3 Effective Ways to Develop a Business with User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is one of the social media marketing tactics that you can't miss. Not only is user-created content free but it is actually one of the most effective strategies for getting more traffic to your website and increasing sales.
In fact, customer reviews are trusted 12 times more than marketing that comes directly from the organization. If you can show visual evidence of real customers who enjoy your product or service, other consumers will go directly to your website to become one of your customers too.
Your customers can gather thousands of new customers for your business, in this article I will show you the most effective ways to use user-generated content to increase business and traffic.
What is User-Generated Content (UGC)
User-generated content or in layman's terms is the content generated by the activities of users or readers on your website. This includes comments, testimonials, guest blog posts, reviews, or content submitted by your blog users that can be seen by the public and is a direct result of the actions of blog users.
Why is User-Generated Content
important? User-generated content is important because it allows users of your blog to directly take part in activities on your website. This increases engagement because they spend more time on your website. Users involved are more likely to subscribe to your website and buy what you sell.
High-quality and useful User-Generated Content can help you plan effective content marketing strategies. You can get more traffic, more affiliate sales, and more social reach to a wider audience. As already said, let's look at various ways to use User-generated content to increase business and sales.
You can use all or only the most suitable for your business.
1. Reuse customer photos
One of the most popular ways to display user-generated content is to reuse customer photos. Instagram is a great platform for sharing photos produced by users of your product or service.
There may even be extraordinary images of your product in the universe that you haven't yet realized.
Try searching for your company or product name using hashtags on Instagram and you might find some that already exist.
But if you don't find anything, ask your customers to share it! If you want to display user-generated content on Instagram, make sure to add captions to user-generated photos and to platforms like Instagram that don't allow you to add links to captions, directing users to links in your bio. Don't forget to tag users in the post too.
Users will be happy to get the opportunity to be displayed on your page and your other followers will be happy to see how other people enjoy your business.
2. Create a contest
Another great way to display user-generated content (UGC) is to create contests. This works in 2 ways: you attract user-created content and you can display user-generated content.
Starbucks is famous for holding Read Cup Art contests during holidays. This contest allows them to get thousands of user-generated content that they can share every day and that encourages audience involvement. It's a great way to generate a lot of engagement on social media, but you also get a big increase in traffic to your website too.
You can create a specific landing page that displays all entries and users can choose their favorites.
After they choose, you can direct them to your online store.
3. Comment
Comments is the easiest user-generated content that any blog can have. Each Blogging platform comes with a built-in comment system that is activated on all blog posts by default.
If you run a business website without a blog, maybe you should think about adding a blog.
You can maintain the existing website design and simply add a separate blog page to it. The hard part is making the user comment.
Most of your blog readers usually leave without writing a comment. However, the good news is there are many ways to encourage more comments. See my article on how to get more comments on blog posts.
Conclusion.
Remember, as a general rule, always ask permission before you use a customer's photo. But as I mentioned earlier, most customers will be happy and flattered that you think their content is good enough to share. So, don't wait any longer, start asking your customers for user-generated content today and you will soon see an increase in traffic that you can thank your loyal fans.