How can you generate UGC for your company?

In a previous article, we looked at what UGC is and how it can be applied to any type of business.

The advantages of UGC are many: it’s cheap to produce, effective thanks to its authenticity, and turns your customers into ambassadors.

This time, we’re going to show you how to generate UGC with your real customers.

An authentic approach

This is a general article. We cater for all types of company.
But the method of generating UGC depends very much on your customers (B2B or B2C), your sector of activity and your communication channels.

So we’re going to give you the keys you need todevise your own method of generating UGC.

The first thing to know is that it’s a communication strategy that doesn’t require millions of euros or being a well-known brand.

It’s a process that should be as simple as possible for your customers.
You’re asking them to do something, so you need to make it as easy as possible for them.

There are a number of questions you need to ask if you want to build your collection method properly.

What is the purpose of your UGCs?

You need to ask yourself what you want to achieve with UGC before going any further. This will help you optimize your process.

Here’s a list of objectives that can be met by UGC: conversion rate, loyalty, visibility, credibility, acquisition.

You should choose only one objective per UGC project. Otherwise it won’t work.
It’s like in communications: a campaign = message.

A well-defined objective will help you tackle the rest of the subjects more effectively. Asking the right questions.

What type of content?

UGC comes in a variety of formats: written, photo or video.
Today, video is the most widely consumed medium.

Most of the UGC requested by companies is therefore video.
But the photo format is much easier for your customers to produce and should also be considered.

As for the written format, it’s generally natural and needs little prompting from the company to be created: forum, post, google reviews.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of video formats: customer testimonials, customer reviews, competitions, CVs, events, trombinoscopes, product presentations, calls for evidence, vlogs, travel, open innovation, before/after, success stories…

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of photo formats: competitions, products, events, travel, before/after, etc.

The advantage of video UGC is that your customers can take the floor and tell their story with the brand. The disadvantage is that it’s more complicated to convince them to do so.

When to ask the customer?

The moment you launch a UGC campaign with your customers is crucial to optimizing the response rate and therefore success.

This will depend on the UGC format you request.
For example, if it’s a video testimonial, ask for it when the customer is most satisfied with your products or services. So it will be just after the end of the service or delivery. Don’t ask to do it when the customer has forgotten you 6 months later.

If it’s a competition, especially with private individuals, you’ll need to take into account the time of year when you want to launch your contest. Depending on your theme and the availability of people to do it.
Here’s a concrete example: a cookery photo competition. Plan to launch it during the school vacations to maximize participation.

Each time, you have to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and ask yourself whether he or she will have the time to do it.

Since it’s UGC, you can’t impose anything. You have to deal with their availability. This is UGC’s main difficulty, particularly with professionals.

How do I retrieve the content?

Another important point when you’re doing UGC…How do you recover UGC?

The question doesn’t arise if you do everything on social networks.
For example, a photo contest on Instagram using hashtags. You simply share in a story on your account.

But if you want to reclaim the content to do something else with it for your communication. This raises the question of how to recover files in good quality , and also of the associated rights.

What you need to keep in mind every time: make it as simple as possible for your customer. Once again, you’re asking your customer to do something on a voluntary basis, so you need to make things as easy as possible for them, so as not to discourage goodwill.

You have 2 options: the manual method and the automatic method using software.

The manual method has the advantage of being free. You will contact each customer and ask them to sign an assignment of rights (to legally recover the possibility of doing what you want with the content) and propose a third party for file transfer (Wetransfer or other…). The big disadvantage is that if you have a lot of them…it’s going to take you hours and your time is money too.

That’s why a number of software solutions have been developed around UGC, including our Getinshoot solutions.

For example, for UGC video testimonials, Charlie helps you invite your customers to register. It collects the recording and the transfer of rights, and you have an automatic video montage ready for broadcast. Hours saved! It’s sometimes worth spending a few euros on this software when you want to do a bit of quantity.

How do you motivate customers?

As we saw in a previous article: how to convince a customer to record a video testimonial

In this article, we’re talking about UGC in the broadest sense. But it’s kind of the same thing. We’re going to play on the same psychological bias with our customers.

• Personalize UGC requests as much as possible to make customers feel considered
• Explain as much as possible what is expected in order to answer customers’ questions and reassure them.
• Anticipate and respond to objections from those who do not wish to do so, in order to convince the most reluctant.
• Show an example of what is expected as a result
• Reward your customers to encourage them to participate.

You need to do everything you can to get a higher response rate. In B2B, a response rate of 30% is already excellent and proof that you’ve built up a real relationship with your customers.

Conclusion

Generating UGC for your company’s communication is certainly a process that can be more complicated than other communication methods. There are a number of questions to ask yourself before defining your UGC campaign project, and then there are a number of important steps to follow in order to optimize your customer response rate as much as possible.

But there are also many benefits to UGC. You build a closer relationship with your customers. You turn them into ambassadors for your brand. And there are many benefits in building your business and your offers. This last point will be the subject of a forthcoming article on our blog.