User Generated Content: Retail’s Secret Weapon
As an entrepreneur, you’re always contemplating the next campaign to boost your profits and reach to your audience, particularly at this time of the year. User-generated campaigns are a great one to launch during the Christmas season, with a lot of retailers seeing huge growth with their own.
Retail Dive reported this week that Target and Macy’s are in full planning and execution mode for their holiday marketing campaigns this year using tools such as Facebook’s latest targeting segment “holiday time of shopping” which “reaches people who are involved in the holiday season and related retail activities.” Additionally, the campaigns will be run via Instagram expanding the reach of brands. Retail Dive reports that the new segment of targeting “can be located in the ‘behaviors’ section in the’seasonal and special events’ section. The segment it will run from the time of Thanksgiving until New Year’s Day [for both Facebook as well as Instagram.”
What makes these businesses’ campaigns so successful is that they all have the same basic goal: to engage with customers via various social media platforms and motivate customers to become an advocate for your brand. They can do this by offering an incentive that is personal to the individual. The reward could be a prize such as the opportunity to travel, free products or credit to your company or even be philanthropic in a standpoint.
Encourage customers to be a PHILANTHROPIST
Estee Lauder began an awareness campaign for breast cancer in the past few years that has been extremely successful every year in raising funds for the development of a cure. The company makes use of the hashtag #BCAstrength in order to motivate those who are battling cancer, have beat the illness or support those who have loved ones currently fighting. The idea is to create an group made up of Estee Lauder customers that were an encouraging and supportive social force for those battling breast cancer.
Positive results generated by the customers of the company:
Both old and brand new
It brought a brand new humanizing and humane aspect to the brand. It also in the end, it continued to increase awareness and find the cure for this horrible disease.
CONNECT CUSTOMERS TO ACHIEVE A SUBJECT
Victoria’s Secret is known for its gorgeous “angels,” supermodels that have become the brand’s face. The brand has launched campaigns that have benefited from the attention angels have alone gathered among them the most well-known campaigns is the “Train Like an Angel” campaign. The campaign continues but it gets a significant boost just prior to the huge Annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
The brand offers a range of activewear that it is promoting throughout the campaign. The brand also offers videos for training on its website, featuring angels. Victoria’s Secret also takes advantage of angels’ social presence, encouraging their followers via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to establish their own goals in fitness and to share their progress via social media using the hashtag #TrainLikeAngel. Victoria’s Secret even selects winners and rewards them for taking part in the contest.
Speak to your clients about it.
User generated campaigns aim at propagating your brand’s message across the entire population However, you require supporters and loyal customers to achieve this. Your campaign should be focused on the people you wish to reach. Chobani is an Greek yogurt maker, was looking to boost sales , and turned to their loyal customers to achieve this. Chobani approached customers through a variety of platforms, including social media and the grassroots to post videos and photos of the reasons why they like Chobani yogurt in their “Love Stories” campaign. This campaign proved so successful , Chobani saw an increase of 225.9 percent revenue growth between 2009 and 2010, citing the campaign as the reason for the growth.
Engaged customers are the key for launching an effective user-generated campaign. Always ensure that you’re addressing them on a level that can make them be inspired to share your content. Snapchat announced its May report that it had 100 million users and 65% upload photos . Your potential customers are there! Make the most of what’s available to you by creating an initiative that makes the users share their photos their photos with the millions of other users on social media.
