User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful marketing tool that can be used to boost sales, increase brand awareness, and build community. It’s the reason why so many ecommerce brands are encouraging customers to share their experiences on social media with branded hashtags and other incentives.
But how exactly does user-generated content work? In this post, we’ll go over how UGC increases your ecommerce brand as well as ways you can use it to generate more sales for your online store. We’ll also share our favourite OPMC tool that helps us track this data in real-time. So, let’s get started!
What Exactly is User-Generated Content?
User-generated content is unique content that’s created by your users. It can be in the form of reviews, photos, videos, blog posts, or anything else posted by your customers that describes their interaction with your ecommerce store.
UGC is an essential part of ecommerce marketing because it can help you build trust and brand awareness with consumers. If people feel like they know your brand on a personal level and have experience with it firsthand, then they’re more likely to buy from you than from someone else.
The goal of UGC is to get people talking about your brand—and there are many ways for them do so. Best of all, UGC is completely free. You don’t have to spend anything, but directly benefit from what others are posting. Imagine going viral and experiencing your highest earnings from something you never had to pay to promote!
How Does User-Generated Content Boost Sales?
1 – Improves Brand Credibility & Trust
Let’s face it: customers trust recommendations from their friends and family. They also trust reviews from other customers as long as they feel like the reviewer is in a similar situation or has a similar level of experience.
Customers are even more likely to trust reviews if they think that someone wrote them because they truly believe in the product or service being reviewed.
Lastly, customers will be more receptive to positive experiences with a brand if those good experiences come from an expert in their field.
2 – Convinces Leads to Make a Purchase
UGC can help you connect with your audience. Customers are more likely to buy from a company that they feel connected to, and UGC offers an opportunity for this connection by allowing customers to share their experiences with other potential buyers.
Customers may be hesitant or feel uncomfortable submitting content on their own, but if you openly encourage it, they may be more willing to participate. You’re connecting them with what could potentially be thousands of other shoppers who are interested in the same thing.
3 – Increases Brand Awareness
As an ecommerce business, you’ve got a lot of competition. While all your competitors are trying to get more traffic and sales, you’re also fighting for the same eyeballs. User-generated content can help you reach a wider audience and build your brand.
In fact, studies show that people are more likely to buy from brands they know and trust. By encouraging customers to share their experiences with other potential customers, you’ll be sure your brand is one they recognize when it comes time for them to make their next purchase decision.
4 – Builds a Community
When you implement user-generated content, you can engage your customers and build a community. This helps you learn more about your customers, find new prospects and employees, and create unique content to help grow your brand. That feedback is critical to building a personalized brand experience more buyers will want to have.
5 – Diversifies Marketing Strategies
Social media is an amazing way to reach new customers. However, there are many other options available for your business when it comes to marketing your products or services.
User-generated content is a great way to diversify your marketing strategies and show potential customers that you are listening to them. UGC can help build trust with your existing customer base and encourage more word-of-mouth advertising from those who have already purchased from you in the past.
How to Cultivate User-Generated Content
But how do you go about getting your customers to share their experiences? Easy. There are a few steps you can take to ensure that your brand’s social media presence is primed for UGC.
1 – Use Branded Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to promote your brand. Hashtags can be used in social media posts and also on product pages, and they make it easier for users to find content that is relevant to them or their interests.
When you create hashtags for your business, remember that it’s important that they are relevant to the brand itself. For example, if your company sells clothing items, a hashtag like #trendyclothes would be very appropriate as this will help customers find products within this category quickly.
2 – Respond to Customers on Social Media
In the social media age, your customers are talking about you and your products. They are providing real-time feedback that can make or break your business. You need to be part of the conversation by responding to every single comment and post made about you on social media. Put in the effort to meet your new customers and return buyers where they live online, and they will show their appreciation in more sales.
3 – Feature Customer Reviews & Posts
Customer reviews and posts are another great way to leverage the power of user-generated content on your site and in emails. You can use third-party platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to collect customer photos that you can then feature on your site or include in an email campaign.
Just be sure to make it clear this could happen, or at least tag your customers in their photos
Use a Heat Map to Track User-Generated Content Benefits
A heat map is simply a visual representation of data. It uses colour and density to show you where the highest concentration of activity is happening on your site.
For example, if you have user reviews on your product page and a high number of them are positive, the heat map will show how those reviews are leading to more activity on those pages.
Since this information is available in real-time and updated constantly, heat maps can help you understand how users interact with different parts of your website at any given moment by letting you see exactly where they spend most or least time clicking or scrolling through content.
Our team of expert ecommerce developers created a Live Sales Map for WooCommerce plugin you can use to track this valuable customer data. As WooCommerce is one of the best customizable ecommerce platforms out there, the combination of using it with UGC is a powerful way to boost your sales.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we hope this article has helped you understand how user-generated content can improve your ecommerce business and the various benefits it provides. Encouraging user-generated content is the key to higher ecommerce sales.
Good luck, and the best way to start is by reading what your customers say about their experiences online.
Download Live Sales Map for WooCommerce
As WooCommerce is one of the best customizable ecommerce platforms out there, the combination of using it with UGC is a powerful way to boost your sales.
