and stories of real people in their daily lives. Some companies use the services of popular bloggers and influencers to get content.

How does it work?

Before buying something, potential customers usually not only carefully study the description, photos and main characteristics of the product. They also want to collect feedback from those who have already purchased it: read a review, see some real cases of using it.

From UGC users can get the most reliable information about the product and the company. It helps them to move forward through the marketing funnel and finally convert into customers completing the target action.

However, the lack of negative reviews may cause distrust of content. Some people tend to specifically look for negative opinions, and also about the same number of people are interested in the company’s reaction to them. Customers spend more money on products by brands responding to customer reviews. And as a result, companies that collect and analyze user opinions receive 36% more revenue. UGC also has a great potential to become viral, as people tend to share their creativity with a broad online community.

Even SEO of a company’s website is often very dependent on the content generated by regular users and other mentions. It allows companies to increase traffic to the website and unique backlinks, which are important ranking factors.

Ways to manage UGC campaigns

To succeed in effective user content marketing you need to take care of drawing up a strategy for UGC campaigns. But first of all, you need to decide on the goals and why do you need user content. Here are some examples: 

• Search for fresh content ideas.
• Attracting new users and customers.
• Increasing the number of subscribers on social media.
• Increasing brand awareness.
• Something else

Many companies that care about their public image hire community managers. They monitor and review user content that appears on websites, blogs, forums, social media, and respond to them on behalf of the brand. An alternative option is to use special services for the automated collection of user-generated content.

There are several ways to motivate your users to generate content:

• Come up with a brand hashtag for social media. Make a call-to-action, add a photo or video, specify the deadline and rules for the hashtag event. 

• Reward customers for making content and run competitions for the best content. You can choose the best content and reward the winners, or you can simply publish it on the website or social networks. When running contests, keep in mind that the more challenging it is for your audience, the less content you will receive.

• Request feedback on products and services. Reward your audience for it or at least thank them for great ideas on how to improve your brand or a product!

• Take part in a charity. Charity always looks more attractive for an audience than just a simple promo campaign. Bringing goodness to the world is an amazing thing in itself!

There is also an effective lifehack on how to launch a viral UGC campaign for your company. You can try to create it yourself just like any live-action commercial. No, It’s not like cheating the audience with fake reviews. You just help your audience to get a clear example of how to take part in a community event. It requires a deep understanding of your audience and current trends on social platforms. Like in this example for a video editing app, where they used TikTok trends to create UGC for their promo campaign.

First, you find the most dedicated users of your products or even influencers and bloggers among them. Then you help them to create a perfect example of how to make a review or how to take part in your upcoming content competition. 

Creating quality content takes a lot of time, money and effort. That is why UGC is so profitable — with its help you can save a lot of money and, without much effort, get a large number of fresh and unique ideas. At SLON Media we help businesses to launch UGC campaigns and produce content.

Let’s get in touch at hi@slonmedia.com