Build a UGC Trigger-and-Rights-Clearance System

Marketing Academy · Field Work●Social Media Marketing

All projects·From: User-Generated Content

CoreBuild the Asset· 70 minutes

Zillow

Objective: Design a two-part UGC capture system: the trigger mechanism that gets customers posting, and the rights-clearance workflow that makes their content safe to run as a paid ad, sized to a real 90-day pilot.

You're the lifecycle marketing lead at Zillow, tasked with launching a 'Sold With Zillow' UGC program that captures real seller and buyer video testimonials after closing, then safely reuses the best ones in paid social.

Design a post-close trigger sequence and a three-state rights-clearance workflow, then write the one-page SOP a community manager could run without you.

Before you start

What you'll need

Free path (everything below is enough to finish)

Google Docs

FreeDraft the trigger-sequence SOP a community manager can run independently

No cost, easy to hand off, version history built in

Google Sheets

FreeTrack submission-to-clearance status with the three-state rights tag

Matches the exact CRM tagging structure the lesson recommends, no new tool to learn

Paid upgrades (optional, faster/deeper)

Bazaarvoice(optional)

PaidAutomate consent capture and syndicate cleared assets to ad platforms directly

Removes manual status-updating once submission volume passes what one spreadsheet owner can track

No access? Google Sheets with a manual weekly status review

The process

2 steps

Step 01 of 02

Trigger creation timed to the post-transaction moment

The lesson's Stage 1 shows that timing beats a bare hashtag: a post-purchase ask at day 7 outperforms day 1 (too soon) and day 30 (forgotten), and a tangible incentive beats an aspirational one.

A home sale closes on a Friday. When do you send the video-testimonial ask, and what makes someone actually record one instead of ignoring it?

Google Docs— Draft the trigger sequence as a simple timeline doc before it goes to email/CRM.

Procedure

Set the ask for day 5-7 post-close, when the moving stress has faded but the relief is still fresh
Write a single-tap CTA: 'Record a 30-second video about your move' with a phone-friendly upload link
Attach a tangible incentive: a $50 home-services credit for an approved, usable submission
Add one specific prompt line so submissions aren't generic: 'Show us your new front door' beats 'tell us about your experience'

Sample output

Day 5 email, subject: 'Show us your new front door 🏡'
Body: You closed on [Address] this week, congrats. Record a 30-second video of your first walk-in and get a $50 home-services credit when we feature it.
CTA: Record now (upload link)

Healthy

A specific, scene-based prompt tied to a tangible incentive, sent in the day 5-7 window.

Unhealthy

A generic 'share your experience!' hashtag ask sent the day of closing.

What this means

Specific prompts produce specific footage. A vague ask produces either silence or rehearsed, ad-sounding testimonials.

So what do I do about it?

Symptom	Action	Effort
Submission rate under 2% of closings	Replace the generic ask with a scene-based prompt and a same-week send window	30 min

YouYou can do this yourself, no engineering access required.

Step 02 of 02

Rights-status tagging before paid use

The lesson's Stage 2 requires a rights-status tag in the CRM, pending, cleared-organic, or cleared-paid, and only cleared-paid assets go into ads. A Like or a tag is never a license.

A seller uploads a testimonial through the portal. What has to happen between upload and that clip appearing in a paid Instagram ad?

Google Sheets— Build the rights tracker as a Sheet with one row per submission, synced from the upload portal.

Procedure

Log every submission as 'pending' the moment it's uploaded
Route each to a consent-form step at submission (the cleanest legal path per the lesson) rather than a post-hoc DM
Move to 'cleared-organic' once the consent form is signed, permits owned-channel use
Move to 'cleared-paid' only when the form's paid-use checkbox is explicitly checked
Filter the tracker to 'cleared-paid' before handing any asset to the media-buying team

Sample output

Row 14 | seller_testimonial_042.mp4 | Uploaded 2026-06-03 | Consent form signed 2026-06-03 | Paid-use box: checked | Status: cleared-paid

Healthy

Media buying only ever pulls from a filtered 'cleared-paid' view.

Unhealthy

Media buying pulls directly from the raw upload folder because 'the customer seemed fine with it'.

What this means

The tag, not a gut feeling about the customer's intent, is what makes an asset legally usable in paid media.

So what do I do about it?

Symptom	Action	Effort
A paid ad gets pulled after a creator complaint	Audit whether the asset ever had a 'cleared-paid' tag; if not, fix the intake form before resuming	half day

EitherYou or a developer can handle this, depending on your access.

Final deliverable

A one-page SOP covering the trigger email sequence, the incentive structure, and the three-state rights-clearance workflow, ready for a community manager to operate without further guidance.

See a reference example

Sample output

Yelp Elite Reviewer Video Program, SOP excerpt

TRIGGER: Day 6 after a reviewer hits 50 reviews, send 'Show us your favorite local find' video ask, $25 Yelp Ads credit for approved submissions.

RIGHTS TAG:
pending -> upload received, no consent form yet
cleared-organic -> consent form signed, owned channels only
cleared-paid -> paid-use checkbox signed, cleared for Yelp Ads creative

RULE: Media buying pulls only from the cleared-paid filtered view, never the raw upload folder.

Success criteria

You're done when you can:

Trigger timing is justified against the lesson's day 7 window, not arbitrary
Incentive is tangible, not aspirational
Rights workflow has all three states and specifies exactly when an asset becomes paid-eligible