10 Consumer Generated Content material Campaigns That Really Labored [+Expert Insights]

Consumer-generated content material (UGC) has turn into more and more vital over the previous few years. 

A woman purchasing after seeing a user-generated campaign

Actually, in a current HubSpot survey of 500+ entrepreneurs who promote content material by way of social purchasing options, 92% say user-generated content material will increase model consciousness of their merchandise.

And, as Emplifi’s Chief Technique Officer Kyle Wong instructed me, “Consumer-generated content material is a 24/7, 365-day advertising and marketing channel and alternative.”

Right here, we’ll dive into 10 examples of spectacular UGC campaigns to encourage your personal campaigns. Plus, hear Wong’s 5 ideas for taking your UGC technique to the subsequent degree.

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Examples of user-generated campaigns

Kyle Wong’s 5 ideas for creating your personal UGC marketing campaign 

Download Now: The Ultimate Guide to User-Generated Content [Free Ebook]

10 Examples of Glorious Consumer Generated Campaigns

1. Sephora

Cosmetics powerhouse Sephora describes its on-site Magnificence Insider Neighborhood as “your one-stop vacation spot to share magnificence recommendation, inspiration, information, and proposals with actual individuals in actual time.”

Along with textual content threads and teams that customers can work together with, Sephora’s Neighborhood Gallery options UGC from actual prospects in an aesthetically-pleasing, interactive design.

Sephora sources this content material from social media and direct uploads, and UGC is made shoppable so website guests can simply discover merchandise featured in photos from group members.

The gallery mechanically updates as new UGC is permitted, demonstrating Sephora’s dedication to its prospects whereas driving conversion and product discovery.

2. Farrow & Ball

Producer Farrow & Ball is understood for its daring wallpapers, paints, and inventive product names — in addition to a knack for uplifting its prospects. With a number of lively shows of UGC throughout the model’s weblog posts, product pages, and different website pages, Farrow & Ball celebrates its gifted group whereas showcasing concepts for up-and-coming inside designers and on a regular basis customers alike. A devoted group gallery additionally permits guests to filter UGC by shade, room, type, and product sort.

Farrow & Ball boasts a powerful, engaged group of 1.6 million followers on Instagram, and UGC makes up nearly all of the model’s posts.

3. The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas is likely one of the most Instagrammed inns on the earth, and doesn’t move up the prospect to proudly showcase its company’ spectacular images.

The Cosmopolitan options dazzling UGC on class pages for its completely different choices, from restaurant photographs to on line casino moments. Mixing influencer content material with UGC on the resort’s Instagram has finally pushed over 250 million impressions, partaking followers and contributing to website site visitors.

4. Article

Article is an online-only furnishings model recognized for creating stylish, Scandinavian-inspired trendy items. Promoting on to prospects, Article lacks standard showrooms that permit prospects to visualise merchandise in actual life.

That’s the place UGC is available in: Article offers its prospects a plethora of genuine photographs exhibiting how individuals type the model’s furnishings of their areas.

Article shows actual buyer images and furnishings pairing suggestions on product pages to extend time on website and decrease bounce charges, along with a shoppable inspiration gallery of UGC.

5. Vitamix

Vitamix provides its prospects a wide array of juicers, blenders, and different meals processors, and takes a inventive strategy to partaking its culinary group. Along with sharing recipes and UGC on Instagram, Vitamix ran a “Smoothie of the 12 months” contest asking followers to vote for nutrient-dense “nourish” smoothies or Instagram-worthy “flourish” smoothies.

The 2 opposing groups had been led by vitamin influencers, and Vitamix spotlights nourish and flourish UGC carousels on the competition’s touchdown web page.

6. Crocs

Iconic model Crocs is likely one of the largest names in footwear, catering to customers of all ages and giving prospects the chance to customise their appears with various Jibbitz shoe gems.

To rejoice its world group and showcase how they type their Crocs, the model invitations prospects to share UGC on social media with the stylish hashtag #MyCrocsEra.

As a model with an already established userbase, Crocs skillfully provides a component of group to its on-site and social content material technique, boosting buyer retention and buy confidence.

