User-Generated Content and its Potential: The Complete Guide
The internet revolution brought people from across the globe together and created a sense of trust among fellow internet users, reflecting on how they interact with brands.
Today, we see the rise of user generated content on social media, where over 93% of consumers claimed to have been influenced by UGC in their buying decisions.
But, with the competition only reaching new heights, it is getting challenging and over-the-top expensive for brands to target the right audience. So, how do they hit home with their marketing efforts? Simply by leveraging user-generated content in their campaigns.
If you want to explore making the users’ content lucrative by putting it to optimal use, use this intuitive UGC Guide.
User Generated Content Meaning
UGC stands for User Generated Content. It refers to any content created and published by users based on their experiences on social media platforms. This can be anything like text, images, videos, or reviews.
“User generated content is like any content that’s created by people specifically, like your users, instead of by your brand.”
Foti Panagiotakopoulos,
User-generated content (UGC) has taken over every marketing trend because users willingly publish it on various online platforms, making it the most authentic, creative, reliable, and trustworthy online content.
Brands no longer promote their brand; the users do it for them. So anything you see online, including testimonials, reviews, feedback, social media content, blogs, videos, or images, is a part of users’ build-up content.
Understand the Value of User-Generated Content
Did you know that an average UGC Creator charges $520 for a single post? Let’s take an example; suppose you hire a creator to create 5 social posts; as per the average, it will cost around $2500 if we assume $500 per post. What if we told you that you could completely eliminate these expenses?
Yes, that’s right, with UGC tools like Taggbox, you can cut down these costs as these platforms help you collect authentic user-generated content from multiple platforms, acquire UGC rights for ethical repurposing, and publish UGC across touchpoints like social media, website, ads, print media, digital screens, and more.
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About UGC
How Is It Different From Brand-Generated Content
How Can You Leverage UGC In Marketing
Types of User Generated Content
User-generated content is an umbrella term under which different types of content fall. Below are a few essential ones.
1. Image Content
Social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook are aesthetically pleasing photography platforms. The compelling photographs posted on these sites motivate users to scroll, explore more, and consume various UGC.
This also opens up an opportunity for brands to collect user-generated photos from these platforms.
2. Video Content
Video UGC content like unboxing, in-depth reviews of products, etc., fetches better viewer attention. Also, videos are better perceived by the audience and give them a better insight into your brand, further stimulating them to know more.
93% of the marketers claimed to have landed upon a new customer because of video content posted on social media. Also, videos are better perceived by the audience and give them a better insight into your brand, further stimulating them to know more.
3. Reviews/Testimonials
Another popular type of customer generated content is customer reviews. They act as a brand’s advocate and create hype through word-of-mouth marketing.
According to UGC statistics, 92% of online shops’ run-through reviews are given by existing brand users before purchasing. Reviews help brands improve and sell more of the products the users like most.
“People are more likely to change their mind or behaviors when the result will make them feel better about themselves, and oftentimes that means being part of a larger group.”
Chris Graves, President & Founder, Ogilvy Center for Behavioral Science at Ogilvy
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Best Source to Get User-Generated Content
Here are some popular sources for acquiring user-generated content:
Social Media Channels: Social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are rich sources of user-generated content. You can encourage users to share their experiences, stories, and photos related to your brand or industry by using hashtags, running contests, or hosting interactive campaigns.
User-Generated Content Platforms: Specialized platforms like UGC platforms facilitate the collection and management of user-generated content. These platforms provide features like content curation, rights management, and content display options.
Online Reviews and Testimonials: Websites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google Reviews provide valuable user-generated content in the form of reviews and testimonials. Monitor these platforms to gather authentic feedback from customers about your products or services.
Community Forums and Discussion Boards: Online communities and forums specific to your industry or niche often generate user-generated content through discussions, recommendations, and advice. Engage with these communities to gather insights and encourage users to share their experiences.
