User-Generated content is one of the most fundamental elements of modern marketing and promotion tools. Whether you are a blogger or a business owner, you can hardly imagine anything better and more efficient than UGC. Now you must be wondering why this concept has become topical lately, and the answer is quite simple – it is organic. Unlike paid, edited, and staged advertising content, reviews and opinions created by your real and loyal customers are live, raw, and honestly emotional.
Another great advantage – it is absolutely free. Therefore, the only investment you indeed have to make is in the quality of what you sell. As long as your audience is pleased with what you deliver, positive feedback will not take long to arrive. Subsequently, you will be able to share the best of generated feedback in various forms (comments, reviews, photos, videos, etc.) with your audience, which, correspondingly, will allow you to attract new customers. People love to see genuine and reliable reviews, as they find them more honest. As you can see, it is an organic movement built on the scheme of interdependence – the better you give, the better you receive.
At this point, you must be asking yourself how to engage your audience in creating this kind of content. How should they do it? Should they create it from scratch by themselves, or may they use some services, e.g., online stock videos or awareness poster templates? A lot of questions, right? But do not worry, as we are here to provide you with some guidance on the UGC world. With these 3 simple pieces of advice, you won’t have to wait long for worthy results.
Contest
Implementation of ideas, sense of rivalry, competitive spirit — all these things wake up brains, fill the blood with adrenaline, and make hearts beat faster. If you want to get your audience into that rollercoaster of emotions – organize a contest. This option guarantees an absolute win-win situation for both you and your customer. All you have to do is to:
- initiate a contest;
- consider the conditions of participation in detail;
- come up with several prizes and bonuses to reward participants for commitment;
- write an engaging post announcing the competition and its details;
- promote it using bright, eye-catching banners;
- share the best entrants on your social media accounts;
- prepare an award ceremony.
Thanks to UGC, your brand gets an enormous boost of visibility while your customers enjoy rewards.
Hashtags
Many people underestimate the role of hashtags nowadays. Since the first hashtag ever was posted in 2007, it became a world phenomenon and deserved its place in modern history. In the last couple of years, you probably don’t see as many hashtags as you did in 2013 or 2015. The truth is that it has become a really powerful tool over time. Numerous researches have been conducted to reveal that not the number but the quality and target of a hashtag is the most important.
So, here is your second tool for getting upscale user content – create an easy, catchy, and memorable hashtag that will be associated with you or your brand. It is a perfect instrument to improve your brand awareness and develop a sense of affiliation. True brand fans love to tag their favorites, and using a hashtag will make them feel like they are a part of the brand family. Therefore, when using your hashtag in search engines, you are likely to find tons of UGC.
Influencers
This approach may sound pricy, but in reality, it is not always like that. First of all, make research to find people who will really match your brand style and philosophy. Do not hunt for top-ranking bloggers; look for fresh blood and give them a win-win push. You may send them some samples of your products for free so that they can take pictures and spread them on social media, asking their followers for opinions. In return, you will feature them on your page. You may organize an event and invite some novice bloggers to come over, and they will immediately highlight it on their social media. Or you may hunt for influencers who already use your product and ask whether you may use their pics on your pages.
Conclusion
Currently, user-generated content is the most efficient marketing asset. As we have already demonstrated, it doesn’t have to be expensive and can be developed in a natural way. Your main task in this quest is to go beyond a client-producer relationship with your audience — make them feel like part of the brand so that they help you improve. This way, you get a mutual benefit. So, do not hesitate and let your users enrich you with wonderful content.