Are you offering a product, a service or an experience?
If yes, you should leverage the impact of User Generated Content.
In fact, User Generated Content humanizes marketing and improves consumer interest by over 80%.
Whatever you have to offer, remember your millennial customers are looking for an upbeat social presence. It can seem hard to keep up with the breathtaking pace at which digital transformation is changing marketing. The most effective way to market your product is to make the brand and the users speak for themselves. User generated content is a stress-free marketing strategy, in which you involve your community of users to increase your visibility. When a customer speaks for you in the form of videos, social media sharing or recommendations it is user generated content.
Let’s take the case of a cosmetic brand, which offers customers superior quality of product using skin friendly ingredients. The product and its intent however does not reach the target audience, by bombarding them with ads. A simple selfie campaign with user engagement can turn the brand around. Imagine spending less time, little or no cost for your marketing while also generating huge recognition and exposure for your business! That is User generated content or UGC for you.
Even with the various channels of advertising and marketing available, 92% customers trust organic user-generated content. What was once commonly known as ‘Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing’ has now taken the shape of UGC. Personal recommendations are the most commendable form of marketing and UGC does exactly this for your brand. Your marketing is made more genuine, human and approachable. We are donning thinking caps for you and providing you with some simple tricks to engage with your users and produce user-generated content.
Choice of platform
Your choice of platform should depend on the nature of your UGC campaign. While Instagram has a reach for stories and photos; Facebook may be a better option for videos and curated content.
Expand your reach
Creating powerful hashtags benefit both the content creator and the brand. Ultimately everyone wants to reach a wide audience. Hashtags classify your content and help people reach you easily.
Authenticity is the key
Keep it real – your customers are looking for advice and endorsement from genuine sources. Keeping your UGC real and unadulterated helps you build a loyal fan base. Users’ engagement drives the intent to purchase.
Share widely
Encourage voices to talk about your service and brand. Share content created by as many users as possible widely. Build an atmosphere for your brand that encourages more people to share, like and comment on the content generated. This will help you progressively grow a community around your brand.
Show the human side
One way to keep UGC real is to keep it entertaining. Every post does not have to talk about your product directly. Keeping it real, funny and memorable undoubtedly enhances engagement.
Engage with your content creators and customers
While it can be hard to accept criticism, do not do away with negative reviews. Engage with the customers, understand their problems and see how you can resolve them. Your brand’s truthfulness will come across when you engage with all reviews, good or bad. Do not worry about fake reviews, a savvy customer can spot them. While building your brand, focus on building trust.
Give credit
While sharing UGC on your platform credit it to the original source. Honoring the creator will encourage them to create more persuasive content about your brand. Acknowledging their role in the brands success and the customer relationship.
Most often brands limit their social media presence to merely creating content. Remember an effective marketing strategy is to use ‘curate’ the content created and provide a platform for your users to voice their thoughts. Your marketing strategy should be inclusive of your entire customer base and create social trust. If harnessed properly, user generated content can be a gold mine for businesses.