Product and Service Feedback Channels: Create dedicated feedback channels on your website or app where users can submit their feedback, suggestions, or testimonials. This allows you to collect valuable user-generated content directly from your customers.
Case Study – Netherland’s Smallest Island Boosts Tourism With Traveller’s UGC
Why is UGC Important in Marketing?
User-Generated Content (UGC) holds significant power in marketing for many reasons.
Firstly, it exudes an aura of authenticity that connects deeply with consumers. When people see fellow customers sharing their experiences, it sows trust and credibility in a way that traditional advertising often struggles to achieve.
Moreover, UGC ignites a spark of engagement. Involving customers in content creation fosters a sense of community around a brand, cultivating stronger bonds and customer loyalty.
This engagement isn’t confined to the original content; it often ripples outward as users enthusiastically share UGC across their networks, organically extending the brand’s reach.
Additionally, UGC is a cost-effective boon. It supplies a steady stream of content without big production budgets, allowing marketers to reallocate resources strategically.
Case Study – The Leela’s Winning UGC Strategy
Benefits of User Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is pivotal as it amplifies authenticity, enhances engagement, and builds trust. It empowers customers to share genuine experiences and opinions, influencing purchasing decisions.
UGC fosters a sense of community, strengthening brand-consumer relationships. It also provides diverse perspectives, enriching content and ideas.
Moreover, UGC serves as a cost-effective content source, fueling marketing efforts. Its impact spans industries, driving innovation and connection in the digital age.
- User-Generated Content Is More Effective
- User-Generated Content Is Authentic
- UGC Promotes Brand Advocacy
- User Generated Content Influences Purchase Decisions
- UGC Is A Cost-effective Way Of Marketing
- User Generated Content Evokes Emotions
A. User-Generated Content Is More Effective
There used to be a time when consumers were easily influenced by unrealistic advertisements showing fake scenarios, with paid models posing in front of studio lights. But consumer behavior has shifted towards seeking more authentic and raw content.
Consumers more actively interact with brands on social media and ask for transparency over made-up scenarios. With the traditional ads, you just become a part of the crowded ads that your prospects generally skip.
If you want your audience to react and get inspired by your campaigns, UGC can help you to stand out. Besides, instills social proof in your audience, encouraging more UGC and offering you more content for your marketing.
B. User-Generated Content Is Authentic
Consumer-generated content boosts brand credibility. However, users are 2.4 times more likely to consider UGC trustworthy than stock images.
So, be it a digital product, service, online courses or experience, modern consumers want to know what they seek out.
By leveraging UGC, online course creators can showcase real-life examples of how their course has positively impacted learners. This authentic content acts as social proof, demonstrating the credibility and effectiveness of the course to prospective students. When selecting an online course creation platform, creators should consider the factors to incorporate UGC into their courses. effectively
By leveraging UGC, online course creators can showcase real-life examples of how their course has positively impacted learners. This authentic content acts as social proof, demonstrating the credibility and effectiveness of the course to prospective students.
More than 92% of your consumers trust brands that include UGC in their marketing campaigns. Consumer-generated content is unsponsored content that creates an image of the brand in the viewers’ minds, who look forward to knowing more about it, exploring its products, and the users’ experience with it.
Gathering more and more users’ trust is the marketing holy grail that brands are constantly digging for. Here, leveraging consumer-generated content can be the best bet.
C. UGC Promotes Brand Advocacy
When brands incorporate consumer-generated content into their marketing campaigns, their customers become the face of their brand. When these customers come across these UGC campaigns, they identify more with the brand and become loyalists.
Incorporating community-generated content in your campaigns will create social proof among your customers, who will always choose you among the competitors and recommend you to their friends and family members. Also, they would never hesitate to create more user-generated content for you.
D. User Generated Content Influences Purchase Decisions
Users’ credible and reliable content influences the purchase decisions of online buyers.
