Engaging with your audience is a great way to create stronger personal relationships. And UGC checks all the essential boxes for connecting with and persuading your target audience.

In fact, a staggering 85% of people regard user-generated content as much more significant in their decisions than images or messages generated by brands, according to AdWeek.

CHALLENGE

Belief in marketing and advertising is diminishing quickly.  

Less than 30% of consumers say they trust digital advertising. In particular, people are most suspicious of social media targeted advertising and sponsored ads. (Trustpilot)

Who do people believe?

People believe their friends, relatives, and even total strangers first, and sometimes they take into consideration advertising. On a believability scale, every information source ranks above company marketing, even politicians.

79% of people think that user-generated content is essential in decision-making, while just 13% of respondents said corporate content affects their decisions. (Stackla)

Marketing initiatives have a much higher likelihood of success when collaborating with people who create and distribute user-generated content.

SOLUTION

Thousands of brands are partnering with their customers and authentic influencers to bridge the trust gap. This strategy is known as brand ambassador marketing, and the cornerstone of every good brand ambassador program is user-generated content. 

The synergy organizations and ambassadors form is quite impressive. Together they:

• Scale word of mouth marketing through UGC
• Magnify media value by sharing content and leveraging their networks
• Repurpose UGC into brand marketing initiatives  

When working together, brand ambassadors support companies by running test campaigns, developing innovative ideas, networking with others, and improving conversion rates.

RESULTS

It turns out, UGC is more engaging and trustworthy.  The two brands studied catapulted their social engagement metrics by repurposing their user-generated content. Wooly reviewed the insights on two types of Instagram posts.

1. Posts created by the brand for the brand
2. Posts created using images and content from ambassadors that the brand used for the brand Instagram channel

Over and over again, brand posts that utilized UGC outperformed posts that did not have user-generated content. Social media posts get 4x more likes when they featured images from ambassadors and real customers than when they used photos produced by the brand. Likewise, posts and stories with UGC were saved twice as often. 

The champions of the study were the most coveted engagement metrics of all -- shares and comments. People commented 9x more often and shared the post 8x more when the brands repurposed content from their customers.   

The results indicate that UGC is so influential that people don't interact with it in a typical way. They don't just simply like it or save it. Individuals engage with user generated content in a much more profound way.

In a highly saturated and competitive market, Purple Mattress needed an innovative approach. Working with Wooly, Purple launched an ambassador program and saw a massive spike in their social share of voice within six months. 

Also, Blendtec developed an ambassador program that produces continuous UGC. Plus, the images, content, and endorsement are nothing short of mouth-watering. You really must check out the case study!

Besides the UGC, Blendtec's ambassador program evolved into a new sales channel that produced more than 10% of all their ecommerce sales within one year.

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