Picture this: You’re walking through the store, your stomach is growling, and you’re looking for the perfect thing to eat. Then, out of nowhere, a person shouts, “Free samples!” and hands you a hot bite of pizza just oozing with melted mozzarella cheese. And hey, it’s dinner time…you want more! *Add to cart.*

Now, replace that pizza with anything else — wine, ice cream, a handheld vacuum. Once customers try it, they’re more likely to talk about it, buy it, and share it. That’s why, despite the costs, product sampling marketing is one of the most effective ways of collecting authentic content and increasing conversions on your e-commerce site, social pages, and beyond.

Chapters:

1. What is product sampling?
2. When should you launch a product sampling campaign?
3. Why you should launch a product sampling campaign
4. Product sampling strategies
5. Get started with product sampling

What is product sampling?

It’s the practice of offering goods or services to your audience in exchange for increased brand awareness, brand loyalty, reviews, feedback, and other revenue-boosting user-generated content (UGC). This is a form of experiential marketing because consumers are able to completely absorb and engage with the product prior to buying it.

Quick history lesson: Product sampling is a tried-and-true marketing strategy dating back to the 1850s. Benjamin T. Babbitt, a soap manufacturer, was one of the first people to hand out samples to his fan base. As time passed, the power of this marketing strategy was realized by others and has since become popular in a variety of industries.

Today, there’s several different product sampling methods:

• Traditional sampling means giving away free product samples to customers, so they will feel more confident buying the product
• Digital product sampling is a sustainable sampling method, where customers buy a product in a store or online with a provided coupon, or receive money back after uploading the receipt — no samples need to be shipped meaning no unnecessary packaging waste
• Sampler packs include small or trial-size products. If the customer likes the sample, they are more likely to buy the product at full size
• Mail drops are when you mail free samples directly to customers’ homes
• Limited time samples are free only for a specific amount of time, such as three days, a week, etc. This adds excitement and plays to the psychological fear of missing out (FOMO!)
• Virtual sampling is when consumers are able to try out a product online without visiting a store or receiving something in the mail. This type of product sampling campaign relies on technology like an app or artificial intelligence

When should you launch a product sampling campaign?

You should launch a product sampling campaign when you need to boost word of mouth or get feedback on a new product.

• You have a high-quality, effective product ready for people to test. It’s important to make sure you’re delivering something genuinely good before people’s opinions start flying. A bad product will be all the more maligned by product sampling
• Your budget can handle sampling costs. This includes the cost of the samples as well as shipping, handling, staffing, and marketing. Note: Digital product sampling alleviates a lot of fulfillment costs!
• You need increased brand awareness for an existing product. If your brand isn’t well-known but you have a great product, you need positive word of mouth to increase brand awareness and fill your sales funnel. Just make sure expansion is feasible for you based on your current business model
• You have a new product to launch. Product sampling will help with product development, as well as create some additional buzz. People who sample your product and love it are more likely to buy it, tell their friends, and even create shareable content about it

Why you should launch a product sampling campaign

Product sampling marketing helps brands boost feedback, conversion rates, positive reviews, and social content for both small and enterprise brands alike.

Get valuable product feedback

Product sampling is a way to connect with and get feedback from your audience.

According to Ryan Stewart, a marketing expert and the managing partner of WEBRIS, “We normally ask them questions about their experiences with our services, show how they use them, or even invite them to take part in an online contest that involves using our services.”

You can also use surveys to collect quantitative and qualitative data. This feedback can help you further develop the product into something your audience will love.

Boost sales and conversion rates

Sampling a product makes customers want to buy it. It’s wired into our psychology. Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University, knows samples create desire. “If I gave you a tiny bit of chocolate,” he says, “all of a sudden it would remind you about the exact taste of chocolate and would increase your craving.”

Take Costco, for example. An oft-cited study about Costco revealed the grocery store saw a significant boost in revenue thanks to its free food samples. And Stewart confirms sampling is a solid way to increase sales. He asserts, “People who feel like we value their opinions are more likely to buy from us when they need something similar in the future.”

Gathering UGC and reviews from shoppers also gives brands a significant boost in sales. Absolution Cosmetics wanted to support product launches, build brand awareness around their healthy skin care messaging, and boost customer loyalty and engagement to ultimately increase sales. The brand implemented a dual review collection strategy, combining an evergreen sweepstakes on their website, ensuring a constant influx of fresh UGC and reviews, and targeted product sampling campaigns to support new product launches.

As a result, in just a six-month period, Absolution increased its revenue per visitor from 14% to 123%, customer engagement from 28% to 61%, and earned $107K directly attributed to ratings and reviews.

Encourage positive reviews due to a sense of reciprocity

Free samples encourage potential customers to play into the idea of reciprocity. In other words, people who receive the sample want to do something for your brand in return — like posting a positive review on social media.

This by no means every review is going to be positive of course. Neither should that be expected. Product sampling isn’t “we’ll send you a product sample in return for a positive review.” By contrast, reviews should be honest regardless of the sentiment. And even negative reviews provide added authenticity for your brand.

But one of the reasons sampling does yield such positive results is because the right provider (like Bazaarvoice ) can create campaigns for a hyper-targeted audience across demographics, behaviors, preferences, and more. When the recipient is the exact target audience the product is for, the review is much more likely to be positive. Just make sure your sampling provider can accommodate this.

“Product sampling allows us to get our audience involved in the creation of our content, which gives them a sense of ownership over what we’re sharing,” says Stewart.

For instance, after TTI Floor Care North America allowed top brand loyalists to sample Dirt Devil vacuum cleaners for free, they saw an 86% response rate and more than 700 reviews full of positive, authentic UGC. As a result, Dirt Devil product reviews went from 2.8 to 4.5 stars. These reviews not only filled TTI’s own webpage but were also syndicated on major retailers’ sites.

Supercharging brand awareness with social content

You probably already know that social content is an important way to reach consumers. Combining the reach of social media with the effectiveness of sampling gives you a unique marketing campaign powerhouse.

Most Bazaarvoice Sampling customers are brand managers who use sampling to generate and feature content on social media.

“Linking sampling to social is a core tenant of any e-commerce plan,” says Kerry Bridge, Global Director of Advocacy at Bazaarvoice. “You need to be able to collect that great content from social in order to populate your product pages. Plus build your community.”

We’ve pinpointed a few different reasons why social content and sampling go hand-in-hand:

1. New product launches benefit greatly from large amounts of recent UGC. 89% of shoppers check reviews before making a purchase, and 60% of shoppers feel more comfortable making a purchase if they can see product images or videos first. A great way to collect this valuable UGC is to employ sampling
2. Entering new markets helps you expand your reach. Each demographic is different, and over 70% of shoppers are looking for perspectives that reflect their own. Product sampling can help you get your foot in the door and provide UGC that speaks to these new markets in a relatable way
3. Supporting your core SKUs with product sampling allows you to collect quality content at scale. Your core products are hot sellers for a reason — get them in your fans’ hands through a sampling campaign and encourage them to create content. Data from our Bazaarvoice Network of over 12,500 brands and retailers found a 135% increase in conversion rate and a 164% increase in revenue per visitor when shoppers engaged with social content from their peers
4. Working with the right content creators can help you skyrocket your brand awareness and success. Creator collaborations add to your content volume, and by sharing with their own engaged audiences, they also extend your reach

Relaunch your products

There may be times when you want to shift your brand strategy and reformulate or reinvent your product. With the introduction of the FTC’s 2023 review hijacking legislation, reformulating your product isn’t just about tweaking its features — it’s about ushering it into the market as if it’s an entirely new line. It’s a unique challenge, with the daunting task of resetting your review count and content collection to zero. But sampling can help you rapidly rebuild from this new starting line.

