Are you investing a lot in designing ad creatives that do not offer any value to your brand? Brands design creatives for social media highlighting their product features, benefits, their value-adding services, offers, discounts and whatnot. But did you ever consider sharing the most genuine form of content, which can speak for itself? You don’t always need fancy and computerised images and videos to attract customers.
Customers are the most powerful when it comes to marketing. Customers do word-of-mouth marketing for the products they feel are worth the investment. People will have an easier time believing the recommendations directly from other customers of the brand, as they come from experience. Your relevant experience with the brand counts and translates to a greater willingness to drive people to try the product. This is called word-of-mouth marketing.
You might have an instance where you purchased something or tasted a new cuisine that you liked. You might have recommended the brand to your friends. Coming from you, your friends will most likely believe your experience and explore the brand to see if it’s worth the hype. Word of mouth creates curiosity while also adding a sense of FOMO (Fear of missing out). Through word-of-mouth marketing, the brand will get organic conversions and genuine feedback that adds credibility and facilitates increased brand awareness.
User-generated content is a digital form of word-of-mouth marketing, where users can create any form of content, like images, reviews, testimonials, screenshots, or videos. Brands can share user-generated content on their official platforms, like their official website or social media, to build authenticity and customer trust. Brands can also grow social media organically by sharing UGC. Users generate content for a brand based on their opinions and personal experience. It is the truest form of content that businesses can use to drive cost-effective marketing and add credibility to their brand.
Raise Your Brand’s Credibility With User-Generated Content
If you face consistently poor sales and low conversions, it is a cue for you to understand that your brand needs a makeover.
The first and foremost thing is to help customers connect with your brand and form a relationship that goes beyond just transactions. One of the most cost-effective ways to scale your business is by providing diversified content on your official platforms. User-generated content is the most authentic form of content because it comes from customers directly. These days, customers invest in the value of the brand. If your values align with those of your audience, you will be successful eventually. However, you need to transform your marketing strategies and efforts by leveraging user-generated content (UGC) to build authenticity.
Customers will be able to know more about your brand if they resonate with user-generated reviews, videos, blog comments, ratings, social media posts, memes, etc. The world of social media is vast, where people engage with different forms of content. Trust is a rare commodity when it comes to acquiring loyal customers. User-generated content offers solid proof showing that real people enjoy your products or services.
Your audience can connect with the shared user-generated content to see that the brand is trustworthy. Your brand has a story, and user-generated content helps narrate it in customers’ words. With UGC, you don’t need fancy visuals and computerised creatives. You can reach a solid customer base by showing your uniqueness and digital evidence of ‘word-of-mouth’.
UGC Drives Cost-Effective Marketing: Intensify Your Marketing Efforts
UGC Maximises Conversions
The market of UGC is likely to reach $132.73 billion by 2034, which shows its potential in improving marketing campaigns for brands. Simply put, it highlights that brands have the opportunity to grow their customer base by leveraging UGC. The primary benefits of leveraging UGC as a marketing strategy are multifold. UGC helps you develop trust among consumers, maximise conversions, showcase uniqueness, and foster real connections with your audience. User-generated content amplifies relatability and authenticity. Users share the real stories, videos and images related to their experience with the brand on social media.
Let’s take an Example of Airbnb: How Airbnb Drives Conversions
For example, users from all around the world share real experiences with Airbnb related to their stay, the condition of accommodation, host behaviour, support and overall facilities at the property. Airbnb builds trust among customers by sharing user-generated content with its audience, which drives brand visibility. It also positions Airbnb as a brand that goes beyond traditional hospitality to offer an immersive customer experience.
UGC Maximises Engagement
If you struggle with low engagement, you can drive customers to create UGC. Suppose your customers do not actively share the reviews or express opinions related to your brand, you can drive them to share content by organising challenges and contests. Users will create and share content related to the brand by using relevant campaign hashtags. It can help you drive engagement and boost cost-effective marketing. You can also track and gather user-generated content using branded hashtags.
Let’s take an Example of Starbucks: How Starbucks Drives User Engagement
For example, Starbucks launched a red cup contest and prompted users to share content over social media using this hashtag. It ultimately led to became a viral campaign where users shared pictures, reels, videos and text-based stories with the #redcupcontest. Such campaigns drive traffic, boost engagement and introduce you to customers you didn’t even know existed.
In order to drive more user-generated content for your brand, you need to actively participate in the process to drive users to engage with your brand’s products and services. You can seek feedback from users directly through reviews, stories or opinion polls shared on social media. By gaining valuable insights from users, you can create opportunities for users to share their authentic experiences with your brand. You should highlight the success stories and share them on your official social media platforms. In addition to the organic user-generated content, you can leverage paid content from creators.
To Sum Up
You can leverage user-generated content in your broad marketing strategy. It involves collaborating with influencers, leveraging social media campaigns, developing a community and featuring genuine content on your product pages. Employing these strategies will help your brand strengthen its relationship with customers. It will also contribute to the overall authenticity and success of your marketing efforts.
You can run paid ad campaigns by fitting UGC in your marketing funnel to drive more engagement and conversions. Our experts at VerveOnlineMarketing, a prominent digital marketing company in Jaipur, can help your brand build credibility and customer trust through paid ad campaigns. So why wait and waste your advertising dollars on impractical campaigns? Reach out to us now!
