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As we step into an era of digitalization, the world of marketing is growing as well. New ways of marketing emerge every day, each better than the previous one. One such marketing technique is using User-Generated Content to promote your products.
The reason is quite simple, it’s the users talking about a product, they have no reason to lie about a product. People are more likely to believe a person who has used a product and then reviewed it rather than believing the advertisements from the brand. Owing to this fact, many brands have started to include UGC campaigns in their marketing strategy.
Some brands have leveraged UGC in the most creative and effective ways. They managed to blend UGC into their regular marketing campaigns. Suing it on their websites and social media campaigns effortlessly. Let us look at these brands and understand how they cleverly utilized UGC to generate more traffic and make more sales.
Matcha Kari, besides other marketing strategies, has wisely encouraged its users to create content around their products.
Matcha.com sent out timely contextual push notifications, encouraging its customers to click a picture of their matcha and upload it on Instagram. In exchange for this, it offered to reward $5 off on the next purchase a user makes.The campaign worked well for mainly two reasons.
The first was that it was a simple task. The users didn’t have to do anything hectic, just a picture of their regular matcha to get a discount of $5. Second, the brand reposted some of these posts from the campaign. This encouraged many other users to take part in the campaign.
By rewarding the users with a discount of 5$ on their next purchase, matcha.com was also able to retain its existing customers and encouraged them to continue buying from their app. This way, it managed to promote itself and retain its existing customers.
Warby Parker is an eyewear company, well known for its successful social media campaigns. You may find a bunch of articles on how the brand has cleverly leveraged the power of social media to become a huge success. A lot of them will mention how the company adapts to emerging trends and inculcates them in its campaigns.
When Warby Parker realized how powerful UGC can be in generated new leads, it took them no second thought to explore and utilize this resource. Not only does it encourage its users to crate content but keeps them motivated to do that by actually repurposing their content into its social media posts.
The company not only reposts the brand-related content posted by users but also promote and feature the content created by real people. For example, if a user with around 1000 followers posts a picture and the brand reposts it featuring the user, this creates a chance for them to earn more followers. Not just that, it also encourages several other users who want to grow their Instagram reach to create content around the brand with the hope of getting featured.
Warby Parker recently launched a #warbyhome campaign in which the users could order five frames for free. They can try them at home, keep the one they like, pay for it and return the rest. In return, they only have to take a picture with the frames and post it on Instagram with the hashtag #warbyhometryon. The campaign proved to be a huge success as thousands of people took to their Instagram and posted pictures with the hashtag. This boosted Warby Parker’s sales during the Pandemic, when other companies were facing sales issues.
John’s crazy socks is a father-son, social enterprise inspired by a young man with down syndrome and his love for fun and colourful socks which he calls crazy socks. The brand is focused on creating products for differently-abled people. Over half of their staff have a differing ability.
The brand is focused on spreading happiness. One of the major things that drive the brand culture is gratitude. The brand understands the importance of thanking the people supporting them. From time to time they will launch new campaigns to reward their loyal customers for the time and effort they invest in the brand.
One example is when the brand sent a personalised thank you note along with the customer’s favourite candy to thank them for their loyalty. The customer took to social media and posted a picture of his purchase along with the thank you note and the gift. This way, the brand was able to get users to create content for them without even asking for it.
Considering John’s example, UGC should always be a two-sided effort. You cannot expect the customer to create content for you unless you offer them something in return. This way, the users would not only feel rewarded but you will also be able to build a long-term connection with them.
Cluse is an international watch and jwellery brand. In case of fashion and jewellery brands, UGC campaigns can be game-changing when it comes to increasing sales.
One thing about UGC is that, if you want users to continue creating content for you, they need to know that the content created by them is acknowledged.
Cluse clearly understands this fact and has wisely used it in its marketing strategies. The brand has used UGC to build social proof and increase its sales. It uses the User-Generated content on its website to help customers visualize how their watches and jewellery would look in real life.
This way Cluse improves the user experience on their website while also encouraging other customers to share their brand experience by creating more content around it.
Apple is one of the brands that the users love and stay loyal to. User-Generated Content has played a huge role in Apple gaining the brand loyalty it has today. From time to time, the brand has used its customers’ stories to promote itself. Not just that, the actual reason behind the success of these campaigns is that the users too, love creating content for the brand and they do so because they feel like an integral part of the brand.
Owing to the worldwide success of the brand it is easy to say that getting featured in one of their posts is a big thing for anyone. Campaigns like “Shot on iPhone” or hashtags like #iphoneonly generated high-quality user engagement for the company.
One more example is one of Apple’s instagram reposts. The brand created an Instagram account following the “Shot on iPhone campaign” wherein it only reposted pictures clicked by the customers. This encouraged more and more people to click pictures and take part in the campaign to be able to get reposted on Apple’s instagram page.
Dune London is a shoe retailer company that has excellently managed to use its UGC in its product pages and boost its sales by 82%. This helps to inspire customers during their shopping journey and guide them towards the best-sellers. It makes it easier for them to decide what they can expect from the products they buy.
These product pages help people to imagine how the products will look in real life settings. Dune London has made it so the visitors can buy directly from those pictures in case they want to buy a whole look.
Just like all these brands, you can also inculcate UGC in your marketing campaigns and gain good results. Users are your biggest asset and loyal customers are even better.
If you’re just starting, then, to be able to get users to create content, it’s necessary to create a long-term bond with them. Your users should trust you first, then only they can assure other people that your brand and services are genuine.
Does any other brand come to our mind when you look at this list?
PS: We love talking to like minded entrepreneurs. Write to me at ankit@shop2app.com
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