• Relaunch your product with fresh advocacy: Successfully relaunch your reformulated product by targeting the right audience, providing an experience, driving UGC from day one, and gaining actionable insights from product samplers
• Combat misleading reviews with authentic content: If the reformulation means the product is “substantially different” in “one or more material attributes” from the prior version (as per the FTC), it would be deceptive to continue using existing reviews. A sampling campaign can generate fresh reviews and customer photos quickly and effectively so you have an arsenal of new social proof you can show off to shoppers

Product sampling strategies

Ultimately, all sampling campaigns help your potential customers get a preview of what you’re selling while helping you get more visibility for your product and brand overall. The individual strategies can take several different forms, from in-store food samples (Costco) or mailed glasses to try on (Warby Parker). The details depend on your business model and campaign goals.

Here’s seven examples from the masters that you can imitate when you craft your own campaign, including the relevant sampling program they used.

Costco nails the traditional sampling strategy

Costco is famous for the traditional, in-store, free sample method. People have gone so far as to tour the sample tables at various Costco stores. The more samples people try, the closer they get to a free lunch. Personal finance and food bloggers have picked up on this idea as well and have even written articles encouraging the practice.

Costco’s store sampling draws people to its stores, thanks to one key message: Going to Costco is fun (and yummy!)

While you might be nervous about handing out “freebies,” the benefits far outweigh the costs. In fact, according to the College Marketing Group, “Interactions — the company that handles Costco’s sampling — found that their efforts led to a 71% increase in sales of beer and a 600% increase in frozen pizza.”

Traditional sampling works especially well for supermarkets like Costco, as well as other brick-and-mortar stores like makeup counters. Just remember that the goal for this type of sampling is to increase sales and positive word of mouth. You probably won’t get a lot of usable content out of it.

L’Oréal gets personal with virtual sampling

Since its target market is focused primarily on beauty, personalization and creativity are everything for L’Oréal. That’s why L’Oréal’s special offers and promotions are tailored to this demographic’s specific preferences and needs in the form of virtual sampling.

Customers simply select a product like hair dye or blush. Once they grant L’Oréal access to their camera, a small window shows them what they would look like wearing that product. It’s kind of like Zoom + the Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap Visualizer. But instead of paint, it’s a beauty product.

Virtual sampling is attractive because it’s incredibly scalable, not to mention germ-free. Brands aren’t limited by physical space in stores or the cost of making or shipping the product. Instead, consumers are able to instantly get a good idea of what the product would be like for them without the hassle of applying the sample color to their wrist (eww), applying to a program, handing over their personal info, or potentially wasting a product if they don’t like it.

This technique is also sometimes more helpful and realistic than physical store samples because the tool takes into account different product combinations and how they affect each other. For example, if I dyed my hair bright red, would that red lipstick look good? Hmm… maybe a more subtle shade would be better.

Brands can use virtual try-ons to fill their social media calendars. If you have a tool like this, inspire your customers to post a photo of themselves on social media “trying on” your product. Then collect, store, and track that content using Bazaarvoice’s AI-powered Media Library.

Warby Parker masters the mail drop

Warby Parker prides itself on its choice selection when it comes to new, stylish, and comfortable eyeglass frames. It provides a quiz to help customers determine exactly what type of frames will best suit them and then a personalized selection based on their responses.

After completing the quiz, customers can choose up to five frames that are delivered right to their homes, where they can test them for five days. After finding that perfect pair, customers can buy what they want and ship the rest back. The return shipping is free with Warby Parker’s return label.

For something you have to wear all the time (like glasses), comfort and style are paramount. Warby Parker helps customers feel assured that both needs will be met because customers can literally see the results for themselves at home before buying.

For brands that want a turnkey sampler program, Bazaarvoice offers a white-labeled sampling program to help retailers get their product samples directly into the hands of their community and start generating UGC.

Neuro optimizes product development

Sampling isn’t just to market and sell existing products. Kent Yoshimura and Ryan Chen, co-founders of wellness company Neuro, explain in this podcast one of the key ways they achieved their success: making sure Neuro Gum was as perfect as possible before they jumped into product activation. They gave out free samples of the gum to family, friends, and co-workers to test a variety of key details such as:

• Different ingredients (20 milligrams of caffeine to 80 milligrams of caffeine)
• New flavors
• Different sweeteners
• Hard chews vs. soft chews

After perfecting the product, Yoshimura and Chen surpassed their crowdfunding goal in just three days and ended up selling over 12 million pieces of Neuro Gum. And those people who sample the product became loyal customers.

“Once we introduce that product to somebody, the repeat purchase rate can be up to about 40, 45%,” said Chen. “Our challenge is getting people to try the product. Sampling is a really big opportunity for us.”

Neuro ensured it had a good, high-quality product and an active community of fans, thanks to product sampling. According to Chen, “We’ve grown such a loyal group of customers that they give us feedback all the time. It’s built a community which has been inspiring for us and has given us the motivation to keep going.”

After their initial success, they continued sampling with specific cohorts like the CrossFit community. They’ve also shipped product samples to new distributors to explore a potential new market in Africa.

Using samples and collecting customer responses is the most effective way to get meaningful feedback about your product, so you can improve it and launch with confidence.

Bazaarvoice’s sampling programs can help you learn from sampler feedback and expand into new markets via our robust, global Influenster community.

Home Depot doubles conversion rates with Managed Sampling

Home Depot Canada wanted to increase the volume of UGC, particularly reviews, its brands get on its product pages. So they partnered with bazaarvoice to create the Home Depot Seeds Sampling program.

“UGC is becoming increasingly important. It’s no longer a ‘nice to have.’ It’s a necessity. We see our site as a research tool, so even if people come into the store, they still use their phones to see ratings and reviews and make a final decision.”

Gabriela da Silva, Senior Brand Advocate Analyst, Home Depot Canada

Seeds Sampling is a review-seeding program that puts a brand’s highest priority products into the hands of its shoppers, in exchange for honest reviews on HomeDepot.ca. Since the program’s inception, it’s already led to some brands doubling their conversion rates on HomeDepot.ca.

It’s not just legacy products either. WiZ, a brand featured on HomeDepot.ca, used Seeds Sampling to generate buzz for new products and earn that UGC before they’d even launched. 

It worked, too. The conversion rate for the products used in Seeds Sampling was 68% higher than products not part of the program. Not bad at all.

Home Depot isn’t the first retailer to turn to Bazaarvoice for a Managed Sampling program. We’ve built sampling programs for Walmart, Target, and Sam’sClub, to name a few. And you could be next.

Get started with product sampling

Ready to experience the power of product sampling marketing in your own business? Bazaarvoice makes it easier than ever to get your products into the hands of the perfect customers, leading to a surge in reviews, social media buzz, authentic word-of-mouth, and sales.

You can learn more about Bazaarvoice Sampling here, or get started directly below.

