Brands across the world are starting to shift their digital marketing strategies away from influencers and towards User Generated Content (UGC). Here are the top five reasons why brands are moving away from influencers and finding more value with UGC.
1. You get more bang for your buck
While Influencers are more likely to post high quality content that brands are looking for, they also charge for every piece of content that they produce. With UGC brands can choose to reward certain creators, which will build goodwill and only cost a fraction of the price of an influencer piece of content. It doesn't have to be a monetary reward! Brands have found success by simply showing their appreciation via social credit.
2. UGC Builds your community
One of the biggest benefits of effectively using UGC is the way that it can connect you to your audience. When consumers can see themselves and other people who are just like them on your brands social media and marketing materials it helps create a real connection to your brand. UGC also helps humanize your brand as well as normalize interactions with your brand.
3. The Snowball Effect
UGC enables a snowball effect that just doesn't happen with paid influencer content. By featuring user content as an established and regular part of your strategy, it will inspire more consumers to upload content in hopes of being featured.
4. Consumers Prefer UGC
UGC enables a snowball effect that just doesn't happen with paid influencer content. By featuring user content as an established and regular part of your strategy, it will inspire more consumers to upload content in hopes of being featured.
5. Consumers Trust Other Consumers
While there absolutely is value in influencer content, influencers are paid for their content, which is obvious to the average social media user. Part of why UGC is so trustworthy is the removal of the transactional element -- the authenticity is there, and it is palpable to your customers. If you can build on that trust with more and more UGC, you can tap into building the community around your brand.
This list embodies just a fraction of the benefits that UGC has for brands that are willing to lean into it. Every brand has fans that are making content about it, the question is how are brands going to leverage the content being created?
of consumers are more likely to trust a brand that uses content from actual consumers versus paid influencers
