How to get your customers to build your brand (for free!)

Some things in life are just better when you don’t have to make them yourself.

A cup of tea from a loved one. A home cooked meal.

Maybe that’s also why the best content is content not made by you. It’s made by your customers.

User-generated content doesn't just build trust and foster organic relationships with your audience. It’s also an authentic snapshot of everyday love for your brand.

Seeing our customers happily engaging with our product or service is the crème de la crème for business owners. And if they are willingly sharing that excitement, even better.

This is why UGC can be such a powerful tool for your brand—someone else is building your brand for you.

I mean, let’s be real, it’s easier for someone who has no experience with your product or service to trust a recommendation over a curated advert. The challenge, however, is getting your customers to actually make the content.

So how do you get your customers to create UGC for your brand?

The reality is, closed mouths don't get fed. In other words, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

And asking for feedback from your customers is one of the easiest ways to get UGC.

Sending a follow-up email post purchase with a CTA to leave a review? Simple.

Adding a form right below your content for customers to fill out and review? Also, super simple, costs you next to nothing and takes no time at all to set up.

But beyond the basics, encouraging customers to create UGC comes down to understanding them.

More than anyone else, your customers know what they want. So, analysing customer trends is a great way to gain insight into what types of UGC content they’re engaging with related to other brands.

Once you see what topics, themes or formats are working for other brands your audience likes, you can apply those insights as you encourage customers to create and share UGC for your own brand.

So, here are some questions to investigate:

1. What type of content are your customers sharing?

2. What do your customers like most about your brand?

3. What is your targeted audience group interested in?

The best way to begin finding out these answers is to find industry relevant hashtags and search for keywords that are related to your brand.

This will help you learn about your customers’ interests by showing you what they’re tagging and why. Then, you can create a well-focused strategy to drive UGC from your consumers.

Speaking of hashtags, they’re also a great way to garner all your UGC into one localized place. It also encourages other users to join in.

Creating a unique hashtag for your brand will ensure that any content made about your product or service can easily be identified and replicated.

Creating an ambassador program is a great way to encourage your customers to make UGC.

Why does this work so well? Well, one thing about humans is we love to feel special. Not only that, but if we feel special, we’re going to flex it.

An ambassador program is a great way to encourage loyal fans and customers to create content for your brand consistently. Because you’re treating them like VIPs, giving them exclusive perks for creating content about your brand.

According to Iconosquare, creating an ambassador program is an effective way to trigger quality user-generated content for social media and advertising campaigns.

However, you have to be careful about what kind of influencers you invite to become brand ambassadors. You also need to developing creative content ideas that will resonate with your specific audience if you want this to be effective.

Offering discounts or freebies is another way to make it more likely that people will make content about your brand.

Not only that, but it can be a very effective way to attract new customers along the way.

The truth is, there’s no one golden ticket to a popping UGC strategy that will yield results overnight.

But adding these strategies into your wider marketing approach is a great place to start.

And, as long as you're offering a product or service that adds values to your audience, people will naturally want to create UGC about it.

-Sophie, Writer

🤔 Want more on how brands use UGC? 🎥 Watch the clip here!