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To appeal to stakeholders’ demands for efficiency and profitability — while generating the content they need to deliver promotions shoppers actually want to see — savvy brands and retailers are investing in user-generated content (UGC) campaigns. They know photos, product reviews, and videos created by real customers (rather than their brand) can help increase authenticity, reach new audiences, and convert more customers. 

Consumers are significantly more likely to engage and click buy from marketing tactics that use UGC —  brands can see up to a 136% lift in conversion when they include reviews on product pages and a 90% increase in the time consumers spend on-site when it features visual UGC like customer photos, according to Bazaarvoice’s own Network data.

UGC campaigns help teams meet their bottom-of-funnel goals, including the most important one: purchases.

The power of visual content creation

In addition to rich and helpful user-provided reviews, our research has shown that reviews with customer photos and videos have an even bigger impact on brand trust and consideration.

• 62% of consumers say they’re more likely to click on content that features customer photos compared to branded images
• 85% of consumers say they turn to visual UGC over branded content when making purchasing decisions
• Three in five shoppers would rather purchase a product with 10 reviews that contain photos compared to one with 200 reviews but no user photos

Our research tells us there’s also a direct correlation between age bracket and demand for visual UGC. Younger generations like Gen Z — who wield $360 billion in disposable income, by the way — that have grown up with online shopping have a much higher demand for visual content.

To help you create the visual content you need to drive growth, defend market share, and increase ROI, we’ve created multiple communities that are ready to serve as your UGC engine. These networks are designed to help brands and retailers generate diverse, high-quality customer-generated reviews and visual content with the ultimate speed and simplicity. 

In addition to Influenster, our diverse community of 7.5 million+ global, everyday shoppers, we also:

• Partner with social creators who have active and engaged followings
• Create client-owned loyalty programs
• And offer custom sampling campaigns to drive more awareness and engagement

The 3Cs: Empowering consumers to create high-quality, authentic photos 

Our community members and creators are pretty darn good at what they do. The typical Bazaarvoice UGC campaign already drives above-average engagement rates on social media — our campaigns drive a 5% average engagement rate on Instagram compared to 1-3% for everyday users. But when it comes to visual content, not everyone is an expert photographer — and, let’s be real, some products are harder to capture than others.

That’s why we’ve launched a series of tutorials across the Influenster journey, showing members how to create strong, engaging photos and reviews. The lessons focus on what we call “The 3Cs” of product photography:

1. Clarity — Have good light and focus. Is the image bright, clean, and crisp?

2. Center of attention — Show the product front and center. Are products in focus, taken at a good angle, and void of distracting elements?

3. Context — Share how you use it. Is the product incorporated into an activity or routine with the right intention and in the right environment?

When a member uploads media for the first time, they receive tips on how to integrate the 3Cs into their photos and are shown examples of high-quality visual content creation. We’ve also launched multiple community campaigns about the 3Cs, created daily challenges to gamify learning, and developed easy-to-understand articles and social content to help everyone become better product photographers.

In return, our community is producing higher-quality UGC, including in-depth reviews, visually appealing photos, and more engaging social media posts — all while staying true to the individual creator’s style and audience.

We also leverage AI to score member photos so we can identify and select top-performing members for campaigns with images. As a result, brands and retailers have enjoyed the following benefits:

• 3x more reviews with media than network benchmarks
• 2x longer reviews than industry benchmark
• 5% average social engagement from sampling participants
• 3x lower rejection rate than the competition

The goal is to help more commerce and marketing teams maximize their ROI, while saving time and money on creating branded content in favor of high-quality UGC their ideal customers actually want to see.

How the 3Cs have helped four brands increase their ROI

Let’s take a look at four brands who have done exactly that. These brand examples all have one thing in common: they understand the value of good visual content creation. Not only that, but they know how to put it to use in their marketing campaigns, webpages, and beyond.

1. Increasing conversions for Clorox

Staple cleaning brand Clorox came to us for help generating relevant social UGC and leveraging it to drive sales at Target. We sent sample cleaning products in a VoxBox sampling campaign to select Influenster members who we knew could create the high-quality UGC, visual content, and authentic reviews Clorox needed to drive more interest in their products.

Thanks to their 3Cs training, a targeted group of 200 creators and five influencers were able to create magazine-worthy photos of their new Bathroom Foamer Refillable Cleaner Kits in action. Target’s team of moderators then published this content to their category and PDPs. The campaign generated over 215 reviews and over 150 social posts, which more than doubled Clorox’s earned media value. The brand also saw a 6.4x conversion lift on Target PDPs featuring social content from their sampling campaign.

2. Driving buzz for Kraft Heinz

When the global food and beverage company Kraft Heinz rolled out eight new salad dressings, its marketing and e-commerce teams knew creating buzz would be the first step to a successful launch. To help them get people talking, we identified a subset of our Influenster community to sample Kraft’s new vinaigrettes and dressings. We also helped the members capture engaging photos of their families in the kitchen using the new dressings as well as the meals they prepared.

When it came to driving buzz, the sampling campaigns and visual content more than delivered. Our community created 98,000 pieces of UGC on the Influenster site alone. Kraft also received 20,000 authentic reviews for the new dressings plus 369,000 social posts, shares, likes, and comments that drove 39 million impressions.

3. Helping Carol’s Daughter reach new customers

Brooklyn-born Carol’s Daughter is committed to creating natural hair care products. Their sulfate-free Wash Day Delight lines are no exception. To help them reach more African American and Afro-Latina women with 4B to 4C curl types, we created a hyper-targeted sampling program and encouraged members to share photos of themselves with the products, in addition to reviews. 

The sampling program and 3Cs training helped Carol’s Daughter earn more than 4,500 reviews and the creation of authentic visual content that drove almost 13 million social impressions. They also received a new set of fans: Almost 80% of those who sampled the Wash Day Delight line said they were likely to purchase it in the future. 

4. Supporting Petco’s branded product lines

The pet health and wellness company Petco has partnered with Bazaarvoice for over 15 years on a variety of UGC projects, including Ratings & Reviews and Questions & Answers.

So when Petco wanted to generate more awareness, SEO traffic, and conversions for its Wholehearted and Reddy brands, they knew exactly who to turn to. We developed a new Spotted Sampling Program to get Petco private-label products in shoppers’ hands with the goal of generating honest, helpful reviews on Petco.com. 

Our 3Cs training encouraged shoppers to share engaging visual content along with their reviews. Seasonal sampling programs over the holidays resulted in delightful photos of dogs in costumes. Our community also created engaging photos of pets wearing branded Petco hats and accessories. 

Thanks to the UGC campaigns, Petco saw a 48% increase in revenue per visit for sampled products. The brand also experienced a 28% increase in conversions and 15% increase in average order value. In addition to an impressive 405% boost in review volume, Petco also saw a significant increase in organic search rankings and traffic.

Your end-to-end visual content creation solution

Bazaarvoice helps you target the largest community of everyday consumers and skilled creators to generate the highest quality UGC — reviews, visual content, videos, and more.

In addition to supporting your visual content creation, the UGC our campaigns generate can help you increase your ROI by repurposing this customer-created visual content and feedback throughout the buying journey. Use these in ad creatives, nurture campaigns, and social media posts, just to name a few.  

To learn more, get in touch below and see how Bazaarvoice can help you boost your marketing strategy and increase ROI with visual content.

