User-Generated Content: Expert Tips + Examples to Grow Your Brand

User-generated content (UGC) is authentic content customers create about a brand and its products or services. We’ll tell you how to collect and use it to build your brand.

Most brands are all in the same boat: they want to sell as much as possible while retaining ethics and standards. On the customer side, people want to buy quality products and services that aren’t billed as being better or different than they actually are.

It’s why consumers are more discerning about which brands they shop with. And it’s also why many turn to their peers for honest reviews.

UGC is the win-win scenario that helps brands sell more and customers buy more.

If you’re not using it to build trust and credibility with your audience (or don’t know why you should), then continue reading to learn how it can potentially boost your sales.

What is user-generated content?

User-generated content is any content your customers create about your brand, product, or service, such as videos, social media content, reviews, and images. It acts as social proof that your brand is reliable, trustworthy, and worthy of a consumer’s time (and dollar).

For example, a customer may buy a bouquet of roses at a local flower shop, take a selfie with the flowers, and post it on Instagram, tagging the flower shop.

The flower shop receives a notification of the post, which also acts as free digital marketing by sharing the product with the customers’ followers so they can buy a bouquet, too.

(Image: Artem Varnitsin via Adobe Stock)

Why brands should care about UGC

You see an ad online with a furniture store owner boasting about the quality of its items and how they’ll last a lifetime. Then you see another furniture ad with several customers showcasing the furniture in their homes and gleaming about the plushness and comfort.

Which one will likely entice you to purchase?

If you’re like most consumers, you’d pick the ad with UGC. Nothing converts better than a brand advocate who’s been there and done that.

Nearly 70% of brands feel the same, stating that reviews and ratings are important for conversions. Another 86% of brands and retailers said authentic UGC would improve their marketing.

When you invest in user-generated content, it can:

• Build trust and credibility using real customer experiences
• Drive engagement — people love to see others share their experiences with a brand and its products
• Reduce social media marketing campaign costs — your customers create the content and you share it with your audience (word-of-mouth marketing at its best)
• Prove the value of your new products and services and how they impact customers
• Provide insights into the language, use cases, and pain points your products solve, which you can use to enhance your content marketing messages

And while these benefits are big wins for brands, they don’t account for much if UGC doesn’t translate into more sales. So what do the metrics look like for high-quality UGC?

According to PowerReviews, serving UGC to website visitors can increase conversions by 3.8%. It also found that visitors who engage with UGC convert 98% more often.

Throw in UGC visuals and you can reportedly lift conversions by more than 103% when your visitors engage with them.

What more do you need to prove the value of UGC?

How to get user-generated content for your brand

Where do you go to find UGC to help with your brand awareness? Should you scour the web and social media to snag them? And if so, should you get permission first?

Yes, and yes.

But don’t sit back waiting and hoping customers will share a great story about your product or service. Instead, you can do the following:

• Go straight to your customers and ask them to share their experiences with your brand and offerings
• Run a contest or giveaway on social media and incentivize participation (posts about your product) by offering a prize
• Make it easy for customers to share their content, such as through forms and branded hashtags
• Sleeping on influencer marketing? Don’t. Partner with authentic influencers (apparently, the smaller the better), who can share your products with their followers and other social media users

These are just some ways to proactively gather UGC. Find ways to encourage your customers to review your products so you can showcase their feedback to your prospects.

Tips for using this content effectively

You’ve gathered some amazing user-generated content from your customers. How should you put it to use?

Here are several ideas:

• Feature videos, audio, or text UGC on your website, product pages, emails, and/or ads
• Embed social media UGC widgets on your site to showcase Instagram posts and TikToks shared by customers
• Repurpose UGC for various channels and content campaigns (e.g., turn testimonials or case studies into video snippets for social)
• Use user-generated content to improve product development and branding to convert more new customers

The goal is to take the insights you gather and turn them into valuable business data. This data can enhance your operations, product design, and marketing messaging or show prospects why they should choose you over another brand.

Common types of user-generated content

You can find user-generated content in many forms across the web. Here’s a look at the most common types:

• Social media posts (images, videos, stories)
• Reviews and ratings
• Blog posts and comments
• Video content (tutorials, unboxing, reviews)
• Hashtag campaigns (e.g., helps with social optimization so users can find your posts — similar to using keywords for SEO)
• Q&A and forum discussions (Reddit, Quora)

This is great news for businesses because they can browse search engines and social platforms to find authentic customer content to share with their target audience. Plus, it’s cost-effective since you don’t have to pay for content creation.

