What is User Generated Content & Why Brands Use It?

What Does User Generated Content Mean?

We live in a period where customers are ready to appreciate your brand or services online. This relationship begins after sale, that if the customers are happy and satisfied, they will no doubt rave about it.

This is why UGC plays a crucial role in the content marketing strategy.

As the name suggests it is generated by users who use the brand’s services. So UGC is content that is published and created by unpaid contributors.

What Is User Generated Content?

User-generated content marketing is a type of marketing in which the brand doesn’t need to work on its promotion.

It is done by consumers who are advantaged by the brand’s services. For this, you don’t need to pay a single penny to them.

The Content published by them can be of any form of Content like text, images, blogs, videos, audio on social media, or website.

Bring Newness To The Content Marketing

The World’s largest coffeehouse chain, Starbucks corporation, a multinational chain of coffeehouses, said to its customers to draw some artistic doodle on their cups.

They launched a contest for them on Twitter under the #Whitecupcontest. After it, they announced that the winning cup design submitted by the customers would be used for Starbucks’ cup design.

It created great interest in the customer’s mind. In a very short time period it received around 5000 drawn up being sent to Starbucks.

Why UGC Is So Influential In Marketing?

User-generated Content helps to understand the motive and perspective of your audience. You can hear your brand voice through your customer’s words, images, text, videos, and audio.

The above example of Starbucks and many more similar like adobe, Coca-Cola, Netflix, and Apple are enough to understand why UGC techniques are successful in the market.

But why are they so successful? Why do brands need to promote themselves? Why consumers promote it??

1. Customers Are The Essence Of UGC

In this World of competition where online users can find another brand by just a single click, it is necessary to be authentic and transparent.

It should be customer-oriented and helps to make them update with the latest technology; otherwise, they will find another brand.

2. A Customer Trusts Other Customers

Coming to the next point, customers are getting more shrewd about media, advertising, and news, so there is a very small percentage of consumers who trust advertisers and the media.

One more reason is that marketers are growing day by day, and of course, they’re going to say that their product is best, but their only aim is to sell their products. But now customers are wise enough to differentiate it.

3. Shows The Authenticity & Reality

A customer owns a brand, and a brand owns customers. In today’s era, uniqueness and authenticity is very important because consumers are wise enough to understand that what they want to buy what they do not? From where should they buy it? From where should they avoid it?

4. Build Community Through Content

Community is essential to the growth of a brand, business. Is a group of people in which people can interact with each other with a brand.

They can talk about a product, offer, pros and cons, and many things that encouraged people to feel like part of a community.

UGC Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing

As online businesses are growing, every customer is aware of the brand and brand value. It is a competition between traditional and UGC marketing. People make their decision by self which brand they should opt for. Why they want to choose it.

What are the advantages, and what are the disadvantages of taking a particular brand? What is the brand value?

A survey indicates that 80% of the customers admitted to trusting online reviews when they are recommended personally.

If we talk about Coca-Cola, the customers were asked to share pictures of themselves enjoying a drink with their personalized Coke bottles on social media.

This challenge went viral for a few months that creates awareness about brand.

Conclusion

We can easily see the power of UGC, and now that’s pretty clear incoming years we’ll be seeing much more of it. By using an effective method, you can give proper direction to your UGC.

Include UGC in your digital marketing and ready to produce a decisive and authentic result.