This article is based on a short masterclass from Bazaarvoice Summit on how to get the right content you need to make all your shopping experiences engaging and high-converting. You can watch the full masterclass below.

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Although brands understand influencer marketing’s importance, shoppers are no longer looking to their favorite celebrity for purchasing guidance. The tide has changed, and shoppers want to follow individuals they feel like they know and trust. 

Bazaarvoice research suggests shoppers prefer content from micro-influencers such as brand employees, because they are more relatable, genuine, and authentic. Micro-influencers could easily be their next-door neighbor or best friend who genuinely enjoys and uses this product or service. 

Employee influencers strategies

With this revelation, some brands’ influencer efforts are shifting to the people who know their products or services the best — employees. As the micro-influencer trend begins to ramp up, here’s the companies are leading the pack. 

Spotlighting behind-the-scenes initiatives

Walmart is no stranger to the impact of social media. Beginning with local Facebook groups for almost 5,000 locations, Walmart gave its stores the autonomy to post unique content about the goings-on in their location. To take social media a step further, Walmart’s launch of their Spotlight program has begun to transform 500 employees into pint-sized influencers.

Under this Spotlight intuitive, employees become the brand by sharing behind-the-scenes content on their personal social media accounts. From the #WalmartHolidayShuffle TikTok trend to the Thanksgiving-themed Instagram campaigns, not only does the Spotlight program give shoppers an insider look at the brand, it also rewards employees for their influencer efforts.

The program is still in its infancy, but Walmart hopes to grow the influencer program to roughly 1,500 employees soon.

Purely social engagement 

Dell has always been a social media pioneer. The company realized big dreams early on by launching response analysis and social media monitoring technology. Dell’s forward-thinking spirit inspires the brand advocacy of its employees. To capitalize on their employee’s brand passion, Dell created an employee-driven social sharing content strategy.

With over 10,000 employees participating in the program, Dell encourages advocates to use their platform to share inspirational content relevant to Dell customers. Only 20% of Dell’s content is about the brand itself, while the other 80% highlights the organization’s passions. Empowering the employees has exponentially grown brand advocacy and loyalty.

Strengthening company culture online 

Zappos’ free-spirited persona seemingly attracts a large audience. To give shoppers insights into the brand’s daily operations, Zappos encourages their Zappoians (aka employees) to share content about all things happening within the company walls. From simple meetings to costume extravaganzas, Zapponians can post freely on the EyeZapp – Zappos’ official Twitter page, using the hashtag #CompanyCulture.

As a result of Zappos’ employee influencers efforts, shoppers and employees alike flock to be a part of its culture. 

Coffee lovers unite

Early on, Starbucks understood the weight of empowering employees to share their voices. To amplify the impact of their brand’s message, they created the “partners” platform for their employees to share their daily activities with Starbucks enthusiasts worldwide.

Calling employees partners and encouraging them to share their love for all things coffee under the Starbucks brand increased its authenticity and allowed employees to have a sense of closeness and accountability. 

As part of the Starbucks mission to engage employee influencers and brand advocates, they also crafted a social media account specifically for its partners, which grows weekly.

Exercising social media opportunities 

In 2020, Peloton sought micro-influencers in the fitness community to broaden their reach, ramp up user participation, and increase their long-term bottom line. By combining social media, virtual events, and its digital power, Peloton enhanced the way instructors connected with riders while enriching their fitness experience. 

Peloton continues to rely on its instructors and fitness enthusiasts’ love for promoting and sharing content about products and experiences they love. 

Turn your employees into influencers

On average, research suggests that employee content sees 8x more engagement than content shared through a brands channel. Empowering employees to become micro-influencers and brand advocates not only builds trust and shopper confidence, but the employee feels valued and appreciated for their expertise – an overall win-win for any brand.

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Brand loyalty success means that a customer feels connected to your brand and keeps coming back for more. Think about the brands you’re loyal to. You trust them, and you’re more likely to shop with them over other brands or retailers that offer similar products. You’ve probably recommended them to your friends, family, and maybe even strangers.

Hubspot found that customers today trust companies ​​55% less than they used to. However, if you can overcome that barrier and build loyalty and trust, you’ll set your brand up for success. About 61% of loyal customers go out of their way to buy the brands they love, and 60% make more frequent purchases. 

How do you build brand loyalty?

A consumer will start to trust a brand when the brand delivers on exactly what it presents itself to be. Brands and retailers can accomplish this by being authentic in everything they do. About 80% of customers have gained loyalty for a brand over time because of great experiences with an excellent product, service, advice, and more.

Brands that have a positive, seamless end-to-end shopping experience and find ways to make existing customers feel special are the ones that are most successful today.

3 brand loyalty examples

Let’s take a look at a few brands that excel at building loyalty with their customer bases with these best-in-class brand loyalty examples. 

1. Starbucks

Starbucks gets a gold star for brand loyalty. Starbucks fans support it like supporting a football team. The company has developed a loyalty program called “My Starbucks Rewards” that keeps coffee-drinkers coming back to stores over and over again. As of July 2021, the loyalty program has 24.2 million members in the U.S.

The Starbucks app makes ordering, customizing, and paying for coffee very easy. The company also uses personalization to offer customers individualized rewards based on past purchases. Plus, customers earn stars every time they make a purchase in the app that they can eventually redeem for free food, drinks, or Starbucks merch. 

Yes, there’s probably cheaper coffee in your town or a cool shop that uses the freshest, highest-quality beans, but people keep returning to Starbucks over and over because of brand loyalty. 

If your brand decides to go down the loyalty program route, there’s several options for how to do it. There’s points systems, tiered, rewards, and VIP programs. No matter which one you pick, you need to ensure the program is easy for your customers to use. 

With Starbucks’ program, customers simply order on their phones, and the app does the rest of the work by calculating star rewards and letting customers redeem them.  Loyalty programs that are confusing or inconvenient won’t inspire the repeat purchases you’re looking for. By rewarding your customers for choosing you, you’ll be rewarded with loyal shoppers for life. 

2. Coca-Cola

Morning Consult asked 6,600 customers which brands they’re most loyal to, and Coca-Cola came in at number 8 on the list (Walmart and Amazon were numbers 1 and 2, respectively). While there’s other sodas out there, like store brands or Pepsi, Coca-Cola drinkers are most loyal to their brand. In fact, the internet is full of memes about customers being frustrated with being asked, “Is Pepsi okay?” when they order a Coke. 

We’ve all seen Coca-Cola commercials that either elicit nostalgia or show a wide range of people drinking and enjoying Coca-Cola products. But one of the most significant ways the brand has built loyalty over the years is by adapting to meet its customers’ changing needs and tastes. There’s Coke Zero, Coke Life, and a wide range of milks, juices, teas, and more under the Coca-Cola brand name. 

How can you follow Coca-Cola’s lead? Listen to your customers. Analyze the feedback they’re giving you in product reviews and on social media. Do they wish you offered a different type of product? Do they want one of your products to have a certain feature? Listen to their changing needs and give them what they’re looking for to show you’re on their side. 

