UGC or user-generated content is content which is not produced by you, but by your media or website users. UGC Promotes engagement and grows your audience. It improves SEO, boosts your lead generation effort, and is relatively inexpensive.
If you are not working on getting user-generated content, we extremely recommend you to read the article below to fully become aware of user-generated content advantages.
Read Mr.Erik Qualman to understand why we emphasis on getting UGC:
25% of search results for the world’s top 20 largest brands are links to user generated content and 34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands.
Now you may ask what is UGC content? Follow us in this article to know more about UGC content, examples of using it and also knowing how to get UGC.
What is UGC Content?
All business managers are focused on customer satisfaction and don’t ignore their comments and feedback in any way.
It is noteworthy that many buyers check the user comments section, read reviews, user suggestions, and earn points and then decide whether to buy a product or not. In this situation they are actually getting information from UGC.
But does it mean? User-generated content In general, is any type of content production, including web posts, chats, forums, videos, etc, which is generated by users. This type of content is provided by people who don’t work for a company and don’t receive money for their content.
How to Get User-Generated Content?
Getting user-generated content is not easy. You have to be aware of a few strategies and also, knowing how to use them. Read the strategies below to understand more about UGC.
1- Invite People to Produce UGC Content Through Challenges or Digital Contests
If you want to increase interactions with users, and motivate them to produce content for your brand, you have to consider pre-planned challenges, contests and prizes for them.
Websites and social networks are also a great help in this way. Let’s not forget hashtags (like creating hashtag campaigns), and generating videos (Like video content by users), can help us in the best possible way to increase UGC.
With a little ingenuity, you can ask the users to share the generated content with the hashtag you want on their social network when running hashtag campaigns. Because more people will become aware of this campaign.
When you choose a huge prize and hold a variety of digital contests, people become motivated to try their luck at winning prizes. So holding competitions is a great opportunity for you to ask your audience to produce content related to your brand.
2- Holding a Poll to Fascinate Users
Build trust By conducting online surveys (for example, in the form of Instagram stories or tweets) you can ask questions about the user experience and customers’ expectations for future products. You can also ask about product weaknesses, improvements and challenges, and then Analyze the resulting information.
3- Adding User Comments to the Product Builds Trust
If you have a store section in your website, be sure to provide a section for users’ comments in your products section. It is necessary to create a section for inserting users’ comments and rating the product. User comments are one of the most common types of UGC and can become the best promoter and supporter of your brand.
4- Encourage Customers to Produce UGC After Buying a Product
Encourage your customers to produce a UGC at one of the shopping stages. For example, ask them to take photos with what they have bought. This is very useful in these years when online shopping has increased. You can ask customers to take photos, send it to you, then share these photos. So that potential customers can see the satisfaction with their own eyes.
The Importance of User-Generated Content for Business
UGC is in Your favor in Terms of Cost
Because in UGC users produce all your content. Clearly, using the images they produce will cost you less than building a banner ad. The beauty of user-generated content is that you can easily have a successful marketing campaign without spending a dollar.
ROI (Rate of Return on Investment) is High in UGC
UGC increases engagement, click-through rates, and conversions .When UGC is used in website galleries the time spent on your website by visitors is 90% higher. It also saves time and money because you can leverage your customer’s voices to be at the forefront of your brand messaging with UGC. For example, Coca-Cola saw a 92% savings on marketing initiatives by using user generated content for their “Share A Coke” personalized bottle campaign.
What is the Benefit of UGC?
Strengthening branding is one of the most fabulous advantages of user-generated content. If you can build a strong brand for your business, you can greatly increase your sales.
Interacting with users on the website and expressing their needs and even expressing product problems will increase the trust of your customers and help you to automatically strengthen your brand. Of course, this also requires a targeted strategy that can direct the generated UGC content to a specific goal. But in any case, rest assured that this content will gradually and over time help you gain a strong reputation in your field of work, and this factor can become one of your competitive advantages.
UGC Brings the Audience Together
People would rather be a player than watch the game from a distance.
See this photo to understand why we say UGC brings the audience together.
The second and fourth items are the most important parts of UGC. Influence must work in both ways. It means members must also feel that they have an impact on society.
So as you can see, the production of content by users is very important for brands. Content created by ordinary people to promote a product has a tremendous impact. Never underestimate UGC when starting a business. We hope after reading this article you will be well aware of the definition of UGC and the strategies to use it.
