4 Reasons why DTC businesses should use a UGC platform

The direct-to-consumer business model is becoming growing in popularity. More voices are entering the market each year, with sales expected to reach $161.22 billion by 2024, and digital marketing best practice and strategies are becoming increasingly complex.

But what if the answer to commanding audiences’ attention isn’t expensive, large-scale campaigns but more authentic, personalised marketing? User-generated content offers brands looking to gain consumers’ trust an easy win and provides many benefits. By using earned media to bolster your content marketing, which seeks to stimulate interest in a brand’s products and services, you can save costs while driving growth.

Let’s look at four compelling reasons why DTC businesses should use a UGC platform.

UGC influences conversions and purchase behaviour

If you’re constantly trying to improve your conversion rate but are disappointed with the results, UGC could help. Incorporating UGC in your website and social media can influence purchasing behaviour by harnessing the power of social proof. Humans tend to trust other people more than they trust companies, so leaning on the influence of your real-life customers and fans helps position your brand as trustworthy and authentic.

UGC comes in many forms, from photographs of customers using your product to written testimonials from verified purchasers. Here are some examples of UGC that will send your conversion rate rocketing:

Incorporate UGC into your content marketing plan and turn your Instagram or TikTok into a wall of happy images and videos showing your customers using your products. Using posts your audience has tagged you in, known as earned media, to curate your brand’s social media presence creates a more authentic feel than a paid influencer campaign. Plus, embrace digital marketing best practice and make these posts shoppable and drive customers to your website.
Add testimonials and reviews to your product pages. 39% of customers gain trust in a brand from peer conversation, so harness this by validating a customer’s choice to shop with you.
Cast real-life fans in your marketing materials. Photoshoots do have their merits, but your new campaign images will look 100 times better if they feature real people who love your products.

UGC saves resources

If you don’t have the budget for a glossy photoshoot or a fix-figure influencer campaign, there’s no need to worry. Compiling UGC can help save resources by reducing marketing spend and freeing up your team’s time by simplifying your marketing activities.

There are several ways to compile UGC. A UGC aggregator gathers free-to-use imagery via APIs, which search social media platforms for content your brand is tagged in. Alternatively, you can create an earned media campaign that engages directly with your most dedicated customers, requesting they upload photos or other content via a dedicated campaign microsite.

Setting up an API or microsite may require some upfront investment, but once it’s done, your team is free to pick the best content from the bunch and focus on optimising other aspects of your content marketing. For example, permissions that ensure you adhere to digital marketing best practice, like getting consent to use a customer’s content in your branded marketing materials, can be built into your UGC collation process.

UGC helps grow community size and boosts brand loyalty

There are few assets as valuable as a committed brand advocate. More than a fan, a brand advocate talks passionately about your brand to their circle of friends, colleagues and family members, in person and via social media, generating earned media. They’re as passionate about your products as you are and want to see you succeed, often defending their favourite brands online if they come across negative comments.

These are customers that will shout from the rooftops about how amazing your products or services are because they want everyone to share their amazing experience. Research suggests that 92% of consumers trust brand advocates compared to just 18% that trust influencers, so it pays to have as many brand advocates as possible.

By engaging with your brand advocates through a UGC platform, you can offer ethical rewards for sharing rights-free content, refresh your content marketing plans and grow the size of your community. Frequently featuring your advocates’ photographs, videos and reviews in campaigns will boost brand loyalty, while achieving digital marketing best practice through partnerships with your most dedicated fans.

It’s easy to track UGC performance

Lastly, UGC is renowned for being simple to measure. As battles between Google Analytics and European markets continue and digital marketing best practice becomes difficult to maintain, marketers need to look at alternative methods of tracking their metrics.

Miappi Content, the UGC platform that Miappi developed, integrates with brands’ ecommerce websites to flow the best UGC collected from their communities directly into their sites as part of their content marketing campaigns. This direct integration couldn’t make it easier for ecommerce managers to track UGC’s influence on conversion rate, AOV and ROI.

With Miappi, you can access your data from a simple dashboard that reveals the average dwell time on pages that feature UGC, bounce rates, and unique interactions with your content. Perhaps most importantly, you can quickly see which of your posts deliver the highest engagement, allowing you to optimise your UGC going forward. You can even track costs, making it easy to stay within your budget while delivering excellent returns. Plus, keep an eye on your earned media by monitoring hashtags, mentions and image tags.

Ready to embrace the benefits of UGC?

Consumers don’t hate marketing. They just hate bad marketing. UGC brings a touch of authenticity to content marketing campaigns and shows customers just how wonderful your brand really is by providing you access to your earned media.

Miappi guarantees fresh content from highly engaged communities that will help your DTC brand grow by embracing video and shoppable commerce, leaning into digital marketing best practice, increasing conversions and boosting brand loyalty.