

User Generated Content – The Future of Marketing
28 November 2022 at 8:00:00 PM
Latest Insights

Title
Date
Mutant tailors digital solutions for evolving brands in the Middle East

Title
Date
Mutant tailors digital solutions for evolving brands in the Middle East
Whether uploaded when you create a website or integrated into your social media feeds—user generated content helps audiences instantly connect with your brand. User-generated content can increase brand awareness and solidify your business as both competitive and trustworthy. But before opening your platform for customers, employees and business stakeholders to post their images, videos, audio and text, you need to know a few important components about building a user-generated content strategy. This article will tackle the benefits, best practices and how to make user-generated content part of your marketing efforts. We'll review: What is user-generated content? Top 4 reasons brands should implement user-generated content How to incorporate a user-generated content into your marketing strategy What is user-generated content? User-generated content (UGC) is any content that didn’t originate from your brand, but rather your audience. This can refer to a range of content types—including photos, videos, reviews, comments or even blog posts. Essentially, UGC includes your brand, but your in-house marketing team doesn’t create the assets. While this may seem like a fancy new type of marketing, user-generated content is essentially just word-of-mouth referrals for the online age. Think of a user posting about a brand’s product just like a recommendation from a friend. In some cases, the advertised brand doesn’t sponsor user-generated content, but someone who finds inspiration in the brand or its products creates content about it. This makes it, oftentimes, feel more authentic and trustworthy than traditional advertisements. Brands can also pay for user-generated content, but this can cross over into sponsored content territory, which doesn’t touch audiences in the same organic way. Top 4 reasons brands should implement user-generated-content 01. User generated content promotes authenticity and trustworthiness In an age where most people perceive the staging and photoshopping associated with traditional advertising as inauthentic, user-generated content shines through as more transparent and trustworthy. Brands today cannot afford to overlook authenticity. In fact, 86% of consumers say authenticity drives them to decide which brands to support, and a further 81% agree that they can’t purchase from a brand that they don’t trust. Using user-generated content in campaigns to promote their brand, companies can prove their authenticity. 02. Allows potential clients to evaluate your brand 93% of consumers read reviews before committing to make a purchase. To grow a successful brand, you must collect online reviews, but that doesn’t mean you have to do with a cut-and-dry product review page. While these help customers, clients can learn about a brand or product in more engaging ways. User-generated reviews are powerful, and their unfiltered nature resonates well with audiences. Whether an Instagram user uploads a story about their favorite coffee brand and explains what they like about it, or a YouTuber films themselves unboxing a product and showing off its features, UGC highlights the visual. It gives a potential buyer a close-up, unfiltered look at the product or service. 03. Highly affordable and effective User-generated content won’t break the bank. Rather than pouring your social media marketing budget into creating ads, your users do it for you. Unless you offer sponsorship in exchange for content, organic user-generated content doesn’t cost a brand anything. Given this fact, user generated content can produce a high return on investment (ROI). Asking clients to share free content online can result in increased brand awareness for your business, influencing audiences that haven’t yet converted. 04. Inspires brand loyalty While many established brands like Coca-Cola, Starbucks and GoPro have elevated their marketing campaigns with user-generated content, newer and smaller brands can also find this strategy particularly helpful. User-generated content’s community-oriented nature can help you build up your fan base and connect with consumers. Instead of interacting with your brand from the distance of email campaigns, audiences will engage with other real customers who have tried and tested your brand. These long-term relationships also encourage repeat sales. Through sharing content that supports your brand, they become loyal advocates for your business. Photo by Luke Chesser on Unsplash How to incorporate user-generated content into your marketing strategy Once you’ve inspired users to generate buzz around your brand, leverage it with your own content strategy. First, determine your goal Before you start asking your customers for user-generated content, assess your ultimate goals to understand the best route to success. You may want to: Create brand awareness Increase social engagement Cut down on marketing costs Establish trust and credibility Listen to users Once you decide your goals for user-generated content, you'll decide details like which social network will be most effective or which content you’ll request from your audience. Encourage reviews and content When creating a UGC-based marketing campaign, make sure you know what you want. To host a contest that requires content creation as an entry, write out clear instructions for your audience. If you want to create a hashtag that your community can use to show off their purchases, make sure to show them an example of the images or videos you’d like to see paired with the hashtag. The more specific, the better. Give these campaigns time to grow. Just because you asked for content today doesn’t mean it’ll happen right away. These campaigns often have a snowball effect. Create a user-generated content library Once you’ve launched your campaign and amassed a good amount of user posts, try creating a content library for future use. You can either save users’ posts to use in your future Instagram marketing campaigns or just for when you need to fill out your feed. Many users love seeing their posts on brand pages, so once your campaign finishes, you can still use the content.





