Ninety-three percent of marketers partake in influencer marketing.
They’re not only using their ad budget for sponsored posts.
With 62% of consumers surveyed saying they’re more likely to click on content like ads, websites, social posts, or emails, that feature customer photos rather than an image created by the brand — sponsored content is just the tip of the influencer iceberg.
Influencer marketing feeds into your macro marketing strategy by giving you exactly what you need to increase brand awareness and your customer base: User-generated content.
Why Use Influencers?
Photos, videos, reviews, and testimonials are examples of user-generated content. Marketers rave over UGC because it works better than brand-created content. People like connecting more with other people than they do brand logos and stock-like images (remember Instagram circa 2017?).
User-generated content generates results like:
- A 73% increase in click-through rates when email contains user-generated content.
- Reducing cost-per-click (CPC) by 50% by having user-generated content in social media ads.
- Increasing web conversions by 29% by featuring user-generated content.
But, brands aren’t always swimming in user-generated content. Your audience and customers need to have the motivation to create UGC. That’s where influencer marketing comes into play. Influencers can motivate their aligned audiences to create UGC for your brand and they can show your customers what type of UGC you’re looking for.
Once your audience and customers start to make UGC, you can repurpose the high-converting content across your digital and in-person marketing channels.
Worried about people not wanting you to use their content? Think again…
- 64% of consumers agree that when a brand they like and use re-shares content by customers, they are more likely to share content about the brand or its products.
- 60% of consumers wish that more brands would tell their fans and customers what type of content they want them to create.
- 72% of users will accept a brand’s request to use their content, meaning people are excited to participate when brands ask them for rights to repurpose their content.
Create a library of user-generated content with these two influencer strategies.
2 Ways to Use Influencers to Create UGC
Your audience wants their voices represented across your marketing channels. It nurtures the brand relationship while inspiring more customers to make UGC. Brands like Chipotle have dedicated their entire social media feed to user-generated content — that’s how well it works.
Here’s how to kickstart building out your UGC Studio with the help of your audience’s favorite influencers.
Host a Giveaway
Canon filled their UGC Studio with 2,000+ pieces of user-generated content by hosting a giveaway. Giveaways are the ultimate motivation tool to drive UGC. Paired with a catalyst marketing channel, like an influencer, can drive results even further.
Step 1:
Find an influencer or several influencers in your space to host the giveaway. Your goal isn’t to look for influencers with the most followers, but to find the people with a strong connection to their audience. This means they have high engagement on their posts.
For a quick way to see if you should reach out to ask for an influencer’s media kit, look through their comment section.
→ If comments are meaningful and well-thought-out — consider them for your giveaway.
→ If comments are full of spam and don’t have any real accounts engaging — think twice before spending your ad dollars.
Step 2:
Create an aligned giveaway that’s highly motivating to their audience. The best giveaway to garner UGC involves your products and testimonials. Remember: you’re looking to build out your UGC Studio from this giveaway. Ask yourself questions like:
- What types of campaigns would we want to use this UGC for in the future?
- Which products do we want to push in the upcoming quarter?
- What types of UGC are getting the most results right now for us?
Work your way backwards to figure out the right giveaway that aligns with your audience and your goals.
Step 3:
Run your giveaway with clear call-to-actions. This isn’t a time for vagueness. You need to be clear and concise about what you’re looking for from the UGC you’re requesting. Do you want videos? Should they be horizontal or vertical? Do you want photos? Should they include people or just products? Don’t launch your giveaway until you know exactly what type of UGC you’re looking for.
Once you’re all set, use TINT’s Experience Builder to create a giveaway without needing a single line of code. Quickly create a landing page for submissions and immediately have access to your UGC Studio backend that will house the incoming content. You can automatically organize, tag, and keep tabs on everything that comes into your UGC Studio.
Tah-dah! Not only did you just add hundreds to tens of thousands of pieces of user-generated content to your marketing campaigns. You also automated the process of organizing it so your marketing team can easily access the UGC they need within seconds.
Hire a UGC Creator to teach people what type of content you need from your fans
There are several different types of influencers. Influencers aren’t just the people flying first class on Emirates to a beautiful, completely paid for, extravagant vacation. A new type of influencer has recently surfaced: UGC creators.
UGC creators aren’t traditional influencers. They’re not looking to grow million person followings. They’re not actually looking to build any type of following. UGC Creators, like Mindy Thomas are just looking to create strategically staged UGC content for brands.
UGC creators kickstart UGC creation from your customers. By posting content from these creators you’ll show your audience exactly what you’re looking for. Then, your audience will create that type of UGC content and you’ll have a thriving UGC Studio (in no time!).
Step 1:
UGC creators either work as independent contractors or as agencies. It doesn’t necessarily matter which you choose. What you’re really looking for is a UGC creator (or agency) that creates the type of content you’re looking for. To avoid the hassle of having to hire multiple UGC creators to get the right content — make sure you know exactly what you’re looking for.
Grab examples from competitors and other brands that showcase what you want your UGC to look like. Send those samples over to the UGC creator so they’re not creating “in the dark.” Give them as much direction as possible to ensure you get the UGC you need.
Step 2:
Now that you have a few pieces of UGC from your UGC creator, it’s time to test what converts best with your audience. Before you build out your UGC Studio, you want to know you’re building it out with the content that resonates with your customer base. It needs to have customer sentiment and bring the customer’s voice to your channel.
Test out UGC content organically and look for engagement and conversions. You can also test out UGC in paid ads to see what drives the most action. Once you know what type of UGC is working best for your audience — it’s time to show them more of it.
Step 3:
Publish the UGC from your UGC creator to your marketing channels, and even push it into feeds through sponsored posts. Show your audience what UGC garners a spot on your channels. With this content live, you’ll need to set up your UGC Studio to automate the process of finding your customer’s content and bringing it into your digital library. Organize and tag it automatically so your marketing team can hop in and fill out your editorial calendar and campaigns as needed.
If you want to create even more UGC, pair this strategy with a giveaway (see above).
Influencers Motivate Your Audience to Make UGC
Your audience wishes that you’d tell them what type of UGC to make for your brand. They’d love to see their posts on your feed — but you haven’t told them what to create yet. While Chipotle prioritizes funny and satirical content, Nike looks for aesthetic photos. By sharing UGC each brand shows their audience and customer base what type of content they’re looking for.
As the UGC starts pouring in, they strategically collect it in their UGC Studio to use in the future.
See what your UGC Studio could look like and how 5,000 other brands are garnering results using UGC. Schedule a TINT demo today.