3. Fenty Beauty

Launched in 2017, Fenty Beauty is a relatively new brand, but it already has a massive base of loyalists. Within the first few weeks of launch, the brand reported $100 million in sales. The brand was created by Rihanna, who already had millions of loyal fans worldwide. Still, a lot of the brand’s success can be attributed to its inclusivity (a popular foundation comes in 50 shades!) and its authentic social media strategy. Fenty builds loyalty by using its social media to showcase customer tweets and customers who use its products. The brand also posts makeup tutorials on its Youtube channel so customers can see what the products look like and how they apply. 

Any brand can have an authentic social media presence. Visual user-generated content (UGC) gives shoppers social proof about what their peers love and how products look in real life. This social proof inspires customers to make more confident and faster purchasing decisions. 

On-site galleries that populate product pages with social media content are a great way to bring social UGC to your website. Ask customers to upload their own photos of your products using a specific hashtag for a chance to be featured on your website and social channels. 

Turn these brand loyalty examples into profit

Authenticity in everything you do is what will drive better brand loyalty success. One of the easiest ways to be more authentic is by tapping into the voice of the customer — in the form of ratings, reviews, social media posts, videos, and more.

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Masterclass: How to maintain brand loyalty in a tough economy

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Chapters:

1. Why launch a product online?
2. 8 strategies for a successful online product launch
3. Follow up post-product launch
4. Create your online product launch plan

Why launch a product online?

In short: pandemic shopping trends are here to stay. When most people had to stay at home, consumers began browsing and shopping online through necessity. In March 2020 alone, page views on e-commerce sites increased 25% year over year, and order counts grew 21%, according to data from across our network of 12,500+ brand and retailer websites. We saw this increase even further in later months — page views are up 75%, and order count is up 95%. 

But even now the world is back open, consumers are still mainly shopping like it’s closed. And it’s not just the traditional e-commerce realm either. 80% of shoppers say their time on social media has increased significantly, which has helped spur the meteoric rise of social commerce.

And given that social commerce, the buying and selling of products and services through shoppable content on social media, is projected to to reach $79.6 billion in 2025, launching your product online only ensures you’re meeting shoppers where they are. Here’s how to do it.

8 strategies for a successful online product launch

To get your new product in front of shoppers, you need to meet them where they are. Here’s eight strategies to successfully teach you how to launch a product online.

Or, for ease, you can jump down to our short masterclass on how to have the most successful product launch possible.

1. Determine the market need for your product

The best way to uncover whether there’s a market for your new product is to look at what consumers are buying and how your product aligns with those trends. Maybe it’s setting up your own private label brand to coincide with the struggling economy. Or it’s a new TikTok tool to keep up with rapidly-rising TikTok e-commerce.

But, shoppers are browsing and purchasing lots of other things online. In recent years we’ve seen over 100% growth in orders across the following categories:

• Home improvement: Tools, paint, furniture, and building materials
• Sporting goods: Athletic equipment, fitness items, bicycles, and recreational vehicles
• Health & beauty: Cosmetics, over-the-counter medications, hair care, grooming items, and fragrance
• Food & beverage: Fresh and packaged foods, and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages
• Arts and entertainment: Books, video and music downloads, and streaming services
• Consumer electronics: Computer programs, apps, and appliances

Aside from just researching current consumer buying behaviors, examine your own data about customer behavior to understand shoppers’ interest. What are they browsing and buying? How have related products performed? Which products are shoppers reviewing?

Ratings and reviews especially tend to reveal special product requests, new trends, and overall sentiment about your brand.

2. Set up a timeline for the launch

Getting your product in consumers’ hands as quickly as possible is undoubtedly your number one goal. But, it takes time and planning to get there. Prepping and launching a product generally takes about one to one and a half years, according to Claire Maynard, Head of Product Marketing, New Products & Solutions at Atlassian. Sometimes working backwards from your ideal launch date can help create a reasonable timeline.

You need time to develop a solid online marketing strategy that spans social media, email, and a website. You also need to tap into your creativity to craft your brand’s story, identify your target audience, and get them excited about your product, well before it launches.

3. Collect user-generated content with sampling

Part of your timeline needs to account for allowing time for a sampling campaign. Why? 89% of shoppers check reviews before making a purchase, so launching your product with an existing pool of reviews is going to boost sales. And sampling is how you do it. Product sampling is a tried-and-tested marketing tactic where you offer goods or services in exchange for reviews, social posts, and other user-generated content (UGC). 

For launching new products online, not only does it generate invaluable brand awareness and social proof, it also provides valuable insights into shopper sentiment and potential sales. Including time in your project plan for sampling ahead of launch will give your product a stronger start in the market.

Burt’s Bees for example turned to product sampling ahead of launching a new makeup line — the largest expansion in the brand’s history. Naturally, this made them nervous. But thanks to sampling, they needn’t have worried. Within just two weeks, the brand had collected 300 reviews, with an average star rating of 4.48. After six months, cosmetics accounted for 21% of all sales on the brand’s site.

4. Tell your story in a creative, appropriate way

Telling a compelling, creative story about your brand and product resonates with shoppers. Once you land on your central story, develop content to support it — professional photos and video, UGC, descriptions, landing pages, and more. 

Just make sure the content is appropriate and meaningful. 58% of respondents from the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer said they only buy from or advocate for brands whose beliefs and values they support. This is especially true when it comes to Gen Z.

In addition, consider factoring in the UGC you’ve collected into your marketing campaigns by showcasing customer testimonials or photos. This is especially beneficial now in a time when consumers are sensitive to brand missteps. Using UGC in your online product launch campaigns is a smart and authentic way to connect with your audience, like these examples demonstrate.

Repurpose content across your entire online presence: social media posts, email marketing messages, websites, digital advertising, etc. Include calls to action asking consumers to sign up for emails, favorite a post, or visit your website too.

5. Generate buzz on social media

Social media plays an integral role in helping consumers discover new products and brands. Countdowns, product previews, “coming soon” messages, giveaways, and hashtags are a few ways to use content to drive excitement for the launch. But consumers also actively turn to social media platforms to discover new products and brands. Scrolling is the new window shopping:

It’s not just discovery, either. After seeing a product or service on Instagram, 92% of users say they’ve taken some kind of action, such as buying the product online, visiting the brand’s website, or following the brand on social media, according to research commissioned by Facebook.  

An example of a brand generating buzz on social media for an online product launch is Tula, a probiotic skincare company. Recently, Tula launched a new size of one of their best-selling primers, so they shared product images on their social channels to get the ball rolling:

Targeted social media ads are another way to reach your desired audience and compel them to purchase your product or engage with your brand. Among social media users, 48% say they’ve purchased something after seeing an ad on social media, according to The CMO Survey. 

6. Partner with influencers 

One of the best ways to make sure you land your online product launch is to use the audience already there: influencers. Social media influencers are helpful in spreading the word about your products because they already have a vast, often loyal, network of followers. Influencers especially resonate with younger demographics, with more than half of Gen Z and millennials saying they trust influencers’ advice about brands and products, according to a Morning Consult report.

If you’re using influencers, make sure they’re genuine, with a high engagement rate and not just a large number of followers. And, examine the type of engagement the influencer receives. For example, are the comments on a product post actually relevant to the content?  

Once you’ve chosen your desired influencer(s), reach out to them and include them in your sampling campaigns outlined in step 3 above to collect authentic, organic UGC.

After Tula had started generating buzz on its Instagram, the brand partnered with influencers to spread further brand awareness and collect feedback.

