How do you set out to offer the same shopping experience for both your in-store and online customers? How can your customers test your products’ smell, texture, and ingredients when they can’t touch them?

Sure, they can head to a retail store that carries your products, but with 32% of shoppers preferring to make all or most of their beauty purchases online, that leaves out a large chunk of the target market. And that doesn’t include the other shoppers who are increasingly making purchases online.

But before we get to that question, there’s another question we need to answer first.

What is customer engagement?

Customer engagement is every interaction you have with customers, both online and offline, anywhere in the shopper journey. It’s one of those terms every marketer knows, but if you actually pressed them for a definition they’d probably struggle for a concrete answer.

To increase customer engagement means to foster awareness, loyalty, and advocacy with customers. It’s important for businesses of every size because successful customer engagement means your brand is always top of mind for customers in the decision-making step of the buying process. When your brand is top of mind, you’re who shoppers come to first to buy a product.

3 ways to increase customer engagement

There’s multiple ways to increase customer engagement, but every strategy is a hypothetical suggestion until you’ve seen a brand implement them successfully. That’s why we’re going to look at the tactics beauty brand Fresh used to increase customer engagement, create a rich shopping experience through expanded review volume, and increase conversion rates, and drive a $1.65 million revenue impact.

1. Sweepstakes

Imagine buying your favorite product, leaving a quick review, and winning $100. Sounds like a good deal, right? That’s exactly what Fresh offered customers during its summer sweepstakes campaign designed to increase customer engagement and boost review volume. 

89% of consumers consult customer ratings and reviews before making a purchase, so collecting (and displaying) this form of user-generated content (UGC) is essential for every business.

Fresh customers were encouraged to leave a review on their favorite Rose product for a chance to win a $100 eGift card, and the brand immediately saw results. Within the first week, Fresh gathered 217 high-quality reviews, with 11% of those containing visual UGC, like pictures and videos. Throughout the month, review volume reached 549, with review ratings of 4.8. 

High product ratings are essential in marketing beauty products, but they can also be damaging if review volume is low. A recent survey revealed that 68% of shoppers don’t trust high ratings unless they also see a high review volume. Because Fresh — armed with guidance from Bazaarvoice — gathered an extensive amount of reviews, the ratings made sense to potential buyers. 

“Now we’re actually doing one [sweepstakes campaign] per quarter and we know that this is going to be an always-on strategy that we want to continue to grow. ” said Brittany Uhal, Senior Manager of the US e-commerce team at Fresh.

2. Visual user-generated content

According to a Bazaarvoice survey, 66% of shoppers look for visual UGC before buying a product, making customer photos and videos a key factor in persuasive reviews. In the beauty industry especially, this type of content is crucial for increasing customer engagement and selling a product.

Social media, online beauty communities, and review sections provide valuable visuals for online shoppers, which can make or break a product’s reputation.

“I think it was two years ago that a beauty product went viral on TikTok and completely did record-breaking sales. I think every beauty brand, whether they want to admit it or not, is trying to recreate that or understand how to break that algorithm,” explained Uhal.

With this in mind, Fresh introduced photo-first displays, putting visual UGC front and center. Now, when customers shop on product description pages, they’re able to get a good feel for products through detailed photos and application videos submitted by fellow consumers. 

“Photo-first displays lead customers to leave more photos of their own, so it was great to see that within the increased reviews,” explained Uhal. This cycle of consuming and creating visual UGC means higher customer engagement, a better online shopping experience, and increased sales for Fresh. 

“We know UGC isn’t the future — it’s now. So how do we incorporate all of this great social content from the customers that we already have?” said Uhal. 

3. Retail syndication

With 19 international sites and three major retailers stocking Fresh products, the decision to syndicate reviews was an easy one. Syndication takes organic reviews from original sources, like fresh.com, and distributes them across all online sales channels. For brands like Fresh, this means a wealth of reviews shared between global sites and major retailers that stock the brand. 

With the Bazaarvoice Retail Syndication tool, Fresh saw a 7,702% increase in review volume, and they also used it to tackle another challenge: limited edition products. Limited edition gift sets and holiday bundles are popular features on most beauty brand websites, but gathering reviews is difficult because they have such a short lifecycle. 

Instead, Bazaarvoice syndicated reviews for the core products within the limited edition gift sets. When Fresh launched the new product description pages, they already contained a strong collection of UGC.

“We know reviews increase conversion and interaction. We wanted our limited edition products to have that as well, and it’s been great to see that,” said Uhal. 

A Fresh way to increase customer engagement

Fresh has big plans for its beauty e-commerce model: integrating more social content, building relationships with influencers, and expanding its sweepstakes campaigns.

“We’re really excited to continue growing our program at Bazaarvoice. At Fresh, we always say the sky’s the limit, and I feel that way working with Bazaarvoice,” said Uhal.

Transform your e-commerce strategy and increase customer engagement by learning more about Fresh’s successful implementation of Bazaarvoice tools here.

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How to collect content that engages and converts

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In reaction to that, there’s been a noticeable shift in how brands use visual content at the forefront of their marketing and e-commerce strategies.

As a practice, it’s called visual commerce, and the goal is simple: leverage compelling visual content to attract, influence, and convert consumers. Why? Because consumers want it.

But like any marketing strategy, there’s been some confusion around what visual commerce is — and what it’s not. To help clear the air, here’s a guide on how smart marketers think through visual commerce and put it to work to improve the shopping experience.

Defining visual commerce

Let’s start with the basics. Visual commerce is a blanket term that covers a number of ways brands can employ pictures, videos, and even virtual and augmented reality to help consumers learn about and connect with their products and brand.

Popular visual commerce strategies include:

• Building out rich product pages with compelling galleries of product photos, videos, and in-action shots for an overall exceptional e-commerce experience
• Making visual content searchable with the right descriptions and tags to help consumers easily search and discover products on your site
• Playing around with experiential marketing techniques like AR and VR to give shoppers the experiences they crave
• Employing a social commerce platform, so shoppers can shop directly on social
• Bringing visual user-generated content from social media onto your digital shelf
• Packing your content supply chain with authentic, visual content that inspires purchases across every touchpoint

In short, visual commerce uses visual content to guide consumers through their shopping experience, echoing social platforms like Pinterest.

And it works. From YouTube to Instagram, the internet is a visual place — and that’s in large part because humans are too. According to MIT, more than half of the human brain is dedicated to processing visual information. What’s more, people process pictures 60,000x faster than text on average.

In the last few years, the retail industry has come to understand the power of visual content, and the best brands have developed ways to include visual commerce at every stage of the shopper journey — from awareness to conversion.

Why brands are using visual commerce

Like the many examples of visual commerce, there’s a variety of compelling reasons why it works. But it comes down to three main things:

1. Customer experience
2. Personal, peer-to-peer connection
3. Authentic social proof

Making visual content the centerpiece of the e-commerce experience helps close the gap between product and consumer and between in-store and online.

What’s more, visual content elicits the more emotional, personal content that today’s consumers crave, allowing your brand to build an authentic connection with them. There’s no better way to foster this connection than through social media and community content.

Social media has had a big effect on marketing and e-commerce. You can call visual commerce a revolution in e-commerce marketing, but it’s really just the logical next step for an internet that’s increasingly visual and social.

TikTok and Instagram have billions of users combined, creating new, genuine content every day. And much of this content comes from brands and their customers. What’s more, 69% of shoppers have been inspired by social media to make a purchase.

Visual user-generated content

Brands can (and should) use these influential platforms to leverage their own visual content and discover and engage with compelling content from customers.

Photos and videos from customers — called user-generated content (UGC) — have become a big part of visual commerce because it provides the social proof other consumers need to make a purchase. According to our recent Shopper Experience Index of 7,000 global shoppers, 53% of respondents say UGC makes them more confident in their purchasing decisions than professional photography. Another 40% say UGC makes them more likely to buy a product from an ad.

As consumers, we turn to other consumers for reassurance — whether that’s a product review or a social post showing a product in action. The smartest brands realize this and include visual UGC across their marketing mix — on social media, on product pages, in shoppable galleries on their website, and in email marketing. Essentially, anywhere and everywhere consumers are.

Whether as a way to share branded visual content or as a way to discover customer content, social media provides the optimal channel for visual commerce.

How brands use visual commerce to drive e-commerce sales

There’s dozens of ways to make visual commerce drive e-commerce sales. But there’s three common strategies all successful brands use.

1. Put visual content to work on product pages

One of the best ways to create an exceptional shopping experience for consumers is to give them information where they need it: on the product page.

Best-in-class brands go beyond product shots and text description and create rich product pages. They combine these traditional elements with lifestyle product shots, demo videos, ratings and reviews, and customer photos to provide shoppers with a comprehensive experience of a product.

Pairing visual UGC with ratings and reviews can, for example, further add context and color. We found that 86% of consumers are more confident in their purchase decisions when they see visual UGC paired with ratings and reviews.

Online beauty retailer Feelunique is a great case study in how to put visual UGC to work on product pages the right way.

“Visual content is key to helping convey someone’s experience of a product,” says Tom Newbald, Marketing and Customer Experience Director at Feelunique.

He’s right, too. Since collecting and displaying visual and social content, paired with customer reviews, Feelunique has driven $10 million in annual sales.

2. Create standalone galleries of customer content

There’s visual commerce strategies that work at all stages of the funnel. When it comes to the discovery phase, creating a gallery of customer pictures and videos is a powerful tactic. A gallery of visual UGC paints a broader picture about what a brand and its products look like in the world at large. Bonus points if you make this gallery shoppable, meaning it links back to corresponding product pages.

Fashion retailer DSW is an expert in spinning up galleries like this.

“One of the digital team’s main strategies is bringing DSW’s assortment to life,” says Alison Wagner, Digital Product Specialist at DSW. “Having more lifestyle photography and ‘how to wear’ information from consumer-generated content increases customer confidence and drives conversions.”

Galleries like the one above help build a lifestyle image around a brand with real, authentic snapshots from real people. DSW for instance has a 2x lift in conversion thanks to visual UGC.

3. Enable shoppers to buy products directly from social media

Any good marketer knows that you have to meet your shoppers where they are, and in today’s commerce world, it’s highly likely that your shoppers are on social media.

Whether it’s branded video with integrated product links or shoppable Instagram posts, visual content that drives directly to a purchase page turns browsers into buyers. One of the more significant developments in visual commerce is the ability for brands to post shoppable content directly on major platforms.

Buying and selling on social media — known as social commerce — allows you to integrate your brand and your products into this conversation. And better yet, social commerce extends to everywhere shoppers are. If someone clicking on a tagged product in an Instagram photo or swiping up on TikTok then lands on a corresponding product page, they’re one step closer to making a purchase.

Shoppable content makes it easy for shoppers to hit the buy button and then seamlessly return to their social experience — 54% of shoppers say they’d be more likely to buy a product on social media if they could click a post and get product info directly there.

Supercharge your brand with visual and social commerce

For all the benefits of e-commerce, it has historically been an impersonal experience. Online shoppers can’t touch a product or ask a store associate for advice — instead, they had a text description and static product shots. Savvy brands have come up with innovative ways to bring the in-store experience online, and one of the more powerful strategies is visual commerce.

Fashion brand Oliver Bonas, for example, recognised the importance of visual commerce and incorporated visual and social content onto their website, leading to a:

• 176% increase in time on site
• 188% lift in conversions
• 26% boost in average order value.

By putting visual content at the forefront of marketing, social, and e-commerce, brands and retailers can bridge the gap between online and offline, join in on their customers’ conversations, improve the shopping experience, and supercharge sales.

Want to know how visual commerce looks in action? See for yourself right here.

