Tag: user generated content

Categories
Content Marketing

Types of Content Marketing You Need

There are several types of content marketing you need to effectively align your brand with your customers. These include blog posts for thought leadership, videos for engagement, infographics for easy information digest, and case studies to showcase success. Email newsletters maintain regular communication with audiences. Interactive content like quizzes and polls boost engagement, while e-books and whitepapers provide in-depth information, establishing brand authority.

When it comes to content marketing, it can be difficult to know which types will make the biggest impact with your audience. That’s why familiarizing yourself with the options that are available to you before you start building your strategy is key.

In this post, I’ll be covering 10 types of content marketing. While it may be tempting to try and work all of them into your strategy, the simple truth is that depending on your industry, audience, and goals, they may not all fit. And that’s okay. You don’t want to invest resources into creating content that won’t serve your overall marketing efforts well.

Ultimately, it’s the type of content marketing that promotes your business effectively that you need to include in your strategy. There’s nothing wrong with experimenting with different types from time to time, of course, but when first getting started, test a few types and go from there before adding or removing elements.

1. Blogs

Having a blog on your website is essential. It helps customers when they are looking for answers, improves your search engine optimization efforts, and in general, provide a low-cost method for growing your organic traffic.

As you create blog posts, remember the following:

  • Use a cluster model or pillar approach for organizing your blog topics
  • Optimize the content for SEO
  • Keep content focused and relevant to the product or service you offer.

2. Videos

Videos are a wonderful way to quickly engage your audience. Research shows 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service through video. If that’s not enough for you, data also shows that by 2022, video will make up for 82% of all consumer internet traffic, 15x higher than it was in 2017.

Videos can take many forms – from explainers and webinars to video blogs, live streams, and presentations. You don’t always have to have a person on camera, which is helpful for the camera shy and those on a limited budget.

3. Checklists

Checklists are valuable for a lot of small business customers. They give a step-by-step method to solve a problem, and can be created in multiple formats to make them shareable on your social media platforms, or sent to your email list.

Want to make sure all your content marketing efforts are hitting the mark before they are released to the world? Create an internal checklist to use with your team so it’s easier to make sure your content always fits your audience personas. Use a tool like Beacon to make creating these things easier. It can also make ebook creation easier, which I’ll get to in a bit.

4. User-Generated Content

User-generated content, or UGC, is a great content marketing method because it gets your customers involved. People respond to other people like them, so it’s more likely to get them interested in your business.

It’s particularly useful for those in the beauty/fashion niche, because people post photos of their nails, hair, and outfits to their followers, often tagging the products used. When you’re tagged in a high quality image featuring your product, you can share it with your audience, too.

5. Testimonials/Reviews

Like UGC, customer reviews and testimonials are content that comes straight from your audience. If you’re in a niche market, testimonials provide a short clip about what makes your company stand out from the competition.

You can add customer reviews on your website or in emails… whether written or in video form.

6. Whitepapers

Whitepapers are often confused with eBooks, and the two are actually different. While both are forms of lengthy content, whitepapers contain more data and information. Whitepapers have more attention to detail, and serve as a big part of the research phase for the majority of buyers.

7. eBooks

An eBook really isn’t anything more than long-form blog content. It’s not a novel or a multiple-page ad for your business. Instead, they are a way to give your potential customers valuable information about something relevant to them and to your business. It gives them something for free, yet shows them your company’s expertise and knowledge about how to solve a problem for them.

8. Infographics

Are you in an industry where statistics are essential? Instead of potentially boring your audience with an information dump, use infographics to break it all down into more digestible pieces of content. The infographic is the perfect vehicle because it combines eye-catching graphics with processes or statistics that would be difficult to read and absorb in a standard text format.

With tools like Canva and Visme, it’s easy to create infographics without spending a ton of money working with graphic designers. And thanks to promotional options such as directories and social media, you can spread your message quickly.

9. Memes

Though they are a relatively new form of content marketing, you can easily create memes that are relevant to any audience in any industry. The key is an image that’s set to culturally relevant text and timed well. If you can time it right and align it with your social aesthetic, you will definitely see an increase in traffic.

And with tools like MemeGenerator, you don’t need to be a graphic designer or to hire one to get the job done.

