What is UGC?
UGC stands for User Generated Content. Content creation has been around for years, but the term “UGC” is quite new. Essentially, a lot of brands are now paying content creators to create pieces of content for them, that they will then post on their own brand channels, rather than paying influencers/content creators to promote the product on their channels. They may do a mixture of both, or they may prefer to pay for UGC – but either way, it’s becoming an increasingly popular form of marketing.
It’s a great addition to the marketing industry, because it means that lots of us can now create content in exchange for being paid by brands, without having to have large followings on our own social media platforms. It can take content creators years to build up a really good following and it’s always disappointing when certain brands have no interest in working with you unless you have 100k+ followers.
Some creators, like myself, do a mixture of content on my own platforms as well as UGC. However I have been creating content since 2015, so if I was brand new to the industry, UGC would be the perfect place for me to start if I had little to no following.
Here is some of the work I’ve personally done as a UGC Creator. You may have even seen me pop up on your TikTok for you page from time to time on brand adverts. I’ve created quite a few videos for Homesense which was unreal, they’re one of my favourite homeware brands. I also did some coffee content for MOMA which I loved, as these are the kinds of videos that I also create for my own channels. I created an ad for Dyson which was an incredible opportunity, and the ad came up on my own TikTok for you page quite a few times, as well as on my partners and my friends! I screenshot the ad on my TikTok reposts when it was at 8.4M views, as this is a great snippet to share as part of my portfolio.
How do you become a UGC creator?
I’ve decided to put together a quick guide on how to become a UGC creator because when I tell you that I am fed up to the high heavens of these “content creators” selling courses on how to become a UGC creator that are a complete scam. I come across them daily. “Buy my course on how to earn $15,000 a month working with brands as a UGC creator” – ring any bells?! They manage to build up a substantial following, because people believe that they have the insight and knowledge, but I can assure you that they don’t. If they earned that much money creating content for brands, they would not have the time to be creating constant videos trying to sell their course. Instead, they would be focusing their energy on the work that they claim makes them thousands a month.
Anyway, moving on from that… I’m not here to sell you a course. I’m just going to tell you honestly how to get into the UGC game. The most important thing here, is that UGC is a completely new industry. It’s only come about within the last year and most people still don’t have a clue what to charge. The rates aren’t set very high because it’s just not there yet. That’s another reason how I know that these UGC “gurus” are selling you a scam. You do have the ability to make good money, and earn a living from it, but it will take time, and lots of dedication to get there. You also have to learn what you’re worth, and how to negotiate. It’s such a learning curve, and still is for me as a content creator nine years in.
If this still sounds like something you want to dive into, then keep reading.
Start with a social media platform, or two!
The first, most important step is to start your social media platform/s. You need a social media page that’s essentially going to act as your portfolio. Brands don’t want to see a page full of “how to earn £££ as a UGC creator” posts, they want to see your work. I’ve been in the content creation industry for a long time, and out of the thousands of brands I’ve worked with, 90% have reached out to me through coming across my social media pages. Even if you don’t want to be an influencer, the best way to grab the attention of brands seeking content creators, is to be actively doing exactly what they’re looking for.
UGC creation isn’t that different to other forms of content creation, it’s a new and exciting industry that’s developing every day, but brands will find you through your social channels. In the past 12 months I’ve worked with some huge brands that I’ve already shared above, and they all reached out to me after discovering me via social media. A couple of them even contacted me directly on TikTok itself, but I’d always advise to have your email in your bio so it can be easily found.
Think about your content.
You should aim to pick a niche for your page, even if you want to share a variety of things. I would recommend that you try and keep some consistency within your page so that it has the ability to do well and get that reach.
If you have a personal social profile where you share your family, children, day to day things (that aren’t creatively put together videos/content) maybe make a brand new page for your work. So just as an example, over the many years that I’ve been a blogger, I’ve shared everything in my life during that time including becoming a mum and I’ve shared my children growing up, and worked with many brands as an “influencer” slash blogger. However, I now don’t really share my children at all, other than on the odd IG story, and I even combed through and deleted almost every post with them in. I did want to stop sharing their faces anyway, for safety reasons, but my pages are now very work/content focused, and it’s turned out great for me as a self-employed creative.
The honest truth is that my folder of brand work, and my income, are the best they’ve ever been since I dedicated my pages to content creation, rather than mixing in family life and personal photos. My pages are very much focused on aesthetic content, but that’s because social media is my job. So as a UGC creator, I think it’s best to have that professional aspect shining through, and to think of your social media as a CV/Portfolio.
How will brands find you?
Make it easy for them, fill your page with content. This does mean spending a lot of time creating your own videos, that aren’t brand work or paid, but that’s why it takes a lot of dedication. If you don’t have the energy and motivation for it, it’s likely that UGC content isn’t for you. I try and post a video to my IG and TikTok daily, and I still call that working, because it is. Yes, the specific video I’m sharing that day may not be paid for by a brand, but keeping my social media running is how I keep my growth and engagement consistent, and it’s how brands discover me. It is hard work thinking of video ideas to post daily, but my best advice would be to browse social media for inspiration, and then try and come up with your own ideas based on what you’re inspired by. It’s so important to be creative. I find writing a list of content ideas really helps me too, and then I’ll cross them off after I’ve filmed and posted them.
Once you’ve got the content ideas nailed, post, post and post some more. Create an audience and a community so that your content is pushed out to brands feeds. Use hashtags so that they can find you.
You can reach out to brands too, and let them know you’re available for UGC work, but again, they’ll still want to see a portfolio of work and an IG or TikTok page full of your work is the best way forward. You can have a private collection of any brand work that you’ve done, and you can send this out too, provided the brand in question has given you permission to share it as part of your portfolio. However, it’s still best to have a social page full of different videos to show off your talent.
Join creator platforms.
My next advice would be to utilise platforms. There’s app such as SoSquared, Vamp, and Insense that advertise UGC opportunities. You can apply to these and let the brand know why you’d be a good fit. Again, you’ll be linking your social platforms so this is where you’ll need a solid portfolio of work for them to browse.
The TikTok creator marketplace is a great place to look too. There are lots of well known brand opportunities posted on there that you can apply to, and my favourite part is that you can even negotiate the fee. A lot of opportunities on these apps have a fixed fee. I’ve had a few brand invites via the TikTok creator platform and I’ve been able to reject their fee offer and negotiate higher, which most of the time, gets accepted.
Do let me know if you have any questions that I may be able to help with. I really hope this helps anyone wanting to get into the UGC game. I may do another post further down the line of how to charge as a UGC creator, but at the minute it really is so new that it’s hard to advise.
