UGC works. Studies show that user-generated content (UGC) increases conversions by 29% and is a powerful way to engage with your audience and build brand loyalty. 79% of customers say that they were influenced to buy after viewing UGC and it took 85% of customers to look through about 10 reviews to make up their minds, says Referral Candy.
Allowing your users to create and share content on your website also encourages your customers to become invested in the brand and feel like a part of your community.
Here are some quick ways to incorporate UGC into your website:
Allow your users to write product reviews on your website. These are a form of UGC known as “Testimonials” and are best displayed in prominent locations like home pages or product pages. This helps to build trust and credibility with potential customers, give them a better understanding of the products they are interested in purchasing and encourage them to buy.
There are many ways to do this quickly and at scale. You can also use reviews tools like Embed Social and Taggbox’s collate, analyse and push out reviews from social media platforms and emails. Yelp, Google Reviews or Trustpilot are popular platforms that collect customer reviews. Showcase these reviews on your website. These platforms also often offer widgets or APIs that you can use to display reviews on your website in a visually appealing way. Another useful feature is that they help you to authenticate users by connecting them with their own social media accounts like Facebook.
Encourage your buyers to leave reviews on your website via a “Review button” or on third-party review platforms. This could include sending follow up emails after a purchase, offering incentives for leaving a review and/or simply making it easy for customers to leave feedback. You could also use customer feedback tools like SurveyMonkey or Typeform to collect feedback from customers to be displayed on your website. These often have user-friendly templates for your customer feedback surveys.
Ensure you respond to both positive and negative reviews. This helps build loyalty and makes customers feel that their feedback is appreciated and being used to build the brand further. Responding to negative reviews can help turn it into a positive one by showing you care about customer satisfaction and are willing to make things right.
Many review platforms offer widgets that can be embedded on a website, displaying. Consider using these widgets to showcase your reputation and further encourage customers to leave reviews.
Customer photos or videos can be even more compelling than written reviews. Encourage customers to submit visual UGC and display it prominently on the website. Or, you could engage an e-commerce visuals platform that not only shoots and designs product visuals professionally, but can connect to creators and users who generate content for you. Creators are to be differentiated from influencers, who already have a following of their own. UGC is generally produced by creators, rather than influencers.
Platforms like Instagram or TikTok are a great source of UGC. Integrate your website with the platforms and ask your users to share, like, comment especially with photos or videos of your products with a branded hashtag. Then display this UGC on your website with aggregator tools like Juicer or TINT. This in turn, helps you reach out to a wider audience too.
You can use website plugins like Yotpo or Bazaarvoice which provide customizable widgets or integrations with Instagram or Google Reviews.
If you have the technical expertise or personnel, you can showcase customer reviews independently but it requires more time and resources. However, it gives you total control over the design and functionality of your UGC displays.
You can build a forum into your website that builds up a community of your users. This is where your users can share their product reviews, meet other users and discuss related topics to your brand. Once a community is built you can better understand your customer needs and wants.
Create a gallery of UGC like photos and videos on your website. This helps showcase your users’ creativity and encourage others to participate. Or, if you are looking for more “pizzazz”, you could approach content platforms like KittyKat that link you with Creators.
Run contests or challenges that encourage your users to create and share content. This can be a great way to get your audience involved and to create a sense of community.
The conversion rates on UGC speak for themselves. UGC is invaluable for your business to sell and build a loyal and engaged customer community. Whether you choose to incorporate product reviews, community forums, social media integration, user-generated content galleries, or contests and challenges, research your market demographics and brand strategy to find the right approach for your brand and audience.
