If authentic content is your marketing goal then using a UGC platform is a must have. Without one of the best UGC platforms at your disposal, you’ll struggle to get anywhere fast.
In this article we’re aiming to make your life easy by compiling a list of the top UGC platforms in the market today to help you on your journey to mastering the art of UGC marketing.
Specifically, this article covers enterprise UGC platforms, many of which we have pitched against over the last decade. If you don’t have enterprise-grade budgets just yet, there are many other platforms out there that offer a less comprehensive suite of features but may just do what you need!
Our whistle-stop tour of the best UGC platforms is here to help you create a shortlist of software to fulfil your marketing requirements. But finding out what the best platforms are is just part of the process. When it comes to selecting a UGC platform that suits your brand’s needs, you will need to consider what really matters to you. That might include platform expertise in a certain industry, speed of implementation, bespoke development capabilities, analytics and more.
Before deciding on which platforms to demo, it’s a good idea to get fully up-to-speed with some of the basics:
– the benefits of a UGC platform
– the full list of features you should expect from a robust solution
– questions you should ask on the demo
Check out our UGC platform “buyer’s guide” to get demo-ready!
Miappi is an end-to-end UGC platform established in 2012. The Enterprise-grade platform is used by brands including Dove, Knorr, Heineken, Millennium Hotels, GSK, Aston Villa Football Club and more. We are a UK company with global support and use cases in multiple business sectors.
You are probably not surprised to see we have placed ourselves at the top of the pecking order. But hear us out. We are confident we can back this up. Here are few reasons why you should trust our judgement:
– Over 10 years of experience – we’ve been around the block, worked with hundreds of enterprise brands, supported global campaigns, built bespoke solutions and implemented strategies that convert. You will struggle to find a more robust solution that is as tried and tested as ours!
– Award winning – it’s not everyday a UGC platform helps a brand win a Cannes Lion. That’s just what happened when we supported Dove with their Project #ShowUs campaign in 2019! When you involve your customers in your campaign, some amazing things can happen. At Miappi, we combine expertise with creativity, to help your brand get noticed. Boost engagements, revenue and win awards with us!
– Feature-rich – Despite having a great ‘out of the box’ platform, we have always been open to client requests for ‘just one more thing’! Consequently, we have continued to develop features long after our initial product roadmap was built. When your platform does the basics well, your clients find time to think about new ways they can take their UGC strategy further. As a result, we now have what we believe to be the most feature-rich UGC platform there is.
– Customer service like no other – whether it is initial advice on a demo call, onboarding, on-going strategic advice, optimisation or troubleshooting we pride ourselves on delivering the best possible support for our clients. With a designated account management team that are experts when it comes to handling UGC, you are in the safe hands….and we have the client testimonials to prove it.
Taggbox also known as Taggshop is a robust UGC solution that excels when it comes to ecommerce in particular. Taggbox are based in California and come with 6 years of experience delivering UGC digital displays, widgets and ecommerce solutions for brands. If you are looking for a straight-forward means of integrating shoppable social UGC into an ecommerce site, Taggbox is a great option!
Stackla is a UGC platform that was originally founded in Australia in 2012. Since then they have been acquired by online site personalisation solution giant Nosto (HQ in Finland). Stackla and Nosto’s combined offering enables brands to serve-up personalized experiences that feature authentic images from customers to help boost conversions. Whilst the complete platform offering is impressive, Nosto is an ecommerce solution first and foremost. If you are already with Nosto, this is the solution for you! If you prefer to mix and match, taking a more modular approach to your digital marketing strategy, you may want to consider other stand-alone UGC platforms.
The CrowdRiff UGC platform offers leading visual storytelling solutions for destination marketers. Headquartered in Ontario, Canada, CrowdRiff has been around for 11 years helping a number of tourist boards discover powerful visual assets that boost visitor numbers. CrowdRiff offers powerful search features to help you identify location based content from your UGC depository.
Acquired by Social Native in 2020, Olapic is a visual platform that drives engagement. Their UGC curation capabilities are great, but brands really love Olapic for their “content in motion” feature which is unlike anything else in the market. So if turning static UGC images into engaging short-form video is your priority, make sure that you get in touch with Olapic!
Pixlee Turnto is another platform that comes as a package with other tools such as ratings & reviews and Influencer marketing. Pixlee’s ecommerce features are used by a number of global brands. If you are looking to consolidate or replace other aspects of your content marketing stack, look no further than Pixlee’s end-to-end social content marketing machine.
Dash Hudson is a social scheduling platform first and foremost, much like Hootsuite. Their offering then evolved to help brands make content shoppable on Instagram. Today the Dash Hudson platform offers a full suite of tools that also facilitates the collection and republishing of UGC to social channels and more.
StoryStream is a Brighton based UGC platform specialising in UGC curation, link-in-bio and visual shopping solutions for brands and retailers. StoryStream has good traction (pun intended) in the automotive space, having worked with the likes of Porsche, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo and others.
Yotpo is a full-featured eCommerce marketing platform headquartered in New York. The Yotpo platform is highly rated for its credentials when it comes to ratings, reviews and loyalty marketing. Since its’ birth in 2011, the Yotpo have integrated a complementary UGC solution into their core offering, presenting clients with all the tools they need to win big in the trust economy. Whilst having all these features at your disposal is great, many brands are already leveraging Trustpilot for ratings and reviews, which adds a level of complexity, if you just want a UGC solution.
Similar to Yotpo, Bazaarvoice is an impressive ecommerce solution that comes with all the bells and whistles. The Bazaarvoice platform facilitates UGC curation, ratings & reviews plus much more. Their mission is to build smarter shopper experiences across the entire customer journey. leveraging Trustpilot for ratings and reviews, which adds a level of complexity, if you just want a UGC solution.
Hopefully by now, you have read through our buyer’s guide and you’ve now shortlisted at least 3 platforms to speak with. Whilst we are confident you have made the right choice for your business, make sure you speak to Miappi before you go with anyone else! We’d love to hear about your UGC marketing goals and share some free advice to set you on your way. Whatever you choose to do, we wish you the best of luck.
Are you shopping around for a new UGC platform, but you are worried if UGC platform migrations are possible? The good news is they are possible and with Miappi migrating is quick and painless. We have experience migrating UGC use-cases that involve thousands of pieces of rights-approved content. Our developers are on hand to estimate how much work is involved in your migration. So if you have questions regarding a potential UGC platform migration, we are ready to get you the answers you need to help move things along.
