User-generated content marketing can have a significant impact on your ROI and overall bottom line, given that 79% of people say it highly impacts their purchasing decisions. But how do you measure it? After all, you often won’t know your ROI until long after you’ve spent your initial investment. 

How to measure your user-generated content marketing ROI

As the #1 in user-generated content, we’ve developed a new tool — a calculator that quickly shows you the impact UGC could have on your sales, both online and in-store.

We use 12 months of benchmarking data to show you your estimated increased revenue, conversion rate, SEO impact, and in-store sales you can expect.

Let’s look at how it works.

1. Select your type of business

Select whether you’re a retailer or a brand with/without an online store.

2. Enter your business metrics

Use the slide bars to add in your annual site visits, average order value, conversion rate, and your sales numbers. We’ll use this to workout your current on-site revenue.

3. Select the type of industry you’re in

Very straightforward. Simply select the sector you work in and hit “Calculate.”

4. Your user-generated content marketing ROI results

Here you’ll see the your full potential ROI of user-generated content marketing in full. We combine the SEO impact, sales increase, “research online buy offline” multiplier, and syndication to retail value to show you your total projected increase in annual revenue.

Knowing your possible ROI means knowing how and where to spend your dollars. And we know that now more than ever there’s less dollars for marketing teams to spend, and more scrutiny on where those marketing dollars are spend. Get it right with our calculator tool. Try it for yourself now.

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If you need to quickly build a community of real followers on Instagram, but are strapped for resources, focusing on the right tactics is critical.   

Here’s our handy guide for how to do just that.

8 ways to get real followers on Instagram

1. Define clear goals for your Instagram account 

“Begin with the end in mind” is one of Stephen R. Covey’s seven habits of highly effective people. 

Before you dive head first into content creation and strategy, hit the pause button and ask some probing questions. Why do we want more followers on Instagram? What does a larger following help us achieve? 

Your company may have already answered these questions for you by setting clear business objectives to work toward, like: 

• Grow brand awareness by 40% by the end of Q2
• Increase sales for product X by 20% by the end of the year

If not, identifying these key objectives is priority number one. 

No matter what your desired end result is, working backwards from there ensures every step you take is in the right direction.  

2. Know exactly who you want to connect with

At its core, social networks are about connection, and it’s nearly impossible to connect with people you don’t know or understand. 

Firstly, 61% of Instagram users are under the age of 34 and more than half are women. So the platform provides some baseline demographics about your audience. But it’s worth digging in a little more to understand:

• Where they live
• Where they spend their time (online and off)
• What they do for work and in their free time
• How they communicate
• What challenges they face
• Their motivations
• What they want

via GIPHY

As marketers, we have to ensure we don’t get so busy collecting fans that we forget to actually connect with them. Take the time to understand exactly who you’re trying to reach so you can discover ways to truly connect with them—and give them what they want.

3. Research what your competitors are doing

Whether you’re just starting out on Instagram or have been engaging on the platform for a while, competitor research should be an integral part of your strategy. Why?

An Instagram competitive analysis helps you: 

• Easily stay on top of relevant trends 
• Benchmark your performance in the industry
• Identify opportunities to differentiate content 
• Understand what (and how many) hashtags work best

Staying on top of your competitors’ performance is also a great way to learn what works (and what doesn’t), so you can continue to optimize your tactics.

4. Make user-generated content a strategic priority

If you really want to accelerate organic growth on Instagram, make user-generated content (USG) a top priority. UGC is any content—social images, ratings and reviews, video, etc.—that’s created by a person, rather than a brand.

Why make UGC a strategic priority? Because it’s word-of-mouth marketing, which drives $6 trillion in annual spending. In other words, it’s content that’s perfectly designed for social sharing and it generates amazing results, including organic follower growth.

One year after implementing a UGC campaign, Buffer grew by almost 400%—from 4,250 to 21,000 Instagram followers and counting.

How can you use UGC on Instagram to boost engagement? Here’s a great example of how Starbucks uses it: 

Instead of simply announcing a new menu item (oatmilk), the coffee brand repurposed customer tweets to spread the word—showcasing real and authentic experiences rather than promoting their own products. A powerful shift in messaging that generates much higher engagement.

How can you find (and encourage people to create) UGC for your brand? There are a variety of tactics you can use to source UGC. Here’s a few examples:

Look for it across the web

Like our Starbucks example above, you may be able to find organic UGC on other platforms throughout the web—like Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Reddit, or product review sites—that you can repurpose for Instagram. Look at your tagged posts, search your brand as a hashtag, check your Google seller ratings. Your UGC is out there. You just have to look for it. 

Promote a branded hashtag

The easiest tactic to get started with UGC is using a branded hashtag. The fashion company, River Island, heavily promotes the hashtag #ImWearingRI. It includes the hashtag in all of its organic posts on Instagram and that persistence has paid off. The hashtag now has 182,000 posts, and counting! 

Pro tip: River Island takes its hashtag game a step further than most brands by displaying customer images (through Bazaarvoice Galleries) with #ImWearingRI on the main pages of their website—converting active shoppers into social followers.

Run a contest

Who doesn’t love free stuff? Really though. A well-created contest or giveaway is a win-win for everyone. Your followers get a chance to win some freebies and you get UGC in return. Check out this giveaway post example from Crate and Barrel:

Giveaways posts are not just a great way to generate UGC, you can use them solely for the purpose of growing your following. Encourage people to tag a friend for greater reach and include a clearly written call-to-action. Something like, “follow our Instagram page for your chance to win.”

