What Is UGC (User Generated Content) and What Can it Do for Your Vape Shop
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If you're looking for a way to increase your brand awareness, turn more visitors into customers, and create more trust within your customer base, the answer you might be looking for is user generated content. User generated content for vape shops could hold the key to unlocking all the things mentioned above. But what exactly is UGC, and how does it work? Read on to find out.
Table of Contents
- What is UGC?
- UGC Benefits for Your Vape Shop
- How To Get & Use UGC
- Conclusion
What is UGC?
User Generated Content, or UGC, is content created by your audience. In other words, it's content created by your clients or customers about your brand or vape shop. Any review, unpacking video, or social media post about you and your brand is considered user generated content.
UGC Benefits for your vape shop
There are many benefits to using user generated content for vape shops:
- It helps convert customers into shoppers
- It builds brand awareness
- It develops social proof
- It helps with SEO (if you have an eCommerce vape shop)
- Finally, and most importantly, it builds trust.
Converting Customers into Shoppers
According to the Bazaarvoice's Shopper Experience Index, product pages with at least one review experienced a 354% increase in conversion rate and a 446% lift in revenue per visitor than product pages with no reviews.
This powerful bit of data shows what many brands already know. People look for validation from strangers when shopping online, and reviews and user generated content provide that final validation that leads to purchases.
71% of consumers say reviews put them at ease when buying a product. According to Forbes, around 41% of consumers look at four to seven reviews before making a final purchasing decision.
It builds brand awareness
Another essential benefit of user generated content is that it builds free brand awareness. With user generated content, you get people to introduce your brand to all their followers for free. In turn, when an audience sees someone raving about your vape shop or shopping experience with no ulterior motives other than to share a great experience, they immediately align that vape shop or brand as high quality and worth checking out.
86% of millennials consider user generated content as a good indicator of a brand's quality. That means the more people create content about your brand or vape shop, the higher the chance that more people will check it out.
Generates Social Proof
Social proof is a social phenomenon that states that people will do or follow what the majority does. Although not always true, in the context of user generated content seeing your favorite artist or influencers using a product or, in our case, vaping could be the tipping point that converts a passive observer into a customer. The more influencers back up the brand by using it, the bigger the social proof.
Helps with SEO
User generated content for eCommerce also helps with SEO. After all, it's original content in the form of Instagram photos, tweets, and reviews that create more content that can be indexed by search engines when displayed by an eCommerce website.
User generated content is also powerful because it uses natural language, which might contain hashtags and or keywords that are actively used to find your brand on Google. This is perfect for SEO since these are the phrases Google expects users to use.
Builds Trust
Last but certainly not least, user generated content builds trust. Did you know that 88% of consumers trust online reviews written by others as much as they trust recommendations from their friends?
It's simple, would you trust a faceless brand whose only goal is to sell, or would you trust another person who spent their hard-earned money on a product they might or might not have liked?
Another reason why user generated content creates the trust is because it feels authentic. Nothing builds confidence like a genuine reaction by a reviewer of a box mod's unboxing or that first puff of a delicious vape juice. That instant reaction that can't be replicated immediately tells whoever is watching that this product is something they have to invest in.
How To Get & Use UGC
Ask for it
The first method to get user generated content is to ask for it. The most common form of this is to send an email asking for a review on either Google My Business or the eCommerce site or product page, after a purchase or after an interaction. You can even automate this process, so customers always get a petition for a review after every purchase.
Use Influencers
More and more people want to model their lives after what they see on social media. In fact, according to Forbes, 40% of millennial YouTube subscribers say that their favorite content creators understand them better than their friends.
A good strategy is to get famous vapers to create user generated content on your behalf. Not only will they vouch for your products, but they will also generate brand awareness by showing your brand or vape shop to all their followers.
You can often entice influencers with free products or affiliate codes from which they get a percentage of the sales. However, most of the time, they will want a fixed fee for each post or video.
Create a contest
Another easy way to create user generated content is to organize contests. Whether it be logo submissions for your vape shop rebranding or video submissions to adequately describe a mystery vape juice flavor, contests are a great way to bring your customer base together. At the same time, they gather great user generated content.
Use Incentives
Finally, the easiest way to get and receive user generated content is to offer incentives to your customers in exchange for content. For example, if you have a brick-and-mortar store asking your customers for reviews in exchange for a 15% discount on any of your products could be an excellent way to create user generated content. You could do the same with video unboxings, Instagram posts, and tweets.
Conclusion
Getting and receiving user generated content can be tricky if not done right. We suggest you start with reviews, especially if you're a vape shop. If you have an eCommerce vape shop, make sure your review sections can upload photos, this will help a ton to create further social proof that the customer bought the item. Remember that your customer base will figure out if an interaction seems forced, so try to keep things as natural as possible. The more genuine the user-generated content, the more effective it will be.
