Introduction
What do you analyze before choosing a restaurant? Customer reviews! What do you take into consideration before buying a laptop or a mobile phone? Customer recommendations!
The power of word of mouth, and customer reviews are increasing, and we still don’t know when this trend will stop. In a world where online thefts, and spreading misinformation to online users are all-time high, users choose an entity that they trust the most: Customers who were in a situation just like they are right now!
In this article, we will understand why your brand needs user-generated content, and how to establish it effectively!
What is user-generated content (UGC)?
User-generated content (or UGC in an abbreviated form), are content types (typically text, image, video, review, social media post) that are published by users instead of the brand itself.
It can be either paid, free, or incentive-based but with different effects. A free UGC boosts authenticity, but a paid one can even harm the brand because the users feel like the brand buys the reviews.
Benefits of implementing user-generated content
Well-organized and creative user-generated content has tremendous positive effects. Let’s see the most important ones.
A. Enhanced trust around the brand
Trust is really important in the online atmosphere. A new brick-and-mortar shop inside an old mall is definitely a legal business, and customers’ trust is high. But what about a new online webshop with zero references? We wouldn’t want to risk our money to buy there, am I right?
We rather buy our clothes in a more traditional webshop, with lots of reviews, and recommendations from our friends.
Statistics revealed that 92% of consumers trust reviews and testimonials more than traditional advertising. This number changes everything. If 9 out of 10 online visitors can be trusted through UGC, you need to emphasize this even more. Place customer reviews on your websites, or write emails to your present clients to send you testimonials. This will lead you to better numbers.
B. Driving to more efficient conversion funnels
This positive effect usually comes together with increased trust. The increased trust means your potential buyers are not afraid to complete your purchase requirements. If you can only work in a “purchase-before” method, the first few times it will scare some customers from your brand.
Why should I pay before? Is it some kind of scam? Some of them will definitely think this way. But as positive reviews come, they won’t bother anymore. Therefore they will go through your funnels, and you can generate more revenue and profit.
C. Cost-effectiveness
If you establish a great UGC strategy, or your online presence is extremely notable, customers will spread social media with their past experiences with your products or services. This is a win-win situation for both of you: The publisher gets views from the amazing content, and you get free advertisement.
Of course, this can work in the opposite way: if you spoil something, and haven’t worked out crisis management, you can very easily find your brand mocked on social media.
D. Increases your brand’s online visibility
Situations can occur when your task is not just enhancing trust around your brand, but making your site more popular. You somehow want more organic clicks to your website, without spending hundreds of dollars to marketing agencies.
Well, user-generated content can help you out in this case as well! Giving some incentives to your buyers at the start to create videos, or write comments will make your online presence stronger than ever!
Example: making a contest where the most creative video that demonstrates your product wins an opportunity to hang out with a celebrity – It is important to not give away money, as buyers connect money to purchased opinions.
Of course, there are some other ways to improve your brand’s online presence: make valuable content on your site, create a well-organized website, and grab a domain name that is connected to your niche.
A real-life UCG strategy that conquered the world
In this part of the article, we will demonstrate one of the most creative UCGs a brand has ever created.
The Budweiser “Messi 644” campaign
Lionel Messi is one of the greatest football players that fans have ever witnessed. When he scored his 644th single goal at one team (Barcelona), he surpassed Pele’s record. It was a very big deal.
And Budweiser had a clever idea. What if we can use this event to both celebrate this moment, and get user-generated content from footballers? – They thought this way.
We need to understand that it is a very risky decision. If the users feel that the event is more about the ad and less about the remarkable achievement, this whole idea would backslash Budeweiser’s results.
However, their idea surpassed everybody’s expectations. They sent a gift to every goalkeeper who had conceded a goal from Messi (out of the 644 single goals Messi scored). In this gift, every goalkeeper got the same amount of Budweiser beer that Messi scored for them on the field. So, for example, Diego Alves had conceded 21 goals from Messi (the most in this period), so he got 21 bottles of Budweiser beer.
Also, it was good timing from Budweiser: The record-breaking day was close to December 24, so they could attach this whole gifting-giving strategy to Christmas Eve.
The effect was more than positive: most of the goalkeepers posted on social media about the gifts and made laughing jokes about Messi’s achievement, and their “bad” performance against the player. Also, these goalkeepers had many followers, therefore it spread like fire: the biggest magazines published articles minutes after the first few posts.
Budweiser got free advertisements, and established an even more positive brand image, without spending too much money on it.
Why is it hard to establish?
The mentioned story was like a fairy tale when everything works as we have imagined. However, life often works differently.
The UGC is a hardly predictable process. We can’t figure out properly how the users will react, and how loud the whole world will get after our idea. Also, there’s just a little line between a paid UGC that everybody hates and an incentive-based UCG which everybody admires.
Establishing great user-generated content requires passing core values first from the look of business. It will only work if the product or the service is also great, and there’s no such a shady thing inside the business.
Conclusion
In this article, we presented why user-generated content is one of the most important parts of today’s marketing, and what advantages it can have. We also demonstrated a successful example, and stated why it is still hard to make a great UGC strategy!
