How to improve supplement sales with user-generated content

How did one particular supplement business skyrocket sales by 181% over a recent 5-year period?

Such success means that they have done many things well. However, one particular strategy stands out: user generated content (CGU) marketing.

A company’s strategy is a blueprint for marketing supplements.

Why does it work?

According to the Nielsen Consumer Confidence Index, 92% of customers trust organic UGC more than traditional advertising.

This means old-time “word of mouth” marketing.

It is not something you can manufacture. The point is that it is authentic and trustworthy.

The question is: how can other supplement companies also take advantage of this powerful marketing strategy?

Responding requires looking under the hood of the company to see how they are doing.

HARNESSING THE POWER OF UGC

The company, Jigsaw Health, started in 2005. As with most startups, they initially struggled to have positive ROI.

However, over time they became one of the fastest growing companies in the supplement market.

On the way they discovered UGC, bumping into it more or less by chance.

Their experience began in 2006 when they were advertising on a nationally syndicated radio talk show.

Without being prompted, a handful of listeners taking their products began sending the host emails, thanking him for telling them about the company’s leading product.

When the presenter began reading them on air and talking about how the product made him feel more energized, the ROI of the advertising doubled.

This is UGC at its finest.

Fast forward to the present. Jigsaw Health has now accelerated its commercialization of UGC. They use multiple strategies to harness the power of consumer input.

For starters, their UGC has spread all over the company website and social media. They creatively call these inputs “customer spots.”

Customer highlights are short and to the point.

For example,

Bobbie says that she has found the Holy Grail for a good night’s sleep.

Lance reports getting more sleep and waking up feeling rested and no longer experiencing leg cramps during the night.

Consumers talking to consumers.

Also, and perhaps best of all, their YouTube channel is filled with short videos of customers raving about their products.

Pulling back the curtain a bit more, it’s also revealed that their initial flagship product currently has 1,000 five-star reviews on Amazon, all from verified buyers.

That’s more than five times more than the second closest mark.

UGC can’t get any better than that.

And it continues to drive the growth of the company.

According to CEO and co-founder Patrick Sullivan Jr., in 2020 their median monthly income increased from $750,000 to more than $1 million.

UGC FOR ALL SIZES

UGC’s authenticity and reliability works well for any business, regardless of size.

Jigsaw Health shows how it works for a multi-billion dollar company.

My own weight loss business is small by comparison. However, some of the same strategies that worked for Jigsaw Health have also worked for my company.

UGC quadrupled my income in one year.

It started with word-of-mouth endorsements among friends.

In fact, in a small town in Tennessee, personal references spread like wildfire. Ultimately, it resulted in thousands of dollars in revenue.

No advertising. No email marketing. No website SEO.

UGC only.

THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE UGC

The concept is simple: get people talking by saying good things about your products.

This is the beating heart of UGC.

Making it happen boils down to a few steps that any business can take.

ACTION STEPS

Increasing revenue by 181% like Jigsaw Health did depends on how you generate UGC for your supplements.

Since UGC is so powerful, online services have sprung up whose sole purpose is to help businesses capitalize on it. Hiring one is an option, although that can be expensive.

Applying the following three action steps will work fine instead.

1) Allow and encourage feedback from all customers.

The most active places for customer feedback are social media and blog posts on a company’s website. This is where you can most easily encourage customers to post photos and comments. People love to talk and show off!

Then interact with them. In doing so, recognize its value to you. And show some personality. Make it clear that there is another human being on your side.

Simply taking this action step will set your company apart from the crowd. As Forbes noted, 62% of millennials want to connect with their favorite brands through social media. People want that human connection.

While the value of such interaction is clear, surveys still reveal that 5 out of 6 online communications from customers needing a response are never responded to.

2) Ask for reviews. Getting reviews is as simple as that. Increase responses with a little appreciation from the customer: incentives, coupons, eBooks (which should act like long sales letters), reports, any kind of truly valuable reward.

The more incentives you give, the more responses you get.

3) The first two steps are the most obvious. Step 3 not so much.

We’ll go back to what Jigsaw Health is doing to see how this step works.

As the CEO describes it, it involves what he calls finding a “tribe.”

In this case, the tribe is the Pickleball players.

Yes, it’s a real sport! Actually, there are Pickleball pros. And there are even professional Pickleball tours.

Jigsaw Health discovered a product need for Pickleballers and created one to fill it.

The company now sponsors several solo professionals and two professional tours. The company even became the main sponsor of a championship.

It is now THE brand name in the Pickleball community. The tribe loves it.

Finding a tribe requires some creativity. It requires finding a target audience and cultivating it.

Bottom line: finding and serving your tribe is magical for generating UGC.

THE FOUNDATION

If UGC is like an unstoppable ball rolling down a hill, getting it going means climbing the hill in the first place.

The foundation for that uphill push is marketing persuasive materials that drive customer engagement and positive responses.

In terms of influence, this means writing that invokes one or more of Dr. Robert Cialdini’s seven principles of persuasion.

UGC already harnesses the power of two of its tenets: social proof and unity.

Capitalizing on social proof and unity is based on applying the other five principles (reciprocity, scarcity, authority, engagement/consistency, likability/consensus) into persuasive marketing copy.

That’s where I come in. That’s the writing I do.

I am a freelance writer with experience in the alternative health niche, a published research scientist, and college professor for 30 years. I draw on my experience and skills to write persuasive copy for nutraceutical marketing.

Would you like to explore what I can do for you? Then let’s talk.