A striking 70% of users consider reviews and ratings before closing their purchases. At the same time, at least 41% of them read 4 to 7 reviews to know the product better. UGC attracts, dominates, and converts audiences simply by turning their point of interest into inspiration and sales.
E. UGC Is A Cost-effective Way Of Marketing
Imagine you don’t have to spend vast sums of money building a creative team, producing branded content, and taking up marketing activities that cost a fortune; how cost-effective will that be?
User-generated content is abundant, and brands don’t have to run wild extensively looking out for it. Users produce content using brand-exclusive hashtags, mentions, handles, etc.; this can be collected and repurposed for marketing without incurring a penny.
As a result, brands, irrespective of their industry, have been cutting an edge concerning marketing costs by resourcing consumer-generated content.
F. Consumer Generated Content Evokes Emotions
Users look up to brands that showcase their human side and have a narrative. As a result, they can connect better and become loyal to them. Those days when pushy sales could do the trick are history now! Instead, being unique, creative, and emotive inclines users.
Community-generated content gives a very accurate representation of the brand to its customers. This representation has a 70% better chance of impacting the viewers than any other form of a traditional ad. Now, this impact is what persuades your audience or buyer to take action.
When brands show UGC on social ads and across other marketing touchpoints, they make their users play protagonists, making way for a colossal reach.
Users share their experiences with others, which sparks their attention and makes them want to be a part of the brand’s journey, improving its social standing.
7 Tips To Get The Most Out Of Your UGC
To achieve the best with user-generated content, aligning with these key aspects is essential.
- Gaining UGC Rights
- Give Credits To The Creator
- Encourage Content Creation
- Streamline Your Search For UGC
- Improved UGC Curation with Artificial Intelligence
- Maintain A Constant Flow Of Content
- Quality & Relevancy Of The Content
1. Gaining UGC Rights
When leveraging user-generated content, many brands ignore the part where they must take content rights from the content creators. It may seem minimal, but using social content without the users’ permission can get the brand under a lawsuit.
But when one leverage user-generated content across marketing touchpoints, gaining user rights from each content owner can be a little challenging. That’s when you need UGC rights software that helps you seamlessly fetch content rights from multiple content networks.
2. Give Credits To The Creator
When you share content generated by your users, ensure you give clear credits. It is essential to ensure that your users are excited to use and talk about your brand. Added benefits? Give potential users a reliable face that verifies your brand.
Moreover, giving credit is essential because it generates satisfaction in the creators’ minds about their work being appreciated. They will be further inspired to create more content that speaks of them. Hence, tag your users and give them credits wherever due.
3. Encourage Content Creation
Social media posts incorporating user-generated content meaning significantly drive more engagement than the other type of content.
Hence, by encouraging more people to participate in content creation, brands stand a chance to attract potential customers, as any visual UGC content is way more impactful than brand-generated content.
Further, content creation fosters authenticity, which eases the brand’s marketing efforts. But, to achieve this, brands can reach out to people on social media, give away their products for free, ask users to introduce them for a couple of days and share their honest feedback.
Simultaneously, asking for visual reviews and testimonials apart from the organic creation of UGC can be a great way to push more people to participate.
4. Streamline Your Search For UGC
With billions of people using social media platforms and creating unimaginable content, it is difficult to streamline your search for relevant UGC.
In addition, users across the globe use brand-generated hashtags to share content and tag and mention the social media handles of brands. Therefore, keeping track of this UGC is in itself a wearing-out task.
Further, a manual moderation process can probably make anybody feel fatigued. Here, the role of social media aggregator tools is pressing. They are effortless and cost-efficient and greatly assist brands in maximizing their UGC.
5. Improved UGC Curation with Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning are gradually taking over the world, making things more fluid for the masses.
But how does AI & ML work? While AI imitates human roles enabling software to perform human tasks, ML is an AI application that grows and improves over time by acquiring knowledge and learning algorithms through data.
