By integrating user-generated content into your marketing strategy you’ll build brand authenticity, drive sales, and seamlessly integrate your brand into the ever-growing creator economy. All absolute necessities to succeed in today’s turbulent market.

Chapters:

1. What is UGC (user-generated content)?
2. The benefits of user-generated content
3. How to increase engagement with user-generated content
4. UGC best practices guide
5. Curate your brand identity with user-generated content

What is UGC (user-generated content)?

User-generated content, or UGC, is a form of content that’s created by real people to promote your brand. This includes written ratings and reviews, photos, videos, and even audio that your brand’s customers, followers, ambassadors, or even employees create and share across social and other digital platforms.

Recently, user-generated content has evolved to include professional-quality images, engaging videos, and thoughtfully written content that seamlessly support your brand identity. The days of grainy selfies and lacklustre videos are long gone, but UGC has retained its essential component of authenticity.

UGC doesn’t feel like an ad, and just like a word-of-mouth recommendation, it’s often more influential than one.

UGC is far more powerful than traditional brand marketing. Essentially user-generated content is the modern-day equivalent of a product recommendation, and the numbers back it up. 84% of consumers are more likely to trust a brand’s marketing campaign if it features user-generated content, and 77% are more likely to buy a product they found through UGC. 

Who provides UGC?

User-generated content is usually found through your customers, brand loyalists, and employees. An easy way to turn customers into UGC creators is to make it easy for them to leave reviews and add their own product photos. Brand loyalists are repeat customers who love your product so much that they’re willing to advocate for you without incentives.

Love them or hate them, the infamous Crocs knows how to rally its brand loyalists, with its hashtag #croctok gaining traction on TikTok and spreading its message to over 300 million viewers.

Finally, employee-created content, like video content discussing the company’s values, acts as a source of UGC that demonstrates diversity, support, and authenticity.

The benefits of user-generated content

Not only is user-generated content more influential than traditional advertising, but it’s also free, authentic, and engaging. There’s several benefits to UGC that have a big payoff for brands.

Builds authenticity and trust

User-generated content showcases how actual people use products in real-world settings. This creates authenticity for brands and allows them to promote products without being overly salesy.

Authenticity means a lot to consumers. 84% of millennials say user-generated content influences their purchasing decisions. And nearly half of Gen Z cites social media as their chief source of inspiration — even above family and friends.

Plus, people trust peer recommendations over branded advertising. A whopping 85% of consumers say they turn to visual UGC, rather than branded content, when making purchasing decisions.

Boosts search engine optimization ratings

Search engines place a premium on fresh and relevant content. UGC often contains keywords and phrases that can enhance the visibility of your brand in search results, indicating that the content is higher quality and more relevant to the reader, which leads to more organic traffic visiting your site.

And as we know, more traffic means more MQLs.

Increases engagement

User-generated content is all about connecting with consumers, building an online community, and creating a conversation between customers and a brand. So it’s no surprise that your content receives 28% higher engagement when UGC is integrated alongside your typical posts.

This is evident in all types of marketing content, including digital ads. When direct-to-consumer bedding and bath brand Parachute incorporated UGC into its retargeting ads, the ads generated a 35% higher click-through rate and a 60% lower cost per click.

What’s behind this higher engagement? It comes down to the fact that people want to get in touch with their favorite brands through social media channels. 60% of millennials alone say brand loyalty influences their purchasing decisions, according to joint research by Future Workplace and Elite Daily.

Plus, the most followed brands on social media are those that share their followers’ content. And engagement breeds further engagement, which inspires the creation of more UGC.

Drives sales

Using data from our Bazaarvoice Network of over 12,500 brands and retailers, we found there’s a 144% lift in conversion rate when shoppers engage with UGC and a 162% lift in revenue per visitor. Further research shows that visual UGC is more likely to convert compared with brand-created content.

78% of shoppers gain more confidence in a purchase when they see UGC, and 35% indicate they’re depending more on UGC during the cost of living crisis, according to our SEI. UGC provides social proof that assures consumers they’re making the right purchase, which translates to more sales.

However, some brands have experienced much greater growth in conversions, thanks to UGC. Take apparel brand Tuckernuck, for example. When Tuckernuck implemented a gallery of user-generated content on its website, as well as displayed UGC and influencer photos on its product pages, conversions skyrocketed by 190%.

“Having social content on our PDPs really helps with conversion,” says Kayla Robinson, a Tuckernuck customer experience and marketing associate. “When a customer sees other customers and influencers wearing the product, it inspires her or him to purchase it as well.”

User-generated content can be particularly beneficial to certain industries. The table above compares the click rate of posts both with and without UGC among various industries.

Provides audience insights

Consistently engaging with customers and analyzing the content they post about your brand allows you to better understand your audience. This enables you to not only improve how you interact with customers but also make adjustments to products and services based on customer feedback.

For example, branded hashtags often offer a ton of insight into what consumers want. If you own a cosmetics company, try searching for product names on social media to see what your target audience is saying. Do they want a more diverse shade range or sustainable ingredients? If a lot of people are voicing similar concerns, it’s time to take action and adjust your product offering. 

Ratings and reviews also contain a wealth of insights. If you’re constantly seeing customer reviews containing similar feedback, you know how to improve your products going forward. European retailer Vertbaudet noticed multiple customers had left reviews saying a maternity line dress was too small.

So in response to this feedback, the brand reassessed the dress and fixed the sizing of the cut which led to the average customer rating increase significantly.

Synchronizes with social commerce

Advertising on social media isn’t a novel concept, but social commerce is quickly becoming the new generation of shopping. 69% of shoppers say social media has inspired them to purchase products, and 52% have already shopped through social media. Consumers name convenience and product photos as the top reasons for embracing social commerce. 

User-generated content seamlessly aligns with social commerce because UGC takes the place of a branded ad and becomes an authentic, shopper-approved recommendation. Social media users see the UGC on a TikTok or Instagram post, click it, read the reviews, and purchase the product because it’s convenient and doesn’t require them to go to a different website to checkout. 

How to increase engagement with user-generated content

Let’s take a look at some of the most inspiring UGC campaigns in the world to emulate for your own UGC strategy.

Host contests or giveaways

Holding contests or giveaways is a classic way to have your customers get directly involved with your marketing campaigns and generate user-generated content

Offering a compelling prize is a crucial element to encourage more consumers to join in with your campaign. However, a good reward isn’t necessarily an expensive gift or a large amount of money. Starbucks, for example, came up with the #WhiteCupContest, encouraging customers to doodle their cups and upload a photo to social media with the #WhiteCupContest hashtag. The best part? The winning white cup drawings were featured as Starbucks’ limited edition reusable plastic cup.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Brita Lynn Thompson (@zenspiredesigns)

The contest generated great buzz on social media and within three weeks there were over 4000 doodled cups uploaded to Twitter and Instagram.

Incentivize your products/services

By giving customers good incentives to feature your products or services, you can quickly generate a huge number of organic content and tap into their follower communities at the same time. ‍

Hilton Grand Vacations encourages customers to upload their holiday pictures on social media with the hashtag #myHGV for a chance to be featured on their Instagram Feed.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hilton Grand Vacations (@hiltongrandvacations)

These beautiful images act as a source of authentic inspiration for potential customers to book their next vacation at the hotel.

Develop authentic and inclusive brand messaging

Building an emotional connection between your products and customers is one of the best ways to improve customer engagement and form long-lasting relationships with loyal shoppers.

Women’s clothing brand Aerie launched the #AerieREAL campaign to promote body positivity and inspire women to be comfortable in their skin. The brand encouraged users to post unedited photos of themselves in Aerie’s swimsuits and shared customers’ photos with authentic captions. As part of the company’s initiative to promote real women’s bodies, the campaign was a move to empower women who are fed up with the idealised body type promoted by fashion brands.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Aerie (@aerie)

Aerie leveraged UGC to create an inclusive community of brand advocates on social media. By spreading the message of body positivity through its customers, there was also a huge boost in terms of brand image.

Partner with influencers

Influencer marketing is a great way to generate buzz and awareness around your products. Collaborating with the right influencers allows brands to tap into an existing audience and drive purchasing decisions.

Before the release of the Samsung Galaxy A model, Samsung collaborated with Blackpink to launch the hashtag challenge #danceAwesome. The dance challenge includes a short dance on the campaign’s catchy music, “Awesome screen. Awesome camera. Long-lasting battery life,” which perfectly highlights the smartphone’s features.

The brand then partnered with influencers like TikTok influencer @hollyh — who has about 16 million followers — to drive awareness of the challenge.

@hollyh working with @samsung on my audition for blackpink #danceAwesome #galaxyA #ad ♬ Awesome Phone Song(BLACKPINK Ver.) – BLACKPINK

These user-generated content videos went viral across social media and resulted in a whopping 4.7 million user videos with a combined 16 billion views.

