Study: User Generated Content is More Effective Than Content From Influencers

Before your company invests in that new influencer marketing campaign, you should know that you can get better bang for your buck by tapping your current customers for user generated content. That’s the top conclusion from a new survey by Entribe into the drivers of consumer behavior.

You can view the study’s findings here.  Let’s breakdown the results into respondents’ attitudes toward influencers and UGC (User Generated Content):

Influencers:

• 81% of those surveyed said content from influencers either had no or a negative impact on purchase decision
• 51% of those surveyed ignore content from influencers
• 29% of those surveyed hate content from influencers and find this untrustworthy
• 62% have never purchased a celebrity endorsed product and 40% of those who have made an influencer-endorsed purchase, regret the purchase

UGC (Content created by customers):

• 86% of those surveyed find brands that use UGC over content from an influencer to be more trustworthy
• 90% prefer to see content from actual customers
• 83% are more likely to purchase from brands that use actual customer content
• 80% prefer a recommendation from a friend or peer versus an influencer recommendation, and 90% of respondents say they have made a purchase based on a peer recommendation

We Buy From People We Trust

The common denominator running through all the above data points, is trust. When we see content from an influencer recommending a product, we understand that on some level, they are likely being compensated to create and share that content.  On the other hand, when we see content from a friend or peer recommending a product, we understand that they are likely creating and sharing that content for free, they simply love the product.

An influencer recommends a product because they are paid to do so.  A peer recommends a product because they love the product.

That’s not to say that influencer marketing is worthless, in the right circumstance, it can be quite effective.

But there’s nothing quite like being in a store, and struggling to decide if you should buy Product A or Product B. As you go back in forth in your mind, a woman who is walking by mentions “I have Product B, and I absolutely love it.”

When that happens, we understand what motivated that woman to say something:  She really does love Product B, and she wants to see other people love it like she does. We know that, because we are the same way with the products we love.

We can RELATE to wanting to share the love we have for our favorite products. Most of us aren’t influencers and we can’t relate to being paid by a brand to promote a product that we don’t use.

If you want to create content that converts into sales, leverage UGC. Focus on content from your customers. We buy from people we like, we buy from people we trust. That’s our friends and peers.