User-generated-content (UGC) is exactly how it sounds. It is content produced and shared by someone outside of a brand, usually customers. Some might even go as far to call them ‘fans’, but we’ll stick to calling them customers/users. There is a subset of UGC called employee-generated-content, which you guessed it, is produced and shared by employees, however it’s only considered UGC if it’s authentic and independently produced.
The most common form of UGC is a review, but also includes social media posts, photos, videos and blog posts. UGC is free promotional content for a business, therefore it is a gold-standard marketing tool. Not to mention the fact it is considered highly trustworthy due to the source being outside of the business, similar to the clout attributed to word-of-mouth promotions.
UGC can mistakenly be attributed as a B2C-only marketing tool, because customers are more inclined to share photos/reviews for those types of products and services, but B2B businesses can really capitalise on this type of content if they curate it in the right way…*cough* design a campaign *cough cough*.
Here’s a simple step-by-step guide on how to do just that.
Step 1
Identify your UGC channels/platforms
This is where it’s very important to know who your customer is, and where they like to hang out. Most B2B brands & their audiences will be active on LinkedIn, but you might also find a community on Reddit or even Facebook groups. Once you know where your users are, you can then encourage them to share content there.
Step 2
Set a goal
To make a UGC strategy really effective you need set a goal for the campaign, so it has some direction. It can’t just be content for content’s sake. Well, it can, but you’re not going to get a good ROI. Common UGC goals include increasing brand awareness, increasing brand engagement (which builds a better community) and driving website traffic (for this goal you will obviously need the campaign to direct users to your site in some way).
Step 3
Stay on brand
If your business helps other businesses with sustainability, then your UGC campaign should incorporate it. Not only does it communicate a consistent brand image and profile, but it will resonate with your audience more & increase participation, because they evidently care about the environment if they’re already a customer of yours (in this example)!
Step 4
Make it easy
Participating in a UGC campaign should be easy and it should be fun. Humans, whether they’re part of a B2B or B2C industry love sharing things they care about (back to point 3, which provides the ‘fun’ part of this equation), but if that sharing requires writing a 2000-word essay, you can guarantee you’ll get no engagement. Photos and short tweet-length reviews are two good examples.
Step 5
Track & react
This is where external tools that help you track brand mentions online become really handy. You can set alerts so that you can respond in real-time when a user tags you in a social media post or leaves a review on a forum/platform, which is important if the content is negative but also if it’s positive, because then you can repurpose it for marketing and see if there’s an opportunity for further collaboration (note: always ask permission from the user if you want to repurpose!). Keeping track of the results will make campaign reporting so much easier too. There are many tools out there, but Brandwatch and Mention are examples.
I’ll summarise by saying that the whole point of UGC is that it is visible. You want your audience and potential customers to see this content. You could share it on your social channels, have a section on your website that auto-populates with it or include it in your monthly/weekly newsletters. It’s also worth mentioning that encouraging UGC doesn’t need to be done via a fancy campaign, simply asking your customers to leave a review via email is a soft-touch approach that will still yield results.
If you’d like to discuss how your business could be leveraging UGC better or about any other marketing support, get in touch here.
