User Generated Content: The Secret Weapon of Retail
As a retailer, you are always thinking about the next campaign to help you improve your revenue and audience reach, especially during this time of year. User-generated campaigns are an ideal campaign to launch during the holiday season, and many retail businesses are very successful on their own.
Retail Dive reported this week that Target and Macy’s are already in full planning and execution mode with their holiday campaigns this season, leveraging tools like Facebook’s new targeting segment called “holiday shopping season” that “reaches users engaged with Christmas planning and retail-related activity. “Campaigns are also run through Instagram, expanding the reach of brands. Retail Dive reports that the new targeting segment “can be found in the ‘behaviors’ section within the ‘events and season’ category and will be available from Thanksgiving through New Years Day. [for both Facebook and Instagram]. “
What makes these companies’ campaigns so successful is that they have the same main focus: engaging customers through various social media and encouraging them to be advocates for your brand, with a reward that is personal to them. The reward can be an award such as a trip, a free product, a business credit, or the reward can be satisfying from a philanthropic perspective.
ENCOURAGE CUSTOMERS TO BE A PHILANTHROPIST
Estee Lauder launched a breast cancer awareness campaign a few years ago that has been very successful each year in raising money for a cure. The company uses the hashtag #BCAstrength to encourage those who are fighting the disease, have beaten the disease, or are supporting a loved one who is currently struggling. The goal is to create a community of Estee Lauder clients who are a positive and supportive social force for those battling breast cancer.
The positive results generated by the company’s clients:
– both old and new
– brought a new humanizing element to the brand and, most importantly, continued to raise awareness to find a cure for this terrible disease.
INSPIRE CUSTOMERS TO ACHIEVE A GOAL
Victoria’s Secret is known for its beautiful “angels”, supermodels who have become the face of its brand. The brand has catapulted audience campaigns that only its angels have garnered, one of the most famous being the “Train Like An Angel” campaign. The campaign is ongoing, but gains huge momentum just ahead of the company’s big annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show.
The brand has a sportswear line that it promotes during the campaign and offers workout training videos on its website with Los Angeles. Victoria’s Secret also leverages the angels’ social presence, having them encourage fans on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest to set their own fitness goals and share their progress on social media using the hashtag #TrainLikeAnAngel. The brand even chooses the winners, rewarding them for participating in the campaign.
MAKE IT ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS
User-generated campaigns aim to spread your brand to the masses, but you need advocates and loyal customers to do so. Campaign on the audience you are trying to target. Chobani, a Greek yogurt company, needed to boost sales and turned to its loyal customer base to do so. Chobani reached out to customers through different social and grassroots media to share videos and images about why they love Chobani yogurt for their “Love Story” campaign. The campaign was so successful that the company saw 225.9% income increase from 2009 to 2010, crediting the campaign as the basis of success.
Engaged customers are the foundation for launching a successful user-generated campaign; Always make sure you address them on a personal level that will make them want to share your message. Snapchat reported in May which has 100 million users, and 65% of them upload photos – your audience is out there! Take advantage of what’s in front of you by creating a campaign that will make users want to share with millions of people on social media.
What are some of your favorite user-generated campaigns? Let us know in our LinkedIn!