What are the benefits of User Generated Content?
The secret to a successful content marketing campaign? It’s user generated content (UGC). Why? Because, UGC is a way of giving your products or services social proof. That is, showing them in an environment that they’d actually be used by you or I.
Let’s rewind a little and explain exactly what UGC actually is. Really, it does what it says on the tin in that it’s social content, created by platform users, and often, brands use it to bolster their content marketing strategy. Having regular people, who have bought your product or service rate it online gives your output social proof, which means whether the review is good or bad, it’s still an honest and unbiased reaction to the product. For the purposes of this blog, we’re focusing on non-sponsored content, that’s to say, genuine reviews which haven’t been created for monetary gain.
Gain key insights
When people share content using your product or service, it can help you to better understand your audience, what they find engaging and why exactly they use your product. When you apply the principles of a data driven marketing strategy, these kinds of insights can help with your lead generation and sales, because you better understand your customer and their motivations to buy.
What’s more, if a customer gives an honest opinion on your product, showing pitfalls and also benefits, your development team can garner really interesting insights into the parts of the product that are liked by the customer and the parts that need improvement. This is essentially free user testing, and these kinds of reviews are really invaluable when it comes to improving your product.
Trustworthy
Non-sponsored UGC is like a free review, with people using the products being a great endorsement and a lot more trustworthy than paid reviews. With paid content, users are never sure whether or not a review is genuine. There does come a point, particularly on Instagram, where sponsored content or #Ad content starts to become a little insincere. However, that’s not to say that every single sponsored post is motivated by a payday. #Gifted content is a little different, particularly when you see the gifted products being genuinely used by the content creators, for example, homeware.
Take Pagazzi Lighting for example — they regularly use UGC on their social accounts to show their products outside of their showroom environment. In doing this, their audience are able to picture the products in their own homes, which is a key factor in turning window shoppers into customers.
The great thing about sponsored and non-sponsored content that reviews or promotes a particular product or service, is that, authentic or not, it increases brand awareness and gets the product seen by more people. That means that when the time comes to buy a new lipstick, or even a new sofa, your brand is at the forefront of consumers’ mind, and if they chose you, they know what to expect because of the UGC you’ve shared. They’ve already seen your product at work.
Authentic
Because UGC showcases products in a real, personal space, not in a showroom, the content appears much more authentic. For example, with television, radio or print ads, a product is always shown in the best light. These ads are biased because of course the company selling the kit wants it to sell. So, even if they know it’s not the best version of that product on the market, they’ll market it to you as if it is.
With UGC, owners and users show products in use in real homes and they don’t owe the company anything. Whether it’s showing that a hoover really can get right into those tight corners — or not — or showing that a lipstick really does have an 8hr wear — or not — reviews are unbiased and honest. This makes positive reviews extremely valuable and again reinforced the social proof of the product. Formex Swiss Watches are a company that have made very good use of free reviews, whether that’s in blogs or from influential watch reviewers. The majority of the time, reviewers only require to borrow the watch to write their reviews.
Make your budget go further
Put simply, non-sponsored UGC is like having an influencer that you don’t have to pay. One influencer with lots of followers doing a post will certainly increase the awareness of your brand. However, a multitude of posts from regular users are a much more trustworthy and authentic source of content. By using this free UGC, you can supplement your branded content, meaning you get more for your budget. The need to hire graphic designers, photographers and videographers isn’t as great when you have a steady stream of quality content coming in from people who have actually used your product or service in the real world. Take Scotland Is Now for example, this is a channel with the sole purpose of promoting Scotland as a great place to live, work, study, travel and do business. The Instagram is populated for the most part with UGC and it does an excellent job of showcasing the great things that Scotland has to offer.
UGC goes to show that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get quality content for your social channels. Really, you just need to have a product or service that is worth talking about. The real benefits of using UGC are wide ranging, and the insights companies gain, as well as the authenticity and trustworthiness of the content, makes monitoring and making use of any UGC well worth it.
Need help with your digital marketing strategy? Say hello or check out our work with the likes of Formex Swiss Watches, The Old Vic Theatre and Pagazzi Lighting.