What Is User-Generated Content?
User-Generated Content (UGC) is any form of content created by users willingly about a brand and posted in the public sphere where everyone could see it. The content could be anything, ranging from written materials, blog entries, forum posts, reviews or visuals such as images, GIFs, videos, or audio recordings.
UGC possesses great potential in creating online buzz about a brand, spreading the word of mouth marketing, brand awareness, and expanding the customer base, thereby helping the brand in marketing their products and brand.
The Growing Trend Of User-Generated Content In Brand Marketing
In recent years, a growing number of brands have been incorporating user-generated content as an integral part of their content marketing strategy. User generated content marketing isn’t a new concept but it is only until recently that marketers have started to realize the full potential of user-generated content and the wonders it can do for a brand.
The increasing use of visual user-generated content (earned media) in marketing and advertisements of a brand has fundamentally changed the way brands promote themselves and engage with their customers. Users are now under the main spotlight and center of any
This article throws light on the rising and undeniable importance of user-generated content in the field of digital marketing. Come, let’s explore what’s so special about UGC that everyone is going crazy about it!
UGC Builds Trust
With growing digital enlightenment, consumers are becoming more skeptical of celebrity endorsements and heavily photoshopped brand images. Users demand a more genuine and realistic conversation with the brands where transparency is a must. User-Generated Content brings that transparency along with it.
The objectivity that comes along with user-generated content brings along an authenticity card as it is created by real users sharing their real-life brand experiences. These cannot be bought, unlike the celebrity endorsements. Hence, these are more trusted by users.
UGC Increases User Engagement With The Brand
When a brand mixes its professional brand content with user-generated content, reports show that it increases brand engagement by 28%. It is one of the most authentic and clever ways to benefit a brand from the content that their users created for them by posting on their social media profiles.
UGC is not just engaging, but also inspiring. When a brand incorporates user-generated content into its marketing strategy and displays it to their audience, they feel encouraged to make similar posts sharing their brand experiences on their social media platforms using particular brand hashtags. This way they not only spread a good word about that brand among their social circles but actually engages with that brand’s products and services.
UGC Expands Audience Reach
A brand’s customers are its best advocates. Anything said by them will always be much more trustworthy than the most perfectly scripted words of any brand. So, when a brand’s customers post about any of its products or services on their social media profiles, then they are simply spreading a good word about that brand in their social circles.
This helps the brands to expand their audience reach even beyond their expected target audience. A brand even might not expect how far a good word of mouth could go and bring conversions from the unexpected audience niche. UGC also aids the community building activity of a brand. This further enhances the loyalty level of the customers in that brand.
UGC Makes Customers Feel Valued And Heard
One main factor behind the success of any brand is a healthy and thriving brand-customer relationship. When a brand incorporates user-generated content as an integral part of its marketing and advertising campaign, then its customers feel valued and heard. That is very important.
Feeling acknowledged gives them the satisfaction of sharing a personal link with the brand which not only makes them a brand’s advocate but also its preachers. This encourages them further to engage with the brand, post more online content about the brand, and help it flourish its social influence.
Embedded UGC improves Websites Performance
If a brand embeds its social media UGC on its official website, then that’s a win-win for the brand from all ends. First of all, the brand gets to display social proof to its users all the time, and that too, in real-time. This allows the brands to continuously give proof of its credibility and social acceptance through its user base.
Second, and more importantly, embedded user-generated content from social media aggregated in real-time helps to improve the overall user interface of the website. This improves the visitors’ engagement on the website with the webpage content, thereby improving the overall dwell-time of the visitors, reducing the bounce rate, improving the click-through rates and the conversion rates on the website. Hence, the overall performance of the website is improved.
Conclusion…
User-Generated Content is the present and the next big trend in the digital marketing field and it ain’t going anywhere soon. If a brand hasn’t been utilizing this great marketing trick to drive its users to the conversion point, then it’s high time to start utilizing the fruitful benefits of user-generated content.
More Read: What Makes Your Blog More Attractive – 6 Tips To Follow.
