How Do You Utilize User-Generated Content to Enhance Marketing Efforts?
CMO Times
How Do You Utilize User-Generated Content to Enhance Marketing Efforts?
Discovering innovative ways to incorporate user-generated content into marketing strategies is key, as shared by founders and marketing managers. From leveraging hashtags for user-generated content signups to boosting engagement with a design campaign, explore the seven unique methods these professionals use to enhance their marketing efforts.
- Leverage Hashtags for UGC Signups
- Amplify Client Testimonials
- Cultivate Authentic User Reviews
- Showcase Success Stories
- Utilize Customer Photos in Marketing
- Integrate UGC into Paid Ads
- Boost Engagement with Design Campaign
Leverage Hashtags for UGC Signups
We use user-generated content to hijack X/Twitter hashtags to generate signups for our UGC creator community and job board.
As there's a huge pool of UGC creators on there looking for job opportunities and networking, we've leveraged X/Twitter's algorithm that promotes tweets with high engagement. We incentivize UGC creators with a free course to tweet UGC content and engage with our posts to get boosted on the platform.
Amplify Client Testimonials
Our client testimonials help us share our story. Canny is a product-led SaaS company. We drive value by letting users experience the platform first—before trying to sell them anything. Once they see the product, they share their feedback, which becomes our content. Using our customers' words is so much more powerful than trying to describe our product's value ourselves.
Cultivate Authentic User Reviews
Previously, most of our security awareness content featured polished, branded explainer videos and cyber education materials created directly by our internal marketing teams. However, feedback showed audiences increasingly skewing towards UGC (user-generated content) reviews and peer perspectives in judging solutions rather than trusting vendor-produced materials alone.
To embrace this shift and enhance credibility and engagement, we cultivated an insider forum of power users and customers to publish authentic assessments on community platforms like G2 Crowd, Capterra, and Software Advice, evaluating real-world use cases from risk visibility to deployment ease scores.
Moderated transparency, spotlighting balanced user positives and constructive critiques, proved tremendously effective, driving an 83% increase in organic traffic and a 66% increase in conversion rates, according to analytics. The unfiltered views into capabilities and areas needing refinement built immense trust and approachability.
Showcase Success Stories
In promoting BusinessMap, our project management tool, we've put user-generated content (UGC) at the forefront of our marketing efforts. This approach has proven fruitful, especially in creating an engaging online community around our brand. One notable campaign was the "Share Your Success Story" initiative. Encouraging customers to share their personal journeys with our tool resulted in a multitude of case studies, which helped demonstrate its practical applications.
In addition to being highly relatable, these user testimonials served as a strong endorsement of our solution, boosting our conversion rates significantly. On a separate occasion, we asked users to share their tips and tricks for utilizing BusinessMap features, which we compiled and featured in a comprehensive guide, capitalizing on the collective wisdom of our user base.
By championing UGC, we not only validated our users’ experiences but also enriched our marketing arsenal with authentic content that had a broader appeal compared to conventional promotional materials.
Utilize Customer Photos in Marketing
I have found that my customers love seeing what I make 'out in the wild.' That is, they like seeing the item being used by a real person. I use customer-submitted photos as well as review photos in my advertising and social media posts to showcase customers loving and using my products. A good photo is truly worth a thousand words!
Integrate UGC into Paid Ads
One effective strategy we've implemented using user-generated content (UGC) was incorporating it into our paid digital advertising campaigns. We found that by featuring video testimonials from our customers in our ads, the content became significantly more authentic and relatable to our target audience.
Audiences are more likely to connect with and trust ads that showcase genuine experiences from fellow consumers rather than traditional, polished marketing materials. As a result, these campaigns saw improved performance metrics, including higher click-through rates and a boost in conversions, demonstrating the powerful impact of integrating user-generated content into your marketing initiatives.
Boost Engagement with Design Campaign
In my role as the General Manager of DesignRush, a B2B marketplace, I've often relied on user-generated content to enrich our marketing efforts. One notable instance was our #DesignWithUs campaign. We encouraged our users to share their unique design creations on their social media platforms with the aforementioned hashtag. This not only increased our brand visibility from the extensive reach of our users' networks but also fostered a sense of community among our users, boosting engagement rates.
We also showcased top entries on our site and social media platforms each week and recognized the creators, which subsequently elevated our brand perception as being appreciative of consumer input. This campaign successfully supplemented our marketing efforts by creating authentic connections with users and enhancing our brand image through their original content.
