User-generated content (UGC) can be marketing gold dust, and it is particularly powerful at enhancing brand reputation. The key difference between UGC and other types of marketing content is that the content is created by customers and other external people, so it is seen to be unbiased and more genuine.
When prospective customers read reviews or comments left by previous customers, they have a deeper level of trust in their opinions, compared to how much they trust a company’s own marketing content. After all, these people are not paid to share their views, so there is no incentive for them to promote a product or service, unless they are genuinely very happy with it.
A recent study showed that incorporating UGC into email marketing campaigns resulted in a 78% higher click-through rate. Businesses are increasingly leveraging the value of user-generated content, by sharing online customer reviews, social media comments and even videos created by advocates of their products or services.
If you are looking for ways to capitalise on user-generated content, a good place to start is to collect the best examples of UGC and store them in your DAM system.
This means that the UGC can be quickly and easily retrieved, to include in future marketing campaigns. You can also store and organise permissions to use the content, if necessary.
With keyword tagging, relevant metadata and a well-organised taxonomy, all those positive reviews and videos can be accessed in seconds to include in relevant marketing campaigns.
Here are some of the ways you can harness audience creativity:
Social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are filled with people sharing their experiences. From photos of a meal they have been served at a restaurant, to video tutorials of using products such as hair curlers, you can search for content that users have tagged your business in. You can then store these types of UGC in your DAM system, ready to be used by your marketing team.
Rather than spending time searching through hundreds of reviews, if you save screenshots of the best online reviews in your DAM system and tag them with the relevant keywords, your marketing team has instant access to reviews that highlight a certain aspect of your product or service. These can be used in email campaigns, social media posts and on your website to improve conversion rates.
You might find some customers have written blogs or long-form reviews about your business. These customer stories can be utilised in campaigns to build trust in your brand, and to develop your customer community by thanking contributors and making them feel valued.
A DAM system could play an integral role in unlocking the marketing potential of user-generated content. To find out more about how can optimise your marketing results with UGC and DAM, contact iBase for a one-to-one demo.