Launch a sampling campaign

If you want to go a few steps further than social contests, you can launch a sampling campaign and send free products to target consumers in exchange for high-quality UGC. 

We recently ran three sampling campaigns with Kraft Heinz, which resulted in 98,000 pieces of UGC, 20,000 reviews, and 39 million impressions from 369,000 social posts, shares, likes, and comments from consumers. Talk about growing brand awareness! 

5. Personify your brand’s content

The truth is, Instagram is a noisy platform. The number of shared videos increases by 80% every year and nearly 1,074 photos are uploaded every second.

With so much content circulating on Instagram, what can you do to stand out?

There’s many different ways brands can leverage content to stand out, but one thing’s for sure: The most effective content a brand can produce doesn’t feel like it’s coming from a brand. It’s relatable and unique. It’s human.

Brands that successfully personify themselves—by showcasing their unique style and personality—are the ones that rise above the rest. 

Some tips for how to personify your brand on Instagram:

• Create a unifying visual theme that puts your brand’s style front and center
• Connect your visual theme to a consistent story that reveals your brand’s personality 
• Ensure that all content aligns with and promotes company values

The sparkling water company, Recess, stands out among its competitors on Instagram with its unique personality, color palette, and imagery. The brand launched at the end of 2018 and now has more than 95,000 followers on Instagram. 

6. Determine what content to share and how often

When evaluating how to get real followers on Instagram, this step is critical, because there’s no social media without content. As marketing thought leader and author, Rebecca Lieb, says, “Content is the atomic particle of all digital marketing.”

It helps to begin your content planning process with these key questions:

• What types of content does your target audience want to engage with on Instagram?
• When do they want to engage with it? Under what circumstances?
• What specific need will your content serve? What feelings will it evoke?

Thinking through these questions will help you keep your target audience in mind as you plan out what to create and how often to share it. This ensures your content is more relevant, valuable, and engaging. Why? Because it’s not just speaking at your target audience but directly to them. 

7. Partner with influencers

Instagram is notorious for influencer marketing and it’s a tactic that continues to prove its value. 60% of consumers say they’d follow a brand on Instagram after an influencer they trust promotes it.   

Many brands, like Burt’s Bees, turn to influencer marketing to grow their following. The personal care brand often partners with beauty and lifestyle bloggers, both big and small, on Instagram.

The trick with this tactic is to make sure you choose the right type of influencer for your brand and target customers. Check out our new research to learn more about the current state of influencers and discover which ones are the most valuable for your brand.

8. Promote your Instagram profile in other channels

If you really want to figure out how to get more followers on Instagram, try experimenting with cross promotion in other channels (both online and off).

Here’s a few ideas to help you get started:

• Add a “follow us on Instagram” call-to-action in your company-wide email signature 
• Add your Instagram handle to product packaging, receipts, and in-store displays
• Use NFC sticker buttons at in-person events to easily share your account with attendees
• Cross promote your Instagram content on Facebook and Twitter to maximize your reach
• Embed Instagram posts on your blog

9. If all else fails, share cute dog pics

There’s no problem a cute dog pic can’t solve, right? 

You can easily stage a pic with a cute dog if your brand is a consumer good (like the pic below), but there are plenty of other ways to incorporate dogs into your feed. 

You can snap a pic of a furry friend in your office to show off your brand culture. Or make pet photos a regular theme with a branded hashtag, like JetBlue’s #jetpaws—which is also used to collect tons of adorable pet travel pics by JetBlue customers (aka: UGC.) 

Ensure success by focusing on what works

After you’ve put these key tactics into action, make sure you allow some time to track results.

Even with a lean marketing team and limited resources, monitoring progress is important — so you can double down on what works. 

Every marketer knows optimization is the key to success. Algorithms change. Best practices become outdated. New tools emerge. If you’re not refining your tactics to adapt, you’ll get left behind. Here’s a few key performance indicators to monitor:

• Impressions. The number of times your posts are visible is someone’s feed
• Audience growth rate. How your follower count changes over time (new followers/total followers X 100 = growth rate)
• Reach. How many people see a post since it went live (post views/total followers X 100 = post reach)
• Click-through-rate. The number of people that click on your content
• Interactions. Number of likes and shares a post receives

In the end, if you want to grow your Instagram (the right way), focus on authentic connection. Meet people where they are and give them a voice in your story. Because social media really isn’t about you — it’s about us. Check out more of our Instagram best-practices here.

The social media manager’s guide to user-generated content best practices

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“Without a doubt, there’s a strong correlation between customers interacting with reviews and conversion rate.”

Online shopping has, somewhat unsurprisingly, hugely increased over the last year. In 2020 alone, e-commerce sales surpassed 4.2 trillion USD worldwide. The convenience alone of being able to make purchases without leaving the house is too appealing, especially in a year where leaving the house wasn’t even an option. But there’s something online shopping can’t replicate – interaction.

Whether that be interacting with a sales associate or interacting with a product (particularly the touch and feel aspect that consumers love), interactions that persuade the customer to make a purchase are missing from the online shopping journey. Your brand’s content needs to fill in this gap instead. 

Digital window shopping

To do so, you’ll need to make your website a digital brick-and-mortar store. That’s where user-generated content (UGC), like customer ratings and reviews, comes into play.

