Do you get excited to share your favorite brand’s product on social media? Have you seen brands releasing campaigns asking you to show their products? They are pretty exciting, aren’t they?
One such campaign that will be coming to your mind would be that of Apple: the #ShotoniPhone campaign. It was part of their strategy to build consumer trust and credibility while making people remember why they liked Apple.
Brands usually take up such strategies to market their products through users known as user-generated content. Curious about what it entails? Let’s find out!
You would have heard the term UGC around. UGC stands for user-generated content. Here, it refers to any content related to your brand created by someone who isn’t the official representative of your business.
In the Apple campaign, the brand used its customers to build trust within the community about their products through social media updates, and reviews.
User-generated content can be generated in any form: written, or audiovisual. The essential aspect of it remains that it isn’t the employees who created the content.
Before we move on to exploring examples of UGC, let’s understand why it is efficient and necessary.
UGC serves a direct purpose: it is more trustworthy as compared to your official advertisements. It is mainly because UGC marketing is without a specific plan that consumers can sniff out.
To say that UGC marketing is a new concept would be wrong. They have been around for a long time as a publicity task for many companies.
Now, many might ask why it is better than influencer marketing.
Because influencer marketing is an official ad endorsement, while user-generated content is by and for consumers.
Consumers usually find UGC 9.8x more impactful than any influencer content, and 79% of people say that user-generated content highly impacts their purchasing decisions. Customers understand that brands market their products to “sell” them more. However, with UGC, the suspicions for this are no longer present.
This is true in practice as well, we aren’t messing with you. The benefits of UGC marketing is far reaching and you should definitely employ it as soon as possible!
UGC marketing is a type of content marketing that will enable your business to grow at high levels. Following are some of the ways it will be beneficial for you:
Authenticity is achieved more with user-generated content. About 60% of consumers believe that UGC is the most authentic marketing content. After all, it doesn’t include direct marketing tactics to lure them into purchasing your products.
User-generated content is a way for consumers to see themselves participating in the brand’s growth, giving them more worth than before. It helps facilitate interaction between you and your loyal customers, building brand loyalty and a community.
The final stage of the consumer buying process usually includes understanding whether other consumers were satisfied with the product or not. UGC will act as factual proof that, yes, your brand is quite satisfactory.
UGC marketing is honestly the most cost-effective way to scale your business. You just need marketing professionals like us to interact with your customers and engage them with regular, new campaigns. It will truly save lots of your money.
Fun fact: On average, about 20% of consumers have unfollowed a brand on social media because they felt that its content was inauthentic.
User-generated content will save you to fall into this embarrassing outcome. On the other hand, some awesome examples might inspire you, so let’s dive right in!
To start, you know big publishers like Penguin Books, Harper Collins, and many other publishers routinely send out review copies to readers so that they can publish authentic reviews before the book is officially out in the market.
Before buying a book, a consumer is likely to look at book reviews to decide whether the book is interesting enough for them to buy it.
Another famous campaign was by Calvin Klein: the #MyCalvins campaign. The brand encouraged the consumers to post a picture of themselves on their social media handles with this tag to get featured on their page.
Similarly National Geographic used the Wanderlust campaign to use photographs as a means to improve publicity, awareness, and brand development. Hundreds of people took part, and the winner received a 7-day photo expedition to Yosemite national park.
Now that consumers are more active on social media platforms, it won’t be uncommon to see that they are highly active, to grab an opportunity to engage with their loved brands. By using those social media channels, you can grab their attention and hearts in one go.
Don’t hesitate a second longer to contact us with any doubts you have regarding how to proceed with UGC marketing. It will get your brand more engagement, improve your brand reputation, and also make you have exciting conversations with your consumers!
Suhail Bajaj is the CEO of BrightBrain Marketing Technologies LLP that has now grown into a full-fledged digital marketing agency with 55+ employees and clients from 7+ countries – all under his supervision. Graduated with an MBA from the esteemed Cass Business School, he brilliantly puts his learnings into practice, helping brands meet their business goals and succeed in a digital-first world.