7. Revel Nail

Revel Nail will increase their conversion fee and reduces product web page abandonment whereas including a splash of enjoyable to its advertising and marketing technique with colourful, attractive UGC throughout the model’s digital channels.

Along with displaying buyer images on product pages, social media, and an on-site photograph gallery, Revel Nail options shoppable TikTok movies from prospects exhibiting how they create beautiful nail designs with the model’s merchandise.

8. Jones Soda

Beverage model Jones Soda boasts some of the distinctive approaches to UGC, permitting followers to submit UGC by way of Instagram or direct add for the prospect to have their photograph featured on a bodily bottle label. Website guests can vote on submissions by way of an interactive UGC gallery.

In 2021, Jones Soda took this chance to a brand new degree with its Reels Label marketing campaign, encouraging social customers to share Instagram Reels to probably be printed on soda bottles and viewable by way of augmented actuality (AR) with the model’s app.

9. Northumbria College

Universities and different academic establishments might not come to thoughts when you consider user-generated content material. Nevertheless, Northumbria College in England embraces its college students and college by way of varied inventive, on-site shows of UGC.

For one, Northumbria promotes an #IAmNorthumbria group gallery, which illustrates college life by way of group images. Moreover, Northumbria’s Newcastle Enterprise Faculty even spotlights UGC from actual college students on course and masters pages to provide website guests a have a look at a day-in-the-life of scholars.

10. NAVY Hair Care

Final however definitely not least, NAVY Hair Care is a spectacular chief in terms of sharing and celebrating the genuine experiences of its prospects — by way of visible UGC, detailed scores and opinions, and extra.

Based in 2018 on social-forward values, NAVY Hair Care drove a 264% improve in repeat-visit fee and web site engagement upon championing UGC on social and web site pages. Combining buyer visuals with opinions provides an extra degree of social proof for the model, exhibiting prospects what it’s actually like to make use of their merchandise.

Methods to Run Your Personal Consumer-Generated Content material Marketing campaign, In keeping with Emplifi’s Chief Technique Officer

After I spoke with Kyle Wong, he started by highlighting the significance of user-generated content material for small and massive companies alike. 

As he places it, “Each firm has three branches of promoting: Earned, paid, and owned. And one side of earned media is PR, however the different half is out of your prospects, which has historically been principally word-of-mouth advertising and marketing.” 

Wong provides, “The largest shift that is occurred over the previous couple of years is word-of-mouth advertising and marketing out of your completely satisfied prospects has turn into infinitely extra scalable.”

He continues, “So when investing in a technique round user-generated content material, it is vital to grasp the fundamentals, which is that this: We’re investing in a technique to primarily assist seize extra constructive word-of-mouth advertising and marketing from our prospects.”

Your prospects are already offering constructive suggestions of your merchandise — whether or not that is by way of buyer assist cellphone calls, product evaluation pages, or by way of social channels. A user-generated marketing campaign, then, is essential for merely amplifying the messages already being shared by your prospects. 

Let’s launch into Wong’s 5 steps for creating a powerful marketing campaign now. 

1. Create a repository to your prospects’ constructive tales — and supply various choices for patrons’ to go away opinions. 

There are many buyer tales already being shared about your model. These tales is perhaps in a written format, photograph format, video format, or audio format. And there are innumerable locations to seek out these tales: Evaluation websites, buyer assist messages, social media channels, electronic mail, post-product opinions, and extra. 

Wong instructed me: “If individuals are posting good tales about your model, the primary query it is advisable to ask is: ‘What are we going to do with it? Are we going to do nothing, or leverage it to develop our enterprise?’ The first step is accumulating that content material, and inspiring extra of it.” 

You will need to determine a course of for accumulating and storing constructive tales to your advertising and marketing crew to leverage in future UGC campaigns.

As Wong places it, “I do not assume a variety of manufacturers have a great repository for all of that content material. There must be a central library for these buyer tales. Our platform does a variety of that, however even should you do not use us, there needs to be a central library someplace.”