Almost 80% of consumers say UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions, and ratings and reviews are at the center of that. In fact, in 2020 a whopping 87% of consumers said they read online reviews for local businesses before making a purchase. In short, reviews matter.

One brand that knows full-well how much they matter is Appliances Online (AO).

AO is Australia’s largest online appliance retailer, with over 8,000 unique products from the world’s best and biggest brands. How did they get to where they are today? Easy – through their legendary customer service. But it’s not just how they deliver products to their customers. What really sets them apart from the rest is how they deliver content to their customers. 

AO knows that ratings and reviews, and visual and social content (like photos or videos) from other customers are the strongest ammunition in the content arsenal. Which is why getting more reviews has always been a top priority for them.

Reviews also impact how the AO website merchandises products. Every time a supplier asks AO how they can ensure the success of their products, they’re given the same answer: Grow your review volume. And they’re right to say so, given that 70% of shoppers always look at available reviews.

Reviews reviews reviews

In our latest customer success story, we look at how AO worked with Bazaarvoice to reach out to different suppliers and increase their review intake. So far, they’ve already managed to gather:

• 83,000 native reviews
• 304,000 syndicated reviews from 60+ brands
• 386,000 total reviews

We detail how AO utilizes these customer ratings and reviews to fill their product display pages and, in turn, directly achieved a 3x higher conversion rate.

read the full case study now

Appliances Online uses Bazaarvoice to boost sales and improve the shopping experience

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I recently sat down for a conversation with a thought leader from the Stamped.io team. Here’s what he said!

Can you tell me your name, company, and job title?

Alberto Rodriguez, I look after digital marketing at Stamped.io.

Tell me a little about your company and how you’re growing your business.

Stamped.io is a highly-rated marketing platform built for ecommerce businesses of all sizes. It’s designed to boost sales and increase your customers’ lifetime value. We offer a wide range of conversion boosting tools, from review generation and customer loyalty to referral programs that maximize customer retention and engagement.

Why Bazaarvoice?

Our products have a beneficial relationship with Bazaarvoice offerings. We share the same vision to help merchants grow their businesses with reviews, user-generated content, and visual content, to name a few.

What does the partnership with Bazaarvoice mean to your business?

Partnering with Bazaarvoice enables and amplifies Stamped as a centralized system for Review Management and Review Generation. 

What are some things that get you excited about being a Bazaarvoice partner?

Bazaarvoice is a great company that shares our vision to help ecommerce merchants succeed. I’m positive there’s a lot we can learn from each other, and we’ll definitely mutually benefit from this relationship.

What are you hearing from your sales teams about the partnership with Bazaarvoice?

For customers who are keen to enable review syndication, the Stamped + Bazaarvoice integration is quite popular and sought after.

Tell me what makes a partnership successful.

Common ground, and a shared vision and shared principles. Not to mention, the vast potential for growth and expansion within the partnership.

How do I set up the integration?

Integration is fast and streamlined. We have dedicated teams and processes to help you easily get up and running.

To get the process started, simply provide some basic information on the Stamped Partner form. The information provided will route to a representative on our side, who will reach out to you to understand your goals, and provide more details about the distribution program.

Once we have an agreement in place, we’ll be able to take your reviews that you have with Stamped and syndicate them to the Bazaarvoice network of retailers to drum up more business for you.

Learn more about about partner program here

We embrace this at Bazaarvoice, so we’re always releasing new product updates and enhancements to help you increase your bottom line.

That’s why we’re so excited to announce that the Bazaarvoice 2021 Summer Launch is finally here! Our one-stop shop of all the exciting, new updates and improvements we’re bringing to you. Ambitiously titled Summer, given that Summers here in England usually mean grey skies and rain. But regardless of the weather outside, the outlook is sunny at Bazaarvoice.

What’s new at Bazaarvoice?

Visual Syndication Network

The Visual Syndication Network is the jewel in our Summer Launch crown. With this release, you’re now able to collect visual UGC for your products on social media, and distribute it to our Visual Syndication Network for display on retailer sites.

Online “window shopping” is more prevalent than ever before. Why? Thanks to UGC. Shoppers are engaging with your brand on every channel they visit. Whether on social, your website, or the checkout page, they’re inspired. So give them a delightful experience wherever they are. 

How it works:

• Brands choose content: Get content from influencers, hashtags, taggs and mentions, and brand-owned content
• Tag products: Select images are tagged with your products
• Request rights: Brands easily request rights from customers on Instagram to share their content
• Receive content for your site: Review media from the Bazaarvoice Network, inspire your customers, and increase conversions

As a brand, you’ll have more UGC in more places. As a retailer, you’ll have a steady stream of fresh, inspirational content at your fingertips. Customers will love their shopping experience and reward you by buying more, and more often. It’s a win, win, and win.

A full rundown of the Visual Syndication Network can be found here!

Sampling to drive visual content

It can be really difficult to launch a new product. Of the 30,000 products launched each year, roughly 95% fail, according to Harvard Business School. Equally difficult is trying to drive conversion on existing products, just ask any product marketing manager.

The solution? Fueling your program with higher quality UGC that converts.

80% of consumers say UGC significantly influences their purchase decision, so the audience is out there. The real skill is how to draw that audience. A proven formula to getting more high-quality UGC is tapping into networks of consumers that are ready to deliver the content that drives sales growth. 

