Time to read: 5 minutes
With the power of user-generated content, customers can provide valuable, up-to-date reviews that can further influence website viewers and future customers.
With that in mind, if your business is looking to add user-generated content to your current online marketing strategy, review our informational guide to learn more about how to get started!
What Is User-Generated Content?
As industry experts know, user-generated content (UGC) is material utilized in marketing campaigns that has been created by the customer as opposed to the internal marketing team. This includes any images, videos, or written word offered by the customer to give potential customers the most authentic understanding of what to expect from the brand’s offerings.
The Benefits of UGC in SEO, PPC, and Beyond
There are several advantages of utilizing user-generated content in your online marketing campaigns, including:
- Enhanced trust
- Increased credibility
- Continued brand engagement
- Boosted authenticity
- Improved conversion rates
Looking to Add User-Generated Content to Your Current Digital Marketing Campaign?
Try out these tactics:
Showcase Authentic Customer Testimonials
Including written testimonials on your website is a great way to let visitors know how past or ongoing customers feel about your work. If the feedback is positive, you can choose to showcase these reviews on the homepage or about page, as well as various product pages, service pages, or location pages as needed.
On our own website, we feature our reviews as banners on key pages, which look like the one listed below:
We also include reviews from our Google Business Profile on our local landing pages that further emphasize the specific work we’ve implemented for customers in our service areas. For example, the reviews on our Cleveland SEO page look like:
Encourage Product Photos and Videos
Beyond a written review of a product, service, or brand, featuring photos and videos can give people a fresh perspective on the look and functionality of your offerings. That way, potential customers can have an idea of what to expect from the product prior to making the purchase, which can help them feel more confident in their final decision.
For example, Cider is one of the many ecommerce brands that feature its user-generated content in the form of product reviews. This content can be accessed either through Cider’s website or through their mobile app, and customers are encouraged to provide information about their dimensions, the sizes they received for products, and photos of how the product looks on them.
Examples of user-generated content on their mobile app include:
Display Up-To-Date Survey Results
What better way to know how customers perceive specifics relating to your brand than by asking them directly? Completing a customer satisfaction survey is just one of the many ways to receive the most authentic feedback on how your brand is performing, as well as where you can improve.
Based on the results, your company can then take the time to create visuals that coincide with the consumers’ responses.
Looking to send out a customer satisfaction survey to your own consumer base? If so, here are just some of the popular survey software platforms include the following:
- SurveyMonkey
- Google Forms
- Qualtrics
- Typeform
- Jotform
- SurveyPlanet
Integrate Website and Social Media UGC
As many digital marketers already know, maintaining a consistent presence on social media is just one of the many ways to drive traffic to your site. That’s why our team recommends keeping a consistent social media schedule so you can ensure that engagement with your target audience remains high while also expanding your reach. Additionally, one of the best ways to encourage user-generated content through this channel is by running contests, as it gives viewers an incentive to respond to the brand.
For example, Altar’d State recently promoted an “Altar’d at the Tour” giveaway to increase its brand awareness on Instagram. The promotion offered two front-row tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in London, which could be considered a substantial incentive for their main target audience.
View this post on Instagram
Since the post was uploaded, Altar’d State has received approximately 10x more likes and comments than they had on posts before the giveaway announcement, exponentially boosting their reach and traction on the platform through ongoing social proof and unwavering user engagement.
7 Quick Statistics About User-Generated Content
For more insight into the effects of user-generated content on your campaigns, here are just some statistics for your review:
- 92% of shoppers will look to friends and family for recommendations more than anywhere else (Nielson)
- User-generated content is known to be 8.7x more powerful than influencer content online and 6.6x more influential than branded content (Social Media Content)
- 70% of consumers will consider UGC reviews before purchasing a product, and 41% of those will read four to seven reviews to gain even further insights (Shift4Shop)
- 63% of brands say that ratings and reviews will impact their SEO performance (The Bazaar Voice)
- 60% of consumers say that user-generated content is the most authentic form of marketing content as opposed to content from brands or celebrities (Nosto)
- Conversions typically increase by 10% when UGC is included somewhere in the online customer path (Statusphere)
- Half of shoppers want to see a mixture of user-generated content and professional photography, but if they had to pick, they would choose UGC (Bazaarvoice)
Check Out Our Blog for Further Insights
Want to learn more about how to kickstart your digital marketing initiatives? If so, review the latest from the Sixth City Marketing blog:
