💬 It's not a surprise that user-generated content and influencer marketing are widely adopted strategies utilised by many household name companies, as well as brands you follow/consume - we've seen all the ads we get served, famous case studies, etc.
So, what are some of these effective promotional distribution strategies that fast-growing brands adopt to drive revenue growth, that you can learn and 'mould' into your own context/strategy to drive your store's revenue? Well, below I share some areas of what I've seen awesome brands do that you can get inspo from.
💬 These strategies/tactics below are applicable for a range of growth stages (whether you're a larger or smaller store), with many being not too hard/costly to implement (just gotta try and test). :)
As you've probably take from the checklist point heading, you should be sharing UGC product reviews, testimonials (and the like), everywhere.
All critical elements that can help with CRO and accelerating the trust/credibility process for audiences (particularly first-time customers).
There are numerous user generated content video formats to experiment/test to help with acquisition efforts. Some of those include:
- Video product reviews and unboxings - awesome first-hand videos which I've found to perform really well on multiple channels (especially remarketing ads)
- Testimonial/review vids - time and tested, and continue to perform MOF/BOF (as well as TOF) - I'm sure you've seen many examples.
- How-to/tutorials - I love these as focuses on education and communicating value - test between stronger and softer CTAs (depending on the CX/funnel stage of customers/visitors)
- Comparison videos (education) - can be product vs product or even just education of differences with facts, etc.
- Facts/myths vids - these can work really well.
... and there's many more, but I've found these to be solid staples for any UGC video strategy.
UGC/review video embeds are awesome for social proof and helping establish credibility for new audiences (first-time customers - but also existing customers as part of cross-selling).
You can use the embeds across the homepage (like your top performers/best edits), and then what I like is then using video embeds on key product pages, with content related to the specific product items.
All of this is great to satisfy both customer types (new and existing), to help with overall CRO efforts.
Video embeds are one thing, but you can also add image content embeds from social media channels (like Instagram or even Pinterest).
Related to some of the checklist points I've spoken on, one of the better performing content formats are product unboxing and competitor/industry education-focused, as well as the likes of comparisons.
These formats are great because they primarily focus on first-hand experience (sharing an opinion). Particularly for product unboxing vids, where influencers/creators can properly demonstrate and show feedback.
If you're driving affiliates as part of your acquisition strategy, then utilise influencer content as a social proof 'hook' to drive visits.
Advertorials are a great editorial content format that many performance marketers/brands are adopting to educate new audiences with their product offerings.
As part of these advertorials, you can embed UGC throughout for conversion efforts.
A great way to build up audiences/followers faster is doing influencer collabs on socials - where you can host AMAs, Q&As and even the likes of influencer takeovers.
Naturally as part of the collab, you can share across both follower bases, which can help getting further reach.
For longer-term influencer engagements, consider other content types that I've mentioned, such as polls and quizzes and video-based tutorials (like hacks, tips, facts, etc) - all are strong formats that get engagement.
Or, somewhat left-field but what I've started to see some eCommerce brands doing are podcasts - especially in the fitness and health/wellness niche.
A key strategy these brands adopt is the ability to edit and repurpose content across all socials.
Something to consider here as a tactic is co-creating a masterclass/educational series on the likes of Instagram and/or TikTok.
Awesome opportunity for sharing across both audiences (influencer(s) and the brand).
Then you can do multi-channel distribution across multiple placements/mediums - also great as a lead gen magnet on the site for email acquisition.
If you run a loyalty/rewards program (or even a referral program), then using UGC related to each is a good tactic to establish proof of how customers/visitors can be rewarded through various offers related to both - can help with uptake and CRO.
UGC competitions on socials can perform incredibly well, and influencers can help set the benchmark in terms of what great content submissions look like, and also help distribute/promote the competition to key target audiences.
You can really catapult social follower growth and eyeballs organically, and get key audiences engaged and learn more about your brand/products.
For brands who want are tied and wanting to share a particular mission that they back/are proud of, then your best advocators to help spread the message faster through channels are content creators and influencers.
The obvious reasons being more reach/impressions into target segments, but gives more weight to trust/credibility, and also effective for 'humanising' the brand.