With Bazaarvoice Sampling, you have access to the largest network of authentic reviewers, who are eager to try the products you sell and share their feedback in the form of honest reviews, product images and videos, and inspirational social posts. 

62% of consumers say they’re more likely to buy a product if they can buy consumer photos. With the Influenster Community, supercharge your Sampling product with the help of the world’s largest community of shoppers and reviewers.

Pair that with the power of the Visual Syndication Network (see above) and you’re able to easily deliver that content to everywhere it matters most. Whether it’s product pages, your website, or social channels, Bazaarvoice has you covered. 

A whopping 77% of consumers consider product reviews the most influential source of information when making purchase decisions, so kick your UGC generation into higher gear with Bazaarvoice Sampling. Inspire current and future shoppers alike using tools like Visual and Social Content plus Sampling that deliver a high ROI on multiple avenues within the Bazaarvoice Network.

And the fun doesn’t stop there! We have a wealth of new product updates and enhancements to help you acquire more content, drive conversion, extend reach, and optimize strategy better than ever before:

Acquire Content

Acquire and manage more content, easier than ever, as we introduce new ways to collect user-generated reviews and continuously improve the Product Catalog app and Portal user experiences.

• Product Catalog app enhancements – Easily append or edit your product catalog via Excel file upload. Plus, inspect and troubleshoot catalog issues with less effort with visibility into sources of data.
• Portal enhancements – Enjoy the ease of accessing both Configuration Hub and Site Manager in Portal. For ReviewSource clients, you can download impact reports within the Reports app to understand how your program is performing.

Drive Conversion

Grow conversion on site by blending the power of product star ratings with your visual and social content, and providing your French and German shoppers with helpful Review Highlights.

• Product Sentiment Insights API: French and German Support – Now you can include Review Highlights in both French and German on product pages. A whole new way for you to grow conversion on site.

Extend Reach

Propel your content farther through the Visual Syndication Network, and double the speed with new features to seamlessly publish content on social.

• Instagram TV – Thanks to a recent Instagram API update, IGTV support is now available through the Bazaarvoice Visual & Social Content offering.
• Product Star Ratings in Galleries – Enhance shoppers’ product discovery and inspiration experience with product ratings in visual Galleries
• Visual and social enhancements – Save time posting on social with hashtag recommendations, simpler image cropping, seamless platform cross-posting, and more.

Optimize Strategy

Better understand how your content is performing and why (and when and where) with a brand new Collection Dashboard, Insights app improvements, and new ways to gather even more social insights.

• Collection Dashboard – Now you can quickly see the total reviews you’ve collected and where from, view reviews collected over any specific date range and compare with another specific date range, and sort metrics by product, brand or category.
• Instagram TV analytics – See IGTV organic engagement, influencers and hashtags, and compare your content’s performance to competitors.

Make sure to check out our Product Updates page for a full rundown of what’s new!

Get in touch with us here to learn more!

Instagram TV (IGTV) is Instagram’s longform video feature, allowing users to post high quality videos anywhere between a minute and 60 minutes long. It’s the perfect function for video content creators looking to stand out.

More importantly, that makes it the perfect function for your brand and now, thanks to a recent Instagram API update, support is available on Bazaarvoice.

You asked, we listened

We already know how important utilizing Instagram Stories is if you want to dominate on Instagram, which is a necessity for brands today. Now, IGTV is becoming just as essential so we’re absolutely thrilled to announce that IGTV is now supported through the Bazaarvoice Visual & Social Content offering! 

Ever since IGTV was first released on the Instagram App, we’ve had frequent interest from clients. Thanks to our partners at Instagram, we’re able to quickly respond to this update and provide you with one of the first IGTV tools available.

We know full-well the importance of Instagram to most brands out there so we always take steps to offer the latest and greatest features available in the Instagram ecosystem. 

What’s the lowdown?

The new feature automatically pulls content from IGTV into our Instagram Analytics Dashboard. We will now provide you with engagement metrics, giving you another measurable benchmark alongside photo and Instagram Stories. But that’s not all! 

Unique to Bazaarvoice is the ability to make your IGTV channel shoppable. With the new integration, we can showcase your IGTV media content across the Bazaarvoice Network. Redistribute your IGTV posts to our Like2Buy, Galleries, and Showroom to get the highest ROI possible from your visual content.

You’re also able to put links directly into IGTV videos, making it incredibly easy for you to drive traffic to product display pages and other landing pages. Don’t worry, you still have the “link in bio” and “swipe up to shop” options so you can attract users whatever discovery path they take – a sure fire way to boost sales and drive your revenue.

What metrics can I track?

• When you schedule a post on IGTV, you’re able to see those posts through BV’s Instagram Analytics pages. Your post will be displayed alongside your other regular feed posts on the Summary and Feed Engagement page, with comparable metrics to the rest of your feed posts. Metrics include: allowing you to report on your IGTV reach, impressions, total engagements, engagement rate, and video views. 
• You can track your competitors’ IGTV posts through our Competitors page.
• You’re able to measure IGTV posts that your influencers are posting in our Influencer dashboard.
• You can ingest IGTV posts that include any hashtags that you’re tracking. The value here is that you’ll be pulling IGTV content into your media library, making it easy for you to distribute this content to our experiences and drive more value outside of Instagram.