Get on board with AI and machine learning to save time and gain access to maximum user-generated content. AI helps brands quickly scan the collected UGC, reads audience behavior, and recommends what will work best for your prospects.
When you incorporate user-generated content as a significant part of your marketing, you need an intelligent assistant to make things easier. So what could be better than AI?
6. Maintain A Constant Flow Of Content
The major obstacle faced by brands who incorporate it into their marketing strategies must be to gain a constant flow of content so that the brand has ample content they can market to satisfy the visual appetite of the audience.
There are many ways to overcome this. Firstly, with the power of social proof. When you leverage UGC across your marketing touchpoints, it creates a bandwagon effect among your audiences when they see people like them becoming your brand’s voice. It encourages them to create content for you.
Another way is by creating hashtag campaigns on social media. Hashtag campaigns or contests allow brands to give their audiences basic guidelines on the kind of content they want them to create.
It also allows brands to amplify their branded hashtag and create a constant flow of user-generated content for the brand.
7. Quality & Relevancy Of The Content
When it comes to user-generated content, you know it is created by different people who have their way of expressing themselves. Therefore, one cannot expect high-quality and relevant content from each user.
So, how does one overcome that challenge? The best way to do so is by choosing a social media aggregator with a content moderation tool that will bring all the relevant user-generated content to one place and filter out the irrelevant or repeated content to maintain the quality of the collection of your UGC.
Ideas to Leverage User Generated Content
Solely producing UGC isn’t enough; brands must maximize their marketing efforts and realize their UGC goals. Further, it is worth noting that social media boasts more than 3.96B active users, which is a colossal figure. Therefore, it indicates vast amounts of UGC created.
Aggregation, here, is the elementary challenge, the latter being relevancy. Therefore, formulating strategies that can, in a real sense, help brands optimally capitalize on user generated content is non-negotiable. Below are a few ways in which brands can do it.
- Embed It On Your Website
- Make It Shoppable
- Display It At Live/Virtual Events
- Integrate It On Digital Signage
- Repost It On Social Handles
- Create Robust Email Campaigns
- Promote Employee-Generated Content (EGC)
1. Embed It On Your Website
UGC’s authenticity, uniqueness, diversity, and vibrant can alter your website’s impact. It speaks for the brand and enhances user engagement, awareness, and credibility while indirectly improving the website’s ranking in search engine results.
But, since social media platforms facilitate boundless content creation, it can be difficult to run through each post and select specific ones to embed on the website.
Here, using an aggregator tool can tone down your labor. As it effortlessly collects and curates your feed, your website can gather unparalleled attraction.
Furthermore, your website plays an instrumental role in creating the first impression. Embed feeds that work as your brand’s advocate can be your front-runner.
For example, Skull Candy’s creative content marketing strategy centered on creating a visual appeal by showcasing user experiences and ideas. Brands can also feature UGC on their website; this is essential to boost conversions.
Reviews given by their customers have existed for a long time on their eCommerce websites, leading to more reviews.
Leveraging UGC-like customer reviews can take your users’ experience to another level regardless of how compelling your brand’s visuals are.
2. Make It Shoppable
By making your content shoppable, brands can enhance users’ experience by curtailing their purchase journey into simple steps.
It has become the need of the hour because buyers are looking out for faster and more efficient processes. By providing them with a two-step check-out, brands stand a chance to amplify their sales.
Further, the emergence of social commerce has motivated people to explore more products they can incorporate into their lives. With user-generated content made shoppable, brands can easily turn users’ points of attraction into sales.
For example, Mum & Daughter, a clothing brand, increased its conversions by 186% and its average order value by 58% through shoppable UGC and shoppable Instagram galleries on its website.
“UGC is an incredibly effective way for a brand to influence its audience and convert them into buyers.”
Dylan Duke, Founder and CEO at Glewee
3. Display It At Live/Virtual Events
Nothing like user-created content when fetching your audience’s attention in live or virtual events. It encourages people to be participative by creating and posting content on social media mentioning the event to get featured on digital screens.