UGC best practices

Adding UGC to your marketing strategy is an easy decision, considering the value it delivers, but there’s a few rules you should keep in mind. Follow these best practices to ensure your UGC works for you and your customers.

Develop a UGC strategy

With so many different types of UGC available, and with the countless ways your brand can utilize it, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. However, developing a user-generated content marketing strategy will help you search, curate, and publish the most effective UGC for your specific brand.

Provide clear guidelines

Tell your target audience exactly what kind of content you’re looking for. Only 16% of brands provide clear guidelines about the kind of content they want fans to create and share, but 53% of consumers want specific instructions on what to do.

Let’s say you’re running a giveaway on Facebook for a new product. Make sure the instructions on how to enter are super clear, and the value prop is front and center. Consumers appreciate clear directions as well as general guidance.

Include calls to action on site, on social, in emails, and on receipts, product packaging, and in-store displays. If you’re really in need of UGC, cast a wide net. You can also use a social commerce tool that’s created to source and sort existing user-generated content.

Ask for permission (and give credit)

Just because a customer tags your brand in a post or uses your hashtag doesn’t necessarily mean you can reuse it. So before reposting a user’s creation, reach out to them — whether it’s through email, comment, or direct message — say something complimentary about the content, and request permission to use it.

Once you receive permission, keep a record of it. Take a screenshot of the conversation or save the email in case any issues or questions come up in the future.

Always credit the original source of the content, and tag them if possible. This is respectful of the creator, and it encourages them — and other users — to continue creating content and sharing it with your brand.

Moderate it

User-generated content is considered quality if it’s created by real, non-paid users and conforms to your brand and community guidelines, government regulations, and audience expectations. That’s the only UGC you want. Any low-quality UGC (blurry images, typos, etc) or prohibited UGC (nudity, hate speech, etc) needs to be filtered out, reported, and binned. 

Content moderation can make or break your brand. Wanting a high volume of UGC is understandable, but quality is better than quantity. You don’t want to become known for showcasing low-quality UGC because, “Lawsuits and marketing to rebuild a bad public image are expensive” warns Abi Schuman, Senior Director of Content Management Services at Bazaavoice.

Share diverse content

Diversity and inclusivity are essential in marketing. Not only does it help your brand reach more customers, but it also makes your brand more accessible.

Users want representation, plain and simple. To quote Ad Age: “Given the fact that social networks are accessible by people of all backgrounds, shapes, sizes, and families who experience different seasons, communities, and landscapes, the diverse visual content found in UGC feels more like native social media content than advertising.” Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Make sure your audience finds this diverse content by syndicating it to everywhere they are.

Track content

Keep an eye on all the UGC around your brand — even the content you don’t use. UGC is like a continuous feedback loop you can use to stay on top of what people are saying about your brand. Bazaarvoice’s Insights and Reports offer a user-friendly dashboard to track and analyze your brand’s different types of UGC content, from reviews to social media posts. 

Evaluate content performance

The UGC cycle doesn’t end with distribution, it ends with an evaluation. Consistently compiling product reviews on your product pages that no one sees is a waste of time and money. That’s why evaluating the performance of your UGC campaign and monitoring the data is essential. 

Start with our UGC audit webinar here to learn the six core factors that should be evaluated, and get a handy scorecard to see how your content measures up. 

Curate your brand identity with user-generated content

Your customers are already talking about your brand on social media.

They’re posting selfies and uploading stories that feature your products. They’re comparing items and making recommendations. So take advantage of this and curate your brand’s content from the multitude of user-generated content out there. And with 69% of people making purchases because they saw a product on social media, it’s also the very kind of content that will inspire your customers to convert.

After all, this is the authentic and relatable content that your followers want, the essential meaning of UGC.

When it comes to answering the question “what is UGC?” few are more qualified than Bazaarvoice. As the #1 user-generated content platform (not our words, the words of G2) we’re well positioned to provide you with a comprehensive UGC education.

Looking to get started with UGC? Contact us below to learn how Bazaarvoice, the leading UGC platform, can help you transform your brand and marketing strategy with user-generated content and drive a better ROI for your business.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) was once something you only saw in sci-fi movies. But, it’s now an everyday tool that people use to create content, process data, and distribute information quickly — and, it’s likely here to stay. 

As a refresher, generative AI is an advanced technology that uses machines to learn and create new content for a specific task, without needing to actually be trained on that task. It’s what’s powering popular apps like ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Google Bard, and Bazaarvoice solutions. 

While AI is getting lots of attention these days, brands have actually been using it for some time via voice assistants providing customer service or personalized product recommendations on their websites. AI can help improve customer satisfaction, bring creative ideas to life, boost product discovery, and streamline content creation and marketing strategy development. 

But there’s some downsides of AI, too. For one, consumers aren’t always quite sure what to think about the technology or the content it produces. But, they’re definitely interested in it. 

AI research report key findings

To find out exactly what consumers think about AI today and whether they trust AI to assist them in creating user-generated content (UGC), we surveyed more than 9,000 people across the globe. Here’s what they said. 

1. Consumers are interested in AI and want to keep using it

It’s safe to say that AI has piqued everyone’s interest. 36% have used generative AI tools, and of those, 55% would use them again. 14% haven’t used generative AI but plan to in the future. 

Just 14% have used image generators, but of those consumers, 56% think the tools are great and would use them again. 

Even though more people have used generative AI compared to image generators, among those who’ve tried either technology, the number of people who like the tools and would use them again is almost identical. That’s significant! 

2. Consumers think AI can help them write better reviews 

Most shoppers rely on UGC, including reviews, photos, and videos, to research products and make decisions about what to buy. But, some shoppers fret over actually leaving reviews themselves. 

When writing a review, 68% of people at least sometimes feel unsure about what information to share that would be helpful to other customers. 73% have avoided leaving a review on at least one occasion because they didn’t know what to say. 

Our research revealed that many consumers believe AI can help them overcome these challenges. 67% think it would be at least sometimes helpful if an e-commerce site provided AI-powered coaching to help them leave high-quality product reviews. 

About half of consumers (49%) would like to write a review on a website where generative AI guides them on what to write, as they think it will help them write a better review. 

3. Many worry AI could boost fake reviews 

Consumers have long been concerned about fake reviews. We’ve found that fake reviews can make shoppers lose trust in brands and stop purchasing from them. 

Fake reviews can be easy to spot. They stand out when a product has multiple reviews with the same wording, the review content doesn’t match the product, the reviews contain grammatical errors or misspellings, and there’s an overwhelming number of positive ratings and reviews. 

Many consumers fear that fake reviews will become more common as AI is used more. 45% of people worry that AI technology could lead to more fake reviews and falsified claims about products. 

Almost half of consumers (45%) would trust websites more if they put measures into place to protect against content fully generated by AI — meaning reviews written entirely by AI, not a person who used AI to help them write a review. 

4. Consumers trust AI-generated content (at least sometimes) 

According to the research, consumers are interested in using AI and see its benefits, but they still want humans to be involved at least sometimes. 

53% trust generative AI to some extent, but many want human input and oversight. Only 16% of people trust websites that allow completely AI-generated content (53% don’t trust these sites at all). 

Trust levels go up when content is created by real people with the help of AI. In our survey, 74% of people would at least maybe trust a review if the writer had help from an AI-powered coaching guide. 

Nearly a quarter (23%) would be more likely to purchase from an e-commerce site that uses AI-powered review coaching to help shoppers create higher-quality reviews — 52% said having such a coaching guide wouldn’t make a difference in their purchasing decision. 

5. Consumers are still wary of some AI-generated content 

Even though AI is becoming more widespread and consumers trust it in many instances, they’re still sometimes cautious. 

When it comes to being served an ad created using generative AI instead of a human, only 18% feel positive about it, 58% feel neutral, and 24% feel negative. 

When asking a question about a product on a brand or retailer’s website, 45% would trust an AI-generated answer that they received immediately. Of those, 32% trust the AI response but would prefer an answer written by a human. 

For visuals, 22% of consumers would trust product photos or videos on a brand or retailer’s website that were generated with AI, and 21% would trust AI-generated photos or videos posted on their social media. 

Research shows consumers like AI: give it to them

As our research shows, interest in AI continues to grow — especially among people who’ve tried out different AI tools. Our research also reveals the value that consumers see in using AI to write higher-quality reviews and having a little help to write this feedback would make them leave more reviews.

So, AI can help brands increase review volume, recency, and quality, all factors that help shoppers make more informed purchasing decisions. It’s what shoppers want, so you need to provide them the tools to do so.

Bazaarvoice is developing several innovative generative AI features. For example, our new review coaching feature offers proactive and unbiased coaching on how to leave helpful reviews. And our AI-powered image captioning feature helps you create effective content for Instagram.

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And while almost all shoppers use ratings and reviews (88%) to evaluate or learn more about products, fake reviews are affecting their ability to confidently turn to reviews as a trusted source when making product purchasing decisions.