But get permission before placing it on your landing pages, social media channels, or even traditional advertising campaigns.

Unfortunately, this isn’t common practice, with only 23% of marketers always getting consent from customers before publishing their content.

Not getting permission could lead to legal issues, public backlash, and a damaged brand reputation.

Examples of user-generated content from brand campaigns

What does user-generated content look like in the real world? Here are several examples of brands using UGC.

Cupshe likes to share user-generated content on Instagram

Cupshe is a women’s clothing brand with over 1.2 million followers on Instagram. So it only make sense for it to invest in finding and adding user-generated content to its feed.

Here’s an example of a post the brand shared that was created by a customer showcasing 14 swimsuits from Cupshe.

Automotive industry uses UGC to increase engagement

Ecommerce isn’t the only industry that benefits from user-generated content. The automotive industry has also seen the power of UGC. Brian Kratt, founder and CEO, Plumb Development, Inc saw success in the “Bragging Rights” campaign he built for an automotive client.

“The campaign encouraged new car owners to capture and share their purchase excitement by posting a photo with their new vehicle using a platform we developed, resembling a user-friendly, automotive-focused version of Instagram,” shares Kratt.

According to Kratt, the campaign’s effectiveness stemmed from its highly personal touch and the real-time celebration of an important life moment — car ownership.

The UGC campaign encouraged customers to share their experiences, rate their purchasing journey, and even benefit from incentives like discounts on future services, which enticed them to participate.

The results: a substantial increase in user engagement across social media platforms, and direct feedback showed a notable improvement in customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.

“This surge in active participation not only enhanced online visibility but also increased foot traffic to dealerships, with a reported 25% increase in visits and follow-up purchases during the campaign period,” continues Kratt.

“This approach showed how integrating personal milestones with brand interaction creates a powerful narrative that resonates with wider audiences, amplifying UGC effectiveness.”

UGC for the win in the tech industry

Another industry seeing success with user-generated content is technology. Gary Gilkison, Principal Analyst at Riverbase Cloud shared his experience using UGC for a tech-related campaign.

“We started an open Tech Solution Challenge, inviting our community of users to submit their innovative uses of our products in their businesses or personal projects,” says Gilkison. “We encouraged participants to share their stories on social media, tagging our brand and using a specific hashtag we created for the campaign.”

Their UGC strategy focused on the versatility and effectiveness of the brand’s products in real-world scenarios.

“We incentivized participation by offering significant discounts and the chance for winners to be featured in our promotional campaigns,” continues Gilkison. “Users’ direct involvement in creating and sharing content that displayed the genuine utility of our products created a robust sense of community and trust around our brand.”

The results: a 55% increase in follower engagement across its social platforms, a 25% uptick in traffic on its website, and a considerable conversion rate increase during and after the campaign.

“Analyzing these outcomes, the key factor was the authenticity and relatability of the content,” explains Gilkison.

“Users were showcasing the products and embedding personal stories and successful results, making the campaign relatable and inspiring to our potential customers. This use of UGC not only amplified our reach but also magnified customer trust in our solutions.”

(Image: Adobe Stock)

UGC best practices to keep in mind

Thanks to social media, consumer-generated content is virtually everywhere. So it’s easy for brands to find it, repost it on their social channels, or swipe it for their marketing efforts. But is this ethical?

Make sure you’re on the right side of the line when using UGC you find on the web. Here are several tips to remember to safeguard your brand’s reputation:

• Obtain explicit rights to use UGC content by getting written permission from the content creator
• Give credit and recognition to UGC creators or risk them asking you to remove it (or worse, send their legal team after you)
• Moderate and curate UGC to align with brand values to ensure authenticity (consumers will spot ingenuine content a mile away)
• Navigate legal considerations like usage rights and contest rules to avoid conflicts

The takeaway

There’s no denying the impact user-generated content has on brands and consumers. It’s the necessary connector between companies and their customers by meeting the needs of both sides.

It provides real feedback from real people, which helps brands improve and stand out. And it engages customers by giving them the information they need to make purchase decisions.

If you’re not already using user-generated content or don’t know where to start, then connect with the team at HawkSEM. We can help you strategize and implement a UGC marketing strategy that attracts and converts your target customers.

Contact us today for a free, no-obligation consultation.

This post has been updated and was originally published in February 2022.