This attracts the audience and keeps them hooked throughout the event while simultaneously working on your reach and brand awareness.
Further, holding onto the attendees’ curiosity throughout the event is difficult. But this becomes convincingly possible with social walls, including user-generated content, customized in a way that appeals to them.
So, can there be a better way to keep your audience entertained? We doubt!
4. Integrate It On Digital Signage
The digital signage industry is growing at a rapid rate. As a result, more and more businesses, irrespective of their niche, are opening up to installing it on their premise to bridge the communication gap, gain trust and enhance viewers’ attention, engagement, and conversion.
Amidst the rise in competition, digital signage displays are becoming a powerful strategy to attain a stand-out position in the market.
Incorporating UGC into digital displays can attract, influence, and inspire the viewers like a charm. Showcasing what your users say about your business can generate excitement and initiate interactions.
5. Repost It On Social Handles
Reposting on social media is a great way to make customers feel valued for their contributions while enhancing credibility and curiosity.
User-generated content is a key part of social media marketing strategy leveraged by brands like National Geographic, River Island, GoPro, IKEA, Samsung, etc.
But to use this content, it is essential to give the creator or the owner of the content credits and ask permission before you use it in any form.
Reposting involves legalities, which is non-negotiable as it is considered a violation of IP if practiced avoiding compliance from the content creator.
For example, Adobe is the brand behind Photoshop. So, you sure expect some eye-popping pictures on Adobe’s feed. And they most definitely deliver in that department, as they repost customer photos to foster a sense of community.
Adobe treats its users more than just data points. For example, the brand complemented its followers in one of its posts, referring to them as Adobe’s ‘creative community.’ Appreciating people for their efforts via a repost will motivate them to create more content.
6. Create Robust Email Campaigns
Email campaigning is the traditional form of marketing that has been a part of digital marketing ever since we can remember. 9 out of 10 marketers use email marketing to distribute content organically.
But all marketers would agree on their challenges to move the receivers’ attention and keep them engaged with the brand. They can now overcome this fear by leveraging consumer-generated content in their email campaigning.
UGC is not branded; it is created by different individuals adding their individuality to each content, helping brands serve some unique visuals to the email receivers in each email.
UGC in email marketing helps brands leverage content beyond social media, fulfill the visual appetite of the users, activate abandoned carts, and improve the email engagement rate. Most importantly, create a two-way interactive flow between the brand and its audience.
How Dune London incorporated UGC in their emails featuring their ‘Your Style’ gallery saw 55% more click-throughs when compared to previous emails not featuring user created content, this drove a six-hold hike in their revenue.
7. Promote Employee-Generated Content (EGC)
Chipotle leverages employee-generated content in its marketing strategies. For example, their careers page highlights EGC titled #PeopleofChipotle across diverse touchpoints. Additionally, their employees’ content produced and shared on social media is embedded in their gallery.
In their efforts to attract quality talent, Chipotle uses EGC to build trust and boost conversions by simply reposting what their existing employees have to say. This practice also effectively reduces the efforts and costs incurred by the brands in hiring.
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85% of the user are found to be more influenced by the UGC than the content made by the brands directly.
Adweek
Successful User Generated Content Examples
There are multiple examples of user generated content, but these are some of the best UGC examples.
Toyota – “Feeling the Street” UGC Campaign
“Feeling the Street” was a global music and branding campaign launched by Toyota in 2012. The campaign aimed to promote Toyota’s new Aygo model, a compact city car, to a younger demographic through music, social media, and experiential marketing.
As part of the campaign, Toyota partnered with the British band “The Other Tribe” to create a unique track called “We Should Be Dancing,” inspired by the sounds of the streets of London.
Toyota then made a music video featuring people dancing to the song on the streets of different cities worldwide, including London, Paris, and Madrid.
