User Generated Content Tactics: Making Content Your Competitive Edge

The days of companies controlling information and driving the brand are outdated. Brands need to work with customers to co-create value in the market place either through crowdsourcing content, paying attention to content topics that resonate, or by including user generated content into their brand.

In a previous article, I shared everything you need to know about user generated content. So in this article, I found it fitting to share some of the top tactics you can use to support your UGC strategy.

What Is User Generated Content:

Before we can go over my favorite UGC tactics, let’s briefly go over what UGC is.

User Generated Content is any form of content that your end user creates and posts on behalf of your brand.

It has incredible benefits towards your brand, your marketing budget as a whole, and even your repeat customer base. I share more insights into this in another article I wrote “User Generated Content 101.”

Why Is User Generated Content Important:

User generated content has many benefits for your brand. I actually wrote an article that elaborates on 3 reasons why it’s important to prioritize it in your marketing.

The short list of reasons why it's important though is as follows:

Lower Marketing Costs:

Targeting a new audience or trying to build within an existing base can cost a lot of money and comes with added risk, especially if you're limited on how much data you have. 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!

Adding More Value to Your Customer's Journey:

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.

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

Building Brand Credibility:

If you’ve been a business owner or marketer for long enough, you know what the term “social proof” is. 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 showing that customers not only like and trust your products, but that you can also deliver a consist result.

Increased Customer Retention:

Keeping your users engaged with your brand is a great way to increase your retention, especially when they feel like they have control.

There are a lot more benefits, but these are a few that really help build your brand

My Favorite UGC Tactics:

The list of UGC tactics is never ending, but there are several tactics that are my go-to’s for many reasons. I’ve prioritized each tactic on a sliding scale based on effort level, cost, and effectiveness.

Here are my top UGC tactics you can try for your brand:

Testimonials and Reviews:

Effort Level: Minimum

Cost: Low

Effectiveness: High

This tactic is an oldie but Goldie. Testimonials and reviews are staples and are a great way for your customer to reflect honestly on their time with your brand!

There’s little to no cost in receiving testimonials or reviews, it’s typically a very low barrier to entry tactic, and helps build trust with the customer.

Tip: Maximize your testimonials or reviews by turning them into social content or even paid ads!

In this example, the team over at Business Marketing Solutions Group turned a Google testimonial into a graphic for social content!

Branded Hashtags:

Effort Level: Minimum

Cost: Low

Effectiveness: Medium

Branded hashtags are a low effort way to build continual UGC. The trick is for your brand to not be the only ones using that hashtag.

Branded hashtags are a way to build an online community without the heavy lifting of moderating content.

You can see in this example, this lake rental company is asking users to share their lake experience by using branded hashtags. They can then take this content and use it for their own brand.

Instagram Story Mentions:

Effort Level: Medium

Cost: Low

Effectiveness: Medium

This tactic is very effective but needs a careful balance between doing too much and having intent.

Sharing Instagram story mentions can be great for establishing brand credibility, but if you do it too much, it can create fatigue with your existing users and you become predictable.

Another thing to consider is intent. Simply sharing instagram story mentions can leave outside uninformed users confused as to the “why” that piece of content was shared. One simple solution to this is to layer this tactic with an event or something creative.

If I share a story mention with little to no context, most people will just scroll past it. But If I host an event and then incentivize users to tag my brand in their story and then I share it well now there’s context and it’s much more impactful.

You can see here, Truist field is incentivizing people to share their moments on Instagram by tagging them. This allows them to gain access and build interest with a new audience.

Social Filters:

Effort Level: High

Cost: Low

Effectiveness: High

Have you ever opened snapchat and used a filter created by a brand? Companies like 7/11, KFC, Taco Bell, and Nike are using filters as a way to put users in the drivers seat and get them to interact with your brand. You can then use this content for them to submit to you and you can use that for your own brand.

Communities:

Effort Level: High

Cost: Low

Effectiveness: High

If you know me, you know I love a community - especially for brands!

Communities on Quora or Reddit are great ways to build continual awareness around your brand. A lot of brands however get communities wrong. A lot of brands think they need to build a community around their name. The truth though is that community building needs to more fluid in order for it to work.

The most effective way to accomplish this is to use your brand as a curator for the topic.

An example of this would be Starbucks. Starbucks could absolutely build a community around their name on places like Reddit, but this would also open the door to customer complaints and negative press. A better strategy? Position themselves as curators for specific coffee conversations or having Starbucks related topics for users to engage in a community called r/espresso as opposed to r/Starbucks. The main reason for this being that r/espresso gives Starbucks a mask to let customers drive their espresso products.

If I join a community hosted by Starbucks labeled r/Starbucks, I’m more hesitant because it’s an obvious advertising play so the content in that group needs to be less branding, however, if the marketing team create individual profiles to curate/moderate content in communities such as r/espresso, as a consumer I won’t know the difference and will happily contribute.

Art/Branded Murals:

Effort Level: High

Cost: Medium - High

Effectiveness: High

Art and Branded Murals are a great way to build your brand around something that’s visually appealing which keeps current customers engaged with the brand and peaks the interest of new customers. It’s also a creative way to make use of areas of your location that are otherwise bland or overlooked.

Potential drawbacks to this tactic is that it can create a little bit of fatigue which is why it’s best practice to have several of them for different vibes that you want to shoot for.

Tip: You can elevate art and branded murals by making the pieces specific to the city your customers are in the make your brand more connected to its local customers.

Some franchises like Hoppin’ Brands use this which subconsciously creates action among customers and gives Hoppin’ access to new users organically.

Here, you can see a section of the bar is created as “picture spot.” This makes for a natural photo and customers feel compelled to tag the brand on their own timeline.

Picture spot = incentive for customers to create content naturally = customers tagging the brand on their timeline = more targeted organic reach = more customers overtime.

In this photo, Hoppin’ makes use the nickname of the city it’s located in “The Queen City.” Some people may not notice it initially but the ones that do notice it love it and remember the brand which ultimately leads to more customers.

Conclusion:

There are a ton of tactics you can use to incentivize UGC and keep a never ending flow of content that can give you the freedom you need to step away from creating content and also cut your marketing spend. If you’re looking for a competitive edge, UGC tactics may be what gives it to you.

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