Moreover, Wong encourages enterprise house owners to create as many alternatives for constructive suggestions as doable. As an illustration, you would possibly:

  • Create suggestions kinds
  • Have a constructive story part of your web site
  • Create testimonial pages
  • Make sure you’re lively on all main social channels

This makes it simple for patrons to share their constructive opinions the place, when, and the way they’d want. 

As you design your promotion for a UGC marketing campaign, think about the forms of “entries” that you simply’ll settle for. Footage, movies, or testimonials are all highly effective content material varieties that may be simply transformed for promoting functions.

2. Determine the place the appropriate place(s) are to amplify this content material. 

Now you’ve gotten a repository — nice. What’s subsequent? 

You will need to determine how you are going to amplify these messages. One main alternative to share UGC is by way of social media channels. On the naked minimal, you would possibly retweet or repost another person’s content material. You possibly can additionally share the publish to your Instagram Tales, and have a devoted UGC Tales assortment saved in your profile. 

However you may as well create a touchdown web page to showcase prospects’ content material, or create a bit in your product pages or homepage. These sections will permit your website guests to see how different shoppers are utilizing your merchandise, which is undeniably useful as they think about buying your product.

There are main advantages to that includes user-generated content material in your web site. Wong instructed me, “We have discovered that user-generated content material performs higher than conventional inventory imagery in terms of conversion charges. There’s a few causes for this. One is, in fact, the authenticity factor.”

“However two,” He provides, “Is that it is just about inconceivable to duplicate the number of the content material that you simply get out of your group since you get the product utilized in so many various variations, completely different kinds, and completely different locations. Certain, a photographer may get you a similar amount of photographs — however they could not give you the identical number of photographs as your prospects can.” 

Merely put, selection helps promote your product. As soon as I see the alternative ways prospects are already utilizing your resolution, I’m extra prone to perceive the way it can resolve an issue in my life, as properly. 

3. Have a call-to-action to your prospects. 

Wong suggests having a call-to-action to your prospects after they publish user-generated content material.

As an illustration, you would possibly create a selected hashtag for the marketing campaign, or guarantee they tag you so the content material is affiliated along with your model. Alternatively, possibly you ask them to fill out a type for an opportunity to be featured in your marketing campaign. 

CTAs will let you show all user-generated content material in a single place. A hashtag, as an illustration, permits customers’ to see all associated posts after they click on on the hashtag. 

Wong factors out that there is a main benefit to this: As extra individuals see your model sharing user-generated content material, they naturally start to share extra, as properly. 

He says, “I’ve seen that occur throughout each single firm we work with. The extra an organization options their prospects — whether or not it is on the web site or by way of social — the extra everyone else begins to share extra about that firm.”

He provides, “A whole lot of the manufacturers who’ve grown shortly, particularly within the SMB house, are usually sturdy on social and robust with their group efforts.” 

4. Use UGC content material to tell product strains or advertising and marketing positioning. 

It is vital to call-out the larger ramifications of listening to your prospects’ constructive opinions. 

Optimistic opinions can inform your product technique simply as a lot as adverse ones. 

Wong instructed me, “Consumer-generated content material is a powerful vantage level on what individuals are doing along with your model, and what they’re already completely satisfied about. And I’ve discovered it may be a supply of inspiration for a lot of enterprise house owners. The ‘consumer’ in user-generated campaigns may also help you with rebranding, product strains, market positioning, and extra.”

In the end, you will need to leverage your user-generated campaigns to make choices in terms of the way you construct and market your product shifting ahead. 

5. Straighten out any authorized points.

In case you’re conducting a giveaway as a part of your marketing campaign, you’d be smart to seek the advice of authorized counsel on two vital points: the rights you’ll maintain over any content material submitted to your promotion, and any restrictions that govern giveaways.

First, it is advisable to inform members about what is going to occur to the content material they create following submission in clear, easy-to-understand language.

But additionally, in case your state or municipality (or the mediums by way of which you run the competition) management how, when, and underneath what circumstances giveaways can happen, you’ll need to make certain your promotion is in compliance earlier than operating afoul of the legislation.

Given the breadth of the completely different industries highlighted above, it’s clear that any model can observe an analogous mannequin to advertise buyer engagement and generate favorable publicity.

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