82. User generated content: How to get your customers to help with your marketing

Imagine a world where your clients help you create authentic marketing content that helps you build trust with their peers and other potential customers. On this episode of The High-Performance Marketing podcast, we'll dive into understanding what user-generated content is, and ways you can start actively encouraging your audience to share their experiences with your products or services through reviews, testimonials, social media posts, and more!

Key takeaways:

Tap into the creativity and the authenticity of your clients

Strengthen your brand's impact

And amplify your marketing reach in a way that traditional marketing methods can't achieve.

Transcript

Welcome to The High Performance Marketing Podcast, a show focused on helping entrepreneurs and small business owners connect with their ideal customers using simple marketing and quality content. I'm your Marketing Guide, Ali Garbero.

Have you ever been browsing social media and you come across a video of some unknown random person showing you their favorite amazon gadget, or displaying their favorite wal mart outfits. Then you’ve participated in what’s known as User Generated Content (UGC.)

(UGC) User generated content is any content—text, videos, images, reviews, etc.—created by people, instead of brands. If you’ve ever participated in leaving a video testimonial for your favorite business, stayed at an air bnb and left a five star review, and posted it to your social channels with hashtag airbnb, then you’ve entered the era of UGC.

On today’s episode of the podcast we’ll take a look at user-generated content, how it’s transforming the way entrepreneurs and businesses create and use content as part of their overall marketing strategy.

To start, let’s make sure we’re clear about UGC because it can easily be confused with influencer marketing. Influencer Marketing content, while effective, is usually paid and promotional, which can sometimes affect perceived authenticity, right? You’re naturally going to feel different about the authenticity of someone sharing their experience with a product or service if you know they’re getting paid to share it.

UGC is generally seen as more authentic because it comes directly from product users without incentives to promote the product.

As a business owner, UGC is a powerful way for you to create genuine content that improves your credibility.

Four simple ideas you can use to create user generated content include

Customer Reviews

Client testimonials

Social media posts

Images - real estate agents know this one well with their client photos at closings.

@ ing your brand on social media

Live streams

YouTube content (personal experience as a collaborator on Alisia’s channel.)

Blog content + any other kind of content consumers might create and publish online.

To take this concept a little further, let’s think about user generated content on Tiktok. TikTok features products from a specific brand but is created by users instead of brands. The brands can use the content on their social ad campaigns or display it on their social profiles. TikTok UGC can be created through videos, photos, reviews, testimonials, and more.

Those who watch this content see it as genuine, because again, it’s not the actual brand talking themselves up but their customers.

To leverage user generated content, you’ll need to shift your thinking and see that customers are no longer passive spectators, watching commercials about your product or service. With the access of social media, your customers are now active participants in creating content that resonates with their peers. Peers who know, like, and trust them when they recommend your lipstick, home warranty company, or CPA services.

This change in customers creating content has sparked an incredible shift in marketing. With the entire planet consuming content on social media, brands and businesses like yours and mine can leverage these channels to showcase our content and reach a wider audie