3 Reasons Why You Need A User Generated Content Engine

Have you ever scrolled through Instagram stories and saw someone tag a brand while using it’s product?

What about on Reddit where others share their reviews of products or services they’ve used in individual communities?

Or on Facebook where others share their pictures checking in at a restaurant with family and friends?

These are just a few of the tactics that are involved with User Generated Content.

User Generated Content is any form of content that your end user creates and posts on behalf of your brand, and when you create a system where UGC is scaled, you really harvest some incredible benefits.

How do you scale your user generated content? With a user generated content engine!

In this article, I’m going to go over 3 reasons why you need a user generated content engine

Reason #1: Lower Marketing Costs

Targeting a new audience or trying to build within an existing base can cost a lot of money and is inherently risky, especially if your data is limited. With user generated content, you can reach new audiences at a lower cost and then analyze the data to see if it’s worth it!

Here’s an example: If you invited users to share your products or services on their timeline, you would be able to gain the exposure of their user base without paying the price to reach them.

If the data is positive (meaning the reach turns to followers or even better — sales), you may want to look at what their interests or traits are and consider adding them to any existing targeting.

Reason #2: Adding Value Where It’s Potentially Being Lost

When you think of customer journey maps, it’s important to not only analyze where value is being added but also where you might potentially be losing the opportunity to add value.

Take a look at your current social media for example. All of its content adds value to the audience on your page. In the customers journey, they’re on your page or they come across your post on their timeline, they click on the link and then end up purchasing from you. But where you’re potentially losing value is outside of the immediate sphere your brand connects with. This is where user generated content can help add value.

Here’s an example: If you created a hashtag around your brand, you could invite users to tag that hashtag in their story or on their page. This would ultimately start a conversation between them and their friends (this gives your brand access to an audience you previously did not have access to). This would fall under referral marketing which converts at around 30% higher than standard leads.

You can’t reach everyone, but your loyal brand followers can help you reach users you might be missing and are more than willing to connect you with others that would also like your products.

Reason #3: Building Brand Credibility

Lastly, a user generated content engine helps build brand credibility.

If you’ve been a business owner or marketer for long enough, you know what the term “social proof” is. Today’s marketers can have a hard time building trust with customers. With user generated content, the trust (or “social proof”) is built for you because the end user is sharing the positive experience they had with your brand.

But brand credibility extends beyond having social proof, brand credibility also refers to consistency. When you have a user generated content engine built, you’re exhibiting that customers not only like and trust your products, but that you can also deliver a consist result.

Use Case:

With these 3 reasons in mind, lets walk through an example of what a user generated content engine looks like in practice:

You can see on this piece of content, users are encouraged by the original author to send in their pictures at the event.

Since we kept the request vague, we were able to get genuine reactions which helps build trust as the content is more authentic as opposed to staged and it helps build a community because other users are interacting with each other.

Once pictures were submitted, we then use them in future content. This allowed us to accomplish 3 things:

1. Building brand loyalty through a community

2. Higher referral sales

3. Lowering their customer acquisition cost (cutting their marketing cost)

…and it was all done digitally.

Conclusion

Customers are getting smarter everyday and their trust in marketing has gone down. As business owners and marketing professionals we need to be savvier and more connected to their experience. Having a user generated content engine allows customers to be in control of how your brand is promoted, gives your brand a competitve edge and gives marketers the ability to build trust again.

If you liked this article and want to see more, connect with me on LinkedIn, Medium, or simply explore more of my site!

If you have a question, comment, or need help solving a marketing problem you're facing send me an email at Austin.murraymarketing@gmail.com and I'll be happy to help!

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