Remember the good old Coca Cola advertisement? Remember the beautiful lady on the poster of Coca Cola poster drinking from the Coke bottle?
Now fast forward to the present. Genuine Coke lovers are displayed with Coke cans and bottles. Or do you remember the famous Share A Coke campaign which just heightened user engagement with the brand to a whole another level?
This is how drastically user-generated content has transformed the marketing world.Both the images are used for marketing purposes for Coca Cola.
The first one is brand-generated content. While the second one is user-generated content.The marketing world has traveled a long journey for this transformation from brand-generated content to user-generated content.
This example is apt enough to show how important user generated content has become in the present time. It’s significance in the marketing world is undeniable.
This article focuses on this very aspect that why and how user-generated content is ruling over the marketing world!
Come, let’s discuss in detail.
What Is User-Generated Content?
User-generated content for any brand is any content that is created by genuine users with their own discretion on social media platforms.
It may be images, videos, comments, feedback, hashtag content, online reviews, and other forms of content that are posted online on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and more.
Authenticity and originality are what brands aim for. It is what buyers search for. And it is what user-generated content provides. User experiences that are showcased by incorporating user-generated content into marketing campaigns help you gain customer loyalty and trust.
Why Should Brands Prefer User-Generated Content?
Domesticating user-generated content into your marketing strategy is an amazing way to earn the vote of confidence from your customers and users. But how does user-generated content benefit your brand? What value does it hold for your marketing campaign?
Everything has been boiled down to these 5 points.
Come, let’s have a look-
- Puts Your Customers At The Center Of Your Marketing Strategy
Well, the best part about user-generated content is that it is a win-win situation for both the customers and the marketers.
Customers love it because they feel valued and acknowledged. Obviously, they would because they are centered as the main focus of your marketing strategy.
When you employ user-generated content as part of your marketing strategy, you display your brand image and standards through your user’s brand experience and stories. This makes them further loyal towards your brand.
They are not the marketing target anymore, in fact, they are part of your marketing strategy promoting your brand with you.
It makes the whole process more personal and less mechanical, so the customers can link at a much personal level with the brand.
Displaying user-generated content as your marketing strategy helps you tap into your customers needs to speak and be heard. It gives them a voice.
- Provides Social Proof
Displaying user-generated content to your aspiring customers and users help to provide them social proof of the credibility and authenticity of your brand’s products and services.
When you display user-generated content coming from fellow users and genuine customers, it makes it more trustworthy. It helps to bring your brand’s perspective into the picture but hidden in your user’s stories and experiences.
When you display branded content as part of your marketing strategy, you make promises to your users. But when you display user-generated content, you show that you fulfilled those promises.
- Generates Trust
People trust people, not brand logos.
So, when you display user-generated content, you show how happy people actually are with your services and products.
Displaying real-life experiences of real users helps you instill a sense of trust and confidence in your customers towards your brand.
Consumers from all demographic zones trust peer recommendations much more than brand recommendations. So, the bottom line is, when it comes to content, user-generated content will always win over any brand-created content.
- Time & Cost Efficient
User-generated content helps you save both time and money.
It is easily available on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and others where users freely post images, videos, comments, tweets, and other forms of user-generated content.
Finding it is no big issue but remember curating user-generated content before using it as your marketing arsenal is really important. Social media aggregators help you do that with ease. Hence it saves time.
Also, it is freely available which can be fetched using hashtags, mentions, tags, keywords, and other sources. Hence, it saves on cost.
- Boosts User Engagement
User-generated content is loved by all. Hence, everyone loves engaging with it.
When other people see their fellow users getting featured in your marketing ads, even they secretly wish for the same. So, this encourages them to further post similar brand content using your dedicated hashtags.
This initiates a new wave of user interaction and engagement with your brand.
User-generated campaigns help you generate brand awareness, intensify user engagement and interaction with your brand.
Final Words
User-generated content taps into the ego of your customers and makes them loyal towards your brand in the long run.
Importance of user-generated content is undeniable, multi-channeled and integrated with your marketing campaigns.
UGC marketing has been heating up it’s ground for a while and now is the apt time to utilize it for your marketing purposes.
