Consumer Generated Content (CGC) and How You Can Benefit from It
What is CGC?
Consumer-Generated Content (CGC), also known as User Generated Content (UGC), is any kind of unpaid content created by your customers in promotion of your brand, rather than by your own marketing team. This can range from social media posts to pictures, videos or online reviews. It is an excellent way to garner online testimonials of real customer experiences, bringing authenticity to your online presence and marketing strategy and turning your valued customers into your own unpaid brand influencers.
The Importance of CGC
Marketing and advertising just aren’t seen as trustworthy by consumers anymore. CGC is an authentic and important part of a robust content strategy that is trusted by 92% of consumers over traditional branded marketing or advertising. Word-of-mouth is one of the best forms of brand advocacy and CGC allows strangers on the internet to advocate for your brand to an entire audience of potential customers, rather than just their close friends, family or colleagues. It also makes your customers feel like they are a part of your brand and keeps them more highly engaged.
Top Benefits of CGC
1. Putting Your Customers First
Putting your customers at the forefront of your brand shows that you care about them and their experiences. CGC presents a genuine connection between the brand and its customers, which presents much better to potential customers than a brand that doesn’t engage with its followers.
2. Reliability
Your brand or product may be the best on the market but consumers aren’t likely to take your word for it. We live in the “fake news” era and internet bots and fake reviews are more or less expected by consumers. If that 5-star Amazon product review for a £10 hoover seems too good to be true, it probably is, and consumers are copping on. 91% of customers read online reviews before purchasing, so ensuring your genuine customers are leaving comments and advocating for your products will make your brand seem all the more reliable in the sea of internet bots and fake reviews.
3. Strengthen Positive Organic Content
CGC is inherently organic, and the reality of the internet is that anyone can share their opinions at any time, and since no brand is perfect, unfavourable sentiments about your brand will almost certainly be shared. This is inevitable, but if you encourage and solicit CGC, it is far more likely that the positive comments will outweigh the negative.
That being said, you can also use any negative comments as another opportunity to engage with your customer base by reaching out to those who have criticised online to show that you do truly care about the customer’s experience.
4. Low Cost, High Reward
With CGC, your customers do the hard work for you. The ROI of CGC marketing is considerably higher than that of a more traditional campaign. It can easily supplement existing steps you are taking to solicit customer reviews, feedback, comments or social sharing from your customers with minimal cost. Plus, potential customers are a lot more likely to purchase based on the word of existing customers than on your company’s word alone. Research from Harvard Business School has gone so far to show that every one-star increase on a review site (Yelp, Trustpilot, Google Reviews, etc.) leads to a 5-9% increase in revenue!
CX Index Social Advocate™
Our Social Advocate tool automates the process of turning your most satisfied customers into online brand ambassadors. The tool enables you to better engage with your customers to drive authentic positive content from customer feedback onto popular review and social media platforms. It has an incredibly strong track record of enhancing online reputation in both the quality and quantity of reviews. You can download a brochure to learn more HERE.
