UGC 101: Guide To User-Generated Content Marketing

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User-Generated Content Marketing

Gone are the days when consumers would be swayed by traditional marketing techniques. Instead, transparency and authenticity top the priority list of people, and the source that provides them is user-generated content. 

User-generated content is created by people themselves instead of the brand. Result? Instant social proof, transparency, and authenticity that spikes people’s emotions. 80% of people have agreed that user-generated content influences their buying decisions more than a brand’s promotional content.

Since user-generated content is producing the goods for brands & businesses, it becomes essential to understand it in detail. So, let’s get into it.

Explanation: User-generated content

User-generated content is a social media feed created by people across multiple social media platforms. Social media platforms include Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, etc. It comes in text, photos, and videos, capturing people’s attention through its visual appeal. 

The generation of user-generated content becomes effective through hashtag campaigns, online surveys, expert Q&As, internal collaterals, contests, reviews, crowdsourcing, etc. 

User-generated content is beneficial across multiple marketing touch points such as events, e-commerce stores, email campaigns, websites, etc.

Statistics Around User-generated content

Since user-generated content is doing the rounds in the marketing world for its effectiveness, there is a large volume of statistics available as a word of proof. However, mentioning a sea of statistics would not have benefitted you, so I picked the top ones.

  • A whopping 92% of consumers agree that user-generated content influences their buying decisions more than brand promotional content. 
  • 90% of consumers select authenticity as a key motivator in buying a product or availing of a service. 
  • 84% of consumers place their trust in peer recommendations over brand advertising.
  • Consumers admit that UGC is 9.8 times more impactful than influencer content while making a purchase.

Importance Of User-Generated Content

After going through user-generated content statistics, it is important to look at what makes user-generated content so effective and how it benefits so many brands & businesses. 

Word-Of-Mouth Marketing

The more, the better! A punch line that would suit every marketing campaign. The prime motive of every marketing campaign is to make the service or product reach as many people as possible. When implemented correctly in the marketing campaign, user-generated content can catalyze this motive. 

Since user-generated content is created through social networks, the chances of its circulation increase by a greater percentage. Almost every person nowadays is on social networks. If we use user-generated content in our marketing campaigns, then it would bring our efforts to people’s notice. People’s eagerness to spend a large amount of time on social media would play a big role in this as they like to share exciting posts with their friends and family. Their friends and family would then share that content with friends. And in this way, user-generated content would act as a trustworthy word-of-mouth marketer for a brand.

Social Proof

Social media has become an important part of every brand. You might be doing pretty well on the traditional part of marketing. Still, failing to acquire a significant social presence would fall short of your marketing objectives. 

User-generated content from social feeds only amplifies your social presence like no other marketing tool. When people get proof of a brand’s popularity through social media, they tend to be more involved with the brand. This results in existing customers becoming loyal and potential customers becoming new customers.

Authenticity & Reliability

If a customer can trust what you sell, there is no greater win. Authenticity and reliability attract customers like no other medium. Moreover, user-generated content brilliantly conveys authenticity. This is because user-generated content comes straight from users using a product. 

We discussed earlier that 90% of consumers agree on the fact that they trust peer recommendations more than traditional advertising. The main reason behind this is the level of trust we have in them and their recommendations. User-generated content comprises mainly of these recommendations and is therefore authentic and reliable.

Customer Engagement

We all can agree that the more customers we engage with our business, the more benefits we will reap. User-generated content can provide a major boost to businesses in engaging more customers. Comprising engaging and authentic social media visuals, user-generated content attracts customers.

Since people know they would get a chance to feature in branding marketing, they are motivated to create user-generated content. And if we talk about bonuses, then user-generated content covers diverse content, humanized elements, and emphatic attributes, which pull in more people.

Wrapping Up!

User-generated content is the go-to marketing tool for event marketers nowadays. We mentioned statistics and benefits that support this claim. However, suppose you still have not started involving user-generated content in your marketing campaigns. In that case, it is high time to do it, as you miss out on a lot.

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