User-generated content (UGC) has a great scope and demand as influencer marketing. UGC content means any content that includes audio, images, video, text, gifs, etc. posted by users. Today, everyone uses all this content in their social media postings. Influencer-generated content attracts people hugely as is a trend to be called one of the greatest scope in making marketing strategies.
If you are a brand and thinking about what could be right for your business strategy, then continue reading the article and find out what could be the best strategy for your business.
Influencer-generated content vs. user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) and influencer-generated content (IGC) both have a lot of common things between them but actually, they are two different marketing strategies to follow when your business is failing.
Let’s learn what is user-generated content in deeper.
What is User-generated content?
User-generated content is the easiest and most free gift from a customer. When a customer feels happy with your product or service, they share it on social media as a gesture of thanks and to say that they like your product. In this case, customers who share pictures on their social media are not paid but it is a token of appreciation. But, sometimes it may not always be of good quality and sometimes your brand may not be highlighted.
Here customers are not paid for it but they give their authentic reviews as an expression of appreciation.
But, it may not able to create quality content that matches your brand image. Here’s one user-generated content example:
For instance, a leading automobile company, BMW has utilized a user engagement strategy by using the hashtag #BMWRepost and letting other BMW owners share their experiences and rides.
This is good for both car owners as they can show off their ride as well as BMW to get free advertising.
What is Influencer generated content?
Influencer-generated content is rather paid content and is created intentionally by an influencer to promote a brand. Influencers receive a mutually decided payment for sharing it on their social media with their followers. Here the brand can ask the influencer to post a specific type of picture of the brand and have full control over their post. This way, it builds brand reputation.
User-generated content: bring customers naturally
Many marketers love when the user promotes their content for free but not always they are happy because the quality of user-generated content is low and may not focus on things that the marketer wants to highlight.
Also, in user-generated content, a marketer may not have full control over content sharing and hence they have to compromise with the brand image and quality.
On the other hand, UGC is preferred by many marketers and big brands to attract users from everywhere. Many marketers use UGC content as their only way to bring leads and customers. According to the Nielsen Consumer Trust Index, around 92% of customers prefer organic reviews more than promoting advertising. So, this is one of the helpful and beneficial way to build your brand reputation for free.
Below are some advantages of using user-generated content marketing:
– Build brand loyalty and community
UGC is a great form of marketing option to get customers naturally and build them naturally to participate in brand’s growth to participate in the brand’s growth. This helps a brand to build loyalty and some authentic customers in a big way.
Customers sometimes approach the brand on their own and start communication. This helps a brand grow and engage its community naturally.
Also, when a brand re-shares the audience content, it develops a more positive image and drives brand loyalty.
– Acts as a trust signal
On some occasions, the promotion campaign could not justify what customers wanted. Maybe the promotion is too much to be true that customers can’t trust and those who trust often end up unsatisfied.
The point is not to bring customers but to generate loyal and long-term customers who trust you and keep on trusting you.
Brands need to work harder on themselves as trustworthy, instead of creating an unusual marketing campaign. 93% of marketers vouch that customer-generated customers trust the brand more as compared with content created by brands.
– Boost the conversion rate and improve buying decisions
User-generated content is incredibly influential in the final stage of buying journey when you want your leads to make the purchase.
UGC can be called an authentic way to tell your audience that your product is worth buying and how it is helping current customers. For instance, when the audience sees people liking and using the product, it influences them more to make that decision to buy.
– Flexible marketing approach
UGC can be used in showing off in social media marketing campaigns and making an omnichannel strategy.
For instance, you can utilize the UGC strategies to influence a user and complete the purchase before they abandon their shopping cart. Or, you can add user-generated content to your landing page and improve your conversion rates.
– Cost-effective approach
The user-generated content approach many brands use without spending a single penny. Whereas compared with other marketing approaches like influencer marketing, social media marketing, etc. It can spend hundreds of dollars on running the ad or paying the influencer fee.
With the help of the UGC content approach, you can introduce new business strategies and produce brand assets for your content and campaign.
Shortcomings Of UGC:
Besides offering helpful benefits to brands, UGC also has a few shortcomings such as:
- Marketers don’t have control over the shared content
- Sometimes, content quality may not justify the image of the brand
- Many times because of bad quality content, the marketer may face consequences over their other marketing strategies.
Influencer-generated content: what can an influencer do?
Today, influencers and bloggers are growing in every industry and niche. To promote your brand, you will always find a blogger of a specific niche. The influencers who have a huge number of followers tend to attract brands and it benefits both brands in promotion and influencers in earning money.
When influencers create content, it performs better than traditional ads as their followers trust them and tend to follow what they have shared. Interested followers may be interested and may interact to know about it more.
When a company spend their money on influencer-generated content and offer free products and service by paying a fee, it will be worth it. The influencers will share your product/service content on their social media profile and ask their followers to buy or share its benefits with their followers. This is a new and very cool tactic to reach out to people easily through famous influencers and increase your product/service conversion rate.
Here’s an influencer-generated content example:
Benefits of IGC:
- The content shared by influencers will match the branding and your company image.
- The content will be of high quality
- Your product could reach thousands of people through an influencer’s social media accounts.
Shortcomings of IGC:
- The content shared by the influencer will cost the company money and time.
- The content may seem hypocritical.
Conclusion
Influencer-generated content is very powerful in today’s times. A brand can easily build quality content and engage followers by influencing them to buy the product. The engagement and authenticity of influencers build a powerful relationship between influencers and brands. User engagement content is also still prevalent and cannot be ignored. A good brand must have both ways strategies to attract customers.
Share us in the comments below, what strategy have you used in for your business and what do you prefer over user generated content and influencer marketing.
