Benefits of Using User-Generated Content in Your Marketing.

What is User-Generated Content?

User-Generated Content (UGC) is, simply put, the content not generated by your brand but from customers, fans, followers, etc. And if you have heard about UGC, you have probably heard a lot about the benefits of using User-Generated Content in your marketing but just in case you still have doubts about the benefits of UGC, according to a report by Comscore in 2012, UGC, used together with branded content, resulted in 28% increase in brand engagement. 

Also, TurnTo conducted a survey of more than a thousand US shoppers and 73% say UGC increases their purchasing confidence while 61% of the respondents reported that UGC encourages them to engage with brands. Besides these stats, there are many other reasons why you should definitely get with the program if you have not started taking advantage of User-Generated Content in your marketing. We will highlight these benefits in this article.

High Conversation Rate

Using User-Generated Content in your marketing will not only result in higher traffic to your social media content or website content, but it will also result in a higher conversion rate. Most potential customers will likely patronise your products because they are recommended by other users. And in the case of a UGC marketing campaign, the fear of missing out will encourage many to interact with your brand, resulting in a higher conversion rate. 

Increased Brand Awareness and Engagement 

One particular way this works is that when you share the content of one user, the user is likely to share out of excitement and those connected to that user will see it and either be interested in knowing more about your brand or also create their own content with the hope that you will share theirs too. Before you know it, it causes a ripple effect. And the way social media algorithm works, the more relevant your post (based on the number of people interacting with it), the higher chance it has of being shown. And this automatically increases your brand awareness and engagement. 

Improved Brand Reputation

Customers trust other customers more than they trust you; it’s just the way it works. And if you put yourself in their shoes as a customer yourself, you will see where they are coming from. Think about it, have you ever seen a brand advert and thought that they were just exaggerating the effectiveness of their product? If you have, that’s the same way potential customers might think about your product. That is why influencer marketing is quite trendy now because it involves getting recommended by an individual with influence. People will generally trust another person saying great things about you than they would what you say about your brand. Therefore, take advantage of the great things users are saying about your brand and share them with your audience so they see what others are saying about you. It gives your brand validity and works better than any PR strategy you can ever think of. This is also why you have to take customer satisfaction serious; customers can make or mar your business. 

Customer Feedback 

Let’s just put it out there; customers hate answering survey questions and that’s why if you’ve ever done this, you will notice they are not so effective. If you want to know what customers actually think about your brand or what they are saying about your brand, UGC is a great way to go about it. 

Conclusion

If you are wondering how to do this; there are two ways to go about it. You can generate user content organically by searching for your brand online or on social media to see what customers are saying about your brand and you can use some of the contents that put you in a good light. Alternatively, you can create a marketing campaign with a dedicated hashtag targetted at getting UGC; it can be in form of a competition, a challenge, or an interesting event in form of experiential marketing that people will always want to be a part of. In all you do, don’t forget to credit the original owner of the content; share, repost, retweet instead of copying and pasting directly.