82. User generated content: How to get your customers to help with your marketing
Imagine a world where your clients help you create authentic marketing content that helps you build trust with their peers and other potential customers. On this episode of The High-Performance Marketing podcast, we'll dive into understanding what user-generated content is, and ways you can start actively encouraging your audience to share their experiences with your products or services through reviews, testimonials, social media posts, and more!
Key takeaways:
- Tap into the creativity and the authenticity of your clients
- Strengthen your brand's impact
- And amplify your marketing reach in a way that traditional marketing methods can't achieve.
Transcript
Welcome to The High Performance Marketing Podcast, a show focused on helping entrepreneurs and small business owners connect with their ideal customers using simple marketing and quality content. I'm your Marketing Guide, Ali Garbero.
Have you ever been browsing social media and you come across a video of some unknown random person showing you their favorite amazon gadget, or displaying their favorite wal mart outfits. Then you’ve participated in what’s known as User Generated Content (UGC.)
(UGC) User generated content is any content—text, videos, images, reviews, etc.—created by people, instead of brands. If you’ve ever participated in leaving a video testimonial for your favorite business, stayed at an air bnb and left a five star review, and posted it to your social channels with hashtag airbnb, then you’ve entered the era of UGC.
On today’s episode of the podcast we’ll take a look at user-generated content, how it’s transforming the way entrepreneurs and businesses create and use content as part of their overall marketing strategy.
To start, let’s make sure we’re clear about UGC because it can easily be confused with influencer marketing. Influencer Marketing content, while effective, is usually paid and promotional, which can sometimes affect perceived authenticity, right? You’re naturally going to feel different about the authenticity of someone sharing their experience with a product or service if you know they’re getting paid to share it.
UGC is generally seen as more authentic because it comes directly from product users without incentives to promote the product.
As a business owner, UGC is a powerful way for you to create genuine content that improves your credibility.
Four simple ideas you can use to create user generated content include
- Customer Reviews
- Client testimonials
- Social media posts
- Images - real estate agents know this one well with their client photos at closings.
- @ ing your brand on social media
- Live streams
- YouTube content (personal experience as a collaborator on Alisia’s channel.)
- Blog content + any other kind of content consumers might create and publish online.
To take this concept a little further, let’s think about user generated content on Tiktok. TikTok features products from a specific brand but is created by users instead of brands. The brands can use the content on their social ad campaigns or display it on their social profiles. TikTok UGC can be created through videos, photos, reviews, testimonials, and more.
Those who watch this content see it as genuine, because again, it’s not the actual brand talking themselves up but their customers.
To leverage user generated content, you’ll need to shift your thinking and see that customers are no longer passive spectators, watching commercials about your product or service. With the access of social media, your customers are now active participants in creating content that resonates with their peers. Peers who know, like, and trust them when they recommend your lipstick, home warranty company, or CPA services.
This change in customers creating content has sparked an incredible shift in marketing. With the entire planet consuming content on social media, brands and businesses like yours and mine can leverage these channels to showcase our content and reach a wider audience.
Ok, great so you’re starting to see the value in this style of marketing, but now your next question no doubt is, “Ok well great Ali, how do I actually get customers to create online shareable content for me?”
Your first step should be to make it easy for your customers to share their experiences. Simple ways you can do that are to create branded hashtags, branded IG stickers, run contests, or offer incentives to motivate your brand loyalists to participate. Loyalists, advocates, or fans are your most dedicated customers and they’re typically the group that’s most enthusiastic about your product or service. Since brand loyalists are passionate about praising your brand, this audience segment is the perfect group to reach out to and ask to create specific UGC content. Do make sure however, you have permission to use customer-generated content in your marketing materials.
Next, Leverage your content across all of your platforms: share videos, reviews, or testimonials on your website, social media channels, and email marketing campaigns. Which does mean you’ll need to keep a close eye on UGC, and respond to comments, and engage with users who contribute. Make sure your clients feel appreciated!
A group of people we tend to overlook as entrepreneurs or business owners are the people who work for or with us. Employees and contractors, or vendors.
Employee-generated content (EGC) is a great way to show the value and story behind your product or service. For example, photos of employees behind the scenes or a video of your team talking about why they love working with you is content that works across social and ads to showcase authenticity.
You may also hire someone part time to create sponsored content that looks like it’s authentic but is designed to showcase your business. This kind of creator isn’t the traditional organic style of content we’ve been focusing on but it mimics this style of marketing.
Ok so I’ve mentioned a few reasons about why this kind of content is important for your business, but let me outline a few others.
UGC requires authenticity so it helps you increase customer attention in a crowded online space. People are more likely to watch, listen to, and take the advice of others like themselves. When users create content for you they do so from a customer-centric perspective.
Do you remember Gopro? They create video equipment. And years ago, a neighbor of mine started sharing videos of himself doing extreme sports and other things using his Gopro camera. I literally came to associate him with Gopro and so when I needed a camera I automatically trusted that Gopro was the camera I needed, because I’d watched him create really great content for years with his camera.
Well GoPro does an interesting thing…they literally support their YouTube channel with a video contest their customers enter trying to rank in the top three best videos. Over the years those video submissions have received over 400 million views combined. That’s literally so crazy to think about. Gopro could have paid influencers or celebrities, but instead their customers created the content and GoPro never had to produce a thing. They give their customers a platform to showcase adventure and their creativity.
So coming back to my neighbor who first introduced me to GoPro - because I knew he used and trusted the brand, so did I.
When your customers show and tell other potential customers about you, the barrier to working with your company is much lower. The point I’m getting to here is that consumers tend to naturally trust content created by customers more than content created by brands.
Network marketing companies understand this concept because instead of selling their products or services on the shelf, they solicit independent salespeople to tell you about the product.
Finally, I’d strongly recommend that you be clear about what kind of content you’re looking for. Most people are happy to support you. They’re already creating content anyway and doing so to share an opinion or story about working with your product or service, and the idea of getting spotlighted by your company can become really fun. UGC creators want you to share their content. Which means they want you to tell them what kind of content you’re most likely to share.
An interesting statistic I had to include and share with you is that only 16% of companies and brands offer clear guidelines on what kind of user-generated content they want fans or brand loyalists to create and share, but more than half of consumers want brands to tell them exactly what to do. So err on the side of sharing specifics to make it easy for people to share content that helps you reach your business goals.
Which leads me to saying, don’t forget to be strategic with the kind of content you want created. Make sure you align it with the goals of your business goals. For example, I was recently speaking with a client of mine and she mentioned wanting video testimonials when she helps her clients buy or sell a home. These videos are phenomenal and genuine content she can share on social media, her website, her google my business page - lots of options to create opportunities that help her get more clients of home buyers and sellers.
Incorporating UGC across all stages of the buying journey helps you UGC build trust and credibility, it’s free, and it’s a great way to diversify your marketing and content strategy.
Thanks for joining me today. If you’d like to spend some time creating an executable plan for user generated content, schedule a call with me at writebrandmarketing.com I’m Ali Garbero, Copywriting is what I do, Content Marketing is what I create, more customers is what you get.