The campaign also included a social media component that encouraged people to share videos of themselves dancing to the song using the hashtag #feelingthestreet. Selected entries were then shared on Toyota’s social media channels.
The “Feeling the Street” campaign helped Toyota to create a solid emotional connection with its target audience and promote its Aygo model through a unique and engaging music and branding experience.
It also demonstrated Toyota’s commitment to innovation and creativity in its marketing campaigns.
Cult Beauty – How-To-Videos Campaign
Cult Beauty is an online retailer that sells beauty and skincare products. In 2020, Cult Beauty launched a UGC (user-generated content) campaign inviting customers to create how-to videos featuring their favorite products.
The “Cult Beauty School” campaign asked customers to submit short videos demonstrating how to use a specific product, such as a face mask or a moisturizer.
The selected entries were then shared on the Cult Beauty website and social media channels, along with a brief profile of the customer.
The Cult Beauty School campaign helped to create an engaged community of beauty enthusiasts and promote the company’s products through authentic and relatable customer experiences.
It also provided a platform for customers to showcase their skills and knowledge and gain exposure and recognition for their submissions.
The campaign demonstrated Cult Beauty’s commitment to customer engagement and education and helped to differentiate the company from other beauty retailers.
Gymshark – Relatable and Aspirational Images
Gymshark is a UK-based fitness apparel and accessories company that has run several user-created content campaigns to engage with its customers and promote its brand.
One of the most notable UGC campaigns by Gymshark is the “66 Days | Change Your Life” campaign, launched in 2017.
The campaign encouraged people to share their fitness transformation stories and progress photos using the hashtag #Gymshark66 on social media platforms.
The selected entries were then featured on the Gymshark website and social media channels, and the winners received prizes such as Gymshark gear and gym memberships.
Another UGC campaign by Gymshark is the “Family Campaign,” which aims to celebrate the diverse and inclusive community of fitness enthusiasts who wear Gymshark apparel.
The company encouraged its customers to share their fitness stories and photos with their Gymshark “family” using the hashtag #GSFamily, which were then featured on social media pages.
Gymshark’s UGC campaigns have helped the company to build an engaged community of fitness enthusiasts and promote its brand through authentic and relatable customer stories.
They have also helped to create a sense of belonging and loyalty among Gymshark customers.
Butternut Box – Combine User Reviews and Images
The Butternut Box UGC campaign was a successful marketing campaign that encouraged dog owners to share their dogs’ photos and stories using the hashtag #butternutbox.
The campaign was designed to promote Butternut Box’s healthy, home-cooked dog food and to generate authentic and engaging content that could be shared on social media.
To incentivize participation, Butternut Box selected the best UGC and featured it on its website and social media channels, along with a brief profile of the dog and its owner. This helped to create an engaged community of dog owners and promote the brand through relatable and authentic content.
The Butternut Box campaign also incorporated location-based multi-format OOH advertising to increase web traffic and sales, including digital screens, bus shelters, and roadside billboards.
The OOH advertising featured dogs enjoying Butternut Box’s food and the campaign hashtag to encourage further participation on social media.
The campaign was a huge success, with over 10,000 UGC submissions and a significant increase in web traffic and organic sales growth. The Butternut Box UGC campaign demonstrated the power of user-generated content in building an engaged community of brand advocates and promoting a product authentically and relatable.
Steps To Create a Successful UGC Campaign
UGC campaigns are diverse and unique for each brand. Here are some easy steps to create a memorable and robust UGC campaign.
Step 1: Choose the Social Networks Most Impactful to Your Campaign
If you want to turn your customers into your brand advocates, the foremost thing is to reach where they reside. With so many social media platforms, you must identify where you will find the maximum number of your customers, as only that would help you maximize the outcome of your efforts.
While Facebook blends text and visual content, Instagram users focus on creating vibrant visuals. Besides, according to a Pew Research study of Americans, Instagram is the most popular app among 18 to 24-year-olds.
