Consumers trust other consumers. That’s why user-generated content is such an effective marketing strategy. When you use it—in an Instagram post, in a Facebook Story, TikTok or on your landing page—you tap into the same sentiment that compels consumers to read product reviews before making purchases.

Also, encouraging user-generated content from your current customers is an awesome way to engage them in your marketing process. The business-consumer relationship isn’t purely transactional. Chances are that a lot of your customers feel connected to your business, and curating user-generated content is a fun, powerful way to establish reciprocity in that connection.

How to get more User-Generated Content

When you have a popular brand that generates customers attention, the user generated content that rolls in is immensely valuable. Why? Well for one, there are some pretty creative people out there who find fun and innovative news ways to talk about your product or brand. Ways you may never dream of.

If you have a great customer experience, word of mouth referrals happens naturally. However, a conscious effort to cultivate them will result in higher ROI from your customers. So, here are some ways on how to encourage user-generated content for marketing.

#1 Give them something to say.

If you’re looking to encourage user generated content on your site, there’s no better place than your homepage. This is where visitors will first encounter your brand, so make sure it’s inviting enough to encourage them to share their thoughts.

This means providing a place where people can submit their own content. You should also make sure that the submission process is easy to use and that there’s no limit to the number of submissions.

#2 Ask questions to get them talking.

You should start by asking yourself what kind of UGC you want to encourage on your site. Do you want to promote user reviews, product recommendations, or other kinds of comments? Once you’ve decided what type of UGC you want, you need to think about how you will ask people to contribute.

An easy way to encourage user generated content is by asking people to answer a question. This works well when you’re looking for feedback on a product or service. You can also ask people to write an opinion piece or review a product.

#3 Create an incentive for people to share their stories.

There are several different ways to incentivize UGC. One of the easiest ways is to offer a reward for sharing. People love getting something for nothing, so offering a small prize will help them feel more motivated to share their story.

If you want to sweeten the deal and make sure your customers actually use their social media for a good user-generated content, offer them something valuable in return. Whether it’s a Starbucks or Amazon gift card, a free month’s subscription, or cold hard cash, give something back to your customers for connecting you with their audience — they deserve it. They’ll tell their friends and family about it, and those people will potentially become your new clients.

#4 Provide a platform for them to share their story.

There are two main reasons why people would want to share their stories online: 1) They want to tell others what happened to them; 2) They want to help other people who might be going through similar experiences.

You should provide a space for people to share their own experiences with your product or service. It’s an excellent way to build trust and credibility among your customers.

VoxFeed is the platform that allows you to invite and manage all the relationships with your clients and manage user-generated content. You can manage invitations, requests, content created, payments, and measure the performance of every single interaction.

When those posts are live, you will be able to see their results. To have full control of the performance of your campaign, we suggest assigning specific UTM to the URLs of your campaign and/or a campaign dedicated Landing Page. This way, you can isolate the results and measure their impact on sales, leads, new customers, or other target KPI.