User Generated Content is one of the most successful and innovative trends of the Modern Web, that involves the audience in the content creation process and helps to achieve the biggest viral results of the campaign.
Appreciation or liking campaigns (UGC Campaigns) have emerged as effective ways through which brand engages the audience. These campaigns utilize the creativity and energy of customers to get them to market a brand or product via word of mouth. For the sake of illustrating this point, in this guide, we will take you through how to create a great UGC campaign, highlight an example or two, and ultimately, let’s understand why and how UGC campaigns are effective.
Understanding User Generated Content Campaigns
User Generated Content Campaigns are an effective online marketing tool. Thus User Generated Content Campaigns is a concept that entails the use of advertising strategies that allow consumers to generate content touching on brands. Such content can be in the form of photographs, moving pictures, comments, customer feedback, and even from social media.
For example, in a UGC campaign for a fashion brand, customers are encouraged to upload pictures of them in the fashion brand outfits, thus a feed of believable, relatable content that can be reposted on the brand’s SM profiles.
To understand more about UGC campaigns, watch this video.
The Benefits Of UGC Campaigns
It’s time to address the benefits UGC campaigns can bring to your business. I was able to learn that the first advantage of UGC campaigns is the ASPI quality they introduce in a brand’s marketing. If people observe how others who might be their peers use and benefit from a particular product. UGC campaigns also create engagement by pointing customers to the story material and urging them to share their experiences. In addition, these campaigns result in the production of several pieces of content that a brand can reuse for other advertising avenues, thus discarding the costly need for professional content.
Learn more about UCG and its benefits.
Creating a UGC Campaign: A Comprehensive Guide
1. Define Your Goals
For any UGC campaign to be initiated, the campaign needs to have goals that are clear and properly set. Purpose, the extent of your campaign goals or objectives mostly depends on your potential profit. Some of the many objectives business entities might want are to enhance brand recognition, more engagement on social media, and accumulate sales. Clearly defined goals will ensure that the accomplishment of your campaign is easy to quantify, and will also define your campaign’s objectives.
2. Know Your Audience
It is always necessary to know your target market, especially when it comes to any form of marketing and this too applies to User Generated Content Campaign. Identify and establish the target groups and the kind of content that they are likely to generate and share. This is especially important to reach those voters who are targeting the specific campaign that you are running.
3. Choose the Right Platform
By choosing a platform to place your UGC campaign, you should identify one that your target market uses most. IG, TikTok, and Facebook may be the most common platforms to mine UGC campaigns. It is also important to note that each of the platforms has its strengths. So it’s important to choose the right one depending on the goal and audience. For instance, Instagram is suitable for sharing graphic content and implementing filters and images in contrast to TikTok. Which is effective in sharing short and creative videos.
4. Create a Unique Hashtag
Hashtag is the most crucial element that composes the proper creation of UGC campaigns. It assists you in monitoring this content and indeed the whole content developed by your audience. When choosing a hashtag for your posts, ensure it is short, easy to remember, and has a connection with your brand or the theme of the campaign. For instance, Coca-Cola Company used the #ShareaCoke on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. To give viewers a heads up on other personalized elements that consumers tagged to their Cokes. It was easier for the brand to locate other such content.
Check out how to create a unique hashtag for your campaign
5. Encourage Participation
This will be a motive to get more people to participate by giving out gifts, free service, or exposure on your blog or social networking sites. Ensure that the participation comes easily by ensuring that the instructions you have provided. This time include examples of what you expect to receive from the users. Responsible positive sneak, as well as communication, in the sense that the author liked, commented, and shared some of the content. Will also encourage others to participate.
6. Monitor and Share Content
Engage with the content as soon as your User Generated Content Campaign is launched to prevent brands and social media influencers from producing irrelevant content. Although the idea remains to tweet your campaign hashtag. Use the most effective content articles on your brand and the various social media accounts, websites, and other related platforms. It also demonstrates politeness towards your customers and at the same time increases the circle of its advertising reach.
7. Analyze and Optimize
Once your UGC campaign is over, review the metrics to establish if achieves its set objectives or not. Compare parameters like engagement, reach, and the number of people who attended. Also the quality of the content, and the extent to which the event influenced sales or potential customers. There is a need to build an understanding to maximize the latest campaigns by implementing the following information. Even within the same campaign, suppose you noticed that pictures created more engagement than videos. Then you might ensure the following campaign incorporates more of pictures.
Read about how to measure the success of your UGC campaign.
UGC Campaign Examples
Examining past successful UGC campaign examples can be helpful in terms of identifying both usefulness and being a source of inspiration. Another recent instance is the #WhiteCupContest initiated by Starbucks which encouraged consumers to draw on cups and share the pictures. The winner was then utilized to design a Starbucks cup which was only available for a particular period.
Another excellent example of a UGC that is well-continued is GoPro’s endless spree at making content with user-generated content. GoPro has always been advising its customers to share their adventurous videos on social forums using #GoPro.
Final Point
User Generated Content Campaigns are simply the best strategy to use. Because they are effective in creating a sense of community. Thus establishing trust with the intended audience while at the same time acting as a powerful marketing tool. Due to the voluminous amount of user-generated content that they create. Populating the above seven steps, identifying the objectives, understanding the target market, selecting a platform, developing proper hashtags, increasing engagement, and moderating content and analytics. A positive influence towards a successful UGC campaign can be achieved.