10 Winning Strategies to Encourage Customers to Create UGC Videos

Updated Date:

Sept 26, 2024

5 min read

Introduction:

UGC, which means user-generated content, is basically anything your customers create about your brand. It could be photos, videos, reviews, or even simple text posts. What’s great about it is that it shows how people really feel about your product or service from their own experience. And get this, than half of people, around 51 percent, check out brands on different platforms before they decide to trust or buy from them. People do a lot of research these days.

One of the easiest ways to build that trust is through UGC marketing. When potential customers see real people sharing positive stuff about your brand on social media, it creates what’s called social proof. That means people look at what others are doing and follow along. So if your product or service is getting plenty of love with videos and reviews, new customers are more likely to choose you over your competitors.

Alright, now let’s jump into some fun and easy ways to get your customers creating this kind of content for you.

1. Offer Incentives & Rewards

People love free stuff or discounts, right? It works like magic. Just hit up your customers, especially the ones who shop with you a lot, with some email or WhatsApp messages. Invite them to shoot a quick video or post about how much they love your product.

And what’s in it for them? Give them a coupon or discount for their next buy. It’s a tiny investment from your side, but it pays off big because you get an extra sale plus real customer video testimonials to use. Win-win. Plus, this kind of video promotion feels way more authentic to new shoppers.

2. Launch an Exciting UGC Contest

Who doesn’t like a competition? Taking the incentive idea a step further, set up a contest. Ask customers to send in videos showing how they use your product, or their story about why they picked your brand. Make sure you give them clear tips on what to say in the video testimonials.

Keep the prize something actually worth winning. The better the reward, the more UGC videos you get. And beyond just getting content, contests pump up customer engagement and get people buzzing about you on social media.

3. Feature Customer Videos in Your Marketing

Next, figure out the spots your audience hits the most online. These are your prime real estate for showing off user-generated content. It could be your homepage, pricing page, or social media profiles.

There are loads of cool testimonial importer tools out there. They pull in social media reviews and videos and put them right on your website or marketing campaigns. Some brands even go all out with a “Customer Spotlight” section where they collect all the positive stuff their users have posted. Don’t forget to link back to the original creators, whether it’s Instagram or LinkedIn. That’s just good karma and builds trust.

4. Simplify the Submission Process

One big reason people don’t leave video reviews or testimonial, or other UGC is because the process sucks. If you make them jump through hoops with long forms or tons of questions, they’ll bounce.

Make it effortlessly clear how to leave feedback. Tell them upfront how long it takes and what’s in it for them. Give prompts too, like questions they can answer, so they don’t stare at the camera trying to figure out what to say.

Let them decide how to share, whether a video, an audio clip, or a nice text recommendation. Also, make uploading easy. No one wants to convert files or mess with formatting.

If you’re running a social media campaign, use hashtags. It helps gather all the content in one spot and makes it simple for you to find and use the posts.

Many companies also pick a user-generated content platform that collects all this content under one roof. Most have free options to try out before buying.

5. Encourage Video Reviews & Testimonials

Here’s a cool stat: 70 percent of salespeople say video converts better than anything else. Big surprise, right? Everyone loves watching social media videos. If you have video testimonials, real customers chatting on camera about your brand, that sticks with people.

So, ask your customers to shoot a quick video about your product or service. Make it easy for them with clear questions to answer, so they don’t get stuck or frustrated. Nobody wants to watch a rambling video with no focus.

Remember, video marketing takes effort. Be sure to respect their time. If you’re feeling generous, reward them with discounts or coupons or something exclusive. People love feeling appreciated.

Remember, they are taking time and energy out of their life to provide you with content that you can use in your video marketing efforts. And in most cases, they are doing this for free. Ensure you respect their time and make the process as smooth as possible for them. And if you are feeling generous you can even reward them with exclusive perks like discounts, coupons, and access to exclusive communities.

6. Partner with Micro-Influencers & Brand Advocates

This strategy is pretty straightforward. With the rise of popularity in both social media and its influencers, many brands have started partnering with social media influencers to promote their offerings. Influencer campaigns have great success especially when you choose the right influencer whose target audience is the same as yours. They already have access to many eyes who are willing to give them time to watch their content and engage with them.