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The power of visual content: How UGC strengthens customer relationships to grow your brand

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With the cost of social, search, retail, and digital ads growing increasingly expensive, now’s the time to re-think your e-commerce investments.

Chapters:

1. Digital ads today
2. The problem(s) with digital ads
3. No digital ads: Alternative strategies for marketers
4. Taking a holistic approach

There’s been a noticeable shift in the e-commerce realm lately. The current state of digital ads isn’t looking good for brands, marketers, or consumers. Escalating prices, declining performance, and questionable ethics have marketers looking for better options.

The COVID-19 pandemic was the primary culprit of these price spikes. The pandemic instigated thick competition among e-commerce companies, as an increasing number of consumers turned to online shopping. I mean, just look at Amazon. Its advertising rates increased by more than 50% over the last year. And according to Hunch data, other platform-specific price increases look like:

Also, Apple’s privacy update, which restricted third-party tracking, sparked a surge in mobile ad costs. In particular, it made targeted mobile ads significantly more difficult and expensive to execute.

Meanwhile, the lengths some digital advertisers are going to get attention don’t inspire good faith. Brad Honigberg, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), goes so far as to say, “Increasing opaqueness, outright fraud, and perverse incentives give the digital advertising marketplace the features of a dangerous shell-game.”

The solution for e-commerce marketers: Get back to basics. Put the buyer at the center of your marketing strategy to attract them with a genuine connection as opposed to an impersonal — and thirsty — sales ploy.

The problem(s) with digital ads

A range of factors is diminishing the standing of digital ads. Competition, privacy regulations, and an overall failure to attract and convert new customers make them less and less appealing.

Prices continue to rise

In the second quarter of 2021, spending outnumbered impressions of clicks in each of the major digital advertising channels, according to Skai’s digital trends report. Looking at the overall increase by category, the average cost-per-click (CPC) of paid search ads increased 34% year over year (YoY), and CPM of social media ads increased 41% YoY.

Declining performance

There’s many indications of the waning ROI of digital ads. The current state of PPC (pay-per-click) ads is bleak, according to Marketing Insider Group.

Out of the $3 billion spent on PPC ads annually, the average click-through rate (CTR) is 2.35%. However, over 90% of those clicks bounce, reducing that rate to 0.2% realistically. They also say that banner ads aren’t much better, with a less than 0.1% CTR.

In a larger sense, the fundamental logic of digital ads is coming into question. Harvard Business Review argues that the performance of digital ads isn’t even an accurate measure of success. Because, it says, they’re based on conversions of customers who were already planning a transaction. In other words, digital ads aren’t actually changing behavior or inspiring purchases.

CSIS reinforces this position. “An emerging body of research suggests that ads often hit people that are already the most likely to engage in the behaviors they are trying to encourage.” 

Third-party cookie blocking

For years, e-commerce companies have relied on cookie trackers for quick and convenient user information, but that method is on its way out. Firefox and Safari already block third-party cookie trackers by default, and Google Chrome has too. This means digital advertisers can no longer rely on these automated data collection methods for targeted ads.

Note: A cookie in this sense is a tracking cookie. Essentially, “a sample of text dropped onto a browser while viewing a website. This text collects data from a user such as their activity on a website, browsing history, geographic location, purchase trends, and more.” Not one of those delicious baked goods.

Now, they’ll have to explore other customer-targeting tools. Luckily, there’s many, and arguably, more reliable options out there. Options like internal data, including website and social media analytics. But, in any event, digital ads campaigns without third-party data will make creating, tracking, optimizing, and measuring them more difficult. And more time-consuming.

Digital ads can be untrustworthy

When Uber turned off $100 million worth of digital ads with absolutely no impact on conversions, the tech giant realized it was the victim of massive ad fraud. In this case, Uber experienced attribution fraud. Essentially, app installs that were attributed to paid campaigns were really acquired organically and would have happened regardless of the paid ad campaigns.

This should ring alarm bells. Think about it: If ad fraud on this scale can happen to Uber, how many other companies has it unknowingly happened to? 

Besides ad fraud, there’s other ways that digital ads fail to meet expectations. When buying ad space on other websites there’s, “zero guarantee that an ad will be placed on a prominent location on a website,” according to CSIS.

No digital ads: Alternative strategies for marketers

While there’s issues with digital ads, they can still be beneficial if managed thoughtfully and carefully by an experienced marketer. But, put fewer — if any — eggs in that basket. Maybe just one little egg. Try these alternative or supplemental strategies to get the most out of your marketing budget instead.

Optimize your website for conversions

Instead of investing money in wasteful digital ads, focus on converting customers on their path to purchase. If they’ve landed on your website via a search, you’re already fulfilling your SEO strategy. It’s what they find once they get there that’ll determine whether they complete a purchase.

One proven tactic is user-generated content (UGC). UGC is any content posted by a person, rather than a brand. A review, photo, video, etc. Integrating UGC throughout your website can have huge benefits. Based on the average of all current Bazaarvoice customers with visual UGC on their websites, time on site increased by 250%, average order value by 15%, and conversions by 150%.

Pro tip: Use our ROI calculator tool to see the impact UGC can have on your sales. Both online and in-store. The tool takes 12 months of benchmarking data to estimate the total projected revenue increases you could see.

Bazaarvoice galleries displays UGC from existing customers, or sourced from social media, everywhere and anywhere on a website. This provides social proof to shoppers — a convincing tool that shows a product’s credibility with the stamp of approval from verified buyers.

Strategy in action: Bazaarvoice customer Oliver Bonas. The British fashion and lifestyle brand showcases UGC on the home page and a separate gallery page. Customers are encouraged to share photos and videos on Instagram by following and tagging them for a chance to be featured in the gallery.

It’s also a way for potential customers to envision products in their own lives. This is much more effective than professional imagery because it resonates more with customers. Our own research tells us that 64% of consumers prefer customer’s own photos. They perceive UGC to be more authentic and trustworthy.

Ratings and reviews

In addition to visual UGC, optimizing your website with reviews can be a game-changer. Digital ads are expensive. Ratings and reviews are free. Online reviews are also highly influential for consumers. They provide clear, detailed social proof of products that have been personally tested and vetted by customers.

According to a recent Bazaarvoice survey of the Influenster community:

Bazaarvoice’s multifaceted reviews tools create many ways to source quality reviews and promote them online, highlighting the most effective ones front and center. Featuring 50 or more customer reviews on product pages and other locations throughout your website can increase conversions by 4.6%.

Strategy in action: Plenty shows how leveraging customer reviews can benefit your marketing strategy on many levels. As a major consumer-packaged goods brand in a highly competitive category, Plenty partnered with Bazaarvoice to stand out with a robust customer review campaign. Because the recency of reviews matters to customers, Plenty focuses on generating reviews consistently. One way Plenty achieves this is with incentives promoted right on its home page, entering shoppers in a sweepstakes when they leave a review.

In addition to this review prompt on the home page, Plenty has a dedicated, easy-to-use landing page where customers can submit reviews. Beyond growing their review volume, Plenty was able to get in-depth customer insights that led to product innovation, vastly exceeding its ROI expectations.

Use social media to connect, not advertise

Users come to social media to explore, interact, and, for many, shop. Give them what they came for! Instead of spamming already crowded feeds with ads, focus on drawing your audience in with engaging content about your brand and community.

A seismic shift in social shopping resulted in approximately 79 million social buyers in 2020 alone. That number is projected to increase by nearly 37% by 2025. Among Influenster members, 70% of shoppers search for products on Instagram and Facebook.

The social marketplace isn’t just about buying and selling. It’s also about the shopping experience. Social shoppers like to browse and discover, which is another reason to feature UGC on your brand’s social channels. Since they can’t see and try the products in person, other shoppers like them representing your brand provide a realistic impression of your products and services.

Focus on optimizing your social networks for social commerce. Upload your product catalogs to the shop channels on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest — the most popular social commerce platforms in the United States. Turn your entire feed into a shoppable storefront with Like2Buy, so users can click on photos and videos that will send them directly to where they can purchase and learn more.

Build a social community

You need access to UGC featuring your brand. In order to get it, you need to earn it by inspiring and encouraging your customers to share their purchases and experiences on social media.

It starts, of course, with products that are worth sharing. Beyond that, interact with your social community by liking and responding to their comments, tags, and mentions of your brand. Share customers’ UGC and tag them to encourage others to contribute. Launch a hashtag campaign to encourage customers to post their photos and videos for a chance to be featured on your website or social channels.

Influencers are another proven tactic for generating effective UGC. To serve the customer with content they can trust and relate to, target the “everyday” influencers creating genuine content as opposed to high-profile influencers whose priority is a monetary exchange. In a Bazaarvoice survey of over 9,000 global consumers, 56% said they follow organic, everyday influencers the most, and 83% said they trust content from unpaid influencers the most.

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A post shared by Official Feelunique Account (@feelunique)

Strategy in action: In the Feelunique Instagram post below, the beauty brand shares UGC from an authentic influencer using one of Bazaarvoice’s customer’s products.

Invest in a sampling program

A sampling campaign is much easier, and more effective, to run than a digital ads campaign. Sampling is a way to be 100% confident you are reaching your target customers — because you’re literally putting your product in their hands. No need for third-party trackers. With sampling, you know exactly where your campaigns are going and what results they produce.

Bazaarvoice is uniquely positioned to manage a sampling program from start to finish because of our Influenster community of over 7.5 million active shoppers. Influenster membership perks include access to product samples, and exclusive offers and discounts. In return, members provide reviews, visual UGC, and general feedback. Based on the behaviors of target customers included in Bazaarvoice sampling campaigns:

• 63% purchased the sampled product
• 87% recommended the product or brand
• 50% reported that the product became a new staple for them

Sampling is a great option for new product launches, general brand awareness, or particular products that need more movement.

Strategy in action: Kraft Heinz launched new dressing products with staggering success using a hyper-targeted sampling strategy.

By sending samples to targeted consumers in the Influenster community, Kraft Heinz earned 20,000 reviews and 39 million impressions from 369,000 social interactions.

Swap your digital ads strategy for an SEO strategy

Put digital ads on the back burner for a while. Instead, turn to SEO. When you need to target new customers, focus on organic marketing to attract shoppers who are already searching for your products.

To drive website traffic and deliver content that converts, optimize your landing pages for search engines and dedicate resources to creating consistent blog content. The more content you create, the more chances you have to link to products and resources within your site, which will benefit your SEO strategy and direct shoppers to points of purchase.

An SEO strategy that targets relevant keywords for your brand will help your website pages rank for those terms and send people who are searching for them to your site. Once they’ve arrived, the content you’ve optimized with UGC will work its magic to boost conversions.

Strategy in action: Bazaarvoice customer Primal Kitchen has a blog of recipes that incorporates its products and adds keyword-rich content to its website that boosts SEO. At the end of every recipe are featured products with reviews and an add-to-cart call-to-action.

Take a holistic approach for best results

Replacing a digital ads strategy with one that’s cost-effective and performs requires a comprehensive effort using multiple channels. Increased customer loyalty comes from brands that engage across multiple channels, and customer retention increases by 90% for omnichannel campaigns compared to single-channel campaigns. 

Furthermore, omnichannel campaigns increase purchase rate frequency by 250% over single-channel campaigns.

So focus on the channels and methods that perform the best and make sense for your target audience. Bazaarvoice’s insights and reports tools will not only help you analyze your audience but also determine which platforms and methods produce the best results.

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Ad spend ROI is declining, here’s what to do instead

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Another 74% of shoppers want to see that content shared on brands’ websites. As more brands become hip to the power of UGC, its applications in marketing continue to change and evolve.

Our favourite examples of user-generated content marketing

This year brought more innovative and brand-boosting UGC to the playing field. In this year in review, discover the 10 most impactful user-generated content marketing examples from brands, artists, and tech leaders. Use these strategies for inspiration in the new year to create powerful messaging that clicks with consumers.

