User-generated content boosts brand trust and sales by fostering authenticity, community, and cost-effectiveness, effectively utilizing organic customer-driven marketing.
We're living in an age of scepticism. Consumers have endless information at their fingertips, and traditional marketing doesn't always resonate like it once did. But one emerging source of influence still fosters trust and drives sales: user-generated content.
User-generated content (UGC) refers to any content your customers or fans create about your brand.
This includes:
Essentially, it covers any content your target audience makes, not your internal marketing team. And it offers some uniquely powerful benefits:
Authenticity and Trust
82% of consumers report UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions. Why? Because it comes from a place of authenticity. Instead of polished corporate marketing messages, UGC allows real customers to share their genuine experiences with your products or services. Their voices capture the emotions and personal connections missing from traditional ads.
This fosters tremendous trust in your brand. After all, people are far more likely to trust recommendations from other consumers over branded content and claims. UGC acts as social proof your brand delivers on its promises.
Community Bonds
UGC also helps you build a sense of community around your brand. By actively encouraging user contributions through contests, campaigns, etc., you make customers feel valued, recognised, and part of your brand story. These meaningful connections run deeper than transactions, forming the bonds that boost loyalty and retention.
Cost-Effectiveness
From a business perspective, UGC is highly cost-effective. You don't need an army of content creators, videographers, and editors. Your audience generates amazing content for you free of charge! It's a fantastic way to create authentic marketing assets that reinforce your brand identity without unreasonable production budgets.
SEO Goldmine
Finally, UGC offers search engine optimisation (SEO) gold. All that fresh, keyword-rich content directly from your customers keeps your brand top-of-mind. UGC allows you to tap into long-tail searches your in-house team might never consider. It also provides the consistency search engines want by regularly adding new, high-quality pages.
Clearly, UGC magically combines authenticity, community, and cost-savings. But how do you harness its power for your brand?
Encourage UGC Creation
First, you need to actively encourage UGC creation and make it as easy as possible for your audience to contribute content.
Showcase UGC
You also want to showcase UGC in all your own content heavily. Repost the best organic social content, website submissions, images, etc., across your digital channels. Feature UGC prominently in ad campaigns, your website header, and email lists – anywhere you can flaunt real customer experiences.
This showcases your brand through the customer’s eyes while signalling to your community you truly value their voices.
Give Credit
Always credit the creators of any UGC you share. Ask permission to reuse content and tag handles or names appropriately. It goes miles in showing respect for your audience’s work while encouraging more participation. No one wants to feel exploited.
Repurpose Thoughtfully
Take your stellar UGC and repurpose it through multiple content types and channels. Turn a fantastic Instagram video into a YouTube bumper ad. Reshare a website testimonial across your email nurture streams. Record a podcast interview with a blogger who covered your new product launch.
This multiplier effect ensures you maximise the impact of great UGC. But again, communicate clearly with creators and secure permissions where appropriate.
Respond and Engage
Finally, don’t just collect UGC passively. Actively respond to and engage with your community of brand advocates when someone tweets a picture of your product, like and comments. Thank raving reviewers publicly. Highlight superfans who consistently create UGC as brand ambassadors.
This engagement fosters the human connections that build loyalty. It also encourages more participation by showing you listen and care about your audience’s experiences.
Outdoor retailer REI offers an excellent example of UGC community-building with its iconic #OptOutside campaign.
Each Black Friday, REI closes all retail locations and pays employees to enjoy outdoor activities instead. Naturally, REI encourages customers and staff to share their experiences across social using #OptOutside.
This campaign works because it fits seamlessly with REI’s brand purpose of inspiring outdoor adventure and stewardship. REI taps into customers' existing values by positioning shopping with family versus exploring nature as conflicting choices.
Most importantly, #OptOutside facilitates a public display of those values in action through UGC. Thousands of pictures, videos and posts document people hiking, camping, paddleboarding, etc. This UGC becomes a rallying cry for the REI community, generating significant brand visibility and goodwill.
In other words, UGC strengthens the emotional connections customers already feel with REI’s mission. #OptOutside moves from a single campaign to an ongoing cultural identity for engaged brand advocates—and it costs REI next to nothing!
Hopefully, this overview has shown why UGC should be part of your overall content marketing strategy. In an age of information overload, UGC breaks through the noise by tapping into the holy grail of marketing: authenticity. It fosters the customer bonds and viral reach you can’t manufacture on your own.
So, set aside a budget for UGC campaigns, train staff to engage with UGC daily, Brainstorm creative ways to repurpose user contributions, and solicit UGC proactively and consistently.
When you unlock the power of your community’s voices, you unlock the power to drive brand awareness, trust, and sales exponentially. It’s your brand’s superpower and waiting to be unleashed!