You can either partner with an influencer by paying them money, offering free products, or complimentary access to your services. Some brands even set up affiliate commissions which can bring you long-term success and partnerships with different influencers. There is always the risk of choosing the wrong influencer or one that might lose their influence but that is why you have to do all your research before engaging one’s services.

However, it’s not just influencers that can promote your brands online. You can even encourage your existing customers no matter how big or small their following is to promote and talk about you in their online conversations. A lot of apps do this through the “referral bonus” model where upon a successful referral, the referee gets a bonus. This way you can build a large network of loyal brand advocates and employ their services as required.

7. Create a Viral Branded Challenge

Anything that engages your fans and makes them feel like a part of the family is always a game changer. For example, when a popular artist starts a random dance or lip-sync challenge on a platform like Instagram it has the potential to go viral. We’ve seen multiple instances of this happening in the past. Similarly, an easy way to get your audiences to engage better with your brand would be to create a themed challenge.

Some examples include:

Before/After Videos: First thing first, take customer feedback. Ask them to share a transformation video where they show how their lives have changed before and after using your product or service. These sorts of videos are popular with skincare, hair products, fitness, and the beauty industry in general. But there is no reason you can’t apply it to use cases like using software to transform a messy-to-organized workspace, bringing UI design improvements, or just making something like collecting user-generated video content more streamlined.
A 30-Second Pitch: Straightforward—ask your users to pitch your product or service in under 30 seconds and upload it tagging you or using a hashtag.
Unboxing: If your business focuses on selling physical products then you can ask your users to create an unboxing video for you. As a bonus through these videos, you can even capture their initial reactions to your product and their interactions with it.
Be Our Creative Challenge: Ask your users to design an ad or marketing campaign for you and feature it on their social media. Win-win.

8. Provide Exclusive Perks for UGC Creators

We’ve listed out many different ways to interact with your audiences and collect usable UGC content from them. But remember that it is always important that they feel like there is something in it for them too. In return for shooting a video for you or leaving you a glowing testimonial, you can offer them perks like,

Invites to official events
Early access to product demos and beta versions
Shoutouts on your social media pages if you have a large following
Invites to exclusive online communities on platforms like Slack or Discord

These are just some of the ideas. The goal here is to just make your users feel like they are a part of a community. Bonus points if you can make them feel exclusive about it. But building a community comes with its responsibilities. You need to maintain it by posting on it regularly, interacting with comments or messages you receive, and offering any sort of support your users might seek.

To build a large following your focus should be on giving back to the community that you have gained so much from. You will find that members of the community bring a lot to the table and form a kind of networking space that everyone would want to be a part of. With the right efforts, it might just become one of your brand's biggest strengths—with purchases being made just to join the communal space.

9. Leverage AI, AR & Interactive Filters

The younger generations are big fans of using apps that give them filters to use with their cameras. These are not just fun but also a great spot for product placement. Have your design teams work on AR and interactive filters that can then be used by your customers to flaunt whatever they want on the “stories, highlights, or statuses” they post all over social media.

10. Engage, Repost & Respond to UGC Creators

A study by Sprout Social found that 51% of brands respond to consumers, and 37% prioritize engaging with their followers over publishing relevant content extensively. This means that brands aren’t just posting their content and disappearing. They are actively making an effort to engage with their followers.

This builds both trust and loyalty because potential customers who look you up and end up on your social pages will see that you are active, present, and keeping in touch with existing customers. This reassures them that they won’t be abandoned after purchase and builds confidence in doing business with you.

Conclusion

A study by ComScore found that brand engagements rise by 28% when consumers are exposed to both professional marketing content and user-generated content. UGC has the power to hook in an audience. Don’t just take our word for it. UGC-based ads are known to get 4x higher click-through rates. Start bringing UGC into your marketing strategies today. You can start with something as simple as collecting testimonials with tools like Feedspace and move on to organizing competitions and viral challenges—use the list in this guide as a starting point and build from there. Find yourself a good UGC software, run a few campaigns, and measure the ROI. You will realize you should have been doing this all along!

Which strategy are you going to implement first? Do you have any other ideas you would like to share? Let us know!

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Rahul Pai

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