And preserving that trust isn’t just about maintaining your customer base and increasing sales. It’s also about maintaining regulatory compliance. Government agencies all over the world enforce consumer protection laws that prohibit unscrupulous marketing practices — including fake, deceptive or misleading reviews.

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced two important regulations they’re taking to battle fake reviews:

1. They published the final Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. This is the first refresh of the Guides since 2009 and it provides new and updated guidance around endorsements by social media influencers as well as ratings and reviews 
2. The proposed Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials which clarifies what constitutes a “fake” review

What does the proposed FTC regulation say?

The new regulation proposed by the FTC will strengthen the agency’s ability to impose significant monetary penalties in cases involving fake and deceptive consumer reviews — up to $50,120 for each offending review to be imposed each time the review is viewed by a consumer. The aim is to ensure that consumers are provided with a more authentic, honest shopping experience and businesses are able to better protect their brand.

In its notice of proposed regulation, the FTC explained the need for the new rule by citing examples of clearly deceptive practices from its recent cases. They specifically called out the widespread emergence of generative AI, which will make it easier for bad actors to create fake reviews.

According to the FTC’s Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, “Our proposed rule on fake reviews shows that we’re using all available means to attack deceptive advertising in the digital age” and “should help level the playing field for honest companies.”

The proposed new rule clarifies that businesses are prohibited from:

• Selling or obtaining fake consumer reviews and testimonials. Writing or selling reviews by someone who doesn’t exist or has never bought the product
• Review hijacking. Using or repurposing a consumer review written for one product so that it appears to have been written for a substantially different product
• Buying positive or negative reviews. Providing compensation conditioned on the writing of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment, either positive or negative
• Illegally suppressing negative reviews. Using unjustified legal threats, other intimidation, or false accusations to prevent or remove a negative consumer review or hiding a negative review from the website
• Using “insider” reviews. Having employees or other insiders write reviews or testimonials of its products or services, without clearly disclosing their relationships
• Selling or buying fake social media indicators. Selling false indicators of social media influence, like fake followers or views
• Fake websites. Creating or controlling a website that claims to provide independent opinions about a category of products or services that includes its own products or services

As the champions of authentic shopping experiences, we at Bazaarvoice fully agree with the premise of this proposed rule and already provide our customers with powerful tools and processes to help them comply. This is simply another strong and welcomed step to help protect brands and the sanctity of consumer reviews and the role they play in commerce.

3 ways to protect your brand

Whether you’re in the US or another country, here’s the three golden rules we instruct our clients and partners to follow, to ensure they protect their brand, and their bottom line, from fake reviews.

1. Be transparent about who you collect reviews from, and how you do it

While consumers continue to trust reviews, they’re increasingly on the lookout for any signs of untrustworthy content. Typically, the behaviors that causes the most suspicion among consumers are:

• Multiple reviews with similar wording on the same product (55%)
• Review content not matching the product (49%) 
• Bad grammar/spelling mistakes (36%) 
• An overwhelming amount of five star/positive reviews (35%) 

Consumers have a right to trust the reviews they encounter and businesses have a responsibility to ensure this content is legitimate. The importance of this trust is further echoed in the guidance being put out by governments and consumer agencies around the world, echoed by the proposed FTC regulation. 

There’s a variety of ways businesses can ask customers to provide a review — review request emails, directly from e-commerce sites, sampling campaigns, or in a social media campaign. Additionally, brands may choose to share the reviews they collect with their retail partners so that consumers can find them anywhere they’re looking to make a purchasing decision. 

Regardless of how a review is collected, brands should never ask for or incentivize positive reviews. If consumers are offered a free product, promotional material (such as discounts or coupons), or a chance to win something of value in exchange for providing an unbiased review, then we recommend adding descriptors such as “this reviewer received a free product in exchange for their honest feedback” to any reviews collected using a promotion. 

2. Don’t screen out negative reviews — find value in them 

While some might think that negative reviews are an absolute disaster for their brand to have, they’re actually a necessity for your ratings and reviews program to thrive. In a survey we ran, over half (60%) of respondents said that negative reviews are as important as positive reviews in their decision to buy a product. The majority claimed that negative reviews contain more detailed info on product pros and cons, while 32% think that they are less likely to be fake reviews.

In addition to giving consumers a true feel for a product or service, negative reviews are an opportunity for engaging with consumers and identifying potential product improvements. 

Responding to, and taking action on, negative feedback will protect your brand by fostering trust and loyalty with customers.

3. Have a zero tolerance policy for fake reviews

Not protecting yourself against fake reviews undoubtedly puts your brand at risk. In the same research as above, respondents said that fraudulent reviews from a brand’s employees (42%) and from other customers (34%) would cause them to lose trust in a brand.

We also found that after losing trust in a brand, a vast majority (82%) of consumers would avoid using the brand ever again. If shoppers suspect a product to have fake reviews:

• 36% wouldn’t buy the product
• 28% wouldn’t trust the brand,
• 27% wouldn’t trust the site’s other reviews
• 25% wouldn’t purchase from the website
• 18% said ‘all of the above’

Companies should be aware of the possibility of fraudulent content through a variety of means, including disruptive or trolling activity, commercial messages, generative AI submissions, illegitimate or degrading content by a competitor, and self-promotion by employees.

We help protect our clients from a variety of different types of fraud. Using textual moderation and data driven, anti-fraud processes to evaluate reviews in the Bazaarvoice Network helps us to protect our clients and their shoppers. 

Our biggest and best piece of advice to protect your brand is to ensure you have a process in place to detect fake reviews, and to not allow them to be posted on your site. Hiring a third-party ratings and reviews provider and moderator is a huge help for this task. 

Protect your brand now

User-generated content is necessary in commerce today. But a reputation for fake reviews will damage your brand reputation as well as your bottom line. Brands and retailers need to continuously and proactively work to combat fake reviews by ensuring they have the right processes in place to protect themselves and their shoppers.

The steps we’ve outlined above, as well as the new guidance and proposed regulation from the FTC, will help you achieve this.

When shoppers can turn to ratings and reviews as sources of truth, it helps them to feel confident in purchasing from your company. Which boosts your bottom line and who doesn’t want that?

Learn more at Bazaarvoice.com/fakereviews.

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The authenticity movement: building consumer trust without fake reviews

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At Bazaarvoice, we know site performance matters because over 12,000 of the biggest brands and retailers (our clients) tell us it does, and these e-commerce powerhouses count on us every day to deliver the user-generated content (UGC) consumers need — right when they need it.    

And don’t just take our word for it: 

• Nearly 70% of consumers say page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer
• E-commerce Speed Hub says a one-second delay in page load speed reduces conversions by nearly 6% 
• 73% of web designers claim non-responsive design as a top reason visitors leave a website

But site performance is only one side of the UX coin. Design matters too, which is why we optimized both the performance and design of our Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews display technology.

Here’s how our technology helps you give consumers the visual shopping experiences they crave, at the speed they expect.

Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews display technology 

Our photo-first reviews display (released May 2022) puts visual content front and center, pulling all photos from customer reviews into a single carousel that’s higher up on page. This UX makes reviews photos much easier for consumers to discover (no more scrolling through pages of reviews to find relevant photos).

In addition to providing a more modern UX design, we’ve optimized the technical performance of our reviews display so it loads faster on your product detail page.

It’s the ultimate win-win. Better, more visual shopping experiences on the frontend and faster, lighter code on the backend. 

How we optimized Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews display for best-in-class performance

Previously, the various components that made up the reviews display were lumped into a single bundle which would download each time a shopper landed on the respective page. 

With the new Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews display technology, each component is broken out individually so they can be loaded independently, leading to more control over when and how reviews load onto respective pages. 

The result?

Shoppers interact with your product pages faster — including the UGC that’s so important to their purchasing decision. 

Let’s take a closer look at the three core tactics we used to optimize the performance of our reviews display.

1. JavaScript file size

We load two JavaScript files during the initial load (231 KB and 80 KB) and for all future loads only one 80 KB JavaScript file is loaded. 

2. Caching

As web applications grow in size, capability, and complexity, caching becomes more important for the user experience. 

We’re very intentional with how and when we cache JavaScript to optimize important aspects of the site performance, such as page load speed. First, we download a 231 KB file, then we cache it. Next, we load an 80 KB file, which is the single JavaScript file used for loading the reviews display moving forward.

Our caching strategy allows shoppers to interact much faster on subsequent visits to the same page.

3. Lazy loading

We only load content when it comes into view and is ready to be used by the shopper, reducing overall impact to your site.

Our lazy-load approach has been implemented using the IntersectionObserver API, which is one of the three recommended approaches by Google. This helps provide better lighthouse performance scores for desktop and mobile. (Google lighthouse is an open source tool, which can be used to test performance.)

