User-Generated Content: How Effective Is It In Boosting Revenue?

Social media has paved the way for brands to reach out to a broader audience. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube have all made the lives of advertisers easier because now they can send their target audience the right message at the right time and place.

Aside from that, social media has also allowed businesses to connect and engage with their audience to increase their sales conversions. For one, brands can take advantage of user-generated content (UGC) to drive more traffic, generate qualified leads, and further boost their revenues.

What is user-generated content?

From the term “user-generated,” this kind of content is created by customers and posted on social media and other channels. It is original, brand-specific, and comes in different forms:

• Videos
• Images
• YouTube content
• Blog posts
• Live streams
• Social media content
• Product reviews

User-generated content can come from different people, including the following:

·      Customers

Your customers are the best sources of user-generated content, whether you ask for it or because they genuinely want to share content about your brand. Unboxing videos on IG Live or posts that praise a brand and are published by customers is an excellent example of this content.

·      Employees

When employees post videos of them completing and packing orders or talking about why they love working for you, you can also use such content to promote your brand. Employee-generated content (EGC) is like behind-the-scenes content that helps build your brand identity and showcase authenticity.

·      Brand loyalists

Fans, advocates, or loyalists are the most dedicated customers you want to have. They’re people who are more than happy to talk about your company and share their thoughts with people they know on social media. This is why they are the best people to reach out to and ask for user-generated content.

What makes user-generated content important?

Every day, brands understand the increasing importance of user-generated content, especially that it can help reinforce their search engine optimization (SEO) strategies.

UGC plays a vital role in your overall digital marketing strategy. It’s social proof that customers who have bought and used your products or services are completely satisfied with their purchase.

Aside from that, user-generated content offers the following significant benefits.

·      Create brand awareness

UGC helps potential buyers discover a product they didn’t know they needed or realize a problem requiring a solution. Through user-generated content from social networks, customer review sites, and search engines, people will be made aware of your brand and how you can solve specific problems for them. Experts say that UGC that talks about a brand get viewed ten times more often than official videos posted by the brands themselves.

·      Establish brand loyalty

A lot of people thrive off being a part of something great. So, when you give your customers a chance to participate in your brand’s growth instead of just being a mere spectator, they become loyal to you. It paves the way for your brand to create a whole different level of interaction, which builds loyalty and deepen your relationship with them.

·      Boost conversion and influence buying decisions

User-generated content is vital in the final stage of the buyer journey, where you need to influence your prospect into making a purchase. This is because UGC serves as social proof that your product or service is worth every dollar you spend. So, when a potential customer sees other people praising and recommending your brand, it influences them to make that purchase.

·      Drive engagement

Once you are able to grab your audience’s attention, the next step you need to take is to engage them. You can send out personalized emails to your customers requesting them to share their thoughts and feelings about your products and services through their social media accounts. Reviews or testimonials allow you to gather unique data and insights and, at the same time, engage potential customers who didn’t know your brand existed.

·      Generate more leads and increase sales

After you get user-generated content about your brand, you’ll be able to get more qualified leads and boost your sales. This is because people trust ratings and testimonials from fellow customers. In short, such UGC can have a significant impact on people’s purchasing decisions.

·      Make customers happy

Customer service shouldn’t stop at the checkout page. To ensure that customers are completely happy with their purchase, you need to offer the opportunity to create a specific type of UGC: forum postings, post-sales questions, support tickets, and bug reports. Through such content, you’ll be able to generate more support content to make future customers happier, like FAQs and knowledge-based articles, which 41% of millennials use to solve issues without needing to contact support.

·      Complement social commerce

Shopping directly from social channels has become a huge thing on the internet. Many people are starting to appreciate the fact that they can now directly buy the products they see on social media. UGC and social commerce work perfectly together because the former is incredibly influential in driving conversions. An estimated 80% of users say that UGC has dramatically influenced their buying decision.

·      Save you a lot of money

Unlike influencer marketing, where you need to spend millions, the cost of asking your customers to share their opinions about your brand and product is next to nothing. This is why it’s a cost-effective way to scale your business and incorporate a new strategy into your marketing mix. A lot of people will be thrilled to be featured on your channel just by sharing their thoughts about your brand and product.

How to succeed with user-generated content?

·      Ask for permission

Whenever you share something on social media, it’s important that you request consent. Even if people use your branded hashtags in their posts, it’s common courtesy to ask for permission to reshare their posts to show them that you appreciate them sharing their opinions about your brand. By doing so, you’re also keeping yourself from getting into trouble with copyright concerns.

·      Give clear credit to the original poster

Tag the users who posted user-generated content about your brand or product. Remember: always give credit to where credit is due. It’s also a common rule to ask the original creator how they want to be credited. Providing clear credit to the creator is a way of showing respect for their work and effort. It gives you plus points if you would be professional enough to ask for their permission to reshare their post and tag them as the original creator.

·      Provide clear guidelines of the kind of content you’re looking for

When people share posts with your branded hashtags, it’s clear that they want you to take notice and share their content on your channels. This also means that they want you to be clear about the content you want them to create and share. So, make sure you provide specific guidelines to ensure your followers know the kind of content that fits your needs.

·      Set goals

To be able to leverage user-generated content, you need to be clear on your goals, too. You need to determine how specific content will align with your existing marketing campaigns. Are you looking to build brand awareness? Do you want to drive more traffic and increase conversions?

It makes perfect business sense to invest in a UGC management platform to help you identify user-generated content and insights for your digital marketing campaigns.

Final thoughts

Another way to take advantage of UGC is to use your insights to foster a sense of community through email marketing. You can send your followers or subscribers personalized emails encouraging them to share their posts about you, too, and engage with you through the channels they frequent.