Share this Insight

User Generated Content – The Future of Marketing
Monday, 28 November 2022 at 8:00:00 PM UTC
Latest Insights

Title
Date
Mutant tailors digital solutions for evolving brands in the Middle East

Title
Date
Mutant tailors digital solutions for evolving brands in the Middle East
Whether uploaded when you create a website or integrated into your social media feeds—user generated content helps audiences instantly connect with your brand. User-generated content can increase brand awareness and solidify your business as both competitive and trustworthy. But before opening your platform for customers, employees and business stakeholders to post their images, videos, audio and text, you need to know a few important components about building a user-generated content strategy. This article will tackle the benefits, best practices and how to make user-generated content part of your marketing efforts. We'll review: What is user-generated content? Top 4 reasons brands should implement user-generated content How to incorporate a user-generated content into your marketing strategy What is user-generated content? User-generated content (UGC) is any content that didn’t originate from your brand, but rather your audience. This can refer to a range of content types—including photos, videos, reviews, comments or even blog posts. Essentially, UGC includes your brand, but your in-house marketing team doesn’t create the assets. While this may seem like a fancy new type of marketing, user-generated content is essentially just word-of-mouth referrals for the online age. Think of a user posting about a brand’s product just like a recommendation from a friend. In some cases, the advertised brand doesn’t sponsor user-generated content, but someone who finds inspiration in the brand or its products creates content about it. This makes it, oftentimes, feel more authentic and trustworthy than traditional advertisements. Brands can also pay for user-generated content, but this can cross over into sponsored content territory, which doesn’t touch audiences in the same organic way. Top 4 reasons brands should implement user-generated-content 01. User generated content promotes authenticity and trustworthiness In an age where most people perceive the staging and photoshopping associated with traditional advertising as inauthentic, user-generated content shines through as more transparent and trustworthy. Brands today cannot afford to overlook authenticity. In fact, 86% of consumers say authenticity drives them to decide which brands to support, and a further 81% agree that they can’t purchase from a brand that they don’t trust. Using user-generated content in campaigns to promote their brand, companies can prove their authenticity. 02. Allows potential clients to evaluate your brand 93% of consumers read reviews before committing to make a purchase. To grow a successful brand, you must collect online reviews, but that doesn’t mean you have to do with a cut-and-dry product review page. While these help customers, clients can learn about a brand or product in more engaging ways. User-generated reviews are powerful, and their unfiltered nature resonates well with audiences. Whether an Instagram user uploads a story about their favorite coffee brand and explains what they like about it, or a YouTuber films themselves unboxing a product and showing off its features, UGC highlights the visual. It gives a potential buyer a close-up, unfiltered look at the product or service. 03. Highly affordable and effective User-generated content won’t break the bank. Rather than pouring your social media marketing budget into creating ads, your users do it for you. Unless you offer sponsorship in exchange for content, organic user-generated content doesn’t cost a brand anything. Given this fact, user generated content can produce a high return on investment (ROI). Asking clients to share free content online can result in increased brand awareness for your business, influencing audiences that haven’t yet converted. 04. Inspires brand loyalty While many established brands like Coca-Cola, Starbucks and GoPro have elevated their marketing campaigns with user-generated content, newer and smaller brands can also find this strategy particularly helpful. User-generated content’s community-oriented nature can help you build up your fan base and connect with consumers. Instead of interacting with your brand from the distance of email campaigns, audiences will engage with other real customers who have tried and tested your brand. These long-term relationships also encourage repeat sales. Through sharing content that supports your brand, they become loyal advocates for your business. Photo by Luke Chesser on Unsplash How to incorporate user-generated content into your marketing strategy Once you’ve inspired users to generate buzz around your brand, leverage it with your own content strategy. First, determine your goal Before you start asking your customers for user-generated content, assess your ultimate goals to understand the best route to success. You may want to: Create brand awareness Increase social engagement Cut down on marketing costs Establish trust and credibility Listen to users Once you decide your goals for user-generated content, you'll decide details like which social network will be most effective or which content you’ll request from your audience. Encourage reviews and content When creating a UGC-based marketing campaign, make sure you know what you want. To host a contest that requires content creation as an entry, write out clear instructions for your audience. If you want to create a hashtag that your community can use to show off their purchases, make sure to show them an example of the images or videos you’d like to see paired with the hashtag. The more specific, the better. Give these campaigns time to grow. Just because you asked for content today doesn’t mean it’ll happen right away. These campaigns often have a snowball effect. Create a user-generated content library Once you’ve launched your campaign and amassed a good amount of user posts, try creating a content library for future use. You can either save users’ posts to use in your future Instagram marketing campaigns or just for when you need to fill out your feed. Many users love seeing their posts on brand pages, so once your campaign finishes, you can still use the content.





Share this Insight