In summary, we’ve:

• Improved overall performance scores and memory usage
• Optimized cumulative layout shift scores in Google Lighthouse
• Improved management of dependent (third-party) libraries and shared code
• Ensured libraries are reused by all display components of display (once downloaded and cached)

The bottom line

As an industry-leading UGC platform for enterprise businesses — serving over 12,000 global brands and retailers and displaying over 55 million reviews — we’ve always prioritized the performance of our technology, and will continue to do so, while adapting to shifts in consumer behavior. 

Whether you’re a multinational retailer with millions of product reviews or a small brand that’s just getting started with UGC, our content solutions can align with your site’s performance needs and help you accomplish your business goals.

Want to learn more about how Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews display technology enables best-in-class performance? Talk with one of our experts. Or request a free demo below.

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Ratings and reviews, both positive reviews and negative, have become an integral part in the shopper journey. Consumers today are more influenced by their peers than they are by your brand. They want to know what fellow shoppers say about your products, not what you say about your products, so they’re turning to reviews en masse — 89% of shoppers now consult reviews before making a purchase

Additionally, search engines have adopted reviews as a crucial part of their algorithms for determining how results are ranked. In fact, online reviews account for more than 15% of how Google ranks results.  

With all these eyes on the number of stars, it’s critical for brands to pay attention and respond to reviews quickly, thoughtfully, and authentically. Regardless of whether a review is positive or negative, responding to reviews creates an opportunity to deepen a brand’s connection not only with existing customers but with future customers too.

Many are focused on how to respond to negative reviews, but what about positive reviews? Is it really necessary to respond even when you have a happy customer? The answer is a resounding “yes” (most of the time).

It’s a golden opportunity to build relationships with existing customers who took the time to offer feedback and to show potential customers that you’re actively listening and care about your brand’s reputation. It also reinforces the quality of your brand to both retailers and search engines.

Why positive reviews matter

Reviews are at the center of the consumer to consumer marketplace we currently reside in. There’s few better sources to turn to when considering a purchase than a product review from your peers, which is why 88% of consumers use them when evaluating a product.

While negative reviews are important, positive reviews are what really make consumers hit add to cart. According to our survey of 30,000 global shoppers (above), 82% said a product needs between 4 and 5 stars. The majority of shoppers want to see positive reviews. All you have to do next is respond to them.

How to respond to positive reviews

Here’s a few best practices to keep in mind when you’re responding to positive reviews, with examples.

1. Be personal and authentic

We’re in the midst of an authenticity movement. So when it comes to engaging with brands online, consumers appreciate authenticity. Take the time to show them the “human” behind your brand by acknowledging them by their name or nickname.

And above all, avoid copying and pasting canned “thank yous,” which make you look more robot than human. Find alternate ways to mix it up.

“Thanks for taking the time to share your positive experience with us, Albert…”

“We so appreciate serving customers like you, Sheila. Thank you for the review…”

2. Let some 5-star reviews stand on their own

While it’s beneficial to your brand’s visibility and search ranking to respond to positive reviews in a timely and authentic way, there’s no need to respond to every 5-star review. This will clutter your feed and may have the unintended effect of turning readers off. When you do choose to respond to a 5-star review, be as concise, personal, and genuine as possible.

 “Thanks for your kind words, James. We’re so happy to hear you love the [product].”

3. Avoid excessive upselling or marketing

It’s tempting to want to sell more to an already satisfied customer, but consumers can see through this tactic and may find it presumptuous or greedy. Instead, focus on what made the customer happy in the first place.

“Tina, thanks so much for your feedback and for taking the time to share the photo. It looks like your project turned out great!”

4. Remember your “other” audience

A good rule of thumb when responding to positive reviews is to remember that every response to a review — whether positive or negative — will be seen by many others beyond the person who originally posted it. Generally, by someone who is considering buying your product.

Always ask yourself “Is my response providing value to this customer and future customers reading my answer?” In addition, consider that retailers are also keeping tabs on the way the brands they sell respond to customers. Because they often have limited shelf space, they factor your responses (or lack thereof) into their inventory decisions.

“Thanks for the positive feedback, Alicia. We here at [brand] have made customer satisfaction our top priority, and we appreciate all of our fans.”

5. Keep an eye out for valuable feedback

Be a careful reader. Like with negative reviews, positive reviews often contain a hidden wealth of information that can help you further improve your product or service or validate improvements you’ve already made. 

“So glad you love your new [product], Tom. Feedback from customers like you made this possible. Thanks for sharing your review.”

It’s not just a “nice to do” either. According to our annual global research, Shoppers want to see businesses use their reviews, both positive (25%) and negative (38%), to make product improvements.

And brands are starting to take note. Lemi Shine, maker of safe household cleaning products, for example, leverages the content in their reviews to uncover improvement opportunities to ensure successful product launches.

“We regularly comb through reviews, share them internally, and make modifications to the messaging or tweak the product formulation in response to issues or needs. Occasionally, we find some hidden gems,” says Josh Emshoff, Associate Brand Manager, Lemi Shine.

Respond to positive reviews at scale with Connections

Many brands and retailers believe the sky is falling when receiving a negative review and create an operationalized process to close the loop with consumers. But they don’t pay the same attention when it comes to responding to positive reviews.

There’s just as much value in a 4- or 5-star review, and you should actively rally around the opportunity to turn a happy customer into (not only) a repeat customer but also a brand advocate for life.

Efficiently being able to respond to positive (and negative) reviews that come through multiple retail sites and channels can be tricky. It’s beneficial to use a centralized portal, like Bazaarvoice Connections, so you can quickly manage all customer feedback in one place and at scale. Sign up for free here.

Now that you know the best practices for responding to positive reviews, learn how to respond to negative reviews and online feedback below.

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How to respond to negative reviews and online feedback

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What is Influenster?

Influenster is an end-to-end influencer and creator marketing platform, powered by everyday consumers. You might know of Influenster from their coveted VoxBoxes. Who better to explain it than Influenster themselves:

@influenster Allow us to reintroduce ourselves #greenscreenvideo ♬ Chrysanthemum Tea – Prod. By Rose

The Influenster community’s love for product discovery has led to over 55 million product reviews, growing on average by a million each month. This makes the Influenster App second only to Amazon in the online product review space. And with 98% of that content added organically and non-incentivized, Influenster App members are genuinely passionate about sharing the brands and products they love. 

The Influenster App empowers everyday shoppers to be influential for your brand. By tapping into the Influenster community your brand can build a solid, transparent relationship with the shoppers that matter most and empower them to become your biggest advocates.

Influenster App benefits for brands

Here’s a few ways your brand can utilize the Influenster App and connect with the everyday shoppers who are actively raising their hands to engage with brands, and empower your future customers to buy with confidence. 

Take advantage of existing, organic content 

Influenster’s wealth of user-generated content (UGC) includes shopper reviews, photos, videos, discussions, polls, and more — across a variety of product categories from beauty to baby to food and beverage.

Whether sharing their opinions on a new eye shadow purchase or finding the best organic pet food for their beloved cat, members are using the Influenster App to research and review products that make up their daily lives. 

Over 50,000 pieces of UGC are added to Influenster everyday but this activity doesn’t have to be siloed to just the Influenster App. What makes Influenster unique is the ability to take this content and syndicate it across different channels that inform their customer’s next purchase. 

For example, Pacifica Beauty used the Influenster App to supply 12 retailers with thousands of new, high-quality reviews. Within just months of leveraging existing UGC, Pacifica gained over 2,000 reviews across nearly 200 products.

Capturing UGC organically can be a challenge, but the Influenster community is highly engaged, and we saw this as a good way to drive purchase intent.

Michael Kremer, Chief Marketing Officer, Pacifica Beauty

Those organic reviews were distributed to become more than 10,000 syndicated reviews with a 4.5 average rating across 12 retail sites such as Target and Bed Bath & Beyond.

Find and connect with your brand advocates

The Influenster App provides an easy way for brands to foster advocacy through the ability to activate hyper-targeted audiences and form one-to-one connections that can be scaled across social and onto your product pages.

Members don’t pay to be a part of Influenster. Instead, by filling out a profile of age, interests and shopping habits, linking their social channels and reviewed products, they’re connected to the brands that matter most to them.

Brands can leverage this hyper-targeted network that stretches across a variety of categories to segment the exact shopper they are looking to reach. Using over 900 data points per member, brands can activate both loyalists and competitive users, members who shop at key retailers or those with specific dietary or skincare needs, to test their products and share their feedback. 

By connecting your products with the exact, desired audience your brand has top of mind you will not only bolster your UGC strategy with authentic content, but will build life-long brand fans. 

Activate the Influenster community with product sampling

Consumer trust in influencers has dwindled over the years. A study from Bazaarvoice reported that 47% of customers are tired of influencer content that appears inauthentic. And according to our recent survey of 10,000 shoppers, it’s actually the every day social media user, like you and I, that reigns supreme.

In today’s market authenticity is key. Shoppers are turning to social media to inspire their purchases but are much more likely to trust recommendations that come from voices like their own.

