Traditional advertising does not work. The plethora of brands and the multitude of marketing touch points have dramatically changed the way people feel about, believe in and purchase products and services. Consumers are now inherently sceptical and they don’t like the hard sell.
The internet and rise of social media channels have profoundly altered the way people interact with brands. Brands need to be more authentic and transparent. They now need to be prolific content producers - even though the content shelf-life will only be a few hours or at most, a few days. As a matter of fact, three-quarters of post comments and interactions on leading brand Instagram feeds happen within the first 48 hours of posting.
We’ve always known that word of mouth marketing has been by far the most persuasive way to get new customers to buy into a brand. People influence and trust other people’s recommendations more than they trust branded content. With the advent of digital and social networks, we have seen the rise of brand related user-generated content (UGC) and the critical importance of online reviews in the purchase decision.
When was the last time that you booked a trip or rented a house without checking other travellers’ photos and reviews? No one wants to rely on the stock images hotels put up on their sites. People visit TripAdvisor, Google and Facebook reviews or track the location and venue hashtags to get a feel for what’s to be expected. Actually, on average users engage with 11.4 pieces of content before making a purchase and 70% of consumers investigate three or more channels when doing a product search. This demonstrates the importance of an integrated marketing approach and the need for marketers to maintain control over what’s said, pictured and posted about a brand.
A gold mine for marketers
Consumers are the biggest content creators. On average, each smartphone user is taking 150 photos per month, about five photos a day, and some of them make the cut to their social channels or messaging apps. There are more than 22,000 content pieces uploaded per second across all the popular social channels (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and WhatsApp). These photos could easily be featuring brands, products, locations and destinations. And they provide a gold mine for marketers to unearth insights into their customers’ lifestyle, behaviours, and the way they interact with their brand.
User-generated content - also referred as “earned content” - can take a lot of different forms: from the photos and videos, social mentions, to online reviews and recommendations. However, user-generated images are the most compelling. A recent report by Olapic highlights that the most effective form of UGC for purchases are user-generated images (52% of the survey respondents), user-generated videos (27%) and written UGC at 12%.
UGC has numerous benefits for brands. It’s extremely cost-effective (usually free), helps increase the reach of the message, builds trust, encourages engagement, increases loyalty and positively impacts sales. Every marketer’s dream.
People love to see other people experiencing a product or service to help picture themselves doing the same thing. This personal experience, which appeals so much to other users, as well as the authenticity of content, is really challenging for brands to mimic. Many do try. Influencer marketing, for instance, gives brands the opportunity to make it more personal – but many consumers recognise that it’s not always genuine.
Done right, UGC can be exceptionally powerful for brands. But we know that not all satisfied customers will proactively share their experiences with the world. And negative brand interactions are more likely to be shared than good ones. According to a study by Dimensional Research, 35% of people who had a poor brand interaction were more likely to leave an online review compared to 23% of those who had a positive experience.
Rewarding advocacy
So how do we harness and maximise UGC? Marketers need to integrate it as part of their ongoing marketing efforts and avoid restricting it to their social channels only. UGC should be featured on all digital touchpoints including websites, blogs, newsletters as well as above the line communications. One brilliant example is the famous “Shot on iPhone 6” campaign by Apple, using iPhone users’ photos on billboards all over the world or locally the Real Wholesome Blend TV commercials using authentic feedback about the taste of their beverages.
Of course, not all brands are like Apple, Nike, GoPro or Tourism Australia which receive tonnes of user generated content everyday but understanding the motivations of users is key. A recent study by GlobalWebIndex analysed the top ten reasons why consumers would promote a brand online. Amongst the top responses: high-quality of the products (53%), the rewards for doing so like discounts, freebies, etc (46%), and the love for the brand (38%).
In exchange for this invaluable content, marketers should reward this advocacy, nurture it and potentially identify future brand ambassadors. The reward for users can sometimes be as simple as getting their content piece reposted on the brand channel - after seeking users’ authorisation.
Marketers should put user-generated content at the forefront of their brand content strategy and convert bystanders into potential customers. It’s definitely time to ‘let it go’ and stop being so precious about our brands.
Customers are already in control. It’s time to let them be the brand’s voice and for marketers to create products, services and experiences that people will naturally want to talk about.
By Hausmann Group head of social and content Amaury Tréguer