1. Tentsile makes UGC shoppable

The tent and hammock brand Tentsile has a gorgeous gallery of Instagram photos, and their customers contribute many of them. But beyond just sharing this striking UGC, Tentsile tags their products and turns the photos into shoppable images. That way, Instagram users can go from “I’d love to do that” to “I’m going to do that” with no steps in between.

Lesson learned: Make UGC a social commerce tool

Social commerce is growing rapidly, with several social media platforms adding new shopping features in 2021. In the past year alone, the Twitter Shopping Module, TikTok Shopping, and Facebook’s Live Shopping Fridays all debuted. These developments follow the massive popularity of Instagram Shopping, Facebook Shops, and Pinterest Shopping.

A growing shift to social shopping drives the development of these new digital outlets. Younger shoppers are leading this change in shopping behaviors, with 49% of millennials and 43% of Gen Z using social media platforms to purchase products or services in 2021.

On Instagram, there’s many ways to make your content shoppable, by tagging products in static posts, Stories, Reels, IGTV videos, and Live streams.

Pro tip: Bazaarvoice’s Like2Buy feature streamlines the process, so users can shop every image on your Instagram feed without ever leaving the app.

Shoppable UGC takes social commerce to the next level. Consumers trust other shoppers’ opinions significantly more than branded content, and social commerce shortens the shopping funnel. 

Trust + convenience = conversions 

Shoppable UGC can extend beyond posts from the average user to include influencer content. Many enterprise marketers are already leveraging this tactic: 86% have enabled purchasing from influencer campaigns in 2021.

2. BarkBox makes influencers out of their followers

If you want a user-generated content marketing example that’s both cute and effective, you’ve found it. Look at any dog owner’s camera roll, you’ll likely be treated to hundreds of images and videos of their pet. And those proud pet owners love to share that content online, which BarkBox cleverly uses to source influencer content.

Dogs play starring roles on Instagram accounts of many lifestyle bloggers and celebrities. Some are even influencers in their own right. With accounts all of their own. Many of those accounts also belong to BarkBox customers, giving the brand a built-in team of influencers freely posting content they can share with their 1.7 million followers. This helps both parties. BarkBox sells more subscriptions, and their followers that contribute content get access to a huge audience.

Lesson learned: Rethink what influencer means

Influencers don’t need to be celebrities or have millions of followers to make a big impact. They can be everyday people (or pets!) who have loyal followings, are avid users of a certain type of product, align with a particular lifestyle, or are experts in their field. Or even work for a brand.

Like BarkBox, other companies are shifting their focus to micro- and nano-influencers. According to Linqia’s 2021 State of Influencer Marketing report, 90% of marketers expressed interest in working with micro-influencers.

People perceive these influencers with smaller followings as more authentic, so they are an effective and affordable resource. A Bazaarvoice survey found that 56% of respondents follow regular, everyday influencers more than any other type of influencer, including traditional and social media celebrities.

3. Crocs assembles a UGC squad on TikTok

Crocs is one of the most successful brands on TikTok, the platform where all the cool kids are these days. In the past year, their branded #croctok hashtag created a tidal wave of UGC, inspiring hundreds of TikTokers to create Croc-themed TikTok videos. In these TikToks, Crocs’ customers show off their new shoes, create how-to videos for cleaning and decorating Crocs, and anything else Croc-related.

TikTok videos with the #croctok hashtag have generated six million views so far. This UGC on TikTok is valuable for many reasons, from inspiring excitement and interest in the brand to producing a ton of content that Crocs can share and use for marketing purposes.

Lesson learned: It’s TikTok time

TikTok is the “fastest-growing social media network ever,” outpacing Facebook and Instagram, but still in its early stages as a marketing channel. Early adopters of TikTok as a marketing tool will be at the forefront of a rapidly growing trend, adding to their credibility as industry innovators.

According to an InVideo study of 650 TikTok videos, popular content types for brands include influencer collaborations and content from brand employees — two types of UGC. Another top brand on TikTok, Chipotle, inspires a lot of UGC with their #chipotlehacks content. It’s used by employees, food influencers, and customers to show how they customize their Chipotle orders.

4. Bodyform gets real with the #meandmyperiod campaign

Some of the best examples of user-generated content marketing are educational content. The women’s health brand Bodyform doesn’t just sell hygiene products — it’s become an educational resource and community for women to share their reproductive health experiences. Bodyform launched the Me and My Period campaign on Instagram in September 2021 to create a safe space for their community to share their stories. The #meandmyperiod hashtag has become a rich source for meaningful UGC.

Bodyform cultivates trust and authenticity by encouraging transparency and normalizing reproductive conditions and pain. They reveal the problems and pain points that their product and brand attempts to solve.

Lesson learned: Show authenticity with UGC

The whole point of UGC is that it doesn’t provide the pristine, unattainable images of traditional advertising. UGC shows how real people use and enjoy products in their everyday lives. UGC comes from a genuine affinity for a brand and its products, not because the customer is peddling something.

Because 92% of shoppers trust peer recommendations over claims from brands or retailers, UGC shows that brands can deliver their promises. Developing brand pillars will help identify what values to align messaging and campaigns with.

5. Dove takes a stand with #nodigitaldistortion

Dove’s latest campaign in their ongoing mission to advocate for self-esteem and body positivity is #nodigitaldistortion. This campaign combats the pressures that social media puts on its users, especially young ones. Dove asks its community to have “The Selfie Talk” with the young people in their lives using the “Confidence Kit” it provides as a communication resource.

Dove’s comprehensive campaign partners with influencers like Lizzo and Shonda Rhimes to talk about what having a healthy image means. They then ask their social community to share their own thoughts about #nodigitaldistortion. Dove promotes the campaign on its active social media channels, including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

On Instagram, over 1,000 posts are tagged with #nodigitaldistortion, and hundreds of conversations including #theselfietalk appear on Twitter.

Dove isn’t the only Unilever brand benefiting from UGC. Socially conscious ice cream darlings Ben and Jerry are also UGC pros to draw inspiration from.

Lesson learned: Start a movement with UGC

#nodigitaldistortion is more than just an example of user-generated content marketing. It’s an entire movement. Dove invites UGC with the intention of disrupting current social media standards and culture. Growing their community and building brand awareness and loyalty are all bonus outcomes. Galvanize your online community around a purposeful mission, idea, or statement, and you could see similar results.

During a 2021 Advertising Week New York panel, Lindsay Stein, chief of social impact at Havas Media, emphasized that 78% of consumers will choose a purpose-driven brand over one that lacks a message and identity that demonstrates brand values.

6. Fresh Beauty masters the art of Instagram Video

Skincare brand Fresh kills the Instagram video game. Instagram itself cites the brand for leveraging Instagram TV as a social selling tool. Fresh also utilizes Stories, in-feed videos, and Reels, continuing to innovate with each new Instagram video feature.

Fresh regularly reposts their customers’ video content, tagging any featured products so other shoppers can instantly learn more and make purchases. One reason these videos are so effective is it shows the customer’s genuine reaction to the product as they’re using it in real time.

These examples from Fresh’s Instagram feed are an Instagram video and Reel created by shoppers that Fresh reposted and tagged with products. Of all the user-generated content marketing examples showcased here, this is our favourite. It’s UGC in the purest form.

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A post shared by Fresh (@freshbeauty)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Fresh (@freshbeauty)

Lesson learned: Embrace Instagram Video

Video on Instagram garners more views and engagement than any other content type. Permanent, in-feed video posts receive 46% more likes than static image posts, and Stories with videos have a lower tap-forward rate than images, meaning they retain users’ attention better and for longer.

It was all about video last year, and the format shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Video is not only dominating engagement on Instagram but all other major social media platforms, as well. And video is a persuasive shopping tool. 84% of respondents to a Wyzowl survey reported making a purchase after watching a brand’s video.

7. T2 successfully launched new products during pandemic lockdowns

This is one of the best examples of user-generated content marketing because T2, like so many other e-commerce and retail brands, faced new product marketing challenges as a result of COVID. This was especially true for food and beverage product launches, more than half of which were delayed due to the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, T2 offered new product samples at their tea bars located in physical retail spaces. The global tea brand was ready to launch new products but knew shoppers would be hesitant to try something new without sampling it first.

The solution was to, “get the latest tea to their most loyal customers, like top review contributors and members of their loyalty program” through a targeted sampling campaign. Not only could those high-value customers get access to T2’s new products, but they could spread the word to other potential customers in the form of UGC. “We saw an immediate increase in reviews just after products went live. That gave other customers confidence to buy the new teas,” said Sally Lennox, head of digital at T2.

The reviews and visual UGC that the sampling campaign produced resulted in a significant increase in conversions and revenue per visitor for T2.

Lesson learned: Launch and revive products with UGC

Now’s the time to invest in product sampling. So you can get the word out about products in a world where in-person shopping is still recovering slowly. According to Adweek, “The great shifts of preference, mindset and expectations will have a significant impact on the product sampling industry and how brands adapt to utilizing this proven marketing strategy.”

A benefit of product sampling is that samplers produce high-value UGC, which brands can use on product pages and social channels. Sampling yields authoritative reviews from customers who have personally tested products, and, “every 10 reviews nets a 5% conversion rate lift,” according to our sampling data.

This approach works well for hero products in need of some revitalization, too. Sampling is a great way to reintroduce established products to customers and accumulate more recent reviews, which prove more reliable to customers than older reviews.

For example, French skincare company Clarins lacked reviews for one of its key product. So they opted to run a sampling campaign targeting that particular brand staple. Within 36 days, they received 138 reviews, and 91% of sampling recipients left a review.

8. Maybelline puts the customer perspective front and center

If you want to know the secret to crafting a high-performing product page, Maybelline can show you how it’s done. Hint: It’s all about the UGC. Of course, Maybelline does have beautiful, professional product photography. But the real secret weapon is how they’ve combined and displayed different elements of UGC.

Take the product page for their Lash Sensational Sky High mascara, for example. Directly under the product description with the “buy now” button and product photos, there’s a gallery of visual UGC from social media. The entire gallery is shoppable, with tagged products in each image.

Below the UGC gallery is customer reviews of the product, with a breakout section at the top for review highlights. Because there’s over 400 product reviews, the highlights condense and summarize the reviews with key takeaways. That way it’s easy for shoppers to digest quickly.

Lesson learned: Optimize product pages with UGC

Product pages are the gateway to checkout pages, so if you’re not optimizing them, you could be losing sales. To leverage this critical space for conversions, go all in with a combination of visual UGC and customer reviews. Visual UGC sourced from social media on product pages can increase conversions by 150% and average order value by 15%. Reviews are highly influential to 95% of shoppers who read them prior to making a purchase.

By strategically and prominently placing UGC on product pages like Maybelline, you can attract the majority of shoppers who rely on them for purchasing decisions. For reviews, that means highlighting the most important elements. Which, according to a survey of 30,000 global shoppers, are: recency, volume, images with text, positive reviews, and negative reviews that brands respond to.

9. Spotify’s Only You campaign

Spotify knows a thing or two about getting its audience hyped to interact with the platform. Just look at the hold Spotify Wrapped has on society. This year, Spotify’s Only You campaign provided its users with an in-app experience that revealed their unique listening habits based on Spotify’s internal data.

Only You asked users what three artists they would choose to have at a dream dinner party. Once listeners engaged with the feature, Spotify generated personalized playlists based on the final results. Only You appealed to each listener’s personal tastes and invited them to share their results on social media, thus turning the feature into a source for UGC. The campaign delivered content that fans were eager to share because it reflected their interests, and who doesn’t love talking about themselves?