Hyper-targeted sampling solutions help brands connect with their ideal consumer and lets these engaged Influenster members build brand awareness for them. Not only do these turnkey solutions drive social content and reviews, but through a post-campaign survey, brand’s can get a look into their target consumer shopping behavior and preferences.

Product Sampling is customizable for brand OKRs, whether you’re sending product to their doorstep in a dedicated box or scoring valuable space in a non-competitive shared campaign.

In addition to building up brand trust, sampling helps create a strong relationship with your target consumer. Since the majority of members are everyday shoppers, they aren’t receiving PR packages or getting paid to review products.

When members receive your product at their doorstep, they’re engaged and excited to share their opinions. Creating this branded experience helps build relationships that last long after the program’s end. 

For example, L’Oreal brand Redken wanted to generate buzz and authentic word-of-mouth for a new hair care product. So they activated Influenster members via the app to target a specific audience, including women ages 20 to 46, who have oil-prone hair, frequently hit the gym, or have busy schedules. 

Redken sent out over 2,5000 boxes to these everyday influencers, and in return generated:

• 7.7 million impressions
• 1,700 organic reviews
• 84,000 posts, shares, and likes

But most notably, the campaign generated $567,000 in earned media value. “We didn’t spend that much, so the performance was incredible,” said Monique Salas, Director of Marketing for Redken at L’Oreal.

Better understand shopper preferences through data

Customer ratings and reviews are a crucial component of the shopping experience, impacting everything from sales to SEO. But, unlocking the meaning and trends behind UGC is often time-consuming and labor extensive. In fact, according to Bazaarvoice research, half (49%) of brands and retailers report that they don’t have the resources or tools to collect insights from their UGC.

With 50 million product reviews, Influenster can source robust first-party insights on brand and products. From an in-depth review analysis that helps brands better understand their target audience to custom surveys that help fill in data gaps, insights can help guide and improve brand strategy and inform product innovation.  

Shopper data from the Influenster App can also help inform and enhance ad campaigns and marketing efforts. Brands can leverage post sampling campaign insights to create testimonials and claims that bolster brand credibility.

Also, brands can leverage Influenster’s robust targeting capabilities and high-quality member content to power their paid media strategy. ReviewSource turns their top reviews and UGC into highly-targeted digital and social ad units, bolstering brand reach, and credibility. 

The Influenster App: Your next favourite thing

For brands not yet utilizing the Influenster App, there’s a goldmine of engagement and data waiting for them to take their business to the next level.

The ability to hyper-target consumers based on behaviors and other characteristics beyond typical demographics was a key benefit in choosing Influenster

Elizabeth Northrup, Associate Brand Manager, Kraft Heinz

Bazaarvoice can help you create and customize targeted campaigns that connect with the right audience of shoppers to build brand awareness, generate authentic UGC, and create lasting brand loyalty. Learn more about the Influenster App here. Or get in touch below to get started.

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According to Pew, the ability to ask questions is a key deciding factor for consumers and is second only to price competitiveness. And in a study, the Harvard Business Review found that consumers value easy access to reliable information about products while shopping, with many reporting that FAQs and online question and answer platforms are valuable resources.

The simple truth is that unanswered questions can keep shoppers from buying your products and, even worse, cause potential customers to distrust your brand. If someone came into your physical store and asked you a question, you wouldn’t ignore them. So why ignore them online?

When you think about the impact, that’s 700 fewer calls or emails coming through to our customer service team. It’s time and money saved, so the impact is significant

Kristina Rapljenovic, Website Manager, Nestlé Canada

For good reason, question and answer platforms have become a staple in e-commerce. These tools allow brands and other consumers to directly answer product questions from in-market shoppers. That’s a big benefit to shoppers, but it’s an even bigger benefit for your brand.

Question and answer platform key benefits

Building a question and answer platform into your product pages enables you to have a one-to-one conversation with your shoppers. Whenever you’re able to have a direct channel to your audience, especially when they’re ready to make a purchase, your brand will benefit.

For example, Bazaarvoice customer MeUndies found exactly that when they implemented a question and answer platform on their site.

By answering customer questions on product pages, future shoppers can learn more about products and save themselves the effort of having to contact the team. It also enables the brand to turn a negative experience into a positive one. This has increased conversions and decreased the number of customer service tickets MeUndies employees must respond to.

Here’s the the top reasons to include a question and answer platform on your e-commerce site.

1. Reach shoppers at key decision moments

Let’s start with the biggest benefit of question and answer platforms: When shoppers are asking questions, they’re engaged and already well into the decision stage. In short, they’re ready to buy something and just waiting for validation.

There’s two types of common consumer questions:

• With quantitative questions, shoppers are asking or looking for product-specific questions that center around features. “Does this dress come in black?”, “How many HDMI ports does this TV have?”, “Is this gluten-free?” These questions focus on the hard details of a product or service.

• On the other hand, qualitative questions tend to focus on more subjective product details and personal opinions: “Is this a good blender for green smoothies?”, “What do you think of the picture quality on this TV?” These types of questions see the shopper trying to either validate or discredit their own opinions. In short, they’re looking for a second opinion, preferably from someone who has already experienced the product.

When you can provide answers to these two kinds of questions, it makes for a powerful combination. Facts and figures quickly reduce uncertainty about your product, but decisions tend to be rooted in emotion. Quantitative questions give shoppers facts and figures, while qualitative questions tell a story about the product.

2. Organically build a list of FAQs to increase conversion

One type of question and answer platform is frequently asked questions (FAQs). Aka one of the most tried-and-true methods of improving consumer confidence. The same study as above by Harvard Business Review showed the value of making it easy for consumers to gather, understand, and weigh their options. Brands that did this well were:

• 86% more likely to be purchased by the consumers considering them
• 9% more likely to be repurchased
• 115% more likely to be recommended to others

The easier a brand makes the purchase-decision journey, the better, and an FAQ list can move shoppers quickly towards validation.

But making an FAQ can be tough. You have to do customer research to identify common questions and pain points, and then you have to answer them. And you have to do that across all of your products. This can be a project.

So what if you crowdsourced your FAQs? What if you could identify exactly which questions continue to crop up from interested consumers about your products?

With the right question and answer platform, you can do just that. By giving shoppers a platform to ask their questions, you build yourself a powerful repository of consumer insight into common questions you’re facing in the market. You can answer your potential customer’s questions before they’ve even had to ask it.

3. Build more social proof around your products

Social proof has been one of the buzzier concepts in e-commerce over the past few years and for good reason. It explains a psychological and social phenomenon where people look to their peers to figure out the right thing to do. It’s the “if everyone is doing it, then I should be” feeling.

In the context of commerce, it’s a powerful force. Simply put, people often turn to their peers when making purchasing decisions. That’s why user-generated content (UGC), like ratings and reviews, has proved so successful in e-commerce. At its most basic, it prove that other people are using something.

Question and answer platforms scratch a similar itch. In addition to allowing customers to ask questions and find answers, they also show shoppers that other people are interested in — and own — the product in question. But Q&A goes one step further than ratings, reviews, and other forms of UGC — it allows shoppers to ask why the crowd is moving in a certain direction.

We want to know that other people have shared our experience. More importantly, we want to know that the choice we are making is the choice that other people have made.

Crazy Egg — web analytics tool

Research has shown that the more UGC and social likes, shares, and follows a product or brand has, the more likely it is to command respect. Sometimes all it takes to get a customer to click the buy button is to show them that other people have already hit that same button.

4. Boost SEO with key content to attract more shoppers

When you’re juggling a lot of products — and multiple product pages — it’s likely that you’re missing details somewhere. The more information you provide on product pages, the more customer questions you answer and the better your page performs in search.

Shoppers tend to ask questions when there’s a lack of information, which can help you identify content gaps on your site and then fill them with keyword-rich content.

As an added bonus, allowing customer questions on your site organically boosts your SEO. First, when your product pages are constantly being updated with new questions and answers, your pages have fresh content, which positively impacts your search ranking.

Second, people’s search queries often match the keywords in customer questions, so your pages rank higher and people are driven straight to your products. Let a question and answer platform do the heavy SEO lifting on your product pages for you.

The best question and answer platform on the market

From the original bazaar to the new connected marketplace, shopping has long been a social activity — consumers ask each other questions, talk to store assistants, and examine and compare products. While e-commerce has changed that, the tools that bring those in-store experiences online have helped fill the experiential gap.

Question and answer platforms do just that, offering up answers to shoppers when they’re on the cusp of making a decision, convincing them to make the purchase. And they’re very convincing at it.

For example, the composite organization featured in a recent Total Economic Impact Study of Bazaarvoice, which uses Bazaarvoice’s own question and answer platform, allowing them to answer questions at-scale within minutes, saw conversions increase by 20%, reaching a rate of 5%.

Learn more about Bazaarvoice Questions & Answers here or get in touch directly below to get started.

