How to Find the Right UGC Service for Your Brand

Looking for cost-effective ways to boost brand awareness, engagement, and sales? User-generated content, or content created and shared by customers, ticks all those boxes. However, collecting UGC can be a heavy lift for marketing teams. Many marketers turn to a UGC service or platform that can help them reach out to customers and create a community of advocates who are more than willing to support your brand through content creation. We’ll explore how to find the right UGC or brand advocacy service for your brand.

Why is UGC important to your brand?

UGC offers many benefits. UGC is:  

Cost-effective 

Leveraging customers as promoters is a cost-effective marketing tactic. Unlike influencer marketing, where you’d compensate creators for content, UGC creators are typically paid with free products, coupons, gift cards or brand experiences. 

Authentic 

Research shows that 52% of consumers trust the advice of an influencer or customer over scripted ads, according to IZEA’s Trust in Influencer Marketing report. The statistic points to a growing number of consumers who value authentic, honest thoughts from real people over pushy sales tactics. Since loyal customers are the source of UGC, it’s easy to see why consumers gravitate toward it. 

Social proof

People want to fit in; they want to be part of something bigger. When customers endorse your product, others are encouraged to try it not just because a customer has suggested it but because they don’t want to suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out). 

Versatile

As you engage with loyal customers and ask them to create content for your brand, like reviews or social posts that showcase your product, your marketing team can – and should – repurpose it. 

Pick a few top-rated reviews and add them to your homepage, send a customer-made video testimonial to new prospects, or reshare a customer’s social post. Get as much mileage as you can out of the content. 

What to look for in a UGC or brand advocacy service

An effective method of obtaining UGC is to leverage a brand advocacy platform like Zuberance. It’s often ore effective to use a UGC service. 

Here are features to look for: 

A hub to gather brand advocates

Zuberance lets you create a branded hub in which brand advocates can gather and interact. This digital space serves as a communal gathering spot, fostering a sense of belonging and shared enthusiasm among its members.

Once you’ve established your branded hub, you can use Zuberance to invite your most satisfied customers to join this exclusive community of happy consumers. 

Within this community, your brand advocates can share their positive experiences, offer testimonials, and spread the word about your products or services. They can engage in meaningful conversations with each other, further deepening their connection to your brand. This, in turn, can lead to increased brand loyalty and customer retention.

You can encourage your brand advocates to write reviews, refer friends, share content on social media, and more. The user-generated content and word-of-mouth referrals can significantly enhance your brand’s credibility and reach.

Multiple forms of content creation

Look for a UGC platform that gives your brand the power to collect UGC in various forms. Remember, UGC isn’t just social shares; it’s any kind of customer-generated content. Look for a platform that encourages customers to create: 

• Product reviews
• Testimonials, written or video
• Referrals
• Social endorsements 

Don’t settle for platforms focusing solely on collecting reviews or social posts; look for variety. Some Zuberance customers have asked their advocates to share recipes they create with their products, memories they’ve created and more.

Incentives that keep UGC streaming in

If you’re looking for consistent UGC, you need a service that provides incentives for customers to support your brand. 

Look for a service that gives customers a chance to earn points for each piece of UGC created; redeemable points that help UGC creators earn things like free products and gift cards.  

Reward interactions with your branded content

One of the key strategies to foster engagement and encourage brand advocacy is to reward interactions with your branded content. This not only incentivizes your audience to engage more deeply with your brand, but it also fosters a sense of appreciation and loyalty among your advocates.

If your brand has a presence on YouTube or other social media platforms, offer rewards for viewership and engagement. You can also offer rewards for following your brand’s social media accounts.

Remember, the goal is to create a mutually beneficial relationship with your brand advocates. By rewarding their interactions with your branded content, you’re not only encouraging further engagement but also showing your appreciation for their support. This can strengthen their connection to your brand, turning them into loyal and enthusiastic ambassadors for your business.

Metrics

In today’s marketing landscape, you need metrics to gauge your success. Pay special attention to the analytics provided by UGC services, and ensure you can: 

• Get real-time engagement data: Monitor how your advocates interact with your hub in real-time.
• Measure individual advocate performance: Identify your top-performing advocates and understand the key drivers of their success.
• Measure content effectiveness: Evaluate which types of UGC content are resonating most, helping to inform future content strategies.

When you’re ready to research UGC solutions, explore the Zuberance website. Our advocacy marketing platform goes beyond UGC and can help you engage your most loyal customers at scale and transform them into passionate product reviewers, influencers, and affiliates through reward-based programs.