Summed up in a tasty blurb:

You create a video and post it to IGTV and we’ll pull it into the platform to provide you with metrics on how it’s performing. In addition, you can repurpose your video across the Bazaarvoice Network for other e-commerce uses, like PDPs, landing pages, and your link in bio. There’s no reason your content needs to live and die on Instagram. The more channels you share it with in a meaningful, shoppable way, the more traffic and revenue you’ll drive (which we can track for you.) Easy as that. 

The thing is, Instagram is no longer just a nice little platform to showcase your products on. It’s an essential part of the e-commerce ecosystem. According to Instagram’s own research, 87% of users say they took action after seeing product information on Instagram, such as following a brand, visiting their website or making a purchase online. 

IGTV is a necessity in this ecosystem. With its increasing popularity, combined with the rise of video content marketing, it’s becoming the must-have tool for your brand to get ahead on social and drive conversion. Now with IGTV supported through the Bazaarvoice Visual & Social Content offering, that’s exactly what you’ll do.

Get in touch with us here to learn more!

For retailers looking to establish customer loyalty with these discriminating shoppers, rolling out a private label brand may be an ideal solution.

Private label brands are manufactured by a third party and sold under the retailer’s name. In many instances, the products are made with the same materials and/or ingredients as their name-brand counterparts. Case in point: Costco sells private label coffee that’s actually made by  — wait for it — Starbucks.

For retailers, these products are traditionally cheaper to manufacture, which translates to lower prices for customers. But price is just the beginning. They also offer retailers a unique opportunity to deliver a better, more engaging customer experience.

The rise of the private label

Private label products are nothing new. Walmart launched its first store brand, Ol’ Roy dog food, way back in 1983.

But when the Great Recession hit in 2007, private labels saw a new surge in popularity. With the economy on shaky ground and food prices rising 5-6%, consumers needed lower-priced alternatives to their favorite brands. 

Even after markets stabilized, the trend continued. By the end of 2017, private label brands were posting dollar growth of more than 3x the rate of branded products.

Today, with the COVID-19 pandemic heralding a new economic crisis, private labels are back in the spotlight. Purchasing store brands was one of Consumer Reports’ top tips for customers looking to save money on their 2020 holiday celebrations, right up there with clipping coupons and buying in bulk. According to the popular site, private label foods and beverages are 20-25% cheaper than name brand equivalents of the same product. 

While price is a big factor for consumers, it’s not the only one. In our own recent survey, almost 55% of respondents said they’d purchased a private label brand in the past year. Respondents were allowed to pick from multiple reasons for buying the store brands. 51% said their decision was based on price, 56% said they did it because they simply liked the product. 

Benefits to retailers

Beyond staying competitive on price, private label brands have additional benefits for retailers. Because you can control every aspect of the products’ positioning and marketing, as well as the buying experience, you can drive customer loyalty in new ways. 

Some retailers use this opportunity to create stories. For example, Whole Foods’ store brand, 365 Everyday Value, is positioned as a solution for shoppers who don’t want to pay high prices for organic products.

Target’s Everspring household brand caters to shoppers looking for “clean products.” The store also offers lingerie and sleepwear brands that are promoted as being inclusive of all body types. 

Savvy retailers are invested in creating an entire brand around their private labels. And it’s paying off handsomely.

Increased competition equals more innovation

A generation ago, there was a distinct gap between the quality of private label and brand name products.

Today, that’s simply not the case. In a Nielsen study, about 75% of shoppers said store brands were a “good alternative to name brands.” Even more exciting for retailers, almost 40% said that private labels deliver “higher quality than name brands.” 

Only a mere 17% of respondents said store brands were, “for people on tight budgets and (who) can’t afford the best.” 

As consumers embrace the value of private label products, it will drive brands and retailers to find opportunities to lower prices without sacrificing quality. We predict this will drive innovation across the retail industry, leading to better products and lower prices in every vertical. 

Embracing the private label movement

It’s become increasingly clear that private labels are the real deal. Even as the current economic crisis subsides, there will always be a segment of consumers looking for high-quality products at low prices.

To succeed in this space, retailers need to devote the same strategy and resources as name brands do in the product development process. 

Invest in the research to understand what shoppers need (or don’t realize they need). Then create a roadmap for delivering a solution in-house. Offering unique products and solutions customers can only find in your store is one way to guarantee they keep coming back for more.

4 strategies to achieve private label success

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The pandemic cast a spotlight on just how much moms do and how they’ve stepped up recently to take on extra responsibilities. Your relationship with your mom may seem even more valuable and meaningful now, especially if you haven’t gotten to see her over the past year. 

Mother’s Day has long been a popular shopping holiday. This year, 83% of consumers planned to celebrate Mother’s Day, according to the National Retail Federation. Shoppers were poised to spend $220 on average, $16 more than last year and the most in the NRF survey’s history. Cards, special outings, and flowers were the top gifting categories. 

This year, brands embraced the times in their Mother’s Day marketing campaigns. They created relevant content with realistic imagery showcasing the many roles and responsibilities of Mom. Marketing spanned social media posts, TV commercials, videos, gift guides, and more.  

Looking for ad inspo for your brand? Then let’s take a look at five of the best Mother’s Day ad campaigns of the year! 

Walmart turned Mother’s Day into a month long event 

Walmart decided that one day just wasn’t enough to celebrate the “leading ladies in our lives.” So, the retailer extended the holiday into a month long event called Mother’s May. The Mother’s May marketing campaign featured a series of in-store and online events and social media content. 

