User-generated content (UGC) includes things such as photos and reviews sent in by previous customers. Nine out of ten (90%) of US customers who took a recent survey into UGC, said that user-generated content was the highest influencing factor when purchasing online. Search engine results came a close second. Promotional emails came third. It makes sense for SEO and email to have high influence, but this study shows that UGC is now heavily influencing shoppers, more than ever are buyers relying on reviews and the opinion of others.
Those under 30 were particularly heavily influenced by UGC. Those over 65 were least influenced by UGC. Clearly then UGC will become over more popular and is an area you should be looking at developing.
By Robert Jones
Robert Jones is a specialist in CRO, UX Research, insight and digital Marketing. He is CRO Analyst at Enjoy Digital. He has a Psychology Masters of Research, has run large digital marketing campaigns to build research panels and worked in insight roles for Vision Critical, ASDA and WhatUsersDo. He also managed all of Smart Insights member resources and published several guides including "How to conduct Persona Research" as well as contributing over 100 blog posts to the Smart Insights blog. When he isn’t working on marketing campaigns he is most likely eating authentic Italian food or planning his next short trip. You can connect with Robert on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.
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