Level-up Your Marketing with User-Generated Content: 5 exciting benefits for your business

The Challenge of Creating Content that Converts

One of the biggest struggles of businesses is creating marketing content that works. That’s why they rack their brains, looking for clever stories, creative executions, and fun ways to promote their brand. And more often than not, these cost them a lot of money since they need to work with agencies, talents, production houses, and more. 

Despite the hefty investment in creating these marketing campaigns, there’s still no guarantee that they will work for the brand. Hence, there’s still a considerable risk of failure and money down the toilet. 

This enormous challenge for businesses launched a quest to find better ways to create content that converts. Content that capture attention, drives traffic, influences purchase behavior, and generates sales. 

 

The Age of User-Generated Content

Over the years, customer recommendations have been one of the most powerful marketing tools in every business’s arsenal. Studies show that more than 88% of consumers consider customer reviews when purchasing products. That’s because customer feedback creates trust and builds credibility since these come from people who have already experienced a brand. 

In traditional advertising, customer feedback mostly comes in the form of word-of-mouth. People telling their friends and families about their experiences with a particular brand and recommend it (or tell people to avoid it) based on their experience. 

But in the era of the internet, word-of-mouth evolved into the word-of-mouse. Instead of just telling their friends and family about the products they use, consumers now join different channels to express their satisfaction (or discontent). And with that, word-of-mouth marketing became User-Generated Content (UGC). 

Simply put, UGC is content your customers create on the internet. It could be a review on sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, or your product checkout page. It can also be photos or videos they upload on their social media profiles. And if they’re a content creator, it can be something they post on their blog, YouTube channel, and other accounts. 

 

How Effective is User-Generated Content?

Several studies show that user-generated content is an effective marketing strategy for businesses. Consumers trust customer feedback and UGCs 50% more than branded content. Moreover, these types of content can increase a brand’s conversion rate by up to 4.5x compared to traditional marketing tactics. 

Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, is one of the brands that leveraged user content to growth hack their brand and accelerate their user base. 

The game’s developers included a “replay” feature that allowed players to record their highlights and share them with friends. This increased the number of videos uploaded on various channels like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch, ultimately increasing the game’s visibility. 

Moreover, to reward players who come up with jaw-dropping highlights, Epic Games also created a YouTube channel where they showcase content created by the players. 

 

Powering-up Your Business through User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful tool to connect with your audience and drive growth. It provides people with a unique and authentic perspective on your brand. Plus, it builds trust and credibility with your audience while providing valuable insights into customer preferences and needs. 

In this section, we will explore how UGC can power up your gaming business and help you to stay ahead of the competition. 

 

Improves your brand’s visibility

Customers posting UGCs about your brand increases your reach organically since they’re showing your brand to the people around them. By posting your brand, they’re encouraging their circle to explore your brand and check if you’re a good fit for them too.   

Moreover, since people mention your brand (and your website) in their posts, your SEO score and search rankings significantly improve. This happens because search engines track your brand’s backlinks and digital mentions and use them to measure your brand’s popularity and relevance. 

By improving your brand’s visibility through UGCs, you can increase the number of potential customers. 

 

Builds trust and credibility 

User-generated content (UGC) can improve a brand’s credibility and trustworthiness. According to studies, consumers trust UGCs 50% more than branded content. That’s because UGCs, such as customer reviews, social media posts, and videos, provide an authentic and unbiased perspective on a brand. 

When potential customers see that other people have had positive experiences with your brand, it makes them feel confident that they’ll have the same experiences too.

Nintendo is an example of a gaming brand that effectively uses UGC to improve its credibility. They regularly feature user-generated content on their social media channels, such as fan art, cosplay, and gameplay videos. 

This showcases the creativity and passion of their fanbase and provides a relatable perspective on the brand and its products. This helps increase trust and credibility among potential customers and solidify brand loyalty among existing customers. It also encourages users to create and share content on social media, which helps Nintendo expand its reach and increase brand awareness.

 

Increases your sales

Building on the two previous ideas, we can see that user-generated content can ultimately increase your brand’s sales since it helps you reach more potential customers and builds your brand’s credibility in the eyes of these people. In a research conducted by Power Reviews, it was discovered that shoppers who view products with reviews are 52.2% more likely to convert.

One example of a brand that effectively uses UGC to increase sales is Steam. The brand has a user review system on their platform. Here, customers can leave reviews and ratings on the games they purchase. 

This UGC is then used to generate a “review score,” displayed on the game’s page in the store. This review score is a powerful tool for consumers, as it helps them decide whether to buy the game. 

 

Informs you about consumer preferences 

User-generated content is not just a marketing play for your business. Aside from helping you reach more customers, build credibility, and increase conversions, UGCs give insight into your customer’s behavior. 

What they say about your product tells you what potential customers would love (and hate) about it. It can also show surprising uses for your products that you might have yet to consider. 

These insights can help you improve your product and make it more relevant to your customers. Ultimately, this enables you to build better relationships with your customers. 

 

Reduces your marketing costs 

Traditional advertising strategies can be costly and may only sometimes yield the desired results. On the other hand, UGC is a cost-effective solution, as customers and fans create it instead of you. This means businesses can leverage the content without investing a significant amount of money. Additionally, UGC can also help save time and resources since you can repurpose and share it across different platforms. 

An example of a brand that effectively uses UGC to decrease its costs is Minecraft. 

Minecraft has a dedicated community of players who create and share their own mods, skins, and maps. These are additional content can be downloaded by players to enhance their gameplay experience. 

This UGC not only helps to increase engagement and retention for the game but also helps to decrease costs for the company since Minecraft doesn’t have to invest in creating additional content for the game. 

Additionally, since the creators are proud of their work, they share it and promote the game on various social media platforms. This increases brand awareness and drives sales with no costs to the company.

 

How to get started with User Generated Content? 

If you don’t have a user-generated content strategy yet, you can start by building a library of content posted by your existing customers. From there, you can start sharing those across different platforms. Scrub various platforms and see what people are saying about your brand. 

You can also launch campaigns to encourage your existing customers to post their reviews, testimonials, and unboxing videos on their social media pages. This can help you grow your library further. 

Once you think you’ve maxed out your UGC potential from your existing customers, you should expand your library to include influencers. Influencer UGCs have a broader reach potential for your brand, plus the right ones can deliver better credibility than ordinary customers.