7. Set up a website or a product landing page

A designated website or detailed product page on an existing site gives consumers a place to learn more about your product. It also builds trust with consumers that could encourage them to place an order.

Product pages are a great place to house a detailed product demo video and a visual coming soon display, like a countdown clock. Nail your product page first time with the following best practices:

Above all, you can use the site to collect details about the consumers showing interest. Most consumers are willing to share their personal information with brands if they get something in return, like exclusive access or a discount. 

8. Spread the word by email

Once you start collecting consumer email addresses, send one-on-one messages. Over half of consumers check their personal email 10 times a day and say email is how they prefer to receive messages from brands.

The first stream of emails should hint about the new product. Then, follow up with details about the launch date. When the product launches, send “buy now” emails with vibrant images and a call-to-action link to make purchasing easy. Add a sense of urgency to encourage purchases by offering discounts or limited-time offers.

Tula also included emails as part of their online product launch strategy:

Pro tip: don’t sleep on SMS marketing. 85% of smartphone owners would rather receive text messages from brands than phone calls or emails.

Follow up post-product launch

The work doesn’t stop when the product launches. Post-launch, focus on customer care. Respond to messages quickly and check your social media mentions. And, keep up the market strategy you put in place.  

Next, don’t forget to email customers who’ve purchased the product and ask for a product review. Just one review can increase future purchases by 10%, according to Bazaarvoice data. Also use the insights provided in these reviews to tune your products accordingly. European retailer Vertbaudet for example amended its maternity line based on feedback from customer reviews, which led to a 12% increase in sales.

Create your online product launch plan

Launching a product online isn’t easy. But over 39% of global shoppers have recently purchased from different brands they hadn’t heard of before and 83% of shoppers will continue to buy from newly discovered brands, according to our Shopper Experience Index. So now’s the time to capture these consumers with your new product launch.

Product launches can bring success even before they go to market. Read our e-book below and learn how you can create a UGC plan, and use it to create the most successful online and offline product launch possible, with easy-to-use tools and best practices.

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6 ways to launch your product with a bang

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The human brain is hardwired to seek rewards, and research shows that consumers are 80% more likely to choose a brand that offers a satisfying loyalty experience over competitors. It’s no surprise, then, that a proportionate number of businesses want to reward their loyal following.

Brand loyalty programs are a win-win for customers and businesses alike because they reward the customer and transform them into long-term brand advocates. Looking for inspiration? Check out these winning brand loyalty examples to get you started.

Most popular types of brand loyalty programs

There’s several types of loyalty programs that brands can choose from. They all reward customers for spending and advocating for the brand, but the right fit comes down to your specific customer base’s purchasing behavior.

Point-based brand loyalty programs

This type of brand loyalty program offers points — a type of branded currency that can be exchanged for rewards — when customers complete purchases or other activities that demonstrate their loyalty to the brand.

They’re simple to understand and easy for consumers to adopt. It’s the same concept as a child’s piggy bank, where a small amount of currency is accumulated over time and then used for a reward. And for anyone who had a piggy bank as a kid, we know how satisfying that is.

The most common example of brand loyalty program, point-based programs are ideal for frequent purchasers. Customers that buy items regularly — gasoline, groceries, or hygiene products, for example — are perfect for point-based loyalty programs because points will inevitably accumulate.

Brands can get creative with how points are awarded, too. Nordstrom, for instance, awards more points to Nordstrom credit card-carrying members and those who redeem points through the iOS app.

It really comes down to how you can entice your members and tease their psychological reward and pleasure centers. It might sound manipulative, but if you’re offering real value to your members, it’s beneficial to all sides — and therein lies the advantage of points-based loyalty programs.

Tiered loyalty

Tiered loyalty requires consumers to reach a certain benchmark to be upgraded to the next level. Instead of accumulating points, spending them, and starting back at zero, the benefits of reaching a higher tier are permanent.

Alongside our psychological need to be rewarded, when humans achieve something, they almost immediately start looking for the next accomplishment. If someone gets a promotion at work, suddenly they’re thinking about the nicer car or home their newfound success would allow them to afford. They’re thinking about that sweet prestige that comes with their higher-paying job. Tiered brand loyalty programs are effective because they make consumers work toward a goal, and it provides that sense of achievement and status once a higher tier is reached — spending more along the way.

And tiered loyalty programs are great on the business side as well. They remove challenges from maintaining points-based programs, such as points expiring or needing to be meticulously tracked. Different tiers also allow you to segment your customers better, offering a more personalized and exciting experience to each bracket.

Tiered and points-based loyalty can actually complement each other. Growing bag retailer Caraa actually combines a point-based structure with a tiered reward program. The customer’s tier is determined by how much they spend and also affects the number of points they receive for birthday purchases and other special events.

Paid membership

Paid members pay a recurring fee for access to exclusive deals and VIP treatment. This can be a hard sell, but once customers are in, they’re really in.

There’s value in that commitment, too. Research from McKinsey found that members of paid loyalty programs are 60% more likely to spend more on a brand after subscribing, versus only 30% for free loyalty programs. Equally as impressive, 70% of consumers would be willing to pay for a premium loyalty program provided the benefits were relevant and desirable to them.

Paid brand loyalty programs are best suited for customers that know what they want and crave an “insider” experience. If you look at many subscription models, you’ll see they’re actually premium loyalty models that offer tangible incentives to join.

Take Watch Gang, for example. Nobody is going to join a subscription with that name unless they are interested in building a watch collection. They pay their recurring fee and receive a watch each month, but they’re also paying for massive exclusive discounts on the online store as well as the chance to win premium-tier watches every week. 

The rewards align with the customer’s lifestyle perfectly, offer an exclusive experience, and provide the business with an opportunity to upsell their loyal members.

6 brand loyalty program examples to inspire you

These brand loyalty program examples should give you a great idea of how to get creative — and what works. Many of them combine parts of points-based, tiered, and paid programs to deliver a dynamic loyalty experience.

1. Sephora offers flexible rewards to members

Sephora’s Beauty Insider program is enormous, boasting 25 million members and making up around 80% of annual revenues. Sephora is an excellent brand loyalty example because it combines point and tier memberships.

What makes Beauty Insider unique is the flexibility in how points are spent. Members not only get access to point rewards, but also discounts, savings on shipping, exclusive gifts and events, sample products, and more. Points can even be redeemed for more exclusive offers like limited edition products or personalized beauty consultations.

2. Starbucks makes its app central to customer loyalty

Starbucks was the first brand to make its app the home of a rewards program. Customers take advantage of the program by ordering and purchasing through the app, earning “Stars” in place of points to redeem for rewards.

The app is the go-to for members to order, pay, and redeem points for personalized rewards. 40% of Starbuck’s total sales come from the Rewards Program, with some same-store sales rising by as much as 7%.

Centralized loyalty purchasing through one channel gives the brand a goldmine of customer data. Popular menu items, popular locations, and customer lifetime value are all insights that help Starbucks improve its experience and offer more relevant rewards.

3. Cineplex expands SCENE rewards to combat slow cinema traffic

Canadian cinema chain Cineplex broadened its SCENE loyalty rewards to increase traffic during the pandemic. This is a fantastic example of how a dynamic brand loyalty rewards program can breathe life into a business during slow times.

