5 ways to gather user-generated content for your small business

Are you interested in gathering more user-generated content for your small business? If so, you're in the right place! User-generated content (UGC) is any type of unpaid content created and shared by your audience.

UGC can include blog posts, videos, written reviews, social media mentions, and much more. Regardless of how you choose to build UGC for your site, there's no denying the inherent benefits. On average, businesses that add UGC to their marketing strategy see 161% more conversions.

When a new visitor lands on your site, user content can help build social proof and inspire fear of missing out (FOMO). Similarly, a loyal fan mentioning your company or products from their account can boost brand awareness. The possibilities are endless.

Today, I will share several tried and true ways you can gather UGC for your small business. We've successfully used these strategies across our brands, so I'm confident they will work for you too!

Let's dive in!

Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews

One of the fastest and easiest ways to generate UGC is to encourage customers to leave reviews directly on your website. Research shows that 73% of users are more likely to trust a business with positive reviews, so it's not hard to see how this can help your brand grow.

The key to getting more reviews is strategically asking existing and new customers to share their thoughts. If your goal is to reach out to long-time customers, create an email campaign where you thank them for shopping with your business. At the end of the message, ask if they could leave a review so others can learn from their experience. You can sweeten the deal by offering subscribers an exclusive discount on their next purchase.

When it comes to reaching out to new customers, I suggest waiting at least a week after receiving your product. You can send a simple feedback form or a link to your site. Ask these users to rate your product and their experience with your brand. This data can help you fine-tune your marketing strategy and show customer testimonials on frequently-visited parts of your site.

Practice Social Listening

Social listening is another powerful way to find and share UGC. Simply put, social listening is the act of processing, assessing, and responding to what people are saying about your brand on social media. Believe it or not, 80% of internet users have at least one social media account, so you'll have no problem finding people who are genuinely interested in your industry.

The ability to tap into your audience across a wide range of platforms can help you find UGC that you can use to promote products, events, and your brand. For instance, if someone purchased one thing from your website and loved it, you may want to find and share their feedback directly on the landing page for that specific product.

Social listening can help you learn about the goals, pain points, and interests of your target audience. I suggest getting even more value from this strategy by actively responding to people with industry-specific problems or those who mention your business by name.

You'll get the chance to have a one-on-one conversation with a prospect or existing customer, which could result in that person spending 20-40% more money the next time they shop on your site.

Host a Giveaway

Online giveaways are an excellent way to create UGC for your website and social media accounts. First, you have to pick a prize.

If you hope to attract a targeted audience, choose a product from your online store. You may see more engagement when you offer general prizes, like Amazon gift cards, but many participants may not be interested in your product or service.

Once you choose a prize, decide how you want people to enter your giveaway. Think about the ways you can get your audience involved and share content for a chance to enter. Obviously, this will depend on your industry, resources, and marketing goals.

We give our visitors an option to join our contest by participating in our feedback forum on Facebook. Basically, we ask users to share their website, and our experts give them feedback and help them improve the look, feel, and functionality of their sites. We found this was a great way to encourage positive social mentions and engagement, all while learning more about what our audience expects from our products.

After your giveaway is over and you've announced a winner, analyze your results. There are always ways to improve your contest engagement rate over time, which will lead to more UGC. I suggest learning from each event and aiming for more participation next time.

Partner with Influencers

Influencers on social media and bloggers can provide user-generated content for your business. You must stress to potential partners that you want their reviews to be fair and honest. If possible, work with people who will review your product or service for the product's price.

In other words, they get what you want them to review and then create an honest video or written review for their audience. They are more likely to share their opinion if there's no additional financial incentive.

However, it's worth mentioning some mega-influencers, that is, people with millions of subscribers may want payment in exchange for their review. Use discretion and work with people you trust

Influencer posts get plenty of traction across all social media platforms. In fact, 130 million people tap sponsored posts on Instagram every month! If you want to make the most of your influencer marketing strategy, I recommend partnering with people who have a target audience that aligns with your own.

For instance, an email marketing firm might partner with a finance or business YouTuber. You want the people watching the UGC created by the influencer to see your product as relevant, helpful, and worthy of clicking over to your site.

Add a Social Feed to Your Website

Finally, you can show UGC by adding a social feed directly to your website. Some plugins and tools allow business owners to merge activity across multiple accounts like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

When someone lands on your website for the first time, they want to make sure that you're reputable and trusted by the community. Aside from reviews, social media engagement is one of the best ways to show social proof.

Imagine visiting an eCommerce site for the first time. On the sidebar of their site, you see social mentions from happy customers, helpful blog posts shared by the brand, and community polls. Would this make you more likely to engage with the business and make a purchase? If you're like most people, the answer is yes!

You should tailor your social feed to show a mix of what others are saying and your contributions to the community. As more people follow your various social media accounts, you'll continue to accumulate new UGC for years to come.

Final Thoughts

There are plenty of ways to gather UGC for your small business. I shared several tips that I think will help business leaders and marketers across all industries.

The most important thing you should remember is this; engagement on your end can usually result in UGC. Look for opportunities to talk to customers and prospects while looking for ways to expand your reach. You'll undoubtedly find plenty of ways to take conversations with these people and turn it into compelling user-generated content.