In the world of marketing, user-generated content is the next great method for increasing reach, and conversions. Effective UGC campaigns have the power to take innovative, creative, and dynamic companies to the next level.

For businesses looking to take advantage of this highly effective marketing technique, here are a few examples, and takeaways, of successful UGC marketing campaigns.

Facial Aesthetics, a company specializing in cosmetic surgery and spa care, tugged at the emotional heartstrings of its consumer base for an especially useful UGC campaign. For Mother’s Day, the brand asked fans to create and share poems about their mothers in exchange for a free makeover for their mom.

The company hosted the campaign on their Facebook page, which received a new wave of engagement, and tons of content from aspiring poets. Awareness of the brand increased, as did the level of emotional connectivity shared between brand and consumer.

For companies who are looking to generate long-term loyalty in their fanbase, taking advantage of sentimentality to create a relationship with customers can be extremely useful.

The T-Mobile breakup campaign was hip, effective, and to-the-point. It’s not you, it’s me. I just can’t handle your hidden fees, your contracts, and your lousy service. Cell phone carrier “breakup letters” were syndicated throughout the social web on Valentine’s Day after T-Mobile launched its “Un-Valentine’s Day” promotion.

T-Mobile offered to foot the bill for customers willing to dump their carriers. To help facilitate the process, T-Mobile introduced a Facebook App that allowed their customers-to-be to create, print, and share their formatted breakup letters.

T-Mobile’s UGC campaign was a success because it effectively honed in on a key pain-point of their target customer and gave them an edgy and fun way to solve it. UGC efforts will be especially rewarded when you find ways to allow your customers and influencer network to get creative when showcasing your products.

The retail site Coffee for Less apparently stumbled into a great UGC success story. Realizing the SEO power of regularly updated, quality content, the webmasters at Coffee for Less opened up their site to the public for free and unfettered discussion.

The method basically changed an e-commerce site into an e-commerce site that doubled as a coffee house-style chatroom. Because the site was receiving a constant influx of new coffee-related content, its organic SEO rankings began to spike, which, of course, brought more views, more sales, and even more free content!

Influencer marketing content is not just free, but in most cases, the content will be of significantly higher interest to your customers than formal “spokesman-generated” content.

The government-sponsored recycling campaign included television commercials featuring puppetized versions of juice boxes that would angrily hunt down and harass their human discarders who failed to place them in the recycle bin. The campaign was supplemented by posters located in mass transit stations.

With the help of optical illusions, the portraits would steadily eyeball passers-by as they walked to the train platform. This campaign was topped off by a big UGC push, involving photo booths in Vancouver and other major cities, where you could have your picture taken with the scowling, angry recyclables in the background. The photos were then emailed along with a hashtag to use while sharing.

Although UGC is a useful marketing tool on its own, by combining UGC with more traditional marketing methods, brands can reach and stay top of mind with a massive audience of potential customers.

Burberry is a British apparel company that is over a century old. As such, the company has had to make a continuous effort over the decades to connect with new generations of consumers.

In its most recent iteration, Burberry, known for its trench coats, launched a special website called “The Art of the Trench.” The site encouraged users to submit photographs of people wearing Burberry products. Thanks in part to this UGC content play, e-commerce sales of the company climbed 50 percent.

Well-established companies can give their brand a refresh while reaching an entirely new audience of potential customers simply by trying something new.

Not every UGC campaign is going to work. Maximize your chances of success by studying these and other UGC case studies and making an educated case as to what will or will not work for your particular brand.

Not every UGC campaign is going to work. However, you can maximize your chances of success by partnering with ExpertVoice, the world’s largest advocacy marketing platform. ExpertVoice helps you find and share authentic, credible UGC that elevates your brand and helps you meet your goals. Discover what a partnership can do for you today.