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The Guide to USER-GENERATED CONTENT: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers SUBMIT2 INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: How User-Generated Content Powers Your Inbound Strategy CHAPTER 2: How to Use User-Generated Content in Ecommerce CHAPTER 3: Great Examples of User-Generated Content on Ecommerce Sites CHAPTER 4: User-Generated Content Mistakes to Avoid CONCLUSION TABLE OF CONTENTS Click on a chapter title to hop straight to it! The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers3 INTRODUCTION: Inbound commerce is truly a customer-centric approach to marketing. By understanding your customers, you can make sure that youre getting in front of the right people at the right time. Once you guide your potential customers down a path, you need to continue to build that relationship in a genuine and personalized way. So, where does user-generated content (UGC) fit into your inbound strategy? It helps you build relationships through authentic content. With this ebook, youll learn how user-generated content powers your inbound strategy, how you can get started with UGC in ecommerce, see great examples of UGC on ecommerce sites, and discover UGC mistakes to avoid when developing your own strategy. The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers4 CHAPTER 1: HOW USER-GENERATED CONTENT POWERS YOUR INBOUND STRATEGY 1) SPEAKS TO YOUR CUSTOMER: Who knows the pain points of your customers better than your actual customers? No one! User-generated content is one of the tools in your arsenal to help your content resonate with shoppers. By enabling your customers to write and share your products, youll address the pain points and narratives of your individual personas. Betabrand, a crowdfunding clothing company, does a remarkable job of this with their Q&A modules on product pages. Since a lot of the products rely on crowdfunding to be created, its especially important to create an opportunity for individuals to ask questions to clarify product and shipping information. While the voice of the customer is strongly represented, they also have product coordinators employed by BetaBrand to weigh in on peoples questions when necessary. The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers5 WHAT YOU CAN LEARN: A big part of inbound is communicating in an authentic way. Your customers can help you by being a trusted voice in the conversation between your brand and prospective customers. The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers6 2) CREATES CREATIVE CONTENT: It can be hard to be constantly developing new content ideas and exciting product shots. But user-generated content can help you do that. After all, your customers are probably getting further afield with your products (and capturing the action shots to go with it). User-generated content can be a sneak peek into what your product would look like in someones home or workplace. It makes it easier to visualize owning something when it isnt a product shot (though those do have their value). Even better, if you aggregate user-generated content for example by running a campaign or contest with a specific hashtag you can then use that content in your marketing materials. The users creating the content feel valued (building your relationship with them!) and your prospective customers get to see your products “in the wild.” The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers7 Grana does an incredible job of both aggregating and using user-generated content in their marketing. They have a specific hashtag that they encourage customers to use on Instagram posts including their products. Theyll even regram user-generated images with their products in them, with photo credits (of course). Heres a particular example of how theyve used user-generated content in their email strategy. Theyve aggregated images that prominently feature specific products, and included the username of the original poster, as well as links to the products themselves. By giving their customers a wider audience, theyre encouraging others to continue to post user-generated content (with the hopes of being chosen) and rewarding images that fit their brand. WHAT YOU CAN LEARN: Take your inbound strategy to the next level by incorporating user-generated content in your marketing efforts. Adding additional perspectives will help you stay creative in how you represent your products. The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers8 3) GENERATES ORGANIC BUZZ: One of the benefits of a robust inbound commerce strategy is having deep relationships with your customers, where they return to you time and again, and also share their loyalty with your brand with others. User-generated content is another forum to encourage word of mouth marketing by your current customers. While not every customer will think to tell their friend or neighbor about your product, with user-generated content, they dont need to. By posting about your products online and sharing it on social media (even if that isnt the core intent of their post), theyre spreading the word about your products. Your products are moving from your site into the newsfeeds of prospective customers, through your current customers. For example, the main hashtag Cuyana encourages customers to use is #fewerbetter. While theres no way to ensure that only Cuyana customers are using the hashtag, perusing the feed for recent posts pulls up a lot of Cuyana relevant posts. This increases discoverability and shareability for the posts, as well as helping infuse their posts throughout Instagram, and into the newsfeeds of prospective customers. The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers9 Customers will use the #fewerbetter hashtag and tag Cuyana in their posts (like the following image). Potential customers only need to click on the image to get connected directly with the brand. For Cuyana, the #fewerbetter hashtag is an opportunity to both aggregate user-generated content, but also to spread the word of their product philosophy. WHAT YOU CAN LEARN: Dont be afraid to go broad in your hashtag choices to increase the potential reach of your products. Customers may be more comfortable including a less explicitly branded hashtag in their content. This will make your products more relatable. The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers10 CHAPTER 2: HOW TO USE USER-GENERATED CONTENT IN ECOMMERCE Social proof is essential to any marketing strategy, and user-generated content like customer reviews and pictures provides social proof that addresses the key ecommerce pain point of uncertainty. Uncertainty is something that affects both shoppers and store owners: Shoppers are sometimes hesitant to buy online because it can be difficult to gauge information about the fit and quality of items without seeing them in person. Customer opinions and experiences conveyed through UGC give shoppers the information they want and the confidence they need to convert into buyers. Ecommerce store owners are challenged to build trust with site visitors and communicate the sense and feeling of tangible products through the barrier of a digital screen. Authentic customer content provides a gateway for online brands to build relationships with their audience. Happy customers are your best brand advocates, and content they create is