Walmart hosted Mother’s May Markets, where it transformed some of its Supercenter locations into outdoor markets with crafts, goodie bags, family photos, and other family activities. Online was included just as much as brick-and-mortar, too. Online shoppers could create custom cards, find instructions to make handmade gifts, and shop curated gift lists. Walmart also offered $10 off for first-time pickup and delivery shoppers to promote the service. 

For its Mother’s Day social media posts, Walmart debuted a video featuring real moms, including some of its own employees, in real-life parenting situations with their kids. The video appeared across the retailer’s social channels, because Walmart knows all too well the benefit of utilizing authentic user-generated content.

Carhartt encouraged moms to take a well-deserved break 

Iconic workwear brand Carhartt has been around since 1889, but recently it’s become trendy with streetwear enthusiasts, who are attracted to its authenticity. Realism and authenticity is the approach Carhartt took with its Mother’s Day marketing campaign. 

Celebrating all the moms who are spread too thin, the brand released a video titled “The Shift That Never Ends” featuring real hard-working moms. The video shows the exhaustion that comes with working in fields like farming and construction and then coming home to family responsibilities. It ends with the message, “Take a break Mom, you earned it.”

The brand also created a limited-run “Carhartt Bouquet.” Instead of flowers, the bouquets included pocket T-shirts in different colors rolled up to look like a floral arrangement. It came with the message “work gear off limits (until tomorrow),” emphasizing the need for moms to take some well-deserved time off. 

RITZ celebrated the role of foster parents

For its Mother’s Day campaign, cracker brand RITZ celebrated the foster parents who open their homes and care for the 424,000 foster children in the U.S. The marketing campaign was a partnership with the National Foster Parent Association and will also be a part of the brand’s Father’s Day promotion. 

RITZ released an emotional two-minute video, titled “Foster Welcome,” that will tug at your heartstrings. It shows a family meeting their foster child for the first time and the nervousness and excitement that everyone involved experiences. 

RITZ’s Mother’s Day promotion also includes a series of Instagram stickers that allow foster parents to share family photos while protecting the privacy of their foster children. (Social media photos of foster kids are prohibited by some states.)

To access the stickers, enter #FosterWelcome into the sticker search on Instagram Stories to share family photos disguising foster kids. 

Hallmark honored all the moms who lead by example  

Mother’s Day is a big holiday for Hallmark. You could say, it’s their Hallmark. (I’ll show myself out.) It’s been a go-to for cards and gifts for generations. With this year’s Mother’s Day ad campaign, the brand honored all types of moms. Through a video and gift guide, the campaign centered on moms who lead by example and teach those around them how to “listen, laugh, apologize, forgive, and love unconditionally.” 

In the video, a mother and daughter bond over many of life’s milestones, and it ends with the daughter signing a card and presenting her mom with a gift. The video features the tagline, “Thank them for all that they are.” 

Hallmark’s gift guide highlighted 2,500 or so cards for every kind of mom—biological mothers, grandmothers, sisters, friends, pet moms, mother figures, and everyone else. The guide included gifts to encourage self-care and relaxation and practical items. 

Dick’s Sporting Goods showcased its executives championing their kids 

Dick’s Sporting Goods showcased its female executives as mothers, coaches, and cheerleaders as their kids participate in sports, like swimming, soccer, baseball, and ballet. The Mother’s Day marketing campaign is part of the retailer’s focus on “championing women,” according to AdWeek. 

The campaign included a TV commercial titled “Mother’s Day: Keep Trying.” It stars Aimee Watters, executive director of Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation, reassuring and encouraging her son who’s nervous about playing soccer. The ad also features other executive moms with their children playing sports. 

The brands who nailed Mother’s Day marketing this year acknowledged the challenges of the past year and celebrated how hardworking moms truly are—both ordinarily and during unprecedented times. 

The authentic messaging displayed in these campaigns connects with today’s increasingly mission-driven consumers, in turn growing brands’ social media followings, expanding their shopper base, and ultimately driving revenue. Make sure to bookmark this page for your future Mother’s Day inspo and you too can achieve the same results!

10 user-generated content marketing examples to inspire your brand in 2022

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In the past, private label brands were considered commodities purchased solely on price. But that’s changed. Who among us hasn’t sought out Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Gnocchi or Target’s All in Motion clothing?

Price definitely still matters. But private label brands now focus on value, purpose, and quality, and are aligning their strategies with national brands. Over the past year, especially, the state of private label has evolved just as quickly as the retail environment as a whole. Now greater opportunities exist for private label brands and products.

Chapters:

1. The rise of private label brands
2. Private label brand strategies
3. Private label brand strategy in action

The rise of private label brands

Retailer experience and the private labels they offer are interconnected. Establishing high-performing private labels boosts loyalty and drives more traffic to retailers both in-store and online. According to eMarketer, shoppers choose retailers based on the store brands they offer, and 66% said they generally assume their favorite retailers will have quality private labels. 

Private label brands also became popular with new consumers during the pandemic when their usual brands weren’t available due to supply chain issues. According to a McKinsey survey, 40% of consumers tried new products or brands during the COVID-19 crisis, and of those, 40% plan to continue purchasing these new brands. This shopping behavior could further grow the private label sector. 

Our own data revealed similar trends. In a survey of Influenster members in July, over 90% said they currently purchase store brands. Another third prefer buying store brands over national brands.