Chapters:

1. What is a brand community?
2. Benefits of a brand community
3. How to build a thriving brand community
4. Brand community examples
5. Build your business-driving engine

If you’re a millennial or older, you know what a fan club is. Maybe you were even a member of your favorite band’s fan club at some point. Maybe you still are. If so, you know the thrill of getting access to early releases, pre-sale tickets, exclusive material, stickers, and other free swag. And who could forget the chance to geek out with other like-minded individuals who shared a common passion?

Brand communities are like modern-day fan clubs for consumers. A strong brand community is a very good indicator of how loyal and engaged an audience is, which is a big factor in the overall success of your brand. But just like fan clubs, brand communities need dedicated nurturing and maintenance for long-term success.

Discover the many ways brand communities can help your brand and how to launch and manage one for the best results. 

What is a brand community?

A brand community is an online meeting space for customers (fans) of a brand to interact with each other and the brand, while gaining access to exclusive content and offers. Members of a brand community are dedicated customers who want more of what your brand has to offer. They’re galvanized by the lifestyle, values, benefits, and impact the brand represents. 

Benefits of a brand community

Brand communities are great for boosting qualitative feel-good KPIs like brand loyalty and emotional connection, but they also have very real, practical functions. There’s multiple positive outcomes of a brand community, each with its own specific ROI.

1. Foster an emotional connection with customers

Customers involved in brand communities feel strongly enough about a brand to be a member. In other words, they’re your brand’s most loyal customers. Like old-school, die-hard fan club members, these customers have an emotional connection with the brand and are usually the biggest advocates. This is a special quality in a customer base and not always easy for brands to cultivate. So you should hold onto it tightly once you have it. 

Emotional connection has a direct impact on consumer behavior. A Motista study of over 100,000 consumers conducted over two years found there were significant benefits in emotionally connected customers. These customers:

• Spend double or more with their preferred retailers over other retailers
• Have over 300% higher lifetime value
• Are loyal to brands longer, and recommend brands at a much higher rate

The community aspect is another important factor. Forrester reports that, “the desire to form a bond with fellow shoppers around a certain brand is one of the strongest drivers of consumer interest in DTC brands.”

2. Provide an outlet for product, marketing, and concept testing

Brand communities also create a venue for testing ideas and products with a captive audience. This can lead to product development and improvement and drive innovation. If you’re wondering how your target audience will respond to a product, service, marketing campaign, or anything new and different from your brand, ask members of your community directly.

You can also gauge their current sentiment and satisfaction with your existing offerings. According to a GRIT Report, online communities are the top method of market research, accounting for 59% of responses.   

A very useful function of establishing a brand community is having a group of target customers you can send product samples to. A product sampling campaign is an extremely effective way to get customer feedback about newly released products, updated products, and older products that need to be reintroduced to shoppers. By providing product samples to your community members, you can get back honest feedback from the people who know your brand the most. 

This can lead to changes and updates to improve the product and help make official product launches more successful.

3. Generate user-generated content

Brand communities also serve as another source of user-generated content (UGC). They offer a space for community members to share reviews, feedback, and visual UGC, like photos and videos of your brand’s products. UGC has the power to influence other customers within the community. And, with permission, you can share that content on your e-commerce website and social media channels and reach a larger audience.

Showcasing visual UGC on product pages can significantly increase conversion rates, and customer reviews influence purchase decisions for 97% of shoppers. 

4. Create an efficient and effective customer support channel

The thing about customer service issues is that if one customer has a question, chances are many others do, too. That’s why forums like Quora and Reddit and Yahoo! Answers (RIP) are popular sites for people to ask questions and troubleshoot problems with other consumers. Brand communities can provide the same resource but on the brand’s own platform. 

There’s no question that brand communities require money, time, and maintenance. But a Harvard Business Review contributor wanted to know if the investment was worth it from a customer support standpoint, so he conducted an experiment to find out. After hiding a client’s brand community for four months, he realized that using the community to communicate with customers and resolve issues was 72% cheaper for the client compared to its other customer support channels. Furthermore, customer satisfaction scores “plummeted to one of the lowest levels on record” when the community was inactive. 

5. Improve SEO value

That same experiment also revealed that 93% of traffic to the client’s brand community came from search engines. This shows that consumers, whether they’re already part of a community or not, are finding answers to their questions in the brand community via Google search (or using a different search engine). So, the keywords they are using in their searches lead them to discussions in the brand communities containing similar keywords. 

By appearing in search results, brand communities are organically attracting more visitors to the communities. As well as the brand’s website (or platform) that hosts the community. In the experiment, hiding the client’s community decreased its organic traffic by 83%. It also resulted in a 58% increase in customer support tickets and calls, which consequently overwhelmed the customer service department. 

How to build a thriving brand community

You need to put thought and effort into planning your brand community to do it right. Make your decisions with your business goals and customer satisfaction criteria in mind. Your brand community can be a part of your marketing department, or you may want to allocate dedicated staff to run and maintain it.

Choose your brand community platform

When planning your brand community launch, consider what platform makes the most sense for it to live on. This can include a section of your website, a social media group or separate account, or your brand’s mobile app. 

Forrester predicts that communities on brand and retailer websites will, “become more prominent.” Website-operated communities have their advantages, including access to more customer data and more administrative control, and encourage further exploration of the website. You can also add a questions and answers feature to provide your brand’s responses to customer inquiries within the community in addition to product pages.

Alternatively, your brand might already have an active audience on Facebook or Reddit. In that case, it might make more sense to use one of those channels as the community hub. Whichever platform you choose, other channels can promote and support your brand community, adding to the omnichannel experience. If your community is on your website, you can tease tips, feedback, and content on social media and vice-versa. 

Make it customer-centric

This might seem obvious, but communities made up of customers should serve the customers. They should provide a space for interaction, conversation, customer service support, and offer exclusive benefits. By engaging with customers, you can learn more about them and how they feel about your products. Then you can use that feedback to improve your products, services, customer experience, and create loyal advocates.

A thriving and self-sustaining brand community also needs to empower your customers to get involved with the brand and each other. LEGO Ideas is an example whose primary purpose is for customers to actively participate with the products and new product development and encourage each other in their own LEGO-related endeavors. With its brand community, LEGO gives its customers a chance to be collaborators. The LEGO Ideas community hub also includes its own dedicated blog, FAQ page, and links to customer service resources.

Part of having a customer-centric brand community is finding your audience’s niche and tailoring the experience for them. LEGO’s target customers are made up of creators and hobbyists of all ages who are motivated to make their ideas come to life. They then share them with others, contributing directly to the brand.

Apparel brand Uniqlo’s community craves the latest fashion trends, so the brand keeps them interested and engaged by partnering with new and cutting-edge designers and artists. 

Engage with your community

Brands should regularly engage with their community to boost customer retention, loyalty, and involvement. The chance to venture beyond a transactional relationship with a brand is a top motivation for customers who want to be a part of a community. 

That can mean offering membership perks like discounts and early releases. Also exclusive access to product and brand experts, stylists, personal shoppers, or other professionals your customers can chat with. Making sure you answer any questions brought up in discussions and providing quality customer support are some of the best ways to maintain engagement.

Engagement can reach beyond the community’s digital space to other virtual or in-person experiences. Other ways to connect members with each other and your brand can include live shopping events for community members, group exercise classes, and other organized in-person events.   

Make your community accessible

Just as you’d market any of your products, you should prominently position and promote your brand community to attract more customers to it. If your community is located on your website, make sure it’s easy to find from the home page or menu. 

Other website category pages can point to the brand community for relevant searches and content. For example, if a customer types a question on a customer service page that’s already been answered in a community forum, they can be prompted to go to the corresponding community page. 

Brands can also attach a branded hashtag to their community (#LiveBV anyone?) so customers can share questions and content related to that community on social media channels. Not only can brands continue community conversations on multiple channels, but they’re also able to expose a larger audience to their community and attract more customers.

Brand community examples

If you’re new to setting up a brand community, there’s a variety of different brands that have already done it successfully. Take notes on these active communities, all with their own approaches and niche audiences.

Nike Training Club

Nike Training Club is an example of a brand community with long-term success. It was Nike’s very first iPhone app that launched over a decade ago, and to this day, it’s one of its most popular digital channels. NTC owes its popularity and longevity to the fact that it puts the customer at the center of its mission. Originally created to solve two specific customer needs – motivation and training guidance – the app presents both its products and the surrounding community as solutions.

The community includes workouts by renowned athletes and a social aspect that allows users to interact with and support each other.

Sephora Beauty Insider Community 

Sephora has one of the best loyalty programs, Beauty Insider, that offers customers rewards based on points earned from purchases. The Sephora Beauty Insider Community is an extension of that brand, where beauty consumers can post questions and tips and share styles with the community. Anyone can access the community hub, but only members can post content and respond to other members’ posts. 

Sephora’s community is teeming with UGC, from photos of members’ makeup looks and product reviews to tons of tips and questions and answers about products and how to use them. The following video shows how members can successfully sign up and participate in the community.