extremely scalable. Here are three of the top ways to leverage UGC to grow your business. The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers11 1) BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS Customer reviews and pictures build a shoppers confidence in a brand by providing relatable information and authentic answers to questions that may otherwise keep someone from buying. Including user-generated content throughout your ecommerce store such as on the homepage, checkout page, and product pagesmakes the online shopping experience more dynamic by addressing specific pain points with genuine customer experiences. Enabling a conversation between interested shoppers and past buyers builds a community around your brand, providing social proof for the products and for your company as a whole. Communities like these break down barriers between individual online shoppers, which in turn creates an emotional connection with the brand and leads to conversions. Asking customers for reviews is an effective way to engage with your audience and increase retention by making them feel appreciated and valued. The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers12 2) INCREASE EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL ADS User-generated content is a powerful tool for building social proof and one of the most effective ways to build trust on social media. Social ads are a way to broaden your reach and influence shoppers while they are not actively shopping. To people scrolling through social media, branded content sticks out like a sore thumb and is easily ignored. Conversely, social ads with user-generated content bring more shoppers to your site. Customer reviews and photos increase social commerce by providing immediately visible social proof and establishing a relatable brand image. THE DATA ON SOCIAL: Yotpo data shows that user-generated content increases click-through rates for Facebook ads by 300% and leads to a 50% drop in both cost-per- click and cost-per-acquisition. The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers13 3) BOOST VISIBILITY IN SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS Customer reviews differentiate your company and products from all of the other search results that come up. They not only attract shoppers attention, they also lead to more sales, and in turn to more reviews. Using UGC in your paid and organic search engine marketing activities such as product listing ads and rich snippets enhances your search listing and makes it more enticing for shoppers to click through. PRO TIP: When shoppers see customer reviews in the research phase of the buyer journey, it gives your product an edge over other search results and encourages them to go to your site. The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers14 CHAPTER 3: GREAT EXAMPLES OF USER-GENERATED CONTENT ON ECOMMERCE SITES UGC increases engagement, encourages shoppers to convert into buyers, and boosts word-of-mouth marketing. It also engages existing customers and increases sales. While there are many ways to display UGC throughout your site to create interest and provide shoppers with real information from real buyers, here are four best-in-class uses of UGC in ecommerce (and actionable tips for how to emulate their impact). The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers SUBMIT15 BOOM! SHOWS REAL PRODUCTS ON REAL PEOPLE BOOM! cosmetics company gives customers the option to submit original photos with their product reviews. When a shopper sees these user-generated photos of real people using the product they are considering, they can quickly tell whether the products meet their expectations. User-generated photos, coupled with customer reviews, effectively communicate a comprehensive customer experience that allows shoppers to connect on a personal level and imagine themselves using your product. BOOM! also implements visual UGC throughout their site with a selfie contest, photo carousels on their product pages, and rotating customer photos on their homepage. PRO TIP: Encourage reviewers to get creative with their customer photos to showcase your product in engaging ways. If you are selling make-up, ask them to take a selfie before they go out. If you are selling arts and crafts materials, ask for pictures of a finished project. Providing engaging prompts will help reviewers include more images. The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers16 MVMT MIXES UGC AND PRODUCT PICTURES For jewelry and accessories, studio product pictures are great for highlighting design details, but they usually do not provide context. They leave shoppers wondering what the product will look like on them and how it will pair with other items in their closet. MVMT addresses this concern by surrounding their studio product images with pictures from Instagram. By mixing UGC in with product pictures and including an Instagram feed featuring relevant social on each product page, MVMT allows shoppers to better understand the proportions of the product and imagine how they would style it. PRO TIP: Use social pictures with relevant reference points such as a hand or additional accessories that help shoppers understand the actual size and color of the product. Context will help the dimensions of the product come to life. The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers17 SAMUEL HUBBARD FEATURES UGC IN HOME PAGE DESIGN Uncertainty can be a big factor when seeing an online brand for the first time. Authentic customer reviews are a perfect way to reassure new shoppers about the quality of your products and the trustworthiness of your brand. When displayed on the home page in a way that matches the overall site design and experience, they capture the attention of site visitors and nudge them to take the next step in the customer journey. Samuel Hubbard features their customer reviews as a major part of their homepage design to showcase happy customers and encourage new site visitors to look further. PRO TIP: Feature detailed reviews that mention a specific use or benefit of the product such as gift giving or all-day use to inspire shoppers. The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers18 CAMPUS PROTEIN MEASURES INDUSTRY PAIN POINTS Each industry has its own unique customer pain points. Asking past buyers to rate specific metrics related to your industry as part of their product review provides shoppers with trustworthy and relevant information. Campus Protein uses their review requests to get customers to weigh in on the flavor of their product. Flavor is a key component of purchase decisions when buying consumables online. By asking customers to rate the flavor of the product they bought, Campus Protein ensures that flavor is part of every customer review. Industry-specific measurements enhance reviews and ensure that the most important information that can make or break a sale is communicated to new shoppers. PRO TIP: When deciding what quality you want reviewers to rate, consider your marketing needs as well as common customer pain points. What do you most want know from past buyers? What do you most want to communicate to new shoppers? The Guide to User-Generated Content: A Playbook for Ecommerce Marketers19 CHAPTER 4: USER-GENERATED CONTENT MISTAKES TO AVOID When done right, user-generated content can be a h
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