Importance of User-Generated Content (UGC)

What is UGC?

User generated content is a form of content that has been created by users of a product or service, rather than by the brand itself. It can take many different forms, from written reviews and testimonials to photos, videos and even social media posts.

Why is user generated content so important?

It helps to build trust between a brand and its customers. If other people are singing your praises, it makes it more likely that potential customers will take the plunge and try out your product or service for themselves. Secondly, it’s a great way to generate new ideas and get feedback on existing products or services. And finally, it can be a great marketing tool in its own right — user generated content that’s particularly impressive or entertaining can quickly go viral, leading to a huge boost in exposure for the brand.

Some of the advantages of using UGC:

• Let your customers speak for you.
• Provides the brand with the base of legit advertising.
• Intensifies the trust towards the brand and its products.
• Builds a robust brand-user relationship.
• UGC helps in humanizing the brand.
• It is the most crucial component of the Word-Of-Mouth marketing strategy.
• Creates an essence of reliability and credibility.
• Increases the authenticity of the brand.
• Drives conversions and sales.

The biggest advantage of UGC is fact that it is completely free!

All you need is to be creative and come up with good idea and concept. In other words you have to set up the bait for your customers that will amuse and engage them.

Customers don’t trust brands as they used to

More than the brands themselves, customers trust each other a lot. In fact, several surveys suggested that more than 60% of the people trust the comments posted or photos taken by other customers than those taken by the seller or manufacturer itself. This supports the importance of user-generated content even more for these brands and companies.

Use UGC to boost SEO

User-generated content can help boost your website’s SEO by providing fresh, relevant, and keyword-rich content. This can help you to get higher organic rank in search engine results pages, driving more traffic to your site.

Customers click more on organic results

This is important because according to recent research, organic search results have a significantly higher click-through-rate (CTR) than paid search results. In fact, the average CTR for the first and second organic results on Google are 28.5 and 15.7% respectively. The average click-through-rate for paid search sits at around 2%

The study was published by Sistrix which analyzed more than 80 million keywords as well as billions of search results to understand how users engage with Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Consumers want to play an active role in creating the brands they love

Not only are most people willing to give brands permission to use their photos in exchange for being featured in their marketing efforts, but today’s consumers are actually eager to act as content creators for their favorite brands.

Examples of successful UGC campaigns

1. Coca Cola — #ShareACoke

The project involved fans sharing coke bottles with their names, the names of friends and family, and even strangers across social media. It worked beautifully, tapping into the human need for sharing and community.

With a clear call to action (#ShareACoke) and a personal sentiment that anyone can appreciate, the campaign was a huge success. It not only generated tons of UGC for Coca-Cola and boosted social media traffic, but it also increased overall sales of the drink, as well as sales among younger generations.

2. Oreo — #stayhomestayplayful

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, cookie connoisseurs OREO got playful in lockdown with a new campaign to help overt boredom.

In a series of posts across social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) Oreo aimed to provide its followers with ideas for playful and easily accessible activities to brighten up the global lockdown. A total of 15 activities included baking recipes using Oreo cookies, new ways for improving Zoom calls, or creating your very own escape room.

Every idea featured the #stayhomestayplayful hashtag, to inspire those who participate to share their attempts and provide A-rated User-Generated Content for the brand.

3. Amazon: Customer Reviews

Social media campaigns aren’t the only kinds of UGC. Customer reviews and testimonials are also great option. In fact, Amazon makes customer feedback a central part of its shopping experience.

Amazon makes the reviewing process easy by emailing customers after every purchase with a reminder and link to leave feedback in the form of a star rating and optional written review. It features the average star rating at the top of any product page. Plus, it lets customers sort and filter products by rating, making customer feedback an essential part of the purchase process. Amazon knows that many consumers rely on reviews to decide what to buy, so they put feedback front and center. UGC is not only important for the marketing of each product on Amazon’s website, it’s a main feature!

The secrets behind a successful UGC campaign

Authenticity is the name of the game

Whether you already have a foundation built or you are starting completely fresh with User-Generated Content, authenticity should drive your content strategy. The more real people and the less marketing jargon you use, the better your audience will relate to the content.

Set goals for your User-Generated Content

Setting goals will help you build the strategy and keep everyone focused on what needs to be accomplished. These could include: developing more brand trust, more brand engagement, increasing conversion rates, improving ROI of content (costs and time), etc.

Understand what tools you need to make it easier

While UGC can happen organically, there are ways for you to focus more on customers and make it easier for them to get involved, by using the right tools or platforms.

Turn your brand’s advocates’ social media posts into commercial results.

UGC can inspire your customers to make faster purchases. In fact, UGC-based ads get 4x higher click-through rates and a 50% drop in cost-per-click than average.

How can you use it for your business?

As stated before there are many ways to use UGC, but it depends on your business. For example, if you’re a restaurant, you could post photos of customers enjoying your food. Or if you’re a fashion brand, you could post videos of people wearing your clothes.

The important thing is to ensure that you’re using UGC in a way that makes sense for your business and will actually help you achieve your marketing goals.

In conclusion, you have to understand how customers interact with your products or services and craft messages with a persuasive tone around those interactions.