Influenster

Influenster is Bazaarvoice’s very own consumer community with over 7 million members. It’s a destination for finding customer reviews on a massive amount of products from a wide range of consumer brands. The brand community is housed on its own Influenster website, and it just launched the Influenster mobile app.

Participating brands can send members product samples in exchange for reviews and visual UGC, which they can use to elevate their e-commerce product pages. This is an example of a focused and intentional way to manage a brand community for a large group of brands, although the same principles and strategy can be applied to a single brand community as well. 

Dole, a major fruit brand, leveraged Influenster to increase awareness of its full range of products by sourcing over 2,000 reviews from Influenster members in just a few months. This generated customer reviews for 74% of Dole’s product pages and a 64% increase in conversion rate among shoppers who saw the reviews.

Portland Leather Goods

Portland Leather Goods is an accessories brand that hosts its Portland Leather Insiders brand community on a private Facebook Group. The official PLI group is for customers and fans to get sneak peeks, early access, special giveaways, VIP discounts and exclusive content from the PLG team you won’t find elsewhere. It also encourages members to share their photos, reviews, tips, and other content with each other.

Intuit TurboTax + Mint Community

Taxes aren’t the most intriguing topic, but it’s one that all adult citizens (sadly) have to contend with. Especially around the annual filing deadline. There’s a lot of intricacies and details to keep up with, which is why accountants, tax agents, and tax attorneys exist. That’s also why TurboTax was created: to give individuals the option to file their own tax returns with support and guidance from the platform.

The TurboTax + Mint Community emerged as an additional service for TurboTax and Mint users to ask any and all of their tax and personal finance questions, and do their own research year-round. The community empowers its members to educate themselves and help others with any problems they might encounter. It features different discussion forums related to taxes, debt, investing, self-employment, and more. It highlights handy resources on the main community page and has links for access to customer support representatives and tools.

The community also features a leaderboard that showcases the top contributors who actively engage on the site. They receive “cheers” for answering questions, offering solutions, and posting their own thoughts and questions.

Turn your brand community into a business-driving engine

Other than attracting avid, loyal customers, your brand community should meet business goals. First, identify what those particular goals for your brand community are. Common goals include:

• Driving leads and conversions
• Increasing your customer advocacy
• Generating UGC as part of your marketing strategy
• Providing more cost-effective and efficient customer service 

Your goals will guide how you’ll structure the community and how you’ll measure the progress toward those goals. And the results of your brand community efforts will also reveal how it can support and collaborate with other departments, like demand generation and customer service.

As with all of your marketing initiatives, make sure you’re analyzing the performance of your brand community on a regular basis. Pay attention to metrics like member growth, conversions, UGC collected, website traffic, and anything else that’s relevant to your business goals. 

Want to see how one leading, global brand does it? Join Taylor Alston of J.P. Morgan, below, for a conversation on innovative community-building strategies.

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In recent years though, Pride has become synonymous with brands changing their logo to a rainbow logo on social media and doing little else. But it should be so much more than that.

B:You

We recently established a number of employee-led resource groups (ERGs) at Bazaarvoice because diversity, equity, & inclusion (DEI) isn’t just something we stick on our website, it’s woven through who we are as people, and as a business. Our ERGs are there so all employees, whether part of a community or an ally, can feel welcome, supported, and involved. 

“DE&I initiatives at Bazaarvoice run throughout how we operate as a business and have improved everything from morale and camaraderie to business policies and employee retention.”

Keith Nealon, Bazaarvoice CEO

With that, I’m proud (pun intended) to introduce our ERG for the LGBTQ+ community — B:You! B:You was established to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace, and promote an understanding of the unique issues facing the LGBTQ+ community. The group is open to everyone interested at Bazaarvoice, including LGBTQ+ identifying colleagues, allies to the community, and anyone interested in learning more!

This year’s Pride Month was the first since B:You was established so we had to make sure it was extra meaningful, and extra exciting. We reached out to other ERGs, both community members and allies, for ideas, events, and resources (listed below). We thought up engaging events, as well as the following weekly communications model to celebrate and acknowledge the history and culture of those that represent Pride to our ERG members:

1. LGBTQ+ history
2. LGBTQ+ arts
3. LGBTQ+ icons
4. LGBTQ+ activism
5. LGBTQ+ culture

How did Bazaarvoice celebrate Pride?

We based each week on a different contribution the LGBTQ+ community has made to society, and provided resources to read, watch, and listen to. Not to mention special events like drag bingo and a talk on why pronouns matter!

Week 1: LGBTQ+ history

The LGBTQ+ community has an inspiring, and sometimes heartbreaking, history. While many countries provide equal rights today, it wasn’t always the case. The Stonewall Riots in New York City, the Gay Liberation Front in the UK, civil rights marches around the globe — it’s taken years of fighting and dedication to get where we are today. So for week one we wanted to honor that!

B:You’s chosen resources for the week:

1. READ:
   • Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin
   • Famous LQBTQ+ Quotes
   • The Queens’ English, by Chloe O. Davis
2. WATCH:
   • American Experience: Stonewall Uprising on PBS
   • The Danish Girl (Netflix or Prime Video)
   • A Secret Love (Netflix)
3. LISTEN:
   • Let’s take it back a few decades: Disco Forever playlist
   • Harvey Milk – The Hope Speech (1978)
   • Angela Eagle LGBT speech – “We aren’t getting back in the closet”

Week 2: LGBTQ+ arts

I think it goes without saying that the LGBTQ+ communities contribution to the arts has been huge, to say the least. It always has been, and likely always will be. Music, film, TV, radio, literature, you name it. They’ve all been dominated by the LGBTQ+ community over the years.

B:You’s chosen resources for the week:

1. READ:
   • The Naked Civil Servant, by Quentin Crisp
   • Broken Horses: A Memoir, by Brandi Carlile
   • Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance, by Richard Bruce Nugent
2. WATCH:
   • Paris is Burning (Watch the Trailer) (Full documentary streaming on Netflix and Apple TV)
   • Love, Victor (Hulu)
   • Heartstopper (Netflix)
3. LISTEN:
   • B:You’s Pride Month Spotify Playlist 

Week 3: LGBTQ+ icons

We’ve all heard phrases like, “Omg he’s such an icon,” or, “She is just so iconic.” But what does this actually mean? A gay icon is someone who is recognized as a cultural icon by members of the LGBTQ+ community, though they don’t have to be a member of the community themselves. Think of Judy Garland, Princess Diana, and Lady Gaga as prime examples!

The icons of the LGBTQ+ movement have spanned a variety of backgrounds, geographies, and identities. Whether it’s a politician who paved the way for LGBTQ+ rights or one of the biggest pop stars in the world advocating for the community, an icon can represent many facets of the community.

Being an icon isn’t exclusive to the arts either, and includes athletes and even fictional characters (Xena: Warrior Princess, anyone?).

B:You’s chosen resources for the week:

1. READ:
   • Alan Turing: The Engima, by A. Hodges
   • Angels in America, by Tony Kushner
   • Black. Queer. Southern. Women.: An Oral History, by e. Patrick Johnson
2. WATCH:
   • The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (Netflix)
   • Love Me Like You Should: The Brave and Bold Sylvester (Youtube documentary)
   • MILK (Amazon Prime)
3. LISTEN:
   • Lady Gaga Stonewall speech (starts at minute 1:12)
   • Jimmy Sommerville, Smalltown Boy
   • Making Gay History (podcast)

Week 4: LGBTQ+ activism

While we’ve acknowledged the history and contributions of the LGBTQ+ community, we’re very aware the fight is far from over. Even as rights have improved for some members of the community, there’s still existing legislation that’s harmful to other members of the LGBTQ+ community within the USA and many other countries around the world.

We still have a long way to go, and it’s important for our community and our allies to recognize the ways in which we have fought historically to gain equal protection, and what we can continue to do for members of the community.

The future isn’t fixed and progress isn’t guaranteed — the overturning of Roe vs Wade has highlighted that. It’s devastating news for women, and also possibly opens the door for a revert of LGBTQ+ rights. Week four was to highlight that the fight continues, and how we can continue to be good allies.

B:You’s chosen resources for the week:

1. READ:
   • The Book of Pride: LGBTQ Heroes Who Changed the World, by Mason Funk
   • Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States, by Joey L. Mogul
   • The Guide to Being a Straight Ally (PDF) or The Guide to Being an Ally to Transgender and Non-binary Youth (PDF)
2. WATCH:
   • Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen (Documentary, Netflix)
   • Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness: Can we Say Bye-Bye to Binary? (Netflix Series) P.s. check out the podcast series too!
   • ALOK: The Urgent Need for Compassion | The Man Enough Podcast
3. LISTEN:
   • Angela Eagle LGBT speech: “We aren’t getting back in the closet”
   • Queer AF (podcast)

Week 5: LGBTQ+ culture

Last but certainly not least — LGBTQ+ culture! We wanted to end on a fun note, but also highlight that queer culture is more than asking, “scene or not scene?” Culture is different to different members of the communities — there’s subcultures within the overarching rainbow of the community and it’s always evolving!

