Becoming a UGC creator is getting more and more popular for a reason. Who wouldn’t want to create fun content about products they love and get paid for it? But while anyone can create UGC, it’s a tad bit harder to actually get paid gigs.
Don’t worry, we’ll show you the four steps you need to take to land well-paying UGC creator jobs.
Instead of just listing these four steps, we’ll show you the process as if we were trying to land a UGC collaboration with Copyfolio. Let’s get started.
1. Stalk the brand
Think of this process as marketing yourself as a UGC creator. And as such, the first step is to get to know your target audience, so you know exactly how to talk to them.
For that, you’ll need to do a little research. Start with the company’s website to get an overall feel of their brand. Take a look at the visuals they use and their tone of voice in the copy they write.
Next, stalk them on social media. Check what platforms they’re active on and what kind of content they create. Whatever you find here will guide you in the next step. Which is to…
2. Create content they’d like
If you want a brand to hire you, you need to show them that you can create content that would fit into their feed. If they post mostly images, you’ll need to take some great product pictures. If they prefer short videos, it’s time to grab your phone and start shooting.
Copyfolio’s main social media platform seems to be TikTok, so we’ll go with creating short videos. We chose 3 SaaS brands to show our skills for showcasing digital products: Screenstudio, Jitter, and Pixelied.
Once the videos are done, you can either just keep the files or even better: upload them to your chosen platform. So these 3 videos I uploaded to TikTok and I’ll be able to easily link to them later. This actually takes us to our next step, which is to…
3. Build a UGC portfolio
When you reach out to a brand for any job, your best bet is to link to your portfolio as well. This is no different for UGC creators: brands need to see your skills before making a decision to hire you.
If you have all your samples ready, you can create your portfolio in under 10 minutes, using a tool like Copyfolio. All you have to do is sign up, select your goals, and choose a template that you like.
When you arrive to the editor, you’ll have a basic site waiting for you. Start by writing a strong tagline for a great first impression, then upload a photo of yourself. Try to find one that shows your face, so brands will see who they’d be working with.
With the top of your homepage done, scroll down and get started with your portfolio. Copyfolio has 3 project types for you:you can create a case study page, upload a PDF, or add an external link. With the samples already up on TikTok, we’ll choose the external link option. It’s super easy to grab the links from TikTok for each of the projects and simply rename them.
Copyfolio adds a stock photo thumbnail for every project you add, so the next step is to change that. First, we’ll open the section settings to change the shape of the thumbnails, from square to original. Then by clicking on the gear icon, you can change each thumbnail to either screenshots or images we prepared for each video. After that, you can arrange them however you want, publish the projects, and you’re good to go.
Quick to put together, easy for the brand to check, and looks nice on the page. It couldn’t get much better than that.
4. Reach out
With your samples done and showcased in your UGC portfolio, all there’s left to do is reach out to the brand. The question is: where?
We know that these days emails might feel outdated but it’s still your best bet. If you can find the email address of someone from the brand’s marketing department, write to them directly. Cut the fluff and be straightforward: introduce yourself shortly, link to your portfolio, and ask if they’d be open for a UGC creator collaboration with you.
As for reaching out directly on social media… TikTok we don’t recommend but Instagram might be worth a try. Your message might land in the requests folder but if the social media manager find it, it’ll be very convenient for them to check your Instagram right away.
With that said, if you have a private or completely irrelevant profile, stick to emails if possible.
Follow these four steps, have fun creating the sample content, and don’t be afraid to reach out to many different brands. In the end, you’ll be sure to land a UGC creator gig.
