You may have heard of User-generated content a lot these days, but what is UGC exactly and how it is relevant to your business is a question that runs in every marketer’s mind.
So user-created content is a type of content that is generated by the people itself. It can be in any format – images, text, videos, reviews, recommendations, etc.
What Is UGC and It’s Different Platforms
Consumer-generated content is created by the users instead of brands. This content is used by the brands and to display on their website, social media platforms, and other platforms where they can directly connect with their audience.
One of the highly popular platforms for UGC content is social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Yelp, and many others.
From these channels, brands find out what are the people talking about their brands and what experience they have with their brands.
It is one of the effective ways to curate the quality and unique content for your marketing purposes as it is generated by your audience.
Users on their own create the post and share them over social media to show other social media users what is their experience with the product or services.
You can use this content to display on your website, social media account, or any other place where you represent your brands and connect with the audience.
Thus, customer-generated content is highly beneficial for current marketing strategies and help in developing engaging content for your audience.
Let’s learn why user-generated content is beneficial to you and how it is relevant to your business.
Why Do You Use User-Generated Content?
Building Trust
Trust is one of the major factors that every brand should build with their customers. If there is no trust then there is no business and your business will never grow.
But how do you develop trust in your audience for your brand? As we have discussed earlier, user-generated content is created by the users themselves.
People feel more connected when they have heard and read about the brand from the people like them not what the brand blabber about themselves.
They share their personal experience with the brands about how they feel with the brands and their personal experience.
When you curate this information from the different platforms and display it to show your audience, create high trust with you as the information is unbiased and direct from the customers.
Creating Authenticity
Authenticity is what makes people rely on you and build trust in you. If the content lacks authenticity then no one is going to believe in what you are offering them.
Studies show that people like to watch user-generated content for authenticity of the brand instead of content created by the brand.
Help Customers To Make Purchase Decision
When people have trust in your brand and find authenticity in your content, the next step they have is making the purchase decision.
Both the factors trust and authenticity play a major role in purchasing. About 80 percent of people say that they make purchase decisions after reading the reviews and what the other customer says about the brand. If they find it positive, healthy, and relevant to their need they are ready to buy that product.
Thus, it becomes highly important for the brands to use what their customers are saying about them and their experience with their product or service.
How UGC Is Effective For Your Brand?
User-generated content marketing strategy helps in building trust, authenticity, connectivity, and reliability on your brand.
This will give a satisfactory experience to your customers and encourage them to make purchasing decisions.
Established brands find that UGC is an effective way to connect with their customers and one of the proven marketing strategies to achieve their target goals.
UGC Is Direct From Customers
In today’s marketing strategies, input from customers has become a key part for brands to include in their marketing strategy. As the competition is growing, it becomes extremely hard for businesses to bring the news ways to stand out in the competition.
User-generated Content plays a major role in promoting the business and its products or services. Customers that you receive positive experience with your brand love to talk about your brand with others on social media platforms.
You can use this content to attract and engage more new customers as they can easily believe in the content shared by the existing customers of your brand.
No Need Of Proof
There is no need of proof or any other verification on the reliability of the content as UGC is directly derived from the real customers.
UGC shows the real experience of the customers with the brands and their products or services. It is a well-known fact that content from the existing and real customers increases the credibility of the company. As the content is real and direct from the customers, it also leads to taking actions and deriving sales.
Reviews, recommendations, images, text, videos, etc. by the customers works as evidence that serve as the purpose to make the potential audience to take more interest in your brand.
UCC creates reliability and there is no need to prove the content for authenticity.
Final Words
User-generated content has become an effective strategy of content marketing. Brands curate the content from the different social media platforms where people interact with people as well as with the brand.
Big brands use this marketing strategy from way long to generate trust among their customers either existing or new.
Marketers are using the UGC method to influence their audience and connect with prospective customers in the most effective way.