Consumer habits are rapidly evolving. However, one thing that is the same and likely to remain unchanged for years is that people trust people. Whether it’s B2B or B2C industries, over 89% of people read online reviews, making influencer marketing and user-generated content (UGC) invaluable to brands worldwide.
Whether through celebrity endorsements, micro-influencers, or customer advocates, UGC has become the bread and butter of digital marketing for businesses across all niches. It’s a two-way street and an incredibly effective engagement tactic where brands connect with the audiences, organically showing off their services or products. The influencers or fans get featured, which can also help grow their following.
If your agency has not discovered the user-generated content benefits yet, Rocket Driver can help. They use many state of the art white-label agency tools at their disposal to turn the customers of your clients into advocates through innovative content generated by users.
What is User Generated Content?
UGC refers to unsponsored or unpaid posts shared by people across the networks when using services or products worth the rave. When someone shares a post about their fantastic experience with a business and the brand reposts the story, it’s UGC.
Content like videos, feedback, images, reviews, and text shared by clients is all considered user-generated and organic—without any hidden sponsorship or payment backing it. The way a brand leverages the plethora of UGC treasures is what gives the most power to the medium.
Even if the content doesn’t include the product explicitly, the reach can go quite far for consumers and brands. It could highlight values or lifestyles that overlap with a brand’s audience and ethos.
What to Avoid When Repurposing User-Generated Content
Before you use any video or photo, disclose it by establishing an agreement with the rightful owner or giving proper credit by adding their names or social media handles to the artwork. Reach out to ask permission before sharing the content.
Whether a perfectly curated masterpiece or a casual snapshot, it’s unfair to the people who created it that you use it without proper permission. Formalize agreements with the legal team and remove any content that’s published, but remove the content quickly if your client cannot compensate. Instead, collaborate with people interested in sharing the content with your company sans formal payments.
User-Generated Content Benefits
Benefit #1- Authenticity
Since UGC results from the genuine experience of customers with a brand, it’s more credible than influencer content and more authentic than paid testimonials or reviews. Over 67% of marketers have experienced increased conversions with authentic UGC as it influences the purchasing decision of 87% of Gen Z and millennials alike. This doesn’t imply that marketers encourage publishing fake user-generated content.
Benefit #2- Improved Loyalty
Customer-generated content enables users to contribute and engage with the brand like an insider. It impacts the experience and loyalty significantly as consumers thrive on being a part of anything bigger than their individual online presence. They will feel like they’re an important part of the brand community.
Hosting competitions or encouraging people to share content that can be featured on your client’s social media or website goes a long way. People will love it when their opinions are given priority, as they feel like the brand values them as partners. This further enhances their experience, retention, and loyalty, generating positive word of mouth.
Benefit #3- Trustworthiness
Eight out of ten people buy products based on personal recommendations by people with prior experience with a brand. UGC offers a unique sophistication, which is why 90% of customers easily trust businesses that showcase customer-generated content. It influences purchase decisions and acts as a trust signal. You can also use it as feedback to personalize the web design, navigability, content, and other things based on the interactions and search history of recent customers.
Benefit #4- Customer Engagement
Social profiles help increase audience engagement and positively impact your client’s business. Data shows audiences engage better with UGC compared with other posts. It brings in more conversions than paid website conversion strategies without costing a dime. In addition, existing users will be encouraged to participate, hoping to be featured in brand marketing, which leads to increased customer loyalty and fulfillment.
Benefit #5- Influenced Buying Decisions
Customer-generated content is crucial in the checkout phases of the buying journey, where customers need a nudge to be convinced to complete the purchase. A whopping 71% of people consider reviews and ratings before making a purchase.
Research shows people read at least six reviews to learn more about a company, its products, or customer service. Displaying photos, reviews, videos, and testimonials at the checkout page is a cost-effective web conversion strategy many agencies still don’t use despite the numerous benefits.
Getting the Most Out of UGC Strategies
Choose Platforms Most Impactful to the Client’s Campaign
Knowing where the audience and potential advocates spend more time online and have higher influence is the key to getting maximum impact for a campaign your agency creates for a client. While most people know Instagram is great for visuals and TikTok for videos, all efforts will go in vain if the target audience doesn’t live on those networks.
A survey by Sprout Social Index found that 87% of people choose a business over a competitor if they follow them on any social. Crafting a social environment and choosing a network thoughtfully will help deliver content that engages the users meaningfully. It will nurture long-term trust and help your client’s brand stand out from the competition.
In addition, besides determining which networks are best to engage the target audience, also identify the types of user-generated content that perform best on every platform. Consider how you can present the content based on the unique culture of each network.
Set Practical UGC Goals
Like other aspects of the content strategy you build for a client, the customer-generated content plan also needs well-defined guidelines and goals to find success. While UGC is off-the-cuff and casual, a robust strategy is what your client needs to capitalize on it. The goals could be anything like increased conversions, building brand trust, higher engagement, or even saving time and resources on content creation.
Guide the Audience Regarding Publishable Content
Nearly 53% of people agreed they would want brands to tell them the type of content to share. Give advocated proper guidance and be transparent with brand regulations and rules toward UGC. Social media contests, hashtags, and many other ways can be used to build focused guidance and interest in the audience to inspire them to create that aligns with the campaign.
Focus on Community Building and Collaborations
It’s a good practice to create a brand persona that advocates and potential customers can connect with. User-generated content becomes the glue that brings people together and builds bridges with conversations about the brand. The interactions build credibility and drive people down the marketing funnel.
Give recognition, answer queries, and solve problems to show the community the human side of your client’s brand. The outreach potential increases exponentially when user-generated content is implemented creatively in the marketing strategy.
People like to interact with brands that they develop a likeability for much more than sponsored ads. If your agency is looking for innovative ways to spruce up the digital presence of your clients, Rocket Driver can help turn customers into advocates with cutting-edge white-label marketing solutions.
You can enjoy low cost whole sale pricing for SEO, SMS marketing, social media, sales funnel marketing, content marketing, web design, reputation management, business listings, and graphic design services.
Call now to start a partnership with a reputable white-label SEO reseller agency in NYC. You can also request a demo with Tom Lombardi to find out how Rocket Driver has helped boost the bottom lines of agencies globally.