With such complex user distribution, identify the ideal platform for your brand and start your result-driven UGC campaign.
Step 2: Setup Your UGC Campaign Goals
Once you have chosen your user-generated content campaign source, it’s time to finalize your marketing goals. Whether running a hashtag or an influencer campaign, the idea is to increase your UGC campaign’s visibility. This can be done by publishing it on the marketing touchpoint where you interact with your audience the most or where you want them to interact with you.
You can publish your user-generated content campaign gallery on your website, email campaigns, digital signages, social ads, print media, etc. Your goal can be to bring more traffic to your website or improve the performance of your email campaigns. It all becomes possible with UGC.
Step 3: Collaborate and Focus on Community Building
When shoppers experience a sense of loyalty for any particular brand, thanks to its image, associations, credibility in deliverables, or any other kind of fandom, they feel part of something that overrides your average brand-user relationship.
But the question is, how do you build a trustworthy relationship with your customers and foster community building among them? Simply by humanizing your brand.
When you give your customers a voice, you give them a more significant reason to love your brand, and by sharing this voice, you make them a part of you. UGC being emotive showcases the brand value and story in and out.
It forges authenticity, enhances communication through channels like social media, and makes potential customers want to know you better and come back to you.
Step 4: Analyze & Measure Your UGC Campaign Efforts
Now that you have followed all the steps to create a successful user-generated content (UGC) campaign, it’s time to track the performance and measure the success of your UGC campaign.
There are many key performance indicators or KPIs to measure the success of your UGC campaign, and it varies from brand to brand and the marketing touchpoint where you have incorporated your rich user-generated content.
For websites, the KPIs can be traffic, dwell time, and bounce rate. For emails, it can be the click-through rate. For eCommerce brands, it can be the cart abandonment rate, the conversion rate, and so on.
Analyze and Measure Your User-Generated Content Efforts
Analyzing and measuring your user-generated content efforts is crucial to understanding your strategies’ impact and effectiveness. These steps will help you analyze and measure your user-generated content efforts:
Define Your Goals: Clearly define the goals and objectives you want to achieve with your user-generated content. Are you aiming to drive engagement, boost brand awareness, or boost conversions? Establishing specific goals will guide your analysis.
Choose Relevant Metrics: Identify the metrics that align with your goals. Select metrics that reflect the desired outcomes of your user-generated content campaign. These may include the number of submissions, engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares), reach and impressions, conversion rates, customer feedback ratings, or sentiment analysis.
Implement Tracking and Analytics: Set up tracking mechanisms to monitor the performance of your user-generated content. You can use analytics tools like Google Analytics, social media analytics, or dedicated UGC platforms to track and measure relevant metrics. Track the source of user-generated content to identify the most effective channels.
Monitor Engagement and Interaction: Measure the level of engagement and interaction your user-generated content generates. Analyze the number of likes, comments, shares, and mentions across different platforms. Assess the quality and depth of interactions to gauge the impact of your content.
Conduct Sentiment Analysis: Analyze the sentiment associated with user-generated content. Monitor sentiment using sentiment analysis tools or manual analysis to understand the overall perception of your brand and products. Positive sentiment indicates a successful campaign, while negative sentiment highlights areas for improvement.
Evaluate Conversion Rates: If your goal is to drive conversions, track the impact of user-generated content on conversion rates. Measure the number of leads, sales, or other desired actions generated from user-generated content. Compare conversion rates with other marketing channels to assess effectiveness.
Gather Customer Feedback: User-generated content can provide valuable insights into customer preferences, needs, and pain points. Analyze the content to identify common themes, customer preferences, or areas for improvement. Use this feedback to refine your marketing strategies and product offerings.
Iterate and Improve: Based on your analysis, identify areas of improvement and make data-driven decisions. Optimize your user-generated content strategies by leveraging insights gained from measurement and analysis.
