Customer-created content machine

Customer-created content machine

Topic
Lessons
Summary

Generate UGC on demand.

Reviews are 2D.

Stories are 3D.

Reviews lack depth.

Stories show meaning.

Reviews are vanity metrics.

Stories are marketing assets.

Reviews are one-offs.

Stories have built-in flywheels.

In April 2022, I set a constraint to only make ads and content through user-generated content. This meant not paying influencers for content. Not scheduling photoshoots. No graphic design. Every piece of content needed to come from our actual customers.

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12-months later, the model was validated:

  • 893 videos (40,185 minutes of content)
  • 1,200+ ads
  • Cost: $40,000 store gift cards

This concept now turned into what I call customer-created content (CCC).

Since validating this model, I built an internal software that acts as a dynamic feed on the website, with a referral program baked into the backend of each story. Rather than a user sharing their referral link, they simply share their story and earn money. This makes the customer more inclined to share on their socials (as it’s their own story), and the person viewing their story doesn’t realize it’s an affiliate link.

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Here’s how to build v1 for yourself:

The System

Form Builder:

  • For v1 I found Jotform to be the most stable & affordable. At $49/mo you get unlimited videos, easy customization, and an easy backend panel.
  • Users went to a lander to see uploading instructions & best practices, then off the site to the JotForm. It wasn’t ideal to send them off the website, but found it to increase submissions. After submitting, I redirected back to our site to show a thank you page.

Questions

  • I tried nailing down the Five W’s (who, what, where, when, why, how).
  • Who = Who was the pillow purchased for? What was the name of the person gifted?
  • What = What was the reason for purchasing the pillow? What was the reaction like when the pillow was first seen? What product was purchased? (you can skip this question as most emails match the ones used in their original order, so you can find the order number) Wh
  • Where = didn’t apply in my scenario.
  • When = most videos were submitted on the date of recording. So this question was redundant.
  • (bonus+) Would = Would you recommend our custom pillows? And why?

Incentives: (*most important factor*)

  • This is what determines the success of your system. The more appealing the incentive, the more volume and better quality videos you’ll get.
  • Early on I tested a variety of incentives
    • Fixed: $25 Amazon gift card, $50 store credit, free product.
      • Pro: customers know exactly what they're getting.
      • Con: low-quality videos. Videos seem acted.
    • Up to (winner): Up to $250 store credit, Up to 5 free products.
      • Pro: performance-based. They try to replicate videos that have earned $250 in the past. Reactions were authentic.
  • When incentives were misaligned, users were just uploading videos just for the sake of uploading. They thought every video uploaded was equal to one gift card. Some would upload 5 videos back-to-back.

Payouts

  • To offsite bias with video payouts, I created criteria that determine what makes a video valuable to me, and assigned a point system to it. This way I remove myself from judging, and was able to delegate this task to a VA.
  • Here’s a template of the scoring matrix:
    • If a video scored <90 pts = $250
    • If a video scored 75-89 pts = $100
    • If a video scored 50-75 pts = $100
    • If a video scored >50 pts = $0
  • Once the score was determined, I created a gift card in Shopify, and sent the customer this email:
    • Subj Line: 
Update on your submitted video credits

Body:
Hi [FNAME],

Thanks for sharing your video with us. Here's your gift card:

Your store credit amount is: [gift card amount]
Use the following code: [gift card code]

Let me know if there are any other questions.

Naming & storage

  • Once JotForm exceeded 25 videos, I began to transfer the videos to a google drive folder. When each video was downloaded the name was updated to the following naming convention: First two initials, last two initials (FILI) ie. Phil Vilk = PHVI-001.
  • If a customer uploads a second video 6 months later, it will be named PHVI-002.
  • This will help later down the line when making & managing ads.

Lead flow

  • To get people aware of the
  • Order confirmation email
  • Post-purchase flow
  • Flyers =

Making ads

Make things modular (test concepts —> find winner —> swap out videos with net new creatives = new video).

  • Raw
  • Comp
  • Story
  • Testimonial

Distributing organic content

Vision for CCC

  • Feed
  • Built-in referral program

Pay via store credit. Users end up placing more orders, making more videos, and proving you with even more content.

People want authenticity. People want