Lesson learned: Use customer trends for creative campaigns

Spotify leveraged its own insights and analytics to share with its listeners, allowing them to explore information about themselves with the option to share it. A lot of people did choose to share their Only You results because it was unique to them, fun, interesting, and wrapped in an attractive visual package.

Brands can take a page from Spotify’s book and send customers content related to their shopping experiences that they can customize and share. For example, an apparel brand could send customers a branded “best dressed” badge or template they can use to post with their favorite outfit from a recent purchase. A wine subscription company could send their customers digital cards they can fill out with their favorite wine selections and tasting notes to share on social media.

10. Lucy Dacus’ Brando music video contest

Our last user-generated content marketing example, but certainly not the least. For the release of her latest album, “Home Video,” Lucy Dacus hosted a contest asking her fans to record themselves dancing to her single, “Brando,” for a chance to be featured in the music video. The final product is a heartwarming compilation of the submissions, serving as a kind of tribute to her fans.

With this charming and inventive piece of crowd-sourced UGC, she made her fans creative collaborators and strengthened her relationship with them. “These videos brought me a lot of joy and made me feel more connected to the song and all of you,” Dacus said in a press release.

Lesson learned: Run a contest that celebrates your fans

Involving your fans in your creative process is one of the best ways to engage your community and build loyalty. And if it’s a contest, that gives your followers an extra incentive to participate. The reward for entering could be as simple as being featured in a campaign or piece of content — like the Brando contest — or something with more concrete value, like a gift card, free experience, or subscription.

Be an industry innovator

Take what inspires you from these user-generated content marketing examples and make them your own to fit the tone, style, function, and personality of your brand. If you want to boost sales this year, you need to push UGC forward to the next level.

Still need convincing? Our free marketing ROI calculator tool will show you the positive impact UGC can have on your sales.

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According to our latest Shopper Experience Index, about 22% of shoppers say shopper review ads make them most likely to buy a product from an ad, and almost three quarters (74%) of shoppers agree that shopper photos increase their likelihood of buying a product. Over half (53%) say UGC — like social images from customers — makes them more confident in their purchase decision than professional photography. And 42% would buy a product with no professional photos.

So we know the benefits of UGC advertising. But the clue is right there: advertising. UGC advertising is a form of advertising, meaning it’s held to the same scrutiny as regular advertising standards.

What is UGC advertising?

UGC advertising is the new way that brands “talk” to their consumers, just like they used to through traditional advertising. And just like traditional advertising, it too has to be regulated. It’s always been illegal to be misleading and deceptive in advertising and UGC is no different. So, how do we apply these old laws to meet changing consumer expectations, new technologies, and channels?

When brands and retailers use UGC to help consumers understand, find, and shop for products, that UGC is legally considered a form of advertising. It’s considered an “endorsement or testimonial” in terms of advertising law.

When it’s used that way, it’s governed by consumer protection laws:

• In the US we have the FTC Act (and their recently issued proposed rules on updated Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising), Lanham Act, and Consumer Review Fairness Act, among others
• The UK has Unfair Trading Regulations
• Australia has Australian Consumer Law
• The EU has a relatively new Omnibus Directive that specifically relates to consumer reviews in the context of advertising, and other countries have equivalent laws

While there’s many laws that govern UGC, and while they differ in specifics, they all start from the premise that consumers need to be protected from fraudulent, deceptive, and misleading advertising. Violations of these laws can be very costly — not only financially, but it will cost your reputation as well. 

UGC advertising best practices

Costly fines and irreversibly damaging your brand’s reputation are why it’s so important for you to be authentic in how you collect, moderate and display UGC. Here’s our top do’s and don’ts to help guide your UGC advertising strategy:

Don’t:

• Cherry pick reviews: This is the practice of only publishing or collecting positive reviews. In fact, this can be applied in all phases of the review practice: collection, moderation, and display. You need to treat all of your honest, authentic reviews the same, whether they’re positive or negative. When you ask for reviews, don’t ask them to specifically be positive. Don’t discourage or not allow people to submit negative reviews. Don’t reject negative reviews. Be sure to publish them, even if you don’t like them or don’t agree with them. 
• Post or allow fake reviews: Fake reviews are reviews that are inauthentic in some way. They can even be written by a real person but that person didn’t actually purchase or experience the product. Fake reviews also include the practice of editing or manipulating reviews to make them more positive. Then, there’s reviews that weren’t generated by a real person, but a bot. This could also include a company asking their employees or customers to post positive reviews in exchange for a reward or compensation. 

Do: 

• Disclose any material connection between the reviewer and merchant: Consumers expect that a review is going to be written by a real consumer who has a normal, actual experience with the product. If that isn’t the case, or if the review is written by someone who they wouldn’t expect, then the credibility of that review is going to be impacted. For instance, if a consumer knew that a review was written by someone who didn’t have an authentic relationship with a merchant, they’ll put less weight on it. Then they’ll factor that in when they’re judging the credibility and legitimacy of the review. So, if you have a relationship with the poster (like if they’re an employee of your brand) that needs to be disclosed. 
• Disclose any material benefit provided to the reviewer: If a material benefit was provided to the person writing the review — like through a sampling campaign, where they got a free or discounted product in exchange for a review, it needs to be disclosed.  This also includes if you pay an influencer to post or write a review. 
• Make sure those disclosures are prominently displayed: There’s no particular verbiage that needs to be used in these types of disclosures, but it has to be sufficient to convey the information that the reader of the review would likely think is important to know. The benefit (free sample, payment, etc) needs to be clearly stated. It has to catch the reader’s attention and be unlikely to be missed. 

Choose the right UGC provider

The best way to ensure that your reviews are authentic and your UGC advertising can be trusted is by working with a UGC provider that takes reasonable measures to detect and prevent fake reviews. A provider like Bazaarvoice, perhaps.

UGC is the heart and soul of our business, so ensuring UGC remains authentic is one of our core principles. We use both human moderation and machine learning to verify that reviews are from real people with real product experience, and aren’t fake or manipulated.

Want to learn more about our products and services? We’d rather let our customers do the talking for us. See why G2 has rated Bazaarvoice #1 in UGC (for the 6th consecutive quarter!) Or request a free demo below to get started.

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7 UGC examples and why they work

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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.

Rather than respond to each request individually (of which there’s obviously millions), we decided to consult internal experts and put together this best practice guide instead.

Chapters:

1. What does a UGC content manager do?
2. Key traits to look for
3. Interview questions to ask candidates
4. A UGC refresher

If you’re like most business leaders today, you’re struggling with employee turnover and keeping up with hiring and retention. Tons of people are changing jobs, retiring, or quitting work altogether — over 4 million every month since July of last year. The great resignation is truly here.

And hiring in the semi-niche industry of user-generated content (UGC) manager roles? Even harder.

If you’re not a UGC expert yourself, it’s hard to know what to ask. That’s why it’s so important to ask the right interview questions and be able to identify great responses. Before your next UGC content manager interview, read this guide we created with help from industry professionals.

What does a UGC content manager do?

UGC content managers lead marketing teams on a comprehensive UGC strategy. They need to demonstrate a working knowledge of all forms of UGC — ratings and reviews, shopper photos and videos, and questions and answers.

While UGC may have previously been part of other roles like social media or e-commerce managers, it’s increasingly a role and focus in its own right. 

A UGC content manager is usually responsible for:

• Collecting and managing UGC
• Distributing UGC across websites, retailers, social channels and search
• Collecting the associated customer data
• Conducting influencer campaigns
• Overseeing sampling campaigns from beginning to end
• Analyzing metrics and revenue generated
• Communicating insights to stakeholders

Key traits to look for in a good UGC content manager

Hiring content teams in today’s competitive and title-bloated market isn’t just challenging; it’s excruciating, says Joe Manna, Content & SEO Manager at Alyce, a corporate gifting platform.

“At my previous company in the cloud communications space, the desire to hire someone ‘right now’ sometimes superseded hiring the right candidate. This impatience resulted in unfit leaders who later brought on unsuccessful candidates. What followed? A complete turnover of the communication and content teams. To avoid this disaster, evaluate EVERY potential content marketing producer by drilling deeper.” — Joe Manna

To identify a truly great UGC content manager candidate, look for these key traits:

• Emotional intelligence. All good leaders — and good marketers — need to empathize and understand emotions. To be effective, a UGC content manager needs to empathize primarily with users.
• Time management and proactiveness. UGC content managers need to manage multiple projects and deadlines. Someone in this role often juggles projects from influencers, contributors, and internal creators. All in tandem with broader marketing campaigns or product releases.
• Creativity and wit. To thrive in the social media space, UGC content managers need to have a friendly and humorous tone of voice. They also need to balance that creativity with a sense of responsibility to the brand’s reputation.
• Critical thinking and resourcefulness. Since it’s an emerging field, UGC content managers need to be confident decision-makers who can think on their feet. And also take swift action if necessary.
• Flexibility. UGC content managers need to be able to quickly adapt to different audiences, topics, and customer pain points. As well as manage different personalities.
• Technical skills in writing, editing, SEO, and online marketing analytics are a must. Also helpful is the ability to create GIFs, memes, videos, and other visuals.
• Business acumen to contribute to the larger goals of a company.

Top interview questions to ask a UGC content manager candidate

Ask open-ended questions to identify an interviewee’s skills and talents for a UGC role as well as a leadership position.

Below are some of the top questions to ask a UGC content manager during an interview, along with ideal responses.

“Can you provide examples of how you move users to take action?”

Get specific with examples. Ask job candidates to tell you about times they’ve had a great marketing idea that moved users to take action, recommends Makenzie Rath, President at Talent Plus, a global human resources consulting firm. This type of question shows resourcefulness and critical, out-of-the-box thinking.

Evaluate responses based on how specific they are. If the interviewee answers with vague, jargon-heavy platitudes, they’re probably not qualified for the role. Or, they don’t know how to communicate effectively, which in itself could be difficult to overcome in a marketing position.

“What are the most important things to consider while planning a UGC marketing campaign?”

Answers to this question speak not only to technical skills but also to a candidate’s business acumen. Also whether they know how to contribute to a company’s larger goals or not.

“UGC managers must have the necessary ability to understand and explain the business value of your content marketing efforts to the company,” says Deni Ivanov, Digital Marketing Director at Royal Cleaning, a London-based cleaning company.

Responses should indicate how candidates structure and prioritize work and show care for the target audience’s needs. Can they look at the bigger picture?

“Knowing a goal of a campaign and making sure we understand it is a must,” says Agata Szczepanek, Community Manager at MyPerfectResume. Candidates should also demonstrate how UGC interacts with a brand’s image, values, and tone.

“How do you increase team member engagement?”

If your UGC leader will manage people, then asking about team engagement will help you understand their leadership style and empathy. You’re looking at more than technical skills since those can be learned. Reading between the lines, you’re actually asking: “Are they human-centered and responsible as a leader?” Szczepanek advises.

This question will also help you determine if a candidate is a good cultural fit with your brand. “If you bring in someone unable to connect with people, embrace constructive conflict, and roll their sleeves up and work,” says Manna, “you’d be spending thousands of dollars every week for someone to move Asana tasks around.”

Whether your role is people manager or a project manager, candidates still need to have high emotional intelligence. This question helps answer that. Emotional intelligence is important for UGC content managers because it means they can show restraint and handle social media crises with grace, says Padmaja Santhanam, Growth Manager at FirstPrinciples.

“Tell me about your day-to-day responsibilities.”

The title “content manager” and “content marketer” seem similar but have vastly different experiences and duties. To avoid hiring someone without the necessary expertise, Manna recommends asking interviewees to tell you about their daily responsibilities.

