Content marketing overall costs more than 60% less than traditional marketing strategies but delivers three times as many leads.

The Audience is King!

Nothing matters more in the digital marketing sphere than your audience.

Users crave new, high-quality, fresh content that informs, entertains, motivates, intrigues, and inspires. This can be delivered directly to consumers from the brands they follow, but as often as not in this modern, internet-based, content-saturated world, it is much more effective when it is also paired with content created by other consumers or genuine “users” of products and services.

This is user-generated content.

What is User Generated Content?

User-generated content or UGC is created every time a consumer or online audience member posts a comment, review, testimonial, image, story, video, meme, or GIF that mentions and tags a brand.

If the brand or business then repurposes this content in any way, it becomes user-generated content marketing.

Audiences look up to authoritative content creators – and you should harness the power of high-quality content delivered by genuine clients and customers.

Moreover, there are growing trust issues between brands and customers, as consumers just are not as inclined to blindly believe everything a business tells them in the race to convert. UGC builds a metaphorical bridge between brand and consumer – especially when the content creator is also trusted.

There is no greater marketing and advertising influence than authentic, positive word-of-mouth recommendations.

UGC versus Influencer Marketing

It’s important to understand the difference between UGC and influencer marketing – contrary to popular belief, they are not the same thing.

Influencers are usually paid by businesses to create and distribute content – often making and sharing videos or photos of products across their own social media or other marketing channels (as opposed the those of the brand). Instagram is a major influencer platform.  

Influencers are contracted and paid to publish a specific number and frequency of posts for the brand. Some brands also own the rights to this content and can later redistribute it across their marketing channels. Influencers bring with them their own dedicated audience, and this is what the brands aim to exploit.

Influencer Marketing is ideal for:

• Creating awareness and hype for a new product or service
• Making content to remind the influencer’s audience about your product or brand
• Offering discount codes for your product to their audience

Paid UGC Creators (unlike those who are unpaid and create “organic” user content), are paid by brands to create specific material (usually photos or videos) relating to products or services and which is then distributed exclusively by the brand itself across its marketing channels. The UGC creator does not post the content they create on their own social platforms.

UGC Marketing is ideal for:

• Creating testimonials and recommendations
• Leaving reviews
• Making promotional product and brand content for sharing across the brand’s marketing channels
• Creating sponsored posts

The Many Benefits of UGC in 2023

Word of mouth is powerful, and it has always been the most successful marketing tool. As such, UGC is also a powerful tool for digital marketing.

People tend to believe what others with similar interests and concerns, or those they know and trust, are saying – much more so than any piece of business advertising, especially when it is overt, direct selling.

92% of consumers trust recommendations and reviews shared by real people over advertising claims.

With the unprecedented saturation of options presented by online access to products and services worldwide, brands must now focus more on displaying clearly-authentic, high-quality reviews and other user-generated content on their website, social media profiles, and other platforms.

Other benefits offered by adopting UGC into your marketing strategy include:

• UGC is cost-effective. It requires only a modest investment as numerous platforms can collect, curate, and distribute relevant content. These include social platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, and Snapchat, as well as dedicated UGC platforms which exist to help businesses more strategically employ UGC. Just a few examples of these include Yotpo, Trend, GRIN, Taggbox, Tint, Upfluence, and more.

• High-quality user-generated that is shared appropriately can help support wider SEO activities – helping to boost your organic search visibility online.

• UGC garners crucial engagement, which is a critical metric in social media marketing. Engagement defines the success of this kind of marketing campaign, and having the right mix of high-quality user-generated content is a great way to captivate and engage audiences.

UGC also:

• Boosts return website visits.
• Enables consumers to discover more new products.
• Increases click-through rates.
• Increases engagement with eDMs.
• Humanises promotional content.
• Increases conversion rates.
• Is highly successful for millennial and Gen Z audiences – and 90% of younger audiences are more influenced by UGC than by search engine results or promotional emails.
• Customers become advocates!

Adopt UGC Marketing to BUILD TRUST WITH CONSUMERS

Join the Dots – Chat with a Digital Strategist!

Is it time for you to exploit the power of UCG for your business marketing in 2023?

We can help you connect the dots!

Dot-to-Dot Digital is a full-service digital marketing agency based in southeast Queensland. With a wealth of experience over many years in our niche, we can you with all areas of your digital strategy – combining a progressive, versatile approach to content marketing, social media marketing, search engine marketing, SEO, email marketing, digital media strategy, UGC marketing, and more. 

Book a digital strategy session now – and explore how we can help you harness the benefits of UGC in 2023.