Private label brand strategies

With the state of private label today, and new trends reshaping shopping behaviors, private label brands have the opportunity to win over consumers. Retailers need to position them as true brands of their own. How? By becoming market leaders, investing in marketing and research, and capturing shoppers’ attention in a digital-first retailing environment.

Here’s four strategies for private label success.

1. Lean into permanent change by aligning to the new path of purchase 

E-commerce should no longer be an afterthought — it should be a forethought. Private label brands need to maximize their presence beyond brick-and-mortar. Product search and discovery overwhelmingly begins online, so success depends on revisioning your funnel for a digital-first retailing world. 

The pandemic and stay-at-home orders accelerated online shopping. This momentum is bolstering online sales of private brands, which has been on a steady growth trajectory. In 2019, online sales of private brands reached $1.7 billion, an 87% year-over-year increase, according to CPG Matters. The upward trend is expected to continue well beyond the pandemic.

Even for in-store purchases, the 2019 Bazaarvoice Shopper Experience Index found that 82% of shoppers research products online before heading to the store, and 50% browse online while shopping in-store. 

So, it’s time to rethink traditional in-store marketing strategies. Product sampling is one way to raise awareness about products and inspire purchases online and in-store. According to Bazaarvoice research, 60% of shoppers have purchased a product they sampled, and sampled products often become favorites. Shoppers also recommend products they sample to friends and family.

Then use user-generated content (UGC) to optimize product searches for private labels and discoverability online. 

2. Strategize like a national brand 

To capture the full potential of private label brands, retailers need to position them as true consumer brands. You can do so by leveraging varying marketing strategies designed to drive trial, awareness, and brand loyalty. Think of social media as your virtual endcap that has the capability to stop shoppers in their tracks and inspire new purchase behavior. While this includes running paid social media ads, one of the most authentic and trusted ways to drive awareness is to encourage shoppers to share details about your products on social media. 

From packaging and design to advertising and social media strategies, private label products should resonate and feel authentic to consumers. Invest in strategies like search, SEO optimization, sampling, and UGC optimization. Taking a 360-degree approach that balances physical and digital marketing that includes emerging third-party intermediaries will ensure your brands actively engage with consumers across the shifting shopping journey. 

Shoppers are discovering, browsing, and shopping on social media, with more than a third using buy buttons and clicking on shoppable stories and posts. Social media chatter about brands also translates to conversions, especially as consumers are paying just as much attention to your company values as the products you offer. 

Retailers and brands are being judged based on environmental, social, and governance metrics more than ever. 55% of UK consumers make purchasing decisions based on a company’s transparency, ethical values, or authenticity, according to Accenture. Leading retailers have been using cost-effective channels to communicate the story behind their store brands, such as how ingredients are sources or where products are made. 

3. Deliver value, not just price

Retailers must heighten their focus on quality, value, and driving engagement to see a competitive edge for private label products. Our data shows that value is shoppers’ number one purchase consideration, followed by cost. With more people at home and shopping online, shoppers are splurging on new products more so than in the past. 

So, how do you show your value to consumers? Make sure you have a clear set of brand values, and communicate what your brand stands for, how you give back to the community, and what your company can offer that others can’t. 

As shopping behaviors continue to evolve, customer sentiment of private label brands will increase the competitiveness between retailers, and influence consumers’ decisions about where to shop. Retailers need to make their private label brands more than just a product on the shelf, but a valuable brand in their own right.

The key to success is meeting customers where they are. Align your strategy with the new purchase journey, and capitalize on digital marketing that will drive discoverability, consideration, trial, and brand loyalty.

4. Prioritize innovation in product development

Elevating your private label programs is more critical than ever. But, when it comes to developing new products, look beyond your competition and become a leader in innovation. Build and execute new private brand brand product strategies based on what your customer wants and needs, identified through in-depth research. 

Most retailers know that the first step to becoming a product category leader is to beat other brands to market with innovative products. According to a Daymon report, best-in-class retailers devote 43% of their private label programs to value-added lifestyle items, when the industry average is just 16%. Going this route enables private label brands to stay on trend and progress beyond industry norms.   

Private label brand strategy in action

Looking at one of our own Bazaarvoice customers here, Oliso, because of their ability to prioritize product innovation. Oliso is a San Fran-based home appliances manufacturer, that was massively struggling to reach sales targets for its new products — smart irons.

To combat this, the company founder took the iron to quilting events. Attendees not only loved the product, but gave feedback on how they could be improved with longer power cords and higher wattage.

The brand introduced a new model incorporating this feedback, and customers immediately fell in love. As a result, more stores started carrying them, and retail sales went from a few each week to dozens a day. That’s the sort of product development strategy you need for private label brand success.

We’re up $40,000 at that store in just weeks, which is a lot of money for a small company. Retailers are taking notice, as more and more are carrying our products.

Kyle Koenig, Director of Business Development, Oliso

To win your private label brand strategy, you’ll need a defined plan for innovation. It should involve taking risks and committing to a culture of innovation. Learn how to fully implement these strategies, with brand examples, in our full e-book below. Or connect with us below to see how Bazaarvoice can help you get started.

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4 strategies to achieve private label success

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Search for TikTok influencers by topic

Much like other social networks, TikTok organizes its content by hashtag. And since most TikTok content contains hashtags, it’s an effective way to find users posting about topics relevant to your brand.