“Have them talk through the types of campaigns, challenges, or ‘fires’ they had to resolve,” says Manna. “Ask for samples, even redacted ones, and get extremely clear about this person’s SPECIFIC responsibilities. Did they concept, write, edit, proof, publish, and promote the piece? Or were they spectating?”

“Tell me about our target market and current content marketing efforts.”

Asking interviewees about your brand’s marketing can help you figure out if they are serious about your company, according to Ivanov. Are they critical thinkers? Are they prepared for this position? Their response should demonstrate that they’ve done their own research about your company, target audience, and competitors. It will also show you how they process information and make recommendations.

“The candidate’s answer will provide an insight into his research skills and how well he understood the company’s target market,” says Ivanov. “I will be most impressed with answers that not only cite our target market correctly but also share insights on what we should be doing to improve our current content marketing efforts based on the candidate’s research.”

“Tell me about any one of your most successful campaigns.”

This question will help you gauge a candidate’s experience and how they define a campaign’s success, says Ivanov. The best candidates, according to Max Benz, Founder and CEO at BankingGeek, will also be able to show you high-quality, error-free, engaging samples. Candidates should be able to provide clear explanations of the campaign’s objectives, details of the approach, and quantitative and qualitative measures they used to determine success.

For example, according to Ivanov, a stellar response might be something like this:

“Last year, one of our clients required us to generate buzz for their newly launched makeup line. We developed a campaign that encouraged customers to post and share vlogs using our products for a chance to be hired as a featured model. And we saw an immediate increase in our engagement. By the end of our six-month campaign, we successfully exceeded our revenue goal by 150% thanks to the increased attention brought by user-generated content promoting the new product line.”

“How do your favorite brands use UGC?”

This is another great way to evaluate a candidate’s critical thinking skills and preparedness for the position. Look for specific examples in their responses, especially if they can tailor their response to your industry, says Holly Landis, SEO & Digital Marketing Consultant.

Candidates should be able to grasp a brand’s voice and persona, and how UGC has honed and expanded it, says Santhanam. “The UGC manager should be capable of focusing on grabbing audience attention while maintaining the business discoverability.”

This means candidates should demonstrate they have a deep understanding of what makes UGC content good, as well as fluency in using terms like customer/follower engagement, account click-through rate, site referrals, or, according to Landis, “anything that could point to how the UGC benefited the bottom line of the business.”

“How would you use different social platforms for our brand’s UGC?”

Asking this question will show you if candidates are aware of the social media landscape and how each platform works for different industries and audiences, according to Landis. This shows “a deep familiarity with the options for gathering content and permissions for reposting or sharing on each of the platforms that they’re discussing.”

“At minimum, I would want them to talk about demographic breakdowns generally across different platforms, e.g., having a good understanding that beauty/apparel/home goods, etc., would likely work well on TikTok or Instagram with younger audiences,” says Landis. “If paid advertising is something that you’d be looking for too under this role, I’d want to hear mention of TikTok Spark influencer advertising and Instagram whitelisted campaigns to get UGC in front of new audiences.”

“What metrics would you track to extract knowledge about our current social media strategy?”

Santhanam recommends asking candidates this question to help you get an overall idea of their qualifications and knowledge for the job. You could also ask what tools they would use to schedule posts, which would be more role specific. You need to know if they’re adept at social media and familiar with collecting, curating, and promoting UGC, says Benz.

“In marketing, setting up KPIs and tracking metrics is vital to measure the campaign’s performance,” says Santhanam. “So the response should include the ideas and metrics to measure the success in all social media campaigns mingled with creativity into effective strategies to promote the brand. The candidates’ responses also should include the plan to manage day-to-day social media accounts and engage your target audience in the long run.”

“What will your strategy be to keep our organization on top of new trends and features?”

This is a behavioral question, says Santhanam. You could also ask how they have raised brand awareness using social media in their previous positions. According to Santhanam, qualified candidates will mention updating the news feed, trade journal subscriptions, networking, and engaging with potential customers.

Here’s a good response, inspired by Santhanam’s advice:

“I managed a brand’s Twitter and Instagram accounts in my previous role and stayed abreast of industry trends by reading social media news feeds, joining groups like [Name of Group], or following experts like [Name of Expert]. I also subscribed to trade journals like [Name of Trade Journal]. When planning posts, I put my own spin on trending topics, so it ended up being 50% brand voice and 50% trend. To get real-time updates on brand mentions and customer sentiment, I engaged customers in comments and relied on X tool to monitor brand mentions.”

“How do you manage competing priorities and deadlines?”

Any manager has to tackle multiple projects simultaneously, says Logan Mallory, VP of Marketing at Motivosity, an employee recognition platform. And in the fast-paced world of internet marketing and UGC, it’s important to get a sense of how candidates manage their time, how productive they are, and how well they stick to deadlines.

Ideal responses should speak to how candidates distribute and prioritize tasks. According to Szczepanek, candidates should be able to show “flexibility to switch between different audiences, topics, occasions, etc., and to manage different types of people effectively.”

“Can you perform a compensated project?”

This last question (and the resulting project) will help you understand how candidates approach their work. “Give them a REALISTIC — not fictional — campaign scenario and brief with a few requirements,” recommends Manna. “You’re not asking for a week’s worth of work, but just several hours. Pay them 2x the market rate given the turnaround time. It’s well worth paying someone $1,000 [rather] than losing so much more on a bad hire.”

In their completed project, you’ll be able to evaluate their writing, editing, and technical skills, as well as their curiosity, creativity, and interest in the job. Szczepanek points out that candidates should demonstrate industry knowledge, wit, a friendly tone of voice, and broad knowledge of pop culture. Santhanam’s advice follows suit: look for candidates that show a sense of humor and creativity that can differentiate your brand in a saturated space.

In addition, a completed project will show a candidate’s actual productivity and critical thinking skills in real life. Manna says that candidates should be willing to “take the time to understand the market, the opportunity, and the novel ways for the brand to stick out and how you’d piece the campaign together and execute it.”

It is important to note that if a candidate turns in a great project, it’s still theirs. “Don’t steal a candidate’s ideas,” advises Manna. “Even if they turned down the job (or you rescinded it), it’s extremely poor form.”

Fill your UGC content manager position with top talent

Getting qualified, willing candidates to the interview is half the battle. Once you’re there, make the most of your time (and your candidate’s time!) by asking the right questions. Now that you know which questions to ask and what to look for in the responses, you can fill your open position with the best.

And remember to provide a great interview experience for job candidates, says Rath. “Even if they cannot join your team now, they can still be a potential customer, user, or referral source for your business now and into the future.” 

If you’re unsure of what a UGC content manager should know, read up on our guide to UGC. Or feel free to check out the rest of our Long Read content for more UGC best-practices!

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7 UGC examples and why they work

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Bazaarvoice University, or BVU as everyone (just us) is calling it, is our one-stop shop for your Bazaarvoice platform education. From beginner tips and tricks to advanced skills, check out our bitesize classes to get up to speed with everything about managing the Bazaarvoice platform.

Luckily, we’re going to show you how. And why. And possibly even when. Using global brands, and Bazaarvoice’s own client success stories, we explain exactly how you can rock customer centricity.

Chapters:

1. What is a customer-centric selling approach?
2. Benefits of customer centricity
3. How brands use data to implement customer centricity
4. Use UGC to enable the right strategy

Imagine you’re shopping online for a new social media management tool. You’re checking your LinkedIn account, scrolling through your feed, or listening to your favorite podcast at the same time. Suddenly, you get a DM from a salesperson crowing about their platform. You need to sign up right now! Quick! This is a one-time deal! Aaaand… Close browser.

The truth is, most people prefer to buy from salespeople who first establish a friendly connection and then take the time to personalize their pitch to you and your needs. That’s customer-centric selling at its core.

Most e-commerce managers know customer centricity will help them grow revenue and foster customer loyalty. In fact, a Vantage Partners study suggests that companies that adopt a mature customer-centric approach realize 2.5x revenue growth compared with the average company. But in practice, many brands still end up fumbling around in the dark and not really harnessing the data to make this happen.

Here’s how top e-commerce brands use UGC about real customer challenges to inform their customer-centric strategy.

What is a customer-centric selling approach?

Customer-centric selling is a sales methodology that puts customer needs first to establish a successful, mutually beneficial relationship. Engaging in a customer-centric approach relies on empathy and nurturing a two-way dialogue with customers. It’s the approach that actually provides the best customer experience.

Customer centricity also allows brands to modify their processes, product, messaging, and sales timeline to fit customer needs. A brand that adopts a customer-centric selling strategy becomes its customers’ best problem-solving ally because it approaches customers in a way that benefits the customers.

For a successful customer-centric selling approach, salespeople (and marketers, too!) should engage prospects and customers with key behaviors. In the influential book “CustomerCentric Selling,” co-writers Michael Bosworth, John Holland, and Frank Visgatis break down those behaviors into eight basic tenets, which I’ve adapted and simplified below:

• Actively listen with curiosity — not assumptions.
• Ask curious, open-ended questions that give them the freedom to express themselves in a non-pressured environment.
• Focus on helping them overcome a challenge, solve a problem, or satisfy a need.
• Align with their values.

Here’s a great visual that defines customer centricity on four different levels of maturity:

Customer-centric vs consumer-centric

Customer-centric selling is an empathetic, inside-out approach in which all teams — R&D, product management, marketing, sales, support — seek to learn and understand what your customer’s needs truly are.

Compare this to the more traditional consumer-centric selling, which is a product-focused, outside-in approach. Rather than asking questions, consumer-centric selling seeks to make a sale by judging and assuming what the customer’s needs truly are.

The table below offers an easy way to compare the two approaches, adapted from the book “CustomerCentric Selling” and an article published in California Management Review:

A recent example of assumptions gone wrong comes from the wonderful world of Disney. Taking a consumer-centric approach to marketing Encanto, Disney assumed people would love the character of Isabela. She’s classically beautiful, has that perfect Disney princess singing voice, and so on. So, Disney made tons of Isabela merchandise.

Except… Little girls actually loved Luisa. A character whose signature muscles the film’s development team had to fight with Disney executives to keep. Following the film’s release, Disney has had to scramble to meet customer demand for Luisa merchandise.

Had Disney taken a customer-centric approach, it may have been less shocked by changing tastes and trends for women. And maybe Luisa’s beloved, fan-favorite muscles could have been helping Disney generate even more revenue.

In contrast, Blue Bottle Coffee has taken a customer-centric approach by allowing newsletter subscribers to opt out of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day marketing messages.

The company realized that many people struggle with the constant barrage of messages surrounding those holidays. So instead of assuming that their audience relates positively to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and pushing marketing on them, the company listened to what their audience wanted and took action based on that insight.

Benefits of customer centricity

A customer-centric selling approach is more successful because it’s focused on building a sustainable, trusting relationship. According to Nielsen’s 2021 Trust in Advertising Study, most people place the most trust in recommendations that come from people they know.

Sales and marketing reps obviously can’t be a friend or family member to every customer. But, they can strive to do the next best thing — “put the consumer first in every strategy, plan and execution.” In doing so, brands will earn the trust of customers and foster positive word of mouth.

The goal isn’t to become better sellers but rather “buyer facilitators,” said Chris Sargent, senior director of Global Sales Enablement at NICE inContact, during his discussion on sales training.

If employed correctly and combined with the right data-collection tools, a customer-centric selling strategy will help your brand better resonate with customers and bolster both customer success and customer support. It will target their specific needs and pain points.

Your customers will be better served because your brand will be providing a better overall value.

As a result, loyalty and trust will grow. Loyal customers will transform into full-fledged ambassadors who will help positively characterize your brand by word-of-mouth. Your entire company will better understand and empathize with its audience. This will promote more innovative product development and an elevated cycle of inspired, engaged employees.

