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Now more than ever your audience is craving authenticity at every touch point.
Audiences are saturated with content on each and every platform, there has been a shift in the past few years, shown in stats from each platform that scream that the audience wants to see more raw, authentic content, from both creators and businesses.
This creates the question, how do I create authentic content?
Our answer - user-generated content, and then our next question - does it really work?
The short answer is yes, but let's get into it a little further. Before we get any further let's rewind and define user-generated content.
User-generated content or 'UGC' is content that is produced by customers/clients that is brand/business-specific, which is then shared on social media platforms.
Now that we’ve defined what exactly UGC is let’s get into the reasons why it is important and why you should include this form of content in your digital marketing strategy.
Reason 1:
Build trust with your audience
As mentioned before audiences are craving authenticity in a world full of content saturation. Authenticity often leads to trust being built between your business, existing audiences and potential customers.
Showcasing your clients speaking about your services/products gives audiences an authentic look into your brand with someone with that they are able to connect and relate and see themselves. This helps potential clients start to associate your brand with being authentic, reputable and trustworthy.
Reason 2:
Mix it up
Although we are big advocates for professionally produced content and believe that these professionally created photos and videos should be an essential part of everyone's marketing strategy when possible, UGC helps mix up audience feed a little bit, providing something different for them to interact with.
This could be content that is generated by customers or could simply be an iPhone photo onsite that acts as a behind-the-scenes look. Having a mix of content styles is important when keeping your audience engaged with the content you are producing and distributing.
Reason 3:
Stand Out
This final reason kind of mixes both reason one and two together but UGC is a great way to make your content stand out. Due to the increased use of social media platforms for business and marketing, audiences can get sick of ads and promotions, leading to mindless scrolling and content not making the intended impact.
UGC is a great way to re-engage audiences with your content and brand without having to push ads and promotions heavily. If the promotions are constantly very ‘in your face’ for clients they can be turned off your brand and business. Utilising this UGC to subtly do the re-engaging and get the audience interested in your brand is one of the big benefits of using this style of content.
Take this as your nudge to try out some user-generated content in your marketing strategy, don't be scared to try out something new!
Want to chat some more about how user-generated content could benefit your business and add to your marketing strategy?
Shoot me an email at
taylor@heymarketing.com.au.
About the Authors of this blog:
Maddie Riehl
Founder and Director of Hey Marketing. Maddie has a passion for all things digital marketing.
She began her career in marketing in 2013. From there she completed a Cert IV in marketing and further developed her skills and knowledge base.
After seeing some flaws in other agency offerings, Maddie wanted to create a marketing agency where things are done a little differently - and so Hey Marketing was born!