SCENE points were originally collected to be used for free movie tickets. Now, the possibilities have spread to a growing network of stores for members to enjoy. SCENE expanding how members can redeem points means they can take advantage of savings at their favorite retailers even if they aren’t going to the cinema.

Just because most people weren’t going to the movies doesn’t mean their hard-earned points shouldn’t be put to good use.

4. Amazon Prime membership wins customers from the competition

Amazon is an e-commerce titan, but certainly not a monopoly. There’s plenty of competition from other giants like Walmart. Amazon maintains its edge through its Prime loyalty membership and the benefits that come with it.

Members pay a flat annual fee for exclusive perks, including free rapid shipping, discounts, Prime Video, music access, and more. As of 2019, around 65% of Amazon shoppers were Prime members, demonstrating the loyalty program’s enormous appeal.

Amazon leverages its robust fulfillment network and software infrastructure to deliver benefits to its loyal members. Smaller brands won’t have the same assets, but can apply a similar paid loyalty program at a smaller scale, provided the benefits deliver real value to their members — especially if that loyalty program offers better deals than competitors.

5. Costco highlights exclusive appeal as a selling point for members

Costco started as a wholesale distributor that eventually evolved to selling wholesale product volumes to shoppers in a warehouse-like setting. It has always used a paid loyalty model, using exclusivity to elevate the value of its brand.

Members pay an annual fee for the right to shop in-store and online at Costco locations worldwide. Executive membership entitles members to percentage rewards and exclusive deals. As of May of this year, Costco has 110 million paying members.

The original membership-only retail experience, Costco has maintained die-hard brand advocacy with its members since its beginnings. “The Costco story begins in 1976, when entrepreneur Sol Price introduced a groundbreaking retail concept in San Diego, California. Price Club was the world’s first membership warehouse club, a place where efficient buying and operating practices gave members access to unmatched savings.”

Brands can benefit immensely from similar paid loyalty programs — provided they offer value that members can’t resist.

6. The North Face delivers exciting lifestyle rewards

The North Face’s XPLR Pass brand loyalty program is a great example of appealing directly to a customers’ passion — in this case for the outdoors. Offering rewards specific to customers’ lifestyles creates a closer connection between the brand and its buyers.

Rewards are collected and given in ways that align with outdoorsy lifestyles and environmental protection. Members can earn rewards by checking in at iconic natural locations or using a reusable shopping bag, for example.

Points can not only be redeemed for discounts and products but also for the chance to “field test” products and for excursions like hiking trips and mountain climbing expeditions. This shows a deeper understanding of what North Face’s customers value, creating a stronger bond and driving loyalty.

Brand loyalty programs pave the way for brand advocacy

Customers who are satisfied with their loyalty rewards are twice as likely to recommend the brand to others. That advocacy is incredibly valuable, as it’s the point where the customer has evolved from just someone who buys from your brand to one who has joined it.

Brands that want to build a strong community and relationship with their customers should focus on delivering valuable and relevant rewards. Following in the footsteps of some of the most popular and creative examples of brand loyalty programs is sure to help.

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Masterclass: How to maintain brand loyalty in a tough economy

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Dopamine is a neurotransmitter made in the brain that gets released every time your brain expects a reward. It washes over us any time we hear our favorite song, smell freshly baked cookies, or experience anything we associate with pleasure.

It also happens when we see visuals. In today’s digital world, that translates into hundreds of dopamine releases a day. We can help you turn those dopamine releases into something strategic for your brand. Let’s walk through how to tap into consumer psychology and apply visual UGC to your marketing tools to reach audiences on a deeper level that results in discovery, and ultimately, purchasing.

Let authenticity guide your visual UGC strategy

We’re going to let you in on a little secret ­— your followers and customers speak to each other about your brand. This is actually a good thing. Authenticity is integral to connecting with consumers because people trust people like them.

UGC helps personalize shoppers’ experiences. This personal connection makes shoppers then feel inclined to purchase. In a global study, 93% of respondents said that friends and family are the most trusted sources of information on brands and services. To be clear, “friends and family” extends to online and social media communities. Because in today’s digital landscape, it’s easier than ever to connect with people, especially trusted voices who are just like them.

How to spot the best visual UGC

With so many people eager to capture and share photos, that doesn’t mean all of them are necessarily something you want to re-purpose for your brand marketing efforts. It may seem overwhelming, but all it takes to choosing the best visual UGC is understanding a few basic photographic principles. These are the golden rules when choosing and creating visual UGC that’s a cut above the rest:

1. Lights, camera, action! Beautiful, natural light adds an overall feeling of warmth, with can help elicit positive feelings about your brand. But don’t let your photos get washed out! Find the sweet spot for your lighting – in the morning or golden hour (usually 4 p.m.) is preferred
2. Focus and clarity. When assessing photos, make sure the product is in focus and that no competing products are in the shot. Photos shouldn’t look blurry or grainy
3. Stay in the spotlight! This is a biggie. Products in the shot should be recognizable as your own. In the case of apparel, that could be a popular item from your seasonal line, or a long-term best-seller. In terms of consumer products, your logo or easily identifiable packaging elements or product features should be clearly visible

Repurpose UGC to strengthen your brand’s e-commerce experience

Brands can and should repurpose visual UGC to strengthen their marketing materials and e-commerce experience. Ratings and reviews, for example, are essential to motivate confident purchases. In addition to your products being discovered, a positive review can drive purchase — especially when that review includes a photo.

According to a survey conducted by our friends at Influenster, 53% of consumers say they consider reviews with photos more credible than those without.

On behalf of our clients, we conducted research that highlights the power of adding visual UGC to their websites, and they’re pleased with the results:

Not only this, but a recent Total Economic Impact Study of Bazaarvoice by Forrester Consulting revealed that conversion rates increase 200% with visual UGC.

UGC is meant to be a social experience

One of the most obvious places to consider finding, leveraging, and amplifying visual UGC is social media. According to one study, 90% of consumers will buy products from a brand they follow on social media, and 75% will increase their spending with that brand. This can be especially potent on a highly visual platform such as Instagram, which has a potential advertising reach of a billion users.

This is a great way for us to gather photos from customers wearing our clothes without having to go to studios or without having to get big photo shoots to do it. Customers are wearing our products that show how much they loved it and we can get that sentiment across. It’s very much seen as improving our online experience as a whole

Site Optimization Manager, retailer

Here’s the bottom line. UGC drives awareness and builds customer loyalty. When a product feels personal to consumers, aka seeing someone like them using a product, that personal experience can drive purchase. Trust in content created by people like them — with the power of the brain’s response to visual content, and you have a winning case for visual UGC as a powerful brand-building tool.

Tips to help you start upping your visual UGC strategy

• Find consumers who are already posting imagery about your products. You can search your brand handle or a hashtag, or work with us to start collecting and curating them for you. After all, what else are friends for?
• Encourage consumers to try your new products and share their authentic photos in your marketing materials, on your social channels, and at e-commerce point-of-sale
• Keep yourself educated and up-to-speed. For example, TikTok and Twitch are wonderful emerging platforms where you can get a real taste of consumers are engaging and talking about brands
• Be inclusive in terms of the influencers and voices you feature, as well as the types of photos. Unedited content is more relatable than perfectly poised pictures, and consumers can tell the difference. Diversity “behind the camera” — that is, amongst those you entrust with helping to select great photos — will help ensure those photos are truly authentic

If you want to talk more about trust in authentic voices, visual UGC, or how to create and customize campaigns that connect with shoppers, Bazaarvoice can help. A recent Forrester Total Economic Impact Study of Bazaarvoice revealed when shoppers engage with visual UGC, the conversion rate rises to 6% for the composite organization (based on nine Bazaarvoice clients).

