82% of respondents said they would be more likely to buy a brand’s product if their marketing initiatives used content from regular consumers who shared their experience with purchased products.
In order to gauge how consumers ages 18 and over felt about influencers, creators, and a brand’s use of user-generated content (UGC), EnTribe conducted an online survey in April 2023. They discovered that, despite the rise in peer recommendations and brand use of customer-generated content, consumer trust in influencers is still declining. User-generated content (UGC) undoubtedly influences positive brand perception and consumer behavior.
According to this study, influencers may not be as successful at inspiring consumers to make purchases as they once were. In fact, there may be a negative effect on brands that use influencers.
A study by EnTribe revealed:
- 90% of consumers preferred brands sharing content from actual customers compared to sponsored influencer content.
- A brand that publishes user-generated content has the support of 86% more people than one that relies on influencers.
- Only 12% of respondents said they had ever bought something from an influencer; 42% of those said they regretted the purchase.
- 83% of consumers said they would be more likely to buy a brand’s product if they used content created by regular people in their marketing campaigns. That creates great opportunities for the brands to create experiential in-store demo events designed to motivate consumers to share their experiences.
The overexposure of influencers
According to EnTribe, the majority of consumers (86%) said they regularly or too frequently see sponsored posts from influencers in their social media feeds. In response, more than half (51%) simply scroll through influencer posts, and 29% go so far as to say that they despise and don’t trust influencers. On the other hand, 81% of respondents believed that a brand’s use of influencers had either no impact or a negative impact.
Additionally, almost 30% of respondents said that influencers are fake, and many people have a low opinion of and skepticism toward influencers.
Retailers should understand that their best marketing is their authentic community’s word-of-mouth advertising, and the best advertising today is the actual in-store experience of products shared by consumers on social media. The deployment of event management software to engage consumers is one of the most effective methods to entice the generation of authentic content.
Almost 40% of those surveyed also stated that influencers have a negative impact on how they view a brand.
When it comes to authenticity, marketers need to tread carefully. It’s easy for an influencer to do damage, but there’s still potential for benefit if they’re genuine fans of the product or service in question.
The fact that an influencer satisfies the psychographic and demographic criteria for the brand’s target audience does not automatically make them an authentic source of trustworthy information, even though authenticity and organicity are important.
User-generated content
When choosing a product to buy, the vast majority of consumers (80%) prefer friend or peer recommendations over influencer promotion, and 90% reported basing their decisions on the recommendations of their peers.
However, 62% have never bought a product that a celebrity has endorsed. The survey found that 40% of consumers who bought something because an influencer recommended it were unhappy with their purchase.
The purchases, motivated by product reviews created by actual customers, were reported to produce much higher satisfaction levels.
The effect of social commerce
Eighty percent of Gen Zers (defined here as those between the ages of 18 and 29) surveyed by EnTribe reported that they have shared or would share their experiences of their purchases on social media. Two times as many members of Generation Z as those of older generations share a desire to be featured by brands on social media (55% vs. 20%).