How User-Generated Content Transforms Influencer Marketing
Some may perceive that influencer marketing and user-generated content marketing are two different entities. But if you strategically put them together, they can leverage optimum results for your brand.
Many brands connect with micro-influencers with around 1500 followers, but they have created strong relationships with their audiences as per their high engagement rate.
These organic influencers can encourage their followers to try your products with the power of their content. Not just that, these influencers can create social proof among their audience and encourage them to create user-generated content for your brand.
For example, Daniel Wellington strategically leveraged influencer marketing and user-generated content to build their brand’s identity and reach millions of online consumers who might not have known the brand.
Its hashtag campaign potentially generated more than 800K Instagram photos and videos, its account followers grew from 850K to 2.1M in a year, and its profits increased by 214%.
As a part of their approach they:
- Laid focus on developing a brand story that would attract and inspire the audiences,
- Gave away the product free of cost to the shortlisted influencers to promote their product, and
- Curated an exclusive hashtag for the brand #danielwellington to prompt social media users to create and post content showcasing their products
- The best UGC content is then selected to repost Daniel Wellington’s Instagram account with the #DWpickoftheday
Tagbox Is The Ultimate UGC Tool: Here’s Why
Taggbox is the best UGC platform businesses across industries leverage to turn their marketing efforts into a new leaf. By potentially driving better engagement, reach, leads, and conversions.
It aggregates content generated via different sources across 19+ social media channels in seconds. In addition, it facilitates brands to filter out the content to align it with the purpose of its creation through its robust moderation panel, which can also be automated.
But collecting isn’t enough to captivate today’s ‘very-specific and majorly active’ audience. You need more.
Customization is the ‘more’ you need. By adding different backgrounds, fonts, themes, layouts, etc., you can enhance the look of your feed and make it appealing to the masses.
These are some marketing touchpoints where you can use UGC:
- Embed on the website
- Create Social Ads
- Display on social walls at events
- Digital signage screens
- Or make UGC shoppable to enhance eCommerce performance
Wait, you can’t settle without analytics!
Taggbox also provides insightful, in-built analytics that enables brands to know the performance of the campaigns and makes changes wherever required to magnify results.
It also helps brands to identify their most influential contributors, opening up better collaboration possibilities with users and influencers.
Perhaps you now have a sound understanding of UGC and all that you can unlock with its use. Why wait still? Reach out to us ASAP!
Frequently Asked Question About UGC:
Individual users, consumers, or regular people produce user-generated content (UGC) on social media channels by sharing their photos, videos, comments, and other forms of content.
User-generated content (UGC) is essential because it’s authentic, builds trust, and engages customers. It also saves time and resources for brands by letting users create content. UGC helps brands increase reach, awareness, and conversions while creating a sense of community and fostering customer loyalty.
User-generated content is the most credible form of social content. The users create it, so it helps other users or customers understand any specific brand, product, or service in-depth and acts as social proof for them.
User-generated content on social media is any content posted about your brand. The creator of this content can be your customers, influencers, employees, or content creators. This content can be in the form of photos, videos, comments, stories, or reviews.
UGC can be highly beneficial for SEO ranking through brand websites and social media content. Utilizing UGC on a website can boost user engagement, and we all know website engagement is one of the best ranking factors in SEO.
User-generated content (UGC) advertising is when businesses use content created by their customers to promote their products or services. UGC advertising is a powerful tool because it leverages the authenticity and trustworthiness of content created by real people.
1. Images containing your product,
2. Videos about your brand,
3. Customer Testimonials,
4. Service Reviews,
5. Blog posts mentioning your brand,
6. and YouTube Video explaining your product.
Curate, moderate, and leverage UGC for engagement, authenticity, and community building in your content strategy.
Companies benefit from UGC for authenticity, engagement, and community building. It fosters trust, boosts brand awareness, and enhances marketing effectiveness.
UGC stands for “User-Generated Content,” which refers to content created and shared by users or consumers rather than by the brand or company.
