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Online Marketing Buzzwords: User-Generated Content

Fans often contribute to a company’s marketing efforts without even realizing they are doing so. User-generated content, however, is becoming more common every day. What exactly is this marketing technique, how it is useful, what is its purpose, and where has user-generated content been of great success? Continue reading and learn the answers to these questions and many more.

What Is User-generated Content?

User-generated content or UGC is any digital content that end-users of a website or online service produce and share. The website or service has no hand in creating this material but benefits from its use. People often hear about this type of content being referred to as conversational media or consumer-generated media. All three terms refer to the same thing and the results are similar.

The content may appear in many forms. Pictures of a consumer holding and using a product is one example of UGC. As long as the user is promoting the brand rather than the brand promoting itself, it falls into this broad category. In fact, videos, blog posts, tweets, testimonials, and more are all considered user-generated content if the company had no hand in producing or distributing the material.

How Is User-Generated Content Beneficial?

A woman holding a smartphone, while sharing things on social mediaConsumers turn to family and friends when they want information about a product or brand. In fact, 86 percent of millennials now report they consider user-generated content to be a good indication as to whether a brand offers quality products and services. When they see friends and family promoting this brand, they are more likely to purchase it.

Take this a step further. When individuals between the ages of 18 and 24 were asked whether they consider information shared on social media when making a purchase, 68 percent stated they do. User-generated content is very popular on these sites and can help a brand go viral in a very short period of time.

The Purpose of User-Generated Content

User-generated content helps to build brand awareness. The content created by fans of the brand is often shared on social media, allowing companies to improve their search engine ranking and increase their visibility. They do so at no cost because the fans are the ones doing the work. The company simply benefits from asking them to share their experience.

Marketing dollars only extend so far, and companies must find ways to generate new content that draws the eye of the target audience. With the help of UGC, companies find they obtain free marketing materials that are ideally suited for the consumers they are trying to attract. Who knows better what a target audience wants than members of that audience? By requesting content from these individuals, a company finds they can obtain new marketing ideas with ease, ones the in-house or third party marketing teams being used overlooked.

How Can a Company Obtain User-Generated Content?

Selfie of three girls

Companies often feel uncomfortable asking consumers to promote their brand. However, there are ways to achieve this goal without appearing pushy. For example, a company may choose to launch a video contest. Simply ask users to share a video on social media pages, including the company’s page, showing the consumer using the product being promoted. Offer a prize for the best video to draw more attention to the contest.

Another option is to start a hashtag contest on one of the social media sites. Businesses that do so often find this contest spills onto other sites as well. As a result, the company gets more exposure than originally intended.

A third option is to set up a challenge. Ask users to find the most unique way to use the product or show the most unusual place they have used the product or service. Companies find this helps to generate interest in the items they are selling. In addition, it may provide the company with a whole new way of promoting the item and could lead to the development of a completely new product, one that is better suited for the purpose consumers are currently using an existing product for. Let consumers do the research and the company can then handle the development aspect of this process.

Successful User-Generated Content Campaigns

The Share a Coke campaign is an excellent example of a user-generated content campaign. The company created Coke bottles with names on them, and consumers would search to find the bottle with their name. Coke took this a step further and asked people to share pictures of them with their personalized bottles. This campaign took off across the world and generated a lot of business for the company. However, Coca-Cola isn’t the only one to have a successful campaign of this type.

Burberry, back in 2009, launched a campaign entitled the Art of the Trench. The company recognized word-of-mouth referrals remain the best marketing campaign available and took advantage of this. The company simply asked consumers to share pictures of them and their friends wearing Burberry trench coats. The best images were then shared on Facebook and a website set up specifically for this campaign.

Ninety-two percent of consumers state they trust the recommendations of family and friends over branded marketing. These campaigns took advantage of this basic fact. When a person sees someone they know and trust make use of a product or service, they feel confident in doing the same. This explains why user-generated content campaigns are truly one of the best marketing techniques today.

Bring consumers together with the help of a user-generated content campaign. Humans often hear about the differences among them and never stop to consider the similarities. These campaigns bring people together by showing how they are connected. There is no push to buy a product or service. Rather, the focus is on these connections and how people come together with the help of a particular brand. It’s a great way to get one’s name out in the public eye and do so in a way that doesn’t appear overly aggressive or pushy. Consumers don’t want or need those types of sales tactics and avoid them whenever possible. A user-generated content campaign is ideal for this reason.

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Online Marketing Buzzwords: Content Amplification

Picture for the Online Marketing Buzzwords Content Amplification

Anyone scoping with topics in the field of online marketing knows the value of good and unique content, which is persistently created (three million blog posts are published every day!). Companies who are successful at content marketing try to get the most out of the content they create. With Content Amplification, you have a method for increasing the reach of your marketing campaigns considerably.

The reason for Content Amplification

advance your company with unique content
drive more and persistent traffic to your websites

There is no discussion that content will drive traffic to your website and that organic, persistent traffic is the prerequisite of a good content marketing strategy. When there are difficulties with reaching consistency with your organic traffic, a setup of a plan-B is necessary. At this point, content amplification comes in: a plan to amplify content beyond the range of organic traffic can make the difference in reaching success with your business.

Definition

Content amplification describes the process of taking your content to the next level: thus, it is able to reach a considerably broader audience and to amplify the range of your content. It describes the use of not only one type of content but diverse media (paid, owned and earned ones) in efforts to increase your brands scope and to guiden potential customers through the sales funnel.