The more engaged your employees are, the better the customer experience will be. And the better the customer’s experience is, the more customer loyalty and retention will increase — not to mention your revenue.

How brands use data to implement customer centricity

The best customer centricity strategies rely on asking the right questions and actually listening to customer responses. Traditionally, brands hired consumer psychologists to design focus groups and surveys. But this process is long and arduous, not to mention expensive.

Today, brands can utilize sophisticated software to source and use first-party data and user-generated content (UGC) in their marketing and sales efforts.

Enventys

According to Roy Morejon, President and Co-founder of Enventys Partners — a B2B product development, launch, and marketing firm — customer-centric data is often found through interactive data tracking. This involves tracking data such as the number of confirmed purchases, abandoned carts, and returns.

Brands can also collect quantitative first-party data through recurring email subscriptions, Morejon explained, by analyzing open rates and measuring how many customers click the links within the emails they received.

“Analyzing this data in comparison to other user details,” said Morejon, “such as general internet behavior, job, lifestyle, and other personal data (age, gender, etc.), provides insights that you can use to optimize customer-centric selling.”

Morejon mentioned Pardot as a specific tool to help harness this data.

“Pardot is a great feature integrated with Salesforce. This app tracks how customers move through the sales funnel, tracking purchases, abandonments, and returns. It provides data on how customers interact with digital marketing assets, such as social media ads and emails, and even offline interactions. It gathers data submitted through user forms, Salesforce, and other integrable platforms.” — Roy Morejon.

Unilever

UGC, like reviews, and questions and answers, is a common method to bolster customer centricity. Unilever set out to get more user reviews, which it then used as a marketing tool to improve revenue. In doing this, it also improved customer loyalty and satisfaction, and increased organic search traffic and engagement.

This success was facilitated by Bazaarvoice-powered sampling campaigns. Unilever saw a massive increase in customer reviews across all its brands, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. This, in turn, gave Unilever additional leveraging power.

“When we include reviews in social ads and display ads,” said Jenna Spivak Evans, Innovation and Digital Capabilities Manager at Unilever, “we see about a 20–30% improvement in performance.”

“Because UGC delivers such rich content, you can see increases in search traffic of 15–25% as a result of using customer-generated content,” said Evans. “You will also see increases in website engagement metrics such as product page views per visit, average time spent onsite, and return-visitor rate.”

Unilever also cross-referenced the people leaving reviews with the customer data it has about those people in its CRM. Doing this not only helped collect UGC and demographic data, but it helped increase personalization as well.

According to Evans, “Integration of UGC into CRM will give us deeper demographic information and provide an incremental way to understand different customers’ needs.”

For a closer look at Unilever’s path to success, check out the Bazaarvoice case study.

Kärcher

Kärcher, a global cleaning technology company, uses UGC to collect customer insights, drive conversions, and strengthen its relationships with retail partners. By monitoring customer feedback and reviews throughout the sales process, the brand was not only able to create new products customers would love, but also improve pre-existing products and set a company-wide quality standard.

“Having reviews in place just before the retailer releases our products gives consumers the confidence to try our new products right from the start,” said Kevin Wiredu, Senior E-Commerce Specialist at Kärcher. “It’s a key to our success.”

In Kärcher’s first sampling campaign, 98% of sample recipients responded with a review. The brand received hundreds of high-quality product reviews, videos, and images. Currently, it’s collected over 280K reviews across 73 retail sites.

With new valuable UGC data at its disposal, Kärcher was able to jumpstart its latest sales cycle and product launch by having numerous, high-quality reviews ready and available the moment new products went live.

Even better, leveraging UGC data helped Kärcher address some issues with product messaging. After reading some customer reviews, the brand realized that many customers didn’t understand the purpose of one of their products — or even how to use it. So, the company was able to tweak the product messaging and packaging to better communicate the product’s intended use.

This is a key example of customer-centric selling because the brand listened to customers and made relevant changes to address their needs.

You can read Bazaarvoice’s full Kärcher case study here.

Nestlé Canada

By leveraging UGC data, Nestlé Canada improved both its overall performance and its relationship with customers. The types of UGC that proved most beneficial were customer reviews and insights, customer feedback, and customer questions.

Thanks to Nestlé’s broad reach, it receives thousands of reviews on a constant basis. But all that data can be difficult to manage. So the company used Bazaarvoice Insights and Reports to make sense of the flood — and, more importantly, to inform business decisions.

Other helpful solutions Nestlé Canada leveraged were Bazaarvoice-powered focus groups and Questions & Answers. In fact, within three months of enabling Bazaarvoice Questions & Answers, Nestlé Canada received over 700 questions from its customers.

The driving force behind Nestlé Canada’s focus on reviews is that the company wants to listen to customers and solve their needs. “Consumers do the talking for us,” said Lee Beech, Director of Consumer Experience at Nestlé Canada. “They speak, and we listen and take action. ”

By leveraging all these solutions, the Nestlé sales team observed that many of its neutral product reviews contained customer questions. In response, Nestlé implemented Bazaarvoice Salesforce Connector and began devoting time each day to provide responses, enhancing customer support all from a single tool.

“It saves, on average, eight minutes to code a case,” according to Kristina Rapljenovic, Website Manager at Nestlé Canada. “We previously didn’t have the capacity and had to let go of engaging with as many of the reviews as we wanted. It would have taken eight minutes to open a case and transfer all of that content. Now, it’s all automated.”

For a more in-depth look, check out the Bazaarvoice’s Nestlé Canada case study.

KidKraft

Like Nestlé Canada and Kärcher, KidKraft uses data from UGC to make product changes. It’s been able to fine-tune its product positioning and fuel its marketing messaging due to the automated ways it can now collect customer feedback, reviews, and customer-shared product photos.

As a mark of its success, KidKraft has collected over 100,000 reviews across the Bazaarvoice Network and achieved 100% review coverage on retail sites as a result of syndication.

“We work really closely with the product development team,” said Heather Stables, the Director of Consumer Engagement at KidKraft, “to make sure that if we see consistent issues or questions being raised by consumers, we can go back and address that by making changes to the actual product.”

One example of this comes from KidKraft’s playhouses. Using Bazaarvoice Insights, KidKraft was able to quickly observe that many customers were DIYing one of the playhouses to have a white, more modern appearance. Recognizing the need, KidKraft released their own white, modern-style playhouse and saw a huge uptick in sales as a result.

Check out Bazaarvoice’s KidKraft case study to learn more.

Adeo

Adeo, a French home improvement retail company, launched a successful UGC program across all its brands. It also implemented strategies to handle fake reviews by collecting UGC data directly after a sale and including a verified purchase badge. Even more, it accessed new markets that, until recently, had low brand awareness. Its latest goal is to reach an overall customer satisfaction rating of four stars.

To begin implementing its customer-centric selling approach, Adeo began collecting UGC data such as customer reviews and ratings. Similar to Nestlé Canada, it also took into account customer questions. And like KidKraft and Kärcher, it utilized customer product photos.

UGC was particularly important to Adeo because its products are often used to complete technical projects like plumbing and electricity that require a degree of expertise. UGC helps to solve a common customer problem — confidence.

“Incorporating reviews, photos and questions by our customers on our products and services pages provides this reassurance and complements the expertise of our sellers,” said Nicolas Fillat, Marketing Business Leader, Customer Care and Feedback at Adeo.

Adeo also places a high value on reviews written in a language that customers can read. With the Bazaarvoice Translated Reviews feature, Adeo has been able to ensure both ratings and reviews are always presented in the customer’s preferred language. This way, customers benefit from reading insights from other customers.

“Bazaarvoice, with its strong global network, allows us to support our customers regardless of country or language,” said Fillat. “This has allowed us to collect, moderate, and display product reviews throughout ten group business to date.”

Check out Bazaarvoice’s Adeo case study for more info.

Wayfair

Wayfair stands out as another example of successful customer centricity. For its UGC campaigns, Wayfair encourages customers to share their design ideas using the branded hashtag #WayfairAtHome.

By measuring both demographic and UGC data, Wayfair has been able to deepen its understanding of its audience and deliver a hyper-personalized experience. It’s achieved this through analytics and predictive AI. Wayfair creates a detailed buyer persona through this AI system. This helps to show customers only the products most relevant to them. Wayfair simply has too much content not to do this.

Customer centricity isn’t just a choice for Wayfair. It’s a necessity.

“On average, we capture and store four terabytes of data every day and over the course of a year, we track approximately 40 billion customer actions on our site. Data has been democratized across the organization — it can be accessed and used regardless of whether an employee works in marketing, logistics, or engineering. Data has allowed the company to better execute on its strategy through improved personalization.” — Steven Conine, Wayfair Co-founder

By focusing on customer centricity, Wayfair has avoided the problem of customer experience becoming overwhelming and time consuming, which would certainly hurt sales metrics and decrease Wayfair’s overall revenue.

Instead, Wayfair has successfully streamlined the buyer process, thanks to its machine learning technology.

Use UGC to enable a customer-centric selling strategy

Customer centricity is a better approach to selling. To do it well, you need the right data and tools to collect it:

• Sampling campaigns
• Focus groups
• Insights and Reports solutions
• Questions & Answers
• (Translated) Ratings & Reviews
• Integrated reviews with CRMs

Now that you know how and why to put the customer first in sales, enable customers to make those sales for you by using product sampling and user-generated content. Or get in touch directly below to request a free demo.

You can check out more of our Long Read content here for more marketing strategies, tips, and insights.

The smart marketer’s guide to finding and using customer insights

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In our Bazaarvoice Shopper Experience Index, an annual report highlighting how shopper behaviors change across a calendar year, we discovered what might be a surprising revelation: Shoppers are your new salespeople.

So using global insights procured from the Shopper Experience Index and the latest industry research, we’ve complied this complete guide for you to get ahead of this rapidly-expanding trend.

Chapters:

1. What is C2C marketing?
2. Common C2C marketing techniques
3. Advantages of C2C marketing
4. C2C marketing examples
5. How to create a consumer to consumer marketing plan

Marketing is evolving. 

Just as brands and retailers had to adjust their strategies when video killed the radio advertisement, and then again when Facebook opened its platform to non .edu email addresses, today’s companies must evolve with the changing needs of their ideal customers.

But this time, it’s different. 

Only a third of today’s consumers actually trust the companies whose products and services they buy. And more than 80% say brand trust (or the lack thereof) affects their purchasing decisions.

Which is why user-generated content (UGC), like customer reviews, photos, and videos, etc, has become an essential marketing tool.

Now, consumers don’t have to rely on brands. They can rely on honest, organic content from fellow consumers to inform their purchasing decisions. Almost removing the need for branded content entirely. Almost.

Everyday, B2C industries are becoming increasingly C2B, which itself is transitioning into C2C. As Bazaarvoice CEO Keith Nealon says in his influence economy presentation, “Your brand is no longer yours.”

To further complicate issues, you’ll also need to find a way to engage customers during a period of unprecedented distrust. Today’s consumers are more critical than ever of the brands and retailers they buy from. The inequities exposed by the pandemic and related economic crises have correlated with an increased wariness of the current state of capitalism. 

To succeed in today’s oversaturated market, you must find an effective and cost-efficient way to:

• Build loyalty
• Increase organic traffic
• Stand out from the competition

All while, thanks to new privacy regulations, losing access to the data-collecting tools you use every day to do just that. 

Enter consumer-to-consumer marketing. 

What is C2C marketing?

With consumer to consumer marketing (C2C marketing), potential customers learn about your brand and products from their peers — not your marketing team.

This can happen organically. A customer tries one of your products, is happy about the results, and shares their experience on social media, via email, or at the kitchen table. 

It can also be initiated by a brand or retailer. So-called “influencers” are perhaps the most well-known (and overused) example of sponsored C2C marketing, but they’re not the only ones. More on that in a minute.

