29 Jul 5 Benfits of User Generated Content

Brands and businesses are always working to find the best new marketing tools and tricks to get their business out there. This year, user generated content has taken the marketing world by storm and everyday users are becoming the new influencers. Here are five reasons why you should be using user generated content to market your business in 2022.

01 UGC Uses Actual Users and Fans of the Product to Promote It

User generated content is a great and cost efficient way to promote your brand or product because the marketing stems from users who already buy and love your product. By promoting users on your social media, fans are more likely to post about your product in hopes that their image, story, or video will get reposted on your social channels. Everyone loves their 15 minutes of fame and its fun to see content you created be reposted by a brand you love.

02 The Promotion Seems More Authentic

When social media marketing first started, influencers were at the center of marketing plans and paid ads came shortly after. The market quickly became saturated with these types of ads and over time credibility was lost as everything that was promoted seemed to be a paid ad rather than an actual brand recommendation. By using actual users with sometimes smaller followings to promote your brand, followers are more likely to trust the source and the recommendation is more likely to lead to conversions. When it comes to actually purchasing a product, people are more likely to trust the people they actually know over a celebrity or influencer because the everyday user is much more likely to actually use the product.

03 It Makes Your Overall Brand Seem More Legit

With a big enough marketing budget anyone can promote any brand, purchase followers, run ad campaigns, pay influencers to promote the product, etc. but is anyone actually buying it? UGC gives the buyer confidence because they can see how other users actually use the product, they can see real reviews, and this builds their confidence that the product they are thinking of buying is actually worth the investment. When thinking about buying something, the reviews and images created by other users can make or break a sale.

04 It’s Cost Effective & Low Risk

If you have a limited marketing budget, it can be hard to decide where to invest your money to get the best outcome. It’s very easy to blast through a budget producing a high quality video after all of the planning, hiring models, photographers, videographers, scouting locations, purchasing wardrobe and props etc. You can put all of your eggs in one basket or let your audience create some of that content for you by hiring creators to produce tens or hundreds of photos and videos for the same cost. By spreading out your budget you get more content from a more diverse user base and if one or two of the videos don’t get the engagement you were hoping for you’re only out a small percent of the overall budget.

05 It Builds Your Community & Creates Brand Loyalty

By allowing users to be a part of the creative aspect of your brand, they feel like they are a part of the bigger picture. Users and fans will become more invested if they are a part of the brand rather than just a fan or an onlooker from the outside. This hands on approach helps generate ideas, encourages creativity, and increases the likelihood that others will share about the brand. Think of user generated content as today’s word of mouth. Social media is such an important part of our daily lives and we share just as much if not more information through those channels than we do in our day to day interactions.