User Says What?
The incredible effectiveness of user-generated content, plus 5 ways to step up your brand's UGC efforts.
Bryan Curley
April 16, 2024
Did You Know? 68% of marketers cite either lack of time, high cost, or lack of expertise as the primary reason they aren’t using video content in their marketing efforts. (Source)
Video marketing is insanely effective.
91% of marketers (and rising) use video in their marketing efforts.
90% say video content has given them a good ROI.
88% believe it has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.
86% say it has helped increase web traffic.
87% say it has helped generate more leads.
87% say it has directly increased sales.
82% say it has increased the amount of time users spend on their site.
66% say it has helped reduce customer support queries. 🎉
All those stats come from this 2024 Wyzowl report on video marketing.
But those awesome benefits come at a price, both literal and figurative.
Literal price: Video can be costly to produce with per-minute estimates ranging from $500-$3,000 or more. Bigger picture, the plurality of surveyed marketers report that video content made up between 21-30% of their total marketing budget.
Figurative price: Video can be intimidating and time-consuming.
Wyzowl also asked marketers who currently aren’t using video in their campaigns what their top reason was for that decision. These were the results.
While Wyzowl doesn’t say it explicitly, those percentages add up to 99% so I’m guessing respondents were asked just to pick their top reason for not using video.
Because that chart belongs on the data viz Wall of Shame, here’s that data visualized another way.
That’s much better.
68% of marketers cite either lack of time, high cost, or lack of expertise as the primary reason they aren’t using video content right now, despite its proven effectiveness.
But what if there were a cheaper and easier way to create marketing content that actually performed better?
User-generated content!
UGC FTW
(That means “user-generated content for the win,” btw1.)
User-generated content smashes each of those barriers by offloading the most challenging and time-consuming part of the video marketing process—production—to your customers. The results?
Lack of time: You’ve got time now, baby.
High cost: UGC is 50% more cost-effective than traditional marketing.
Lack of expertise: If you can use TikTok, you can work UGC into your marketing efforts.
Plus, according to a 2023 UGC report by Linearity, you also get these eye-popping benefits:
79% say UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions.
86% of millennials consider UGC a good indicator of a brand’s quality (according to ProductWind).
56% of users find UGC more trustworthy than brand-produced content.
10% increase to conversion rates using a well-curated UGC feed.
28% more engagement by brands that use UGC.
25% higher rankings for product pages with UGC leading to 45% more organic traffic.
60% of businesses found hidden patterns in consumer behavior by analyzing UGC.
68% of brands reported improved brand reputation due to AI-assisted UGC curation.
58% of respondents said they left a brand’s website without making a purchase because there were no customer reviews or photos (according to BusinessWire), and we already know the value of customer reviews.
UGC <> influencer marketing
While there’s definitely overlap in terms of production style and distribution channels, UGC is not the same thing as influencer marketing.
Most of the benefits above arise from the authenticity and trustworthiness of legitimate user reviews and testimonials, which brands don’t experience as much from influencer marketing.
Case in point: Only 10% of consumers find influencer marketing to be authentic.
5 ways to step up (or start) your UGC game
Here are some easy ways to begin leveraging the power of UGC.
1/ Encourage reviews and testimonials
Ready for a syllogism2?
People want to feel important.
Customers are people.
Therefore, customers want to feel important.
Give your customers the attention and approval their parents didn’t by asking for their opinion and demonstrating how much you value it.
Only a small percentage of customers will leave a testimonial or product review voluntarily, but between 50-70% say they’ll do it if asked. Just know that 80% of reviews originate from follow-up requests, so be sure to ask twice.
Make feedback and UGC solicitation a regular part of your customer flows.
To aid in automation, services like VocalVideo make the process of recording video testimonials easier than ever.
2/ Host contests or challenges
Gamify that shit!
Outside of contests, make it a habit to share the content your users produce.
And don’t just share all of the glowing “This product is literally the best thing I’ve ever used and I 100% would definitely die without it” submissions.
Include authentic feedback that shows the less-than-glamorous sides of your product or areas of confusion for users. It’s a great way to build trust with your community while addressing what might be common barriers to purchase or use.
4/ Create a centralized “UGC hub”
Make it easy for your customers to create and upload their UGC by creating a landing page or centralized hub with all of the tools, docs, and examples they need to create and submit their own content.
As an efficiency bonus, any email campaigns or other efforts to encourage UGC submissions can direct traffic to this hub, which you’ve already optimized to convert.
Also make sure you provide plenty of communication around how the post-submission review process works, including details about any contests or timelines.
One of the worst feelings from a user’s perspective is putting time and effort into something (anything at all, really) and then sending it off into the void with no idea of what comes next.
Gif by theoffice on Giphy
5/ Leverage UGC in offline campaigns
While it seems true that everything eventually ends up on the Internet, sometimes it should be the other way around.
If you regularly attend industry events, purchase traditional media ad spots like billboards or print ads, or interact with your audience anywhere offline, find ways to incorporate UGC into those efforts.
Footnotes
“Acrophobia” actually means the fear of heights! There is no official term for a fear of acronyms.
A “syllogism” is a form of deductive reasoning that uses sequential logical statements to reach a logical conclusion.
Betcha didn’t think you were getting an English lesson today, huh?
Everyone say, “Hi!” to Daniel T 👋
Question: If you could make any rule for one day and everyone had to follow it, what would it be?
Daniel T’s Answer: “A simple rule for me. My coworkers have to leave me alone.”
ChatGPT-Generated Joke of the Day 🤣
What do you call an alligator in a vest?
An investigator!
Suggest a topic for a future edition 🤔
Got an idea for a topic I can cover? Or maybe you’re struggling with a specific marketing-related problem that you’d like me to address?
Just reply to this email and describe the topic.
There's no guarantee I'll use your suggestion, but I read and reply to everyone, so have at it!