Navigate to the Discover tab to search hashtags (as illustrated below.)
Use relevant search queries to find influencers posting about topics relevant to your brand. If you’re an apparel brand, you might search for “fashion” vs. “apparel.” If you’re interested in beauty-specific posts, search by #beauty or #BeautyTips.

You can check the popularity of certain TikTok hashtags and take a look at some of the most frequently used ones here.

Hashtags are a great tool for identifying potential influencers. After all, TikTok users that consistently use a specific hashtag may have an audience that’s interested in this type of content. But hashtags are only the first step in finding the right influencer for your brand. Keep in mind that just because a TikTok influencer uses that hashtag doesn’t necessarily mean they have an active, engaged audience interested in that topic.

Find TikTok influencers by location

Although TikTok is a global social media platform, its algorithm filters the content you see based on your country and your language preference. So if your product or services are only available in certain countries, you need to ensure that any potential influencers you work with can reach these distinct audiences. You’ll also want to pick an influencer by location if your brand is hyperlocal, such as a restaurant.

Change your TikTok location or language to more easily view content from your company’s part of the world, and choose an influencer. Like the last step, the most effective way to find influencers in a particular area is to search by hashtag.

Use location-specific hashtags to find influencers posting about the area you’re interested in. For example, you can look for videos tagged #nyc, #atl, #australia, or #usa.

Use a tool to find a TikTok influencer

There are a variety of tools on the market designed to make it quick and easy to search for TikTok influencers. And instead of scrolling through hashtags, they’ll suggest influencers for you based on a variety of search criteria, including follower account, engagement rate, and more.

Some of them, such as Upfluence, identify TikTok users who are already fans of your brand and may already be posting content about it. And many of them also provide detailed analytics, so you can assess potential influencers and track your influencer marketing campaigns.

Analisa, Grin, Influsoft, Julius, Letsinfluence, and NeoReach are other popular TikTok influencer search platforms. Their prices, formats, and features vary.

Assess if a TikTok influencer is the right fit for your brand

Just because you find a TikTok user who has tons of followers and posts about your industry doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the right influencer for your brand. Before you broach the subject of working together, take the time to determine whether they’re truly the right fit and if they can help you achieve your TikTok goals.

Analyze their audience

Ensure the TikTok influencer has access to your target audience.

• Is their audience the right demographic? Evaluate their followers by age, location, gender, approximate income, or more to determine if they’re in your target audience.
• Do they follow your brand? Your competitors? Others in your industry? Users who already have an affinity for your brand or industry may be more likely to engage with sponsored content. Or, if you’re teaming up with an influencer to grow your own social following, it may be more valuable for you to team up with an influencer whose audience isn’t already as familiar with your brand.
• Does their audience engage with the kind of content you’re interested in creating? Do they like, comment on, and share the kind of video you want to make? Do they engage with sponsored content?

Often, an influencer who shares a lot of content on the topic of #beauty, for example, will have an audience that’s interested in those videos. But it’s essential to dive a little deeper into an influencer’s audience before reaching out.

Explore their content

Take a close look at the videos the TikTok influencer shares.

• Do they have viral videos? If an influencer creates viral content, it shows their skill and the fact that they know their audience. However, an influencer with a portfolio of viral content may also be more expensive to work with.
• What makes their content appealing? What does their audience get out of their videos? Are they entertained? What are they learning from you? Are they seeking inspiration or product recommendations? How does this align with your brand?
• Does their content show that they have an understanding of your audience? You want to ensure that your chosen influencer knows how to appeal to your target audience.
• Do they appear to have the same values as your brand? Is there any potential conflict of interest with your brand?

You may also want to look at an influencer’s posting habits. Are they posting daily? Weekly? How much time is there between new content?

See if they’ve worked with brands before

Determine if the influencer has experience working with brands, what content they produced for them, and how it performed.

• Are there sponsored posts on their account? You can usually identify these because they contain the hashtag #ad, as illustrated in the screenshot below.

• Are they currently working with your competitors? Have they in the past? You want to avoid any conflict of interest or potential issues with a non-compete agreement.
• What kind of video content did the influencer create for the brand partnership? How much engagement did it receive? What kind of comments did users make about it?

Whether you want to work with a seasoned influencer or a micro-influencer who may not have partnered with a brand before, do your homework. While you can certainly work with someone who’s worked with your competitor in the past, you want to ensure that your chosen influencer isn’t currently making posts on behalf of your competitors.

Calculate their engagement rate

It’s essential to understand a TikTok influencer’s engagement rate — a percentage that measures how many people interacted with their content — before working with them. A high engagement rate indicates that the influencer’s followers are more likely to interact with the sponsored content the user posts about your brand.

To calculate a TikTok user’s engagement rate, simply add their likes + comments + shares (the ways users engage with TikTok content) for one of their videos and divide it by the number of views received.

Keep in mind that just because an influencer has a lot of followers doesn’t necessarily mean they’re also going to have a high engagement rate.

As you’ll see in the graphs above, the most-followed TikTok users don’t always have a corresponding high engagement rate.

Reach out to TikTok influencers so they’ll say “yes”

Finding the right TikTok influencer is just the beginning. Now you need to contact your influencer of choice and persuade them to work with your brand.

Many influencers will list their email in their TikTok bio to make it easy to contact them. If there’s no email listed, visit their website, Instagram, or YouTube profile to try to find their email address. You can also message a TikTok user, but you must be following the account in order to use this feature.

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