Is your company benefiting from all the photos, videos, blogs, testimonials, and reviews being made for the brand? User generated content or UGC is the 21st-century word of mouth marketing and should be implemented into every brand’s marketing plan.
Today more consumers are looking to the content being created by other people to help with the process of purchasing. Why? Well, 92% of consumers trust organic, user generated content more than they trust traditional advertising!
With the help of your most loyal fans and customers and a brand ambassador platform there’s no telling what can happen. By rewarding these people to create content, different groups can be reached, and new ideas can be gathered and implemented into product updates for your brand.
Imagine a customer’s brand loyalty after seeing their ideas and content being shared on a brand’s website! Remember, customers should be rewarded fairly for the effort they put forth when creating content. For example, one blog post should garner a little more than a sticker!
If you or your brand has been hesitant to use user generated content in the past, keep reading to discover some of the many benefits it can provide in this evolving marketplace.
Check out our ambassador program examples playbook to learn how brands are scaling their ambassador programs to thousands of participants, hundreds of thousands of pieces of UGC across Facebook, Instagram & Twitter & millions in measurable referral revenue.
8 ways User-Generated Content can benefit your brand
Build Brand Loyalty
User generated content can help build brand loyalty in many ways. One approach is promoting a worthy cause at your company and motivating customers to participate and post their content to support the cause as well. Reward the customers for their creations and have them share the brand’s cause with their followers to help drive reach and brand loyalty. Another successful strategy is recruiting ambassadors and mobilizing them to create and promote content in exchange for discounts and rewards. With discounts, ambassadors will be more inclined to frequently purchase products resulting in an increase of brand loyalty over time.
Offer Social Proof
User generated content helps your brand provide examples and stories about the experiences your customers have. Before making a purchase, humans are hardwired to first seek out evidence or “social proof” of a product or service to eliminate the possibility of buyer’s remorse. Share customer testimonials, blogs and product reviews to ease the minds of potential customers and offer the social proof they need.
Capture Attention
When using authentic content, highlight other customer’s great experiences with your brand. When potential customers are able to form connections between themselves and your brand a purchase will more than likely occur. This is due to 80% of consumers finding UGC helpful when making a purchasing decision. A great example of capturing attention is GoPro cameras highlighting all of their customer’s action-packed videos to help drive similar feelings amongst potential customers.
Grow Reach
Recruit avid customers, employees, and micro-influencers to become ambassadors for your brand. Have them create content for your brand and have them share it with their followers. Picture the number of followers you could reach if you had 100 ambassadors promoting your brand on social media.
Combat Ad Blindness
User generated content doesn’t look like a traditional marketing ad. Today a majority of people are experiencing Ad Blindness or in other words becoming less receptive to ads. Be sure to rotate the ads on your site and include user generated content often. This helps draw people in and helps them remember the brand’s promotions. For example, Millennials stated that user generated content is 35% more memorable and 50% more trusted over other media.
Cut Costs
User content can be an inexpensive part of your marketing budget. Instead of seeking out expensive models, celebrities, and photographers, mobilize some passionate customers to become brand ambassadors. Offer ambassadors discounts on your products in exchange for the content they create. One great example is Jone’s Soda who continually runs a contest for customers to submit photos for the chance of being featured on their soda bottles. Think about the time, effort, and money Jone’s Soda saves by leaving their label design up to their customers!
Authenticity
User generated content helps to humanize your brand. When your brand uses user generated content on its website or social media platform it is putting the customer at the front of the brand. Having a customer at the front allows potential customers to form similarities with that individual and even seek out their recommendation. A report by Nielson Global found that 42% of consumers are more likely to trust a recommendation from another person over branded content.
Quality
86% of Millennials say user generated content is a good indicator of the quality of brand or service. By getting brand ambassadors to create content for your brand, you’d be on the fast track to capture a majority of the millennial market!
Conclusion
User generated content, it’s that simple. Go recruit some avid customers to become ambassadors of your brand today. Have ambassadors build content for their followers and use their awesome content for your brand’s followers as well. By doing this your brand will be one step ahead of the competition and that much closer to building brand loyalty and lifetime value.
Remember gone are the days of traditional marketing, it’s time to take a different approach. Today, 90% of shoppers’ purchasing decisions are influenced by user-generated content!
It’s time to start building relationships and empowering customers to tell stories, create content, and provide consumers with the social proof they need. Influence potential customer’s purchasing decisions with one easy strategy: User Generated Content.
If your brand is interested in recruiting customers to produce authentic content for your brand, contact BrandChamp for a free personalized demo so we can show you how our software can help.