Learn more here. Or request a free demo below to get started.

User-generated content (UGC), like customer images, social posts, video, and reviews, is not only a powerful tool when it comes to easing your workload, but it’s also an effective way to connect with your audience.

Micro holidays are a great way to leverage your existing UGC — and collect more — all while building stronger brand-customer connections.

Chapters:

1. What are micro holidays?
2. Why brands should celebrate micro holidays
3. Which micro holidays should you celebrate?
4. 4 ways brands incorporate UGC on micro holidays
5. Boost your social media with micro holidays

What are micro holidays?

Micro holidays are unofficial or social media holidays that celebrate moments, things, people, places, or ideas. Micro holidays are typically fun, ranging from the super-casual #NationalDonutDay to the awareness-building #NationalDayOfUnplugging, which encourages us to get off our devices.

Micro holidays pop up as trending hashtags on social media, used both by everyday people and by brands. And while branded posts are great, user-generated is another key component to these social media holidays.

Any individual, brand, or organization can make up their own micro holiday, too. And it’s nearly impossible to predict which ones will catch on. The ones that do also typically result in a trending hashtag — like REI’s #OptOutside, which showcases their commitment to being closed on Black Friday so employees and customers alike can enjoy and respect the outdoors.

Why brands should celebrate micro holidays

These fun, informal holidays allow brands to show off UGC and stretch every photo or piece of content a little further.

Foster community

UGC is important for every brand. 85% of people think UGC is more influential than branded content, and nearly half of the top-performing marketing leaders depend on it.

When you jump on micro holidays, you can also use UGC for your own social media marketing purposes. Curate UGC over time, and when a micro holiday comes around, turn to your library of UGC to find relevant content to post. River Island, for example, celebrated #InternationalDayOfFriendship:

Drive awareness

Taking advantage of trending hashtags can make your brand relevant to a whole new audience. Strategic hashtag use puts you in front of new potential customers and allows you to jump on existing trends.

For example, Stila Cosmetics capitalized on #NationalLipstickDay with a special flash sale. The brand published beautiful images of their favorite lip products, included the hashtag, and made each post shoppable with Like2Buy. The two-hour flash sale generated 141% more clicks than the previous seven days combined.

Fill out your social media calendar

It’s tough to come up with content ideas for an entire year, year after year after year. Especially when you don’t have a lot of content or resources to work with.

Micro holidays are an easy way to come up with relevant and timely social content ideas, with little creativity required. Just take a quick look at a calendar of micro holidays, and highlight which ones could be relevant to your brand.

It’s important to note, though, that you don’t want all of your posts to be dedicated to social media holidays. There should be a good mix of social content to keep followers engaged.

Which micro holidays should you celebrate?

If you do a quick Google search for micro holidays, you might be overwhelmed. No social media manager has the resources to celebrate all the micro holidays, so you have to choose the ones that are most relevant to your audience and brand. Consider the following:

• Parallel interests: Your product(s) might cater to a specific want or need, but it’s likely that there are conversations related to similar interests or categories that make sense for you to join. Skin-care brands might jump on the National Self-Care Day bandwagon, for example.
• See what your customers are talking about: It’s always important to conduct social listening to gain insights from your audience. Find out which social media holidays they celebrate, and then determine whether it makes sense for your brand to celebrate, too.
• Create your own micro holiday: Würkin Stiffs sells magnetic collar stays, so they created their own weekly holiday, #WurkinWednesday, likely to resonate with their customer base of working professionals. They share customer content to their own accounts.

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A post shared by würkin stiffs (@wurkinstiffsinc)

4 ways brands incorporate UGC on micro holidays

UGC is a critical component of every digital marketing strategy, social media and beyond. To help you tap into the power of UGC while leveraging social media holidays, we’ve rounded up a few ideas:

1. Host a hashtag contest

You can also use social media holidays to collect even more UGC to use throughout the year. Consider hosting a contest, and require entrants to post UGC to their own channels as a part of entry.

Pet-food brand Purina Pro Plan partnered with Instagram influencer Adventure Cats to create National Take Your Cat on an Adventure Day. Instagram users were encouraged to post photos of their cats having adventures to enter to win a year’s supply of Purina Pro Plan, and then 12 of the photos were featured in a calendar, composed entirely of UGC, that was sent to animal shelters. During the week of the photo contest, more than 1,000 photos were posted for the contest.

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A post shared by Purina Pro Plan Cat (@proplancat)

If you’re holding a hashtag contest in tandem with a social media holiday, make sure you include both the main hashtag and your own custom hashtag. This will make it easier to curate contest entries in a single place, as opposed to a hodgepodge of posts that may or may not have anything to do with your brand.

Looking for brand advocates to boost your contest? Learn how you can seamlessly activate your shoppers within the Influenster community to generate social buzz for micro holidays with social advocacy campaigns.

2. Repost to your accounts

You don’t need to host a contest to collect UGC. In fact, if you know which social media holidays you’ll be participating in, you can curate UGC for that year-round and then repost it on the day. That way, you don’t have to spend the entire day monitoring the hashtag and manually reposting those that make sense for your brand.

Plus, it’s fun for customers to experience being featured on a brand’s Instagram. You can foster community and encourage even more UGC, because others will also want to be featured.

#ShadesForMigraine raises awareness for migraine disease and encourages people to wear anti-glare glasses on June 21. TheraSpecs sells glasses for people who suffer from migraines, and UGC is already a big part of their social media strategy, so they jumped in on the conversation and featured their customers’ posts.

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A post shared by TheraSpecs (@theraspecs)

And for National Watermelon Day, Crater Lake Spirits shared a melon-infused cocktail recipe from a customer.

A word of advice: Ask before you repost. Some people prefer brands not to share their content, and other people might even provide the original high-resolution file free of charge.

3. Drive sales with product tags

After you have Instagram Shopping enabled, you can add product tags to your posts. These tags show a product’s name and pricing, allowing customers to purchase with just a few taps. It’s a great way to drive conversions directly from social media. If your products are featured in UGC that you plan to use on social media holidays, make sure you add a tag.

Skin-care brand Vichy Canada did that with this UGC post to celebrate #NationalFaceMaskDay. They linked to their own face mask, a direct tie to the micro holiday.

4. Show your philanthropic side

Today’s consumers want to support brands that align with their personal values. In fact, one study from Accenture found that 62% of customers want companies to take a stand on current issues. And many causes have their own micro holidays for which you can show your support—and your UGC.

On National Adopt A Shelter Pet Day, motorcycle accessory brand Epidemic Motors strayed a bit from their typical social content. They reposted an Instagram shot from one of their customers that featured both the brand’s products and the customer’s shelter pup.

Boost your social media with micro holidays

UGC is a powerful marketing tool because it adds authenticity to your campaigns and builds trust with your audience. Micro holidays are a great UGC tool from two angles: they give you a reason to curate UGC and provide an occasion to repurpose UGC you’ve already had a chance to curate.

Learn how our solutions can identify which UGC to use in your own marketing campaigns.