So we wanted to highlight what makes LGBTQ+ culture so special, through the programs, stories, podcasts, and topical stories that make our culture so unique. The more we see members of our community shine, the more that our subculture will continue to be embraced and championed by community members and allies alike. Go us!

B:You’s chosen resources for the week:

1. READ:
   • Queer Love in Color, by Jamal Jordan
   • Drag: The Complete Story (A Look at the History and Culture of Drag), by Simon Doonan
   • What does it mean to be camp? BBC News article
2. WATCH:
   • RuPaul’s Drag Race (Netflix and Hulu)
   • The Birdcage (Hulu, HBO Max, YouTube, Apple TV)
   • Eurovision 2022 (On-demand videos from this year’s contest)
3. LISTEN:
   • Do I sound Gay? (Documentary found on Amazon Prime, AMC+, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, YouTube, and Google Play)
   • LGBTQ&A Podcast: The Most Interesting People in the World are Queer (Apple Podcasts)
   • Keeping it Queer, with Navin Noronha and Farhad Karkaria (Apple Podcasts)

What’s next?

• Pride London and Pride Austin
• Fundraising opportunities
• A presentation on LGBTQ+ history
• Exploring volunteering opportunities in our communities
• Providing our ERG members with mentoring and development opportunities

B:You will continue to encourage acceptance, foster a safe work environment, raise awareness of issues affecting our community, and provide counseling and support for our members. While having fun along the way! And Bazaarvoice will continue our commitment to championing DE&I initiatives through our ERGs, and beyond.

Check out our dedicated DE&I webpage to learn about the rest of our ERGs!

Do you want to join a company that not only champions diversity, but believes success is dependent on it? Be your authentic self at Bazaarvoice. See job openings here.

Read on for our complete guide to creating a professional Instagram media kit that showcases your talent, highlights your unique audience, and makes brands want to go into business with you.

Chapters:

1. What is an Instagram media kit?
2. What to include in an Instagram media kit
3. Keeping your Instagram media kit up to date

What is an Instagram media kit?

An Instagram media kit a resume and business card for your Instagram account. It contains key information about you, your content, and your audience. Through your kit, you can sell yourself as a skilled, knowledgeable, and, of course, influential Instagram user.

When brands are interested in working with an Instagram influencer, they’ll reach out to them and often request a media kit. Companies do this for two key reasons:

1. They want to know if you’re a good fit for their brand. Companies want to partner with influencers who have an original take and a unique voice, but they also want a partner who shares their values. A media kit can tell a brand more about you and your work and help the brand determine if it’s a good fit
2. They want to ensure you can reach their core audience. A media kit also contains important information about an influencer’s followers. Before investing in an influencer, brands often look at the demographics of your audience — as well as how engaged they are — to ensure there’s a significant overlap with their own target audience

But an Instagram media kit doesn’t only help brands decide if you’re right for them. It can also attract their attention and make them want to work with you. A well-designed and informative media kit communicates your value and can lead to a variety of brand sponsorships, collaborations, and ambassadorships.

Now that you know what a media kit is, let’s take a look at what it should contain.

What to include in an Instagram media kit

Your media kit document can be anywhere from one page to several pages long. And there are a few core sections it must include so that marketers can determine if you’re the right influencer for their brand.

Your story

Brands want to know about the person behind the photo filters, so dedicate a few sentences to telling them who you are. But keep it relevant to your Instagram account. Say why you’re passionate about the topics you post, why you enjoy engaging on Instagram, and why your audience relates to your content so well.

Influencer Sabir Peele — who’s better known as Men’s Style Pro among his more than 65,000 followers — suggests adding some emotion to your summary by using first-person narrative and sharing personal details throughout.

“It’s more impactful to say, ‘I love helping people feel great about themselves through clothing,’ rather than saying, ‘[Insert name] is a style expert who has appeared on E! News,’” Peele says. This is especially important, as an ideal influencer partner will be committed to engaging and interacting with their audience.

Niche influencers are super valuable in the growing digital world. Have a unique hobby or experience? Share it. You never know when a brand will be on the lookout for an influential plant parent or someone who has visited over 100 National park for an environmental charity tie-in. Smart marketers will look for this kind of unique persona. 

Audience information

Your Instagram follower count is important, but it’s not the only number brands are interested in. Companies interested in partnering with you will also want to see your engagement rate.

Engagement rate is the percentage of followers who engage with your Instagram posts, and it includes both likes and comments. You can calculate your Instagram engagement rate by dividing the number of likes and comments your posts receive by your number of followers and then multiplying this value by 100.

Engagement rate = likes + comments ÷ followers x 100

Brands want to see a high engagement rate because it shows them that your followers are actively interacting with your content, which means they’re likely to respond to content you post about their brand. The average engagement rate on Instagram is 4.7%, according to an Iconosquare analysis of more than 30,000 Instagram business profiles.

You can also include your number of followers on other social networks, such as TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. If you have a website or blog, use Google Analytics to gather important information for your media kit, like monthly visitors, monthly page views, and time on site. Or, if you have a newsletter, share your number of subscribers, open rate, and click-through rate.

Audience demographics are also important to include in your Instagram media kit. As noted earlier, brands want to identify influencers whose followers are closely aligned with their own target market. Include such information as audience location, gender, and age range, as in the media kit example from Adventure Cats above. You can easily find this information within the Instagram app using our handy guide to Instagram analytics.

Rates

Not every influencer chooses to include rates in their Instagram media kit. However, it can be beneficial for both influencers and brands to be upfront about pricing matters so that neither wastes the other’s time.

While there’s no centralized scale for influencer marketing costs, many influencers include a pay range in their Instagram media kit that depends on the type of collaboration. For example, a sponsored Instagram Story may cost less than a post. Or, an influencer may charge more for hosting a giveaway or participating in a brand takeover. 

Don’t be afraid to bundle content by what platforms compliment each other. For example, a sponsored photo post is a great way to share about a product or brand you love, however, this could be complimented by an Instagram Story that includes a swipe-up link to the retailer. Think about the  most impactful way to deliver your message to the audience. 

Also, consider the deliverables. If working on a video collaboration, would you need to partner with a video editor? Is a photographer required for a unique type of collaboration. Be sure to build in your costs and then consider the value of your reach.

An influencer’s rates may depend on a variety of factors, including their number of followers, engagement rate, expertise level, and if they have agency representation. While it’s commonly accepted that influencers with the most followers earn the most, that’s not always the case.

Nano-influencers and Micro-influencers — endorsers with between 1,000 and 100,000 followers — are powerful marketing tools who can also rake in sponsorships. Brands often turn to them because micro-influencers are tapped into niche markets and have high engagement and conversion rates.

Having trouble determining your Instagram influencer rates? There are also a variety of calculators that can help influencers figure out fair rates. If you’re interested in creating sponsored posts or product reviews in return for free products, you can mention that in your Instagram media kit as well.

Previous work

If you’ve partnered with brands before, share a few examples of your past collaborations and campaigns. Include screenshots of branded social posts, links to sponsored blog posts, and more. Nothing is more convincing to a possible collaborator than seeing the solid work you’ve already done. 

For example, Adventure Cats includes some of its previous brand partnerships, such as a series of Instagram posts crafted as part of a cat food sponsorship.

Some influencers even include a form of social proof in this section, such as testimonials and quotes from marketers they’ve worked with. And if you can provide some numbers about the return on investment of your previous work, even better!

Visual aspects

Instagram is a visual medium, so your media kit should showcase the best of your work. This may include a photo that gets to the heart of your personal brand, a graphic you created for Instagram, and so much more.

Just keep it consistent with the visual style of your Instagram account so that your media kit is like a continuation of your social presence. For example, if you use specific colors, photo filters, typography, or imagery on your Instagram, maintain this theme in your media kit.

Luckily, you don’t have to be a designer to create a professional-looking Instagram media kit. There are countless media kit templates available online, as well as on free design platforms like Canva and Taler, and there are even Etsy sellers who specialize in custom media kits.

Even if you don’t often post selfies on your Instagram account, be sure to include a headshot in your media kit so that marketers can see the person behind your popular account.

Growth

Don’t be afraid to show your growth journey year over year — or month over month, especially if you’ve recently had a follower growth-spurt. Brands will enjoy partnering with an influencer who is paying attention to what followers respond to and attracting a new audience everyday.

Keeping your Instagram media kit up to date

Things change fast in the digital age. Your followers will grow, your website analytics will change, and your brand partnerships will come and go.

So regularly update your Instagram media kit to reflect this.

Ensuring that your influencer media kit contains up-to-date information provides brands with an accurate picture of who you are and how great your social media reach is. It’ll also give them confidence that you’ll bring that same level of thought and detail to a potential partnership.

LEARN MORE

The social media marketer’s guide to Instagram analytics

Read here