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In recent years the consumer driven communication revolution has seen UGC (User Generated Content) fast become a high-value marketing strategy staple. Many brands are reaping the rewards from sharing authentic, first hand advocacy from customers to help promote their products and brands.

According to Gitnux, 85% of consumers find UCG more influential than branded content. Gitnux also cites that UGC-based ads receive 4 times higher click-through rates and a 50% drop in cost per click, than the average. The TINT State of Community Powered Marketing report also cites that 93% of marketers agree consumers trust content created by consumers, more than content created by brands.

What is UGC?

User generated content (UGC) is original content, be it images, text, reviews, testimonials, photos or videos created by people instead of brands and posted to social platforms and forums. It comes in many different forms, and can be both paid and unpaid depending on the fan following a brand has. Some companies grow an organic base of UCG creators, whilst others can pay for such content to be created.

Its value lies in the trustworthiness and relatability of the content. It’s created directly from the user or fan of a product. TINTs report also cites Edelman’s Trust Barometer indicating that 81% of consumers perceive brands collaborating with customers as more authentic.

Brands leverage the content by sharing it with their target audience to influence purchasing decisions and increase the credibility and transparency of their brand and products. It also allows them to foster a sense of community around their products or services, and gain valuable insights into customer sentiment and experiences.

How to encourage organic UGC

1. Incentivise users to create and share content related to your product offering, by running contests or giveaways, such as a lifetime subscription, exclusive access to a cool new feature or a discount on a new product or package. It could be asking users to submit a photo and caption, after achieving something new on their website, or recording a video or review about their experience setting up their business online.
2. Develop branded hashtags and encourage customers to use them when sharing content about your products or services. This makes it easy to find and curate UGC.
3. Engage with your following. Actively ask your followers questions, seek their opinions, and engage with their responses. This interaction can prompt users to share their experiences and content.
4. Regularly share and highlight UGC from customers on your brand’s social media channels. This incentivizes others to create content for a chance to be featured.
5. Provide guidelines: Give users clear guidelines on the type of content you’d like them to create.

Paid UGC

Paid UGC is when brands hire and pay content creators to produce user generated content giving a first hand account of their experience and opinions about the brand’s products and/or services. It’s still natural and authentic and gives a brand more control over the content that is created.

1. It’s more cost-effective than influencer marketing, where you’re paying to be put in front of an influencer audience as well as the content they are creating.
2. It still has the authenticity consumers are looking for when choosing to buy a product or service.
3. It still show’s real product experiences that can be used on a brand’s marketing channels to help consumers identify with, and try out their products and services.

There are many UGC platforms on which you can source paid UGC content creators. Platforms such as Collabstr, Reevoo, TINT and Olapic are popular.

UGC does largely appear on social media, however brands who use it stress the importance and benefits of taking it across multi-channel marketing platforms such as integrating it on their website and other forms of digital advertising.

Six ways to use UGC in your marketing strategy

• Encourage users to leave reviews – where it makes sense in their customer journey. Look for positive times to request reviews when you can see a customer is engaged in the platform. Reviews are also a fantastic source of valuable insight to improve your offering.
• Celebrate customer success – creating a successful business online is highly emotive and inspiring for entrepreneurs searching for a platform to help them run their business. Where you can, take time to seek out and promote those businesses – to recognise their entrepreneurship and help others to do the same.
• Use testimonials – on your website and other online content such as guides or blogs, to showcase the success others have had with your package offering.
• Use social media to source UGC – Social media is a great place to find UGC, where it can be re-shared by you to authentically boost awareness (always credit the original creator), or it can be reused for other content.
• Use UGC in your ad campaigns, be it TV, social or digital display and more, UGC is highly valuable and authentic advocacy that should be celebrated and used across your marketing channel mix.
• Host a UGC contest – back your products and services and invite customers to show and tell / or talk about their experiences by hosting a contest with a prize to recognise their contribution. Then use the best content to authentically promote your products and services.

UGC content from trusted creators, paid or organic, is a powerful means to build credibility and engage and build your community of customers.

Consumers believe it’s more trustworthy and marketers say it performs better. We think it’s definitely worth the investment.

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