Unlike traditional marketing, where you tend to promote products directly to potential customers in a one-way dialogue, C2C marketing is more collaborative. It can also be more cost-efficient.

Even better, it’s perceived as more trustworthy than traditional marketing. 

Think about the last item you bought. Chances are you took a quick glance at the images and description to make sure you were in the right place and then dug into the customer reviews. Maybe you googled the product to see what your favorite news site or blog had to say about it. You might have even searched Instagram for photos and videos of the product in action.

The company you were purchasing from didn’t sell you that product. The customers who used, enjoyed, and recommended it did.

By engaging your most loyal and enthusiastic customers to help you market your product, you’re able to develop and leverage content that builds trust in perhaps the most organic and scalable way. All while saving your team time and decreasing your reliance on third-party data. 

As Tom Fishburne, founder and CEO of Marketoonist, once said, “The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” 

Consumer-driven or community-driven?

Depending on who you ask, C2C may mean different things to different people. “Customer to customer marketing,” “consumer-driven marketing,” or “community-driven marketing.” 

All describe the process of engaging your customers and other consumers to spread the word about your product or services for you. Also known as the influence economy.

Call it what you want, but the fact remains: If you want to build trust with today’s increasingly wary consumers, C2C marketing is an important part of your promotional toolkit. 

C2C, B2B, C2B: What’s the difference?

Acronyms galore here, so bear with me. While they share many of the same objectives, C2C marketing is different from other forms of advertising. 

Take the traditional B2C model. Here, you’re trying to target every potential customer with ads, sponsored content, and other types of promotions. You may be able to segment your audience based on demographics, user behaviors, or interests, but you’re still casting a relatively wide net.

C2C is much more targeted. With reviews and UGC, you’re working with your current customers. Sampling programs target people who are likely to be interested in your brand. If you partner with a brand ambassador, their content will be shared with their exclusive community.

This is much less disruptive than traditional forms of marketing. It’s also better received because it comes from consumers’ networks or the people they already follow on social media. 

C2B marketing

C2B marketing is not to be confused with C2C marketing, despite all of the letters they have in common. It actually stands for consumer-to-business. In this model, a user or customer provides a service to a brand or retailer. Examples include focus groups in which a company brings in a select group of customers to get product feedback or otherwise learn about their preferences. In exchange, the company might give gift cards to participants to thank them for their time.

Another example of C2B marketing is an individual providing services like writing, graphic design, or web development to a business in exchange for a set fee.

In both instances, the company and individual(s) are working together. But the user is providing a service, not actively marketing the company’s products to their community. Get it?

Common C2C marketing strategies

As aforementioned, influencers are perhaps the most well-known example of C2C marketing. But many consumers are hesitant to believe the celebrities in their feeds. In fact, some go as far as rating celebrity influencers as less trustworthy than the government.

That’s why it’s important to consider all forms of C2C marketing strategies to get the most ROI out of this burgeoning channel. 

Word-of-mouth C2C marketing

For most brands and retailers, word-of-mouth marketing is the holy grail of C2C marketing. It’s organic. It requires little effort on your team’s part. It’s (technically) free. And it results in a stockpile of authentic, trust-building content. 

Word-of-mouth marketing is mainly user-generated. Think of the scenario we mentioned earlier: Someone tries your product and is so happy about the results, they freely talk about it on social media. Another good example is a consumer looking to upgrade their kitchen appliances. They may go on Facebook or Twitter and ask their community for recommendations. 

Both of these types of conversations can also happen offline. You may casually mention to a friend that you’ve found a new favorite shampoo. Or you may ask your friend who’s participated in three triathlons about their favorite running shoes.

Word-of-mouth marketing can also be amplified or initiated by the brand. In this scenario, a company may offer rewards, freebies, or discounts in exchange for a customer sharing their experience.  

User-generated content

For most brands and retailers, the second-best thing to word-of-mouth marketing is user-generated content, or UGC. 

UGC is created by unpaid contributors. It includes any type of content that promotes your brand, including written reviews, product photos and videos, and even audio, that your customers or followers create and share across their social networks and on other online platforms. 

Almost three quarters (74%) of respondents in our SEI report said they find UGC important, and another 75% said they look at photos and videos from other shoppers when buying.

Just as a consumer is more likely to trust a friend’s recommendation than a commercial interrupting their Spotify playlist, UGC is also more powerful than traditional brand marketing.

Think of UGC as the digital equivalent of a product recommendation from a friend — even if that “friend” is a total stranger.

A whopping 85% of people consider UGC to be more influential than brand content because it showcases how actual people use products in real-world settings. 

This creates a sense of authenticity, which means a lot to consumers — especially younger ones. Eighty-four percent of millennials say UGC influences their purchasing decisions. While nearly half of Gen Zers cite social media as their chief source of inspiration — even above the recommendations from family and friends.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that customer-created content receives 28% higher engagement than typical brand posts.

Ratings and reviews

The most fundamental element of UGC is customer ratings and reviews. How fundamental? Consider this chart, from our recent survey of over 30,000 members of the Influenster community:

When discovering and evaluating products, 88% of shoppers turn to reviews to learn more. Even if they plan to shop in-store, 82% research products beforehand.

Ratings and reviews also help at the final decision-making stage of the buying process. 86% of consumers read shopper reviews while they’re shopping, according to our SEI report. Reviews help them feel more confident about their purchase decision and may even encourage them to buy a more expensive product, according to our research.

By actively encouraging your customers to share their experiences with your products or services, not only do you increase the likelihood of purchase, but you can solicit valuable consumer insights to use throughout your marketing funnel.

Product sampling

We recently surveyed over 6,000 members of our Influenster product discovery community. Of those shoppers who took part in sampling campaigns:

• 60% said they purchased the product they sampled
• 97% purchased at least one additional item from the brand
• 87% recommended the product to friends and family
• 50% said the product eventually became a staple in their lives and routines

Collaborations with brand ambassadors

As we said earlier, consumers are over the celebrity influencers in their feeds. But they’re open to recommendations from the blogs and social media accounts they follow — as long as they seem genuine and authentic.

Like sampling programs, brands send ambassadors products that they can review and share with their community. But these arrangements are typically more structured — there may be guidelines about the amount and type of content that’s created. These programs are also typically sponsored, with the ambassador receiving compensation for their time and effort. 

Depending on your needs and goals, ambassador programs can help at any stage of the buying cycle. They can create buzz about your brand or help drive conversions. These arrangements are typically set up so that you own all of the content the ambassador creates, allowing you to repurpose their videos, posts, and photos as needed.

Affiliate and referral programs

The final most common type of C2C marketing is affiliate programs. Here, users sign up to promote your products or services on their social networks and website. 

Depending on the arrangement, they get paid or otherwise credited when a user clicks on their links and either buys a product, signs up for a newsletter, or completes another action designated by the brand. 

Advantages of C2C marketing

C2C marketing has multiple advantages over traditional brand promotions. 

Build consumer trust

Because the content is generated by actual users, it’s deemed more trustworthy than marketing campaigns that start in the company boardroom. It’s a powerful form of social proof that validates the claims you make in your marketing and product messaging. 

With consumer trust levels at all-time lows, this is perhaps the most important benefit.

Consider this stat: 92% of people trust product recommendations made by people (even total strangers!) over those made by brands. 

Save time and money

When done correctly, C2C marketing campaigns can save your internal team tons of time, money, and headspace. That’s because the responsibility of creating all of those photos, blog posts, and videos falls to your customers, not your marketing team. 

Even better, this content can be reused on multiple marketing platforms, from your social media channels to your website to your email campaigns. You can also create a database of UGC that can be repurposed throughout the year. (As long as you have permission from the creator, of course. We’ll walk you through that in a second.)

Depending on the arrangement, you might have to send free samples or pay the user for their time. But generally, the ROI of these programs is more than worth it. 

Generate leads and conversions organically

When people share content about your brand on their personal platforms, your brand is suddenly front and center on the feeds of all of their friends, family, and acquaintances.

This kind of exposure helps increase your brand awareness and name recognition. For customers who are already familiar with your brand, a glowing review or user-generated video can be the final encouragement they need to make a purchase.

Want proof? 53% of consumers say UGC makes them more confident in their buying decision than professional photography (47%).

It’s future-proof

With Google and Apple rolling out changes that limit your access to consumer data, a C2C marketing campaign can help you better target your ideal customers, without having to rely on cookies or third-party analytics. 

By working with ambassadors and affiliates whose audience matches your customer profiles, you can get in front of the very people you want to target and build a first-party data strategy — no third-party required. 

Increase your social media presence

In addition to providing valuable content that you can reshare on your social media channels, you also get a social boost when users tag you in their posts. This helps drive more people to your social media profiles, where they can see additional content that pushes them further down the sales funnel. 

Even if they’re not ready to buy, they may visit your site, download your lead magnets, or sign up for your newsletter. 

C2C marketing examples

Below are some of the biggest brands on the globe putting some of the above tactics to perfect use.

Vertbaudet: Acting on UGC consumer insights

Baby and maternity brand Vertbaudet knows the importance of customer reviews. Not just for convincing prospective shoppers to make a purchase, but for their valuable source of consumer insights.

For example, the brand noticed multiple customers leaving reviews saying that a particular dress was too small. So in response to this feedback, Vertbaudet reassessed the measurements of the dress and amended the cut.

This led to a 12% increase in sales among customers who read reviews, for what was frankly an easy solution. Feedback is already there, you just have to read it. And of course, react to it.

Coca-Cola: Amplified word-of-mouth marketing

In 2012, Coca-Cola installed “Happiness Machines” in various cities around the world. Customers could get a free Coke by interacting with the machines, hugging them, or dancing around them — all great fodder for potentially viral social media content. 

To take it even further, the Happiness Machines also doubled as phone booths. Customers could make free calls in exchange for their Coke bottle caps.

This amplified word-of-mouth marketing campaign was so successful and engaging, it won Coke multiple awards.

Crocs: UGC superstars

Crocs has become a TikTok superstar. By encouraging customers to create Crocs-related videos and tag them with the branded #croctok hashtag, the shoe brand created an avalanche of UGC. 

These videos of people cleaning, decorating, and simply enjoying their new shoes sparks interest and excitement while capturing brand loyalty. It also generates a ton of content that Crocs can use throughout its marketing funnel.

Sweatblock: Reviews in search results

In addition to converting customers who are already on your page, reviews can also be used throughout the buying cycle.

You can share them on social media and in cart-abandonment emails. You can also promote them in Google search results. This helps you convince people who are in the very early stages of the consideration phase to trust your product or brand. 

Clarins: Sampling for success

How do you get all of those glowing reviews? Sampling programs!

To boost sales of its anti-aging product line, the beauty brand Clarins launched a sampling campaign to get products into the hands of consumers in exchange for their feedback.

The responses exceeded its initial expectations. More than 90% of those who received a sample wrote a review, an 11% higher rate than the company’s initial goal.

In just over a month, the company received a striking 138 reviews, all of which provided the depth of insight needed to persuade customers to purchase the brand’s high-end products.

The rich, detailed reviews helped Clarins increase its conversion rates by 111%.

Red Bull: Brand ambassadors on campus

To boost sales of its energy drink in college towns and communities, Red Bull employs a team of “Student Marketeers” on campuses around the country.

These Marketeers are tasked with developing and executing marketing and sales plans in their respective territories. This could include hosting events, developing sponsorship programs, and other guerrilla marketing programs. 

According to Glassdoor.com, these Marketeers are paid an average of $14/hour. 

Affiliate inspiration and resources

Everyone from Amazon to Etsy to Home Depot offers affiliate programs. 

