Content: Strategy & the UGC Benefit

Content is king and plays a crucial role in shaping brand perceptions. Online or offline, brands always generate content, such as social media posts, emailers, white papers, case studies, brochures, blogs, paper ads, advertorials, etc. Hence, it is difficult to measure how much content customers consume or respond to. A significant portion of the content may go unnoticed, thereby undervaluing the efforts of marketers.

With so many content opportunities, marketers should understand which ones to use and how to do so effectively. Too much content can lead to negative customer feedback, which may lead to spamming. Therefore, marketers must effectively manage their content strategy.

Are you working on your content distribution strategy?

Do you have a lot of content to share?

As marketers, we often come across challenges in sharing our in-house content. Content is a powerful tool in the marketing world, but it requires careful use. This article talks about some tips that can be useful in solving your content distribution challenges.

1) Have a well-defined plan: For marketers, everything needs to start with a plan. We cannot work in silos without having clear dos and don'ts; hence, it is advisable to chart out a plan for your content distribution journey. The plan should include:

(a) Identified platforms

b) The frequency

c) The content

d) The audience

Once you identify these inputs, you can drive stable and precise content distribution that yields better results.

2) Clear Goals: As I mentioned earlier, marketers cannot work in silos. Your goals, or KPIs, should connect everything. A wrong selection may lead to chaos, but you will be clear with the dos and don'ts. What is the level of effort required for each platform? What should the frequency be? What kind of content should we distribute? You must meticulously verify and execute every parameter. For this, you need to have clear goals.

3) Know Your Audience: As marketers, we deal with a large audience base, depending on the market we target. It is essential to know where the target audience is. You may overzealously distribute your content on platforms where your target audience is not active. Knowing your audiences' preferred platforms, interests, and when they are active can simplify your content efforts.

4) The same size does not fit all: Every social platform has a unique content strategy and advantage. Applying a similar approach to all platforms without understanding them would be unfair. Such a perspective often backfires, leading to excessive rework and waste of effort. It would be advisable to treat every platform as unique and have a precise strategy. Constant monitoring efforts will also yield better results.

The UGC Approach:

It would be difficult to comment on customers’ preferences over content. Marketers should prioritize creating content that meets customers' needs, including informational blogs, frequently asked questions, and instructional videos. Marketers should play the role of educators through their content delivery. This would help customers understand the brand and form opinions about it.

Considering such scenarios, user-generated content is ideal for both brands and customers. For brands, it serves as a strong testimonial, while for customers, their feedback matters.

Tips for user-generated content: It can be challenging for marketers to generate user-generated content (UGC). Marketers should establish opportunities that allow customers to share their feedback. Here are some tips on how brands can create UGC.

• Reviews: Encourage customers to share their reviews of the products or services they use. Brands can use social media to populate such reviews. Brands can also reward customers for sharing their unbiased and original feedback.
• Contests: Social media contests are the best way to generate UGC. Among other things, you can ask customers to participate in a small survey or poll, or they can suggest a tagline. This approach could assist brands in building momentum around their products.
• Testimonial videos should be encouraged to be created and shared by customers. Brands can ask customers to share such videos on websites or social media platforms. It would give other users a sense of trust in that brand, and customers would also be interested in seeing them on popular platforms.
• Reward through referrals: Encourage customers to share referrals on social media platforms. Give them freebies or discounts for doing so.