Very Important for your success: having one central goal in mind

Goal

In order to exert the reach-out of your content, all your promotion and marketing actions are tried to be aligned towards one central goal. The smart usage of paid and owned media channels will support your aim of additionally gaining earned media attention (like real-life engagement, reportings or references to your brand). In this way, your good, organic traffic is amplified in its range and is brought to the attention of customers.

Content Amplification Strategy

  • Goals: First of all, think about the goal of all your content amplification effort. It goes hand in hand with your content strategy and has to be thought about thoroughly. You have to know your custom goals. So, you can determine and measure if your marketing actions are working.
  • Use of various topics and channels during customer journey: 
    • Ensure that you have the right content topics to support marketing efforts. Your follower or potential customer must be delivered different types of content. Optimally, this is offered in various formats and from different sources – so every customer liking can be served. Some content amplification steps taken at various channels may cause actions among your users. Some useful content delivery channels in the beginnig of the customer journey might be: remarketing, influencer marketing, digital press release and (paid) social media.
    • Later in the customer’s journey, the goal of content is to offer helpful information specific to your products. Some content types can be blog-posts, how-to’s or eBooks. The cannels at this stage might be: paid search, email marketing and social lead nurture.
    • Soon your customer is ready to make a – hopefully – purchase decision. At this stage your content should offer a unique promotion. Besides, a confirmation that the choice they’re making is the right one, is useful. Paid search, paid social actions, lead nurture, influencer marketing and email offerings can be applicated here.
    • After the decision for a purchase is made, don’t stop giving content to them. Try to get back to them, offer your help, ask for their opinion and provide useful information via email marketing and organic social media.
  • stay on track with good, unique content

    Content, Content, Content: There should be a clear connection between your amplification and content creation strategy. Adapt the content topics in order to fill-out holes on the way of your customer journey. Maybe tools like a content calendar can be really useful in order to keep an eye on the content topics and continue publishing awesome content.

  • Amplification Stage: Use the channels you currently operate, if you find that they effectively help you reach your potential customers. Therefore, consider all the channels and if they can be optimized with one another. Your own channels as well as paid channels can be controlled best, so theay are the best way to start with. But paid, owned and earned media should always work as one single integrity.

Most important tools

Here are some tools, you can use for the amplification of content:

  • BuzzSumo is a tool, used for content marketing and SEO campaigns. It is able to quickly identify what content is working well in a certrain industry and who the major influencers are.
  • Facebook Ads is a very interesting opportunity for businesses to target ads aimed to the specific audience.
  • Buffer is an intuitive social media management platform trusted by brands, businesses, agencies, and individuals to help drive social media results.
  • Buzz Stream is a web-based software that helps the world’s best marketers promote their products, services and content to build links, buzz, and brands.
with a diverse approach on multiple channels, you can cover the interests of your customers

Most popular channels

Most used channels, people use to amplify their content today are:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Google Plus
  • Pinterest

Resume

For establishing an Amplification Strategy, processes for the marketing steps have to be setup. Besides, social media and skilled marketing experts are needed to overtake the tasks, connected with the strategy. In the end, when all steps are taken, they can bring more leads for your business.

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Online Marketing Buzz Words: Smart Content

Smart content appears to be the wave of the future because it provides a better experience for visitors to a website. When individuals visit a website, the site takes notice of what they are interested in and uses this to provide the visitor with a more personalized experience. The content changes to ensure it is relevant to the visitor based on their past behavior or interests. Static content is not able to accomplish this, which helps to explain why more companies are turning to this smart content, often referred to as dynamic content. With the help of a CRM system or marketing software, a marketer finds they are able to customize the pages of the site. For instance, current customers may see one page and leads another. This ensures every visitor gets the most from the site.

How Companies are Benefitting from Smart Content

Individuals who use a music service likely already receive smart content. For example, when a person listens to Pandora, the service takes note of the music they like and provides more songs of a similar type. With time, the person is able to create a station that is personalized to their tastes. Nest, the smart thermometer, does something similar. It records patterns of behavior and adapts to handle temperature changes so the user does not have to. The companies are identifying data points and adjusting to better meet the needs of the user.

How This Benefits Marketers

Marketers have actually been offering smart content for some time now. For example, businesses have been customizing their email campaigns for years, segmenting the email list based on specified characteristics. By doing so, they found they were able to increase both click-through rates and conversion rates. Current and potential customers aren’t exposed to information that won’t be of benefit to them while receiving the material that is most relevant to their needs. Now web designers are doing the same with other marketing channels.

Why Smart Content?

A study conducted in 2013 by Janrain and Harris Interactive found that 74 percent of consumers on the internet become frustrated when they encounter content that is not pertinent to them. When a visitor arrives at the site and finds exactly what they want, they are more inclined to stay on the site. Smart content ensures this is exactly what happens with each person who arrives on the website. Information is pulled from the customer relationship management system or a marketing database and uses a set of smart rules to determine what the visitor should be shown. With an integrated system, website owners find they can provide a consistent experience across channels.

What Not to Do

As Facebook has recently learned, consumers need to give permission before any information is obtained. A failure to do so leads to a loss of customers which no business wants. Furthermore, the data collected must be accurate or the right content will not be displayed. Finally, consumers don’t want to feel as if their privacy is being invaded. By over-personalizing a site, the business may find their strategy backfires. Smart content should only be used when it helps the viewer or guides them to the information they desire.

Experiment with smart content to see how it works for the site. Furthermore, avoid showing repetitive content while providing information relevant to the viewer’s role, persona, or industry. Don’t oversell, however, especially when the visitor is a current customer. By following these simple guidelines, companies find they benefit from the use of smart content without overdoing it.