User-generated content (UGC) is just what is sounds like, content that was made by users of the product themselves. This could look like people tagging the company where they got their shirt from on Instagram or posting their personal review of the product on Facebook. The users are not paid for what they post but they essentially fill the shoes of an advertiser or influencer. In 2019, with the power of social media, this is huge.

One of the best examples of this was when Coke launched their #ShareACoke campaign, which increased their overall sales by over 2%. There are various other examples of companies profiting off of user-generated content and data shows overwhelming support for the inclusion of user-generated content, which will be referred to as UGC from here on out.

If you don’t already have UGC on your store and in your marketing, these stories may convince you to incorporate it into your marketing strategy.

Some results with UGC

► Some sites have seen a 5-7% increase in conversion rates by incorporating user-generated images into product pages.

► Holiday Club Resorts are using the customer photos as social proof in their showcase section of the product pages to help boost the conversion rate.

► Flockler’s clients have seen an increase of 20-30 % in conversion rates when user-generated content is displayed at the moment of purchase.

► 50% of consumers find UGC more memorable than brand-produced content and 53% of millennials say that UGC has influenced their purchasing decisions.

► According to 3dcart, 82% of consumers consider user generated reviews extremely valuable.

► 80% of TINT users claim that UGC makes content more authentic.

► Nielsen Global Trust found that 70% of consumers trust opinions of other consumers posted online.

► According to Bootstrapping Ecommerce, an A/B test of 5,723 visitors to a top ecommerce site showed that including Instagram photos on the product page of one of their top sellers increased orders by 24.3%

► Salesforce found that…

• visitors to websites that include UGC galleries spend 90% more time on the site
• social campaigns that incorporate UGC see a 50% lift in engagement
• ads with UGC generate 5-times greater click-through rates
• UGC drives a 73% increase in email click-through rates
• UGC increases conversions by 10% when included in the online purchase path

Test it out!

These success stories and stats sound awesome but always remember to test it out for yourself and compare your new results with what your previous results were.

Bllush did A/B tests between a UGC (user generated content) images from Instagram and stock photos from Nike and Zara. The results of these tests are below:

• Test 1: The UGC image from Instagram got a conversion rate of 0.90% against a 0.31% for the Nike model.
• Test 2: The UGC image from Instagram got a conversion rate 2.6 times better than the Zara model (0.62% compared to 0.24%).
• Test 3: The UGC image from Instagram and the stock photo of Nike shoes yielded similar results between the two.
• Test 4: The version with the stock image + 3 UGC images got conversions almost 4 times higher than the version with only a stock image (5.31% compared to 1.4%).

In most of these tests, incorporating UGC posts dramatically increased conversion rates but in the 3^rd test, it didn’t make that much of a difference.

When in doubt, go ahead and find a way to incorporate UGC into your marketing because it generally has a positive effect on conversions and does not cost much to implement it.

It is clear that UGC helps increase conversions, but why?

Well, it brings authenticity to brands, making people feel as if they are a part of a brand instead of it seeming so far away. Not to mention that 92% of consumers trust online content from friends and family above all other forms of brand messages. UGC is seen as the raw and honest truth because users have nothing to hide or profit off of.

Personally, when I see models wearing clothes or using a product, I know that the image is altered to make it look the very best it could be. I rarely believe the pictures posted by the website are true to what is being offered.  Contrary to this, when I see an image on social media of the same clothing / product, I get a much better feel for how it would fit on me. User-generated content allows me to interact with a brand and see what it really looks like in the real world.

All in all, it seems pretty clear to me that UGC is a must.

Have you included it on your eCommerce site yet?

Sources

• User-Generated Content Bring Authenticity to Brands (Adweek)
• 3 Tips to Immediately Increase Your eCommerce Conversion Rate (Yotpo)
• Talking to Strangers: Millennials Trust People over Brands (Bazaar Voice)
• Instagram Followers Don’t Equal Engagement (ClickZ)
• Fuel Social Marketing With User Generated Content (Gartner)
• 31 E-commerce Conversion Rate Optimization Ideas You Must Try (Invesp)
• 3 ways to add user-generated content to your e-commerce site (Flockler)
• The Battle of Conversion Rates – User Generated Content vs Stock Photos (Bllush)
• User-Generated Content is Transforming B2C Marketing- Are You Ready? (Salesforce)
• Why Your eCommerce Store Needs User Generated Content (3dcart)
• ‘Share a Coke’ Credited With a Pop in Sales (The Wall Street Journal)
• 9 Things We Learned from the 2018 User Generated Content Report (Social Media Today)
• 5 Fresh User Generated Content Strategies to Increase Conversion Rates (Boostrapping Ecommerce)