The best eCommerce marketing Strategy

The best eCommerce marketing Strategy?

There are many amazing ways to market your eCommerce business, but if there is one that stands-out in terms of effectiveness and costs to produce, it is user-generated content. 

In eCommerce, customers can’t get in contact with the product before making a purchase. That’s why eCommerce shoppers rely heavily on other people’s reviews and feedback. The best way to leverage this is through storytelling. Getting your customers to share their experience with your product or service is going to help you build trust and increase conversion rates. Why? User-generated content helps your audience to visualize how your product or service can make a difference in their lives. Besides that, your consumers are the ones using your product. They can supply you with stories that are better and more authentic than the ones you can come up with after days of research and strategy sessions.

The good and bad of UGC

As is the case with almost all content marketing, there has also been a debate about UGC. To bring some order to this discussion, I'm listing the main arguments of proponents and opponents.

Proponents of UGC say that:

• UGC creates opportunities because consumers often trust judgments of other consumers more than those of the brand itself.

• The reach of UGC is very high because it is widely shared and brands can benefit from this.

• UGC can strengthen connections in brand communities because it fuels conversations.

Opponents of UGC say.

• Marketers are no longer in control.

• UGC is too risky. Even with negative UGC, the large reach applies, and in such a case brands could suffer considerable damage.

• UGC costs more than it seems at first. There are quite some costs involved, such as hiring community managers and social media analysts.

So indeed, brands face some challenges when they want to implement UGC in their marketing strategy. However, I believe that brands should not be discouraged by this. The benefits of a successful UGC campaign are well worth the challenges.

How to use user-generated content to your advantage?

First, you have to generate, user-generated content “no pun intended. Some customers might do it out of themselves others need a little push. Actively encouraging your customers to share their experience is a great way to generate this type of content. To get even more reactions, add in a reward for people that share their content. A discount code, or let them enter a lottery to win free stuff. Most of all, be creative, find something that fits your brand.

Whether it’s a review, a link to a video, or a nice complication of customer’s Instagram stories integrated on the product page it doesn’t matter. User-generated content should be high-lighted in as many places as possible. The musts, the home page, and the product page.