Click the links above to learn more about each company’s program. You might just be inspired to start your own affiliate network. You can also partner with services like Awin, impact.com and CJ to partner with their network of creators. 

How to create a C2C marketing plan

1. Find your audience

The most critical element of a successful C2C marketing campaign is people. Ideally people who enjoy using your product, have a need for it, or who are somehow directly or indirectly connected to your brand or vertical.

While it may be tempting to gravitate toward users with large social media followings, that’s not the most important factor. Instead, you want to work with people who have genuine relationships with their followers. You also want to find people who know how to create engaging and meaningful content. 

Depending on your brand’s marketing efforts to date, you may be able to find your ideal partners among your current fans, followers, and email subscribers. Or, if you’re relatively new to your vertical, you may have to contact potential partners directly.

You can also work directly with services that help you set up sampling and UGC campaigns and do all of the hard work for you. (Cough, cough, like Bazaarvoice.)

2. Make it about them

Whether you pitch to creators directly or host a contest among your followers to find your next brand ambassador, you want to make sure you’re always stressing how the arrangement benefits them.

For example, they get free products and they get to help their followers make informed decisions. 

If you’re contacting potential collaborators, be sure to compliment them and elaborate on why you like their brand and think they’d make a great partner.

3. Get it in writing

Make sure both parties are clear on the expected deliverables, milestones, and deadlines, and who retains ownership of the content. While you should never pay for honest and authentic reviews, some deliverables will require a lot of work on the users’ part. You may have to compensate them for their time and effort. 

4. Watch and learn

Creating a branded hashtag for the campaign can help you track the posts, shares, and overall engagement rates of the program. Store all of this content in an easy-to-access place so you can repurpose it for future use.

Take notes of what’s working and what’s not. Determine the metrics that matter (for example: website traffic, time spent on your site, engagement rates, etc.), and track them accordingly. This will only help you perfect future C2C campaigns so you can build more trust with potential customers. 

Now’s the time for C2C marketing

There’s never been a better time for brands and retailers to authentically engage with their community. Consumers can easily go online and share their experience with your brand, positive or negative. So give them a good experience.

By creating a community around your brand, you’re not only able to cultivate the trust that drives sales, you’re also able to give customers a moment of joy and a sense of belonging — which for many brands and retailers is just as important as profits. 

The best way to get started on your C2C marketing strategy? By becoming an expert in all things UGC. Learn everything you need to know with our complete guide to user-generated content. Or catch the webinar version here instead.

You can check out the rest of our Long Read content here for more marketing strategies, tips, and insights.

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We’re at a pivotal moment in which the short-form video content made on Instagram Reels and TikTok is so popular that they’ve changed the music industry. As the most popular social media platform in the US, Instagram is the place to be if you’re trying to attract an audience and make an impact on your industry.

Instagram’s algorithm prioritizes Reels and both brands and individuals alike are finding incredible success with this content. If your brand isn’t creating Reels, then you’re missing out on the opportunity to increase engagement and attract more potential customers to your brand.

But posting Instagram Reels without a business strategy won’t do the trick.

Instagram Reels ideas for your business

There’s a few key ways to optimize your reels for maximum exposure and a positive audience response. Whether that’s hopping on trends, working with influencers, or learning how to fit Reels into your digital marketing strategy, here’s the best Instagram Reels ideas for your business.

Leverage popular and trending content

On Instagram Reels, you can often attract more viewers to your business by hopping on the bandwagon and taking part in popular trending content.

Most of the trending content on Instagram Reels is built around audio snippets that are then matched to either one continuous video, a montage of videos, or a collection of photos. These audio snippets range from remixes of popular songs (old and new), voice recordings from other Instagram users, and clips from pop culture, movies, and TV.

Users then put their unique spin on this audio, so the same line from a love song could accompany pictures from a wedding day, or a video of a user and their cat.

So, how do you figure out what is popular and trending?

First and foremost, you have to spend time scrolling through the Instagram feed regularly. You’ll notice that some Reels videos have a little arrow icon at the bottom next to the audio title:

This Reels feature (which can only be viewed on the Instagram app) indicates that it’s trending right now. Once you see that trending arrow, save the audio to your account so that you can use it when you’re ready to create your Reel.

Follow popular creators who use strategic music choices and editing to get high engagement on their Reels. There’s also many accounts on Instagram that provide helpful tutorials on how to use Reels to increase engagement and followers, and attract the right customers. Their content will usually indicate which types of Instagram Reels are currently garnering the top views.

Determine what works for your brand

After you’ve started publishing Instagram Reels, it’s important to analyze how your Reels have been performing. Take a look at your customer engagement metrics and whether they have translated into more follows, website views, and other forms of engagement.

Have people been leaving feedback about your products or services with comments on your Reels? Keep track of those insights and reports, and use the information to inform your continuing Instagram Reels strategy.

If your content is working, keep at it. If not, change your approach. Keep experimenting until you find the things that work.

Build your Instagram Reels ideas off conventions

Every business with high engagement for their Instagram Reels content all have a few things in common. You don’t have to be an experienced videographer or video editor to make successful Reels, but you do have to follow some best practices.

For example, if you choose to hop on a viral trend by re-using music or audio clips from Instagram’s music library, select ones that are relevant to your brand and relatable to your audience. You can also create your own original audio in hopes that it catches on with your audience and becomes a trending sound for Reels. If you choose to create your own audio, use familiar songs or sound bites that your audience will resonate with, but be aware of potential copyright risks and always get permission from the artists.

Sassy Woof, a dog accessory company, decided to use the Full House theme song and created a similar opening credit montage to introduce their team to their audience. They use clever transitions and overlay captions on the clips to describe each of the employees. They also chose a cover photo that entices the user to click with the title “Meet the team” and a person hidden behind their logo.

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A post shared by MODERN DOG ACCESSORIES (@sassywoof)

Use creative transitions

Transitions can make or break an Instagram Reel’s success. Creative transitions that both align perfectly with the music and give the illusion of special effects are expected of high quality Instagram Reels. For example, one of the most common trends for fashion-related content is to “magically” don a new outfit with the snap of your fingers, or by throwing the clothes out in front of you.

Another common transition is “jumping” into a new frame. HomeGoods shares a Reel that shows how easy it is to transform the interior design of a room. Who knew all you had to do was point a finger or do a couple jumps in the air??

Experiment with content that educates users

From behind the scenes of your business to tutorials, countdowns, and challenges, there’s many different types of content you can experiment with on Instagram Reels. As you plan out your content ideas, make sure to maintain your brand identity and provide value to your audience.

Kourtney Kardashian’s brand Poosh created a tutorial on how to make a matcha face mask, a health and wellness skill that their audience would enjoy trying out. The Poosh social media team used a Jennifer Lopez song audio for their Reels — over 25,000 Reels have been made with that song, a strong indicator of its popularity. They also begin the video with creative stop motion style footage that draws the viewer in and keeps them interested.

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A post shared by Poosh (@poosh)

Promote user-generated content and influencer partnerships

By promoting user-generated content (UGC) and influencer partnerships you can build up social proof that encourages viewers to become followers and eventually loyal customers. To take advantage of UGC, celebrate any positive interest you receive by sharing Reels that mention or tag your brand. If you’re low on content, ask your audience to create a testimonial through an unboxing and product review Reel, and offer them incentives to do so.

Reach out to influencers who your target audience already follows and send them a product sampling. Request that they capture their reaction to the sample in a Reel and promote this content on your account.

This is what the oral care company, Moon, did with influencer Troy Juliano Zarba who tested out their toothpaste and teeth whitening pen. In addition to the footage of him using the product, the Reel also included the popular text-to-speech voiceover effect.

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A post shared by MOON (@moon)

Respond to user comments in a Reel

Sometimes your UGC strategy might be as simple as responding to user comments from previous Reels or posts. A new feature on Instagram now allows you to respond to user comments with a Reel that includes a sticker with the user’s comment. This can be a great way to engage your audience and build a connection to your brand.

Encourage user engagement with Instagram Reels

Since Instagram prioritizes Reels with high engagement, it’s important to encourage user engagement with Reels. Include CTA’s in your captions, tag other users and businesses, and like and respond to user comments as soon as you can. Not only will this help increase your views, it may also lead to more conversions. According to data from SproutSocial, 78% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands when they have positive social media interactions with them.

Competitions are another effective way to increase user engagement. Instagram Reel “challenges” encourage users to engage with the brand by taking part in their own content creation. These range from asking users to dig into their camera roll and finding a relevant photo or video or to create something with the product itself.

Sephora challenged its audience to create an eyeshadow makeup look using a random number generator and large color palette. They included the hashtag #sephorasquad so that others could create their own look and share it in Reels.

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A post shared by Sephora (@sephora)

Tag Instagram Reels with products to make them shoppable

Another way to engage your audience and capture leads is to make your Reels shoppable. As social commerce takes off, remember that every Reel is an opportunity not only to engage and entertain your target audience, but also to direct them straight to a product.

To make your Reel shoppable, you need to set up Instagram shopping and then add a product tag to your Reels. When you do this, a “View products” option appears at the bottom of the Reel. Users can then tap this to see an image and price of the product which they can either save to their account for later or click through to the product page.

Fenty Beauty uses this feature on their Reels to help drive sales as shown below:

Another company that uses Instagram shopping is Quiz. Quiz uses Like2Buy to turn Instagram images into shoppable products. The brand use social galleries that feature images of customers in their clothing. The combined use of Like2Buy and UGC Galleries on their website has increased conversions by 154%.

Develop an Instagram Reels content schedule

Posting consistently is the key to maintaining an impactful social media presence, so your Reels marketing strategy should include a detailed schedule. For Instagram Reels, most experts agree that posting 4-7 times a week can help you maximize your reach. This may seem like a lot, especially if you’re just starting to make Instagram Reels or you’re a smaller business with a smaller team.

But with a plan and experience, you’ll develop the knowhow to generate that level of content in no time.

The best time to post your Reels depends on where your audience is located and when they’re most active. If you don’t already, use analytics tools (including your Instagram business insights) to collect customer data that will help you determine when your customers are most likely to engage.

FYI: If you’re a Bazaarvoice customer using our social tools, you can now store and schedule Instagram Reels for business, along with posts and Stories, in advance. Meaning, we now support all primary Instagram content channels. We don’t want to brag, so we’ll let Chandler Alberda, Digital Marketing Specialist at Merrell, brag for us: “My Reels scheduling prayers have been answered! Everyone take five minutes of silence to be thankful for this moment.”

Here’s how to use this incredible (there’s the brag) feature:

Once you’ve developed a strategy and schedule to follow, it’s time to start creating your Reels. You can create Reels in batches by saving them as drafts in your Instagram account. By accumulating Reels ahead of time and storing them for when they are supposed to be published, you’ll free up time to create consistent high quality content.

Cross promote your Instagram Reels

Your social media marketing strategy should include ways to increase reach through cross promotion. That means that in addition to publishing to the Reels tab, you should post Reels to your Instagram grid, Stories, and save as a highlight with a sticker called “Reels.”

The more places your audience can view your Reels, the higher likelihood that you’ll achieve the results that increase brand awareness and engagement.

And don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Are there ways to widen your reach that hasn’t been tapped into before? New trends that you could start? Maybe you ask your customers to share answers to heartfelt questions and start a “60 seconds of vulnerability” trend. Maybe you start a Mad Libs style story that is told over the course of a chain of Instagram Reels made collaboratively by customers, brands, businesses, or influencers in your industry.

Maybe you could even be the one to start a new trend in which you get to brag about how you successfully started a new trend. Now that’s a pretty meta idea! (See what we did there?) 

Check out the rest of our Instagram content here for more tips and tricks.

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A practical guide for social media professionals to drive engagement and commerce

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