Driving brand awareness through User-Generated Content (UGC) and customer reviews isn’t a new tactic, but these methods have seen new levels of success during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The world has moved online
The global pandemic pretty much moved the world online.
With people spending more of their time online, UGC and customer reviews have become an important part of increasing online engagement. The increase is also driving higher conversions. Studies have shown that customers who interact with UGC and product/service reviews convert more.
Leveraging what customers buy
There’s no shame in asking for product/service reviews from your customers.
Takealot does this really well. If you’re a regular online purchaser at Takealot, you would have noticed that a few days after making a new purchase, an email would come through asking how you would rate the products you’ve bought and to leave a review to stand a chance to win a gift voucher.
Share UGC content on Social Media
Previously on e-commerce stores, all product detail pages were filled with brand editorial content. Now, you’ll notice more and more product detail pages with UGC in the form of ratings and reviews. “People buy from people”.
With UGC and reviews, brands can share these on social media platforms to encourage engagement and drive conversions. Various social media platforms have also made it easier for people to purchase products and services straight from the platform (Facebook and Instagram) itself.
UGC is also about authenticity. Actual customer feedback is not only appealing to brands but also catches the attention of potential partners.
The benefits of UGC
1. Increase revenue
User-Generated Content is powerful during the consideration phase of the buyer’s journey because it provides the necessary social proof to legitimize a product or service.
People no longer naturally trust brands. Word-of-mouth marketing has become a necessity in today’s digital age. Brands can harness the power of the conversations that their customers are already having and share that with potential customers to build legitimacy which in turn will lead to more product/service sales.
2. Decrease content cost
Content creation is known as one of the largest pieces of a brand’s marketing budget. The goal of these assets is to reach a target audience with the right message at the right time to encourage a product/service sale. But it’s nearly impossible to know if an image will actually resonate with the target audience before making that investment.
Keeping up with the demand for fresh content can be overwhelming and pricy for brands. Instead of relying solely on professional content creation, brands can leverage UGC to save costs and feel confident that the content will resonate with their target audience as the content itself originally came from that audience.
3. Build strong customer relationships
Brands are forever on a mission to better understand and build relationships with their customers. The best way to do this is through authentic interactions which can be difficult and very time-consuming. With User-Generated Content, brands have the opportunity to open a direct dialogue with highly engaged customers at multiple touchpoints along the customer journey.
By sharing your passionate customer content, brands are able to create a community of brand advocates which increases brand awareness and creates the opportunity to turn their friends and followers into the brand’s newest customers. (No matter what business you think you’re in, you’re in the people business.)
Are you ready to leverage UGC?
Are you ready to incorporate a User-Generated Content strategy into your current digital marketing plan? For guidance, feel free to message me via Whatsapp or contact me via email. 👋
