In the world of content marketing, user-generated content(UGC) is a gold mine. Although user-generated content is found as an infinite pool all over social media platforms, its use isn’t limited to just social media marketing. Marketers use UGC in every form available- be it over social media, or an online review, a testimonial, an image, or even a video review.

Even before the vogue of the internet, UGC was employed extensively for marketing purposes in the form of printed testimonials in newspapers or handwritten customer feedback.

The basic philosophy behind such huge success of user-generated content is that people listen to people. They trust the reviews by their friends & family members more than a sales executive’s selling pitch for a product he is hired to sell.

Hence, User generated content marketing rocks!

If you still don’t believe me, you will by the end of this article. It will dig deep into the benefits of user-generated content marketing for your brand.

So, let’s dive straight in.

Benefits of User-Generated Content Marketing

UGC Marketing is not just a marketing option anymore. It is rather a necessity now. Reason being the cut-throat competition of the marketing world and the need to do something better and much more amazing than your competitors. UGC provides you the capability to do exactly that. It comes with amazing benefits that are difficult to ignore.

Some of those are discussed over here-

#1. Users Love It, Hence Enhanced Engagement

12X Trust Factor

Customers trust reviews from peers and other customers 12 times more than the brand advertisements.

Users just love UGC. And it’s obvious if they do. After all, it’s people like them who have created it in the first place. Hence, they love to see what their fellow users have posted about a brand that they intend to buy from.

This curiosity also encourages user engagement. In order to find more, learn more, people click on these user-generated posts, explore them more, like them or even comment on these if they find it interesting.

Hence, the engagement is enhanced.

#2. Builds Social Trust

86% More Trust

86% Millenials trust user-generated content and consider it as a good indicator of your brand’s quality.

Any content that can be tagged as a user-generated content for a brand will definitely revolve around that brand. It will contain real-life people sharing their real experiences with your brand, and not models and actors paid to enact out a scripted act. This difference between a real and fake advertisement story is smartly identified by the viewers watching it.

Consumers are smart. They think thrice before they buy anything. They go through online reviews, images, testimonials, and what not about the product they intend to buy. They will always trust a brand that shows real users sharing their experiences instead of paid, edited, and modeled advertisements.

Hence, boosted social trust.

#3. Boosts User Engagement

28% More Engagement

When you mix user-generated content with your professional content, brand engagement increases by 28%

When people love what they see, they engage with it. It has already been established that users love UGC. So when they see one, they engage with it.

Talking about events, conferences, trade shows, seminars, concerts, and other live events like these, audiences at these events are enthusiastic and filled with zeal to participate in the event and have fun. When they see that you arranged for something to display their images, videos, and all other kinds of social media content on an attractive display screen, they overwhelmingly engage with your initiative.

They happily post on social media regarding the event using the event hashtag, be it images, videos, tweets, check-ins, comments, re-posts, re-tweets, or any other form that you allow your audience to post in order to get displayed. After all, who wouldn’t love the idea of being displayed in front of thousands through a social wall! All they have to just do is click and post.

Hence, impulsed user engagement.

#4. Improves Your Website’s Performance

64% More Conversions

Integrating user-generated content with your web content increases the conversion rate by 64%.

Not just events, user-generated content is a good marketing trick even if you are promoting your brand online through an official website. You could always embed real-time user-generated social media posts on your website through a social hub.

For starters, it makes your boring website visually appealing. When real-time embedded social media feeds are being displayed on your website, visitors tend to stop and scroll through it for a while. This improves the dwell-time of your website visitors, simultaneously decreasing the bounce rate of your websites. It makes your overall website content more relevant and engaging. Thereby, increasing the website’s relevancy. It also improves the conversion rates and the click-through rates for your website.

Hence, the overall performance of the website is improved.

#5. Expands Your Advertising Reach

28% More Brand Engagement

When consumers interact with both professional and user-generated content, brand engagement is enhanced by 28%.

When you incorporate user-generated content for into your marketing strategy, you simply initiate an altogether a new chain of word of mouth marketing. It spreads like wildfire and stays ignited for days.

When users are a part of your marketing campaign, they tend to share it within their peer circles too. This spreads your marketing and advertising reach beyond your target audience.

Over To You

User-generated content marketing is not a hype without reason. It is actually as beneficial as it is being talked about.

If you haven’t still incorporated user-generated marketing strategy as an important marketing tactic of your brand, then you are missing out on major benefits.

So, what are you waiting for! Be the smart players of the marketing industry to employ the user-generated content marketing tricks for growing your business and stay ahead of your competitors.

This article is contributed by Carol, enthusiastic digital marketing professional and content writer, currently she is researching on user generated content marketing and believes that UGC can change the marketing pattern in coming days!