10. Case Studies

Case studies are an effective way for those in the B2B space to demonstrate how their product or service will help future prospective customers. Using case studies allows a buy to see another customer’s journey from start to finish, and see what their results were like. By showing what you’ve been able to do for other customers, you’re more likely to convert someone to a paying customer. In addition to written case studies, you can use case study videos and video testimonials/reviews to really make the most of your content marketing efforts.

Categories
SEO

New Link Attributes from Google

Google introduced new link attributes to provide more context about the nature of links. These include ‘sponsored’ for paid or sponsored links, ‘ugc’ for user-generated content, and modifications to ‘nofollow’ attribute, used when not endorsing a linked page. These changes allow for more nuanced link categorization, aiding Google’s understanding of web page relationships and improving SEO practices.

**This post was selected as one of the top digital marketing articles of the week by UpCity, a B2B ratings and review company for digital marketing agencies and other marketing service providers.**

If you’ve been involved with working with websites for any amount of time, you are familiar with the nofollow attribute.  Google first introduced it about 15 years ago as a method to help fight against comment spam. Over the years, it evolved to become one of Google’s recommended methods for tagging advertising related or sponsored links. Since it was first introduced in 2005, we’ve seen the web evolve considerably.

In response to that evolution, Google recently announced two new link attributes to provide webmasters and marketers with more ways to identify the nature of links. But before we dive into the new attributes, let’s first refresh our memory about nofollow and why it’s important.

Rel=”Nofollow” and Why It Matters

Webmasters and marketers are advised to use rel=”nofollow” when they want to link to a page but don’t want to alert Google to an endorsement that includes passing the ranking credit to another page.

In 2005, Google would not count any link with the nofollow tag as a signal for use within the search algorithms. That’s not the case today.

All link attributes, whether nofollow, sponsored, or ugc are now treated as hints how about which links to exclude or consider within the search engines results pages. The Google algorithms will use these hints alongside other signals to better understand how to appropriately analyze and use the links within their systems.

Rel=”Sponsored”

Google advises people to use the rel=”sponsored” attributes on links that were created as part of advertising, sponsorships, or any kind of compensation agreement. This link attribute is especially important for bloggers and influencers who are regularly participating in marketing campaign.

Rel=”UGC”

UGC stands for user-generated content. Tag links within user-generated content, such as those in comments and forum posts with this link attribute.

Why Did Google Make the Change?

In the past, the nofollow attribute meant that Google was completely ignoring the link. Google has since determined that links contain valuable information that can help them improve search. This includes how the words within the links describe the content they point to. Google has decided that by looking at all the links they run into, they can improve their understanding of unnatural linking patterns. Using the hint model, Google doesn’t lose the important information but still allows webmasters inside owners to indicate that certain links shouldn’t be given the weight of a first-party endorsement.

Do You Need to Change Current Nofollow Links?

If you are currently relying on nofollow as a way to block sponsored links or to let Google know that you do not endorse a page you link to, Google will continue to support that. You do not have to change any of the nofollow links you already have.

If you are using nofollow for ads or sponsored links, you can continue to use this method to flag links and avoid possible link penalties. There is no need to change any of your existing links. If you are using a system that automatically includes the nofollow attribute on new links, you can continue to do this. However, it’s a good idea to switch to see sponsored attribute when or if it is convenient for you.

It’s important to tag ads or sponsored links to be sure you avoid possible link scheme penalties. Google would rather you use the sponsored link attribute rather than nofollow, but either is fine. They will be treated as the same for this purpose.

If you’re afraid of using the wrong attribute on a link, there’s no wrong attribute except in terms of sponsored links. If you tag a UGC link or non-advertising link as a sponsored link, Google will see the hints, but there wouldn’t be much, if any, impact. At most, Google may not count the link as credit for another page, and in that situation, it’s not different than the current approach many UGC and non-ad links that are already nofollow.

That said, any link clearly sponsored or an ad should use either the nofollow or the sponsored attribute. Google would rather you use sponsored, but will still support nofollow.

Can You Use Multiple Attributes on a Single Link?

Yes, you can use more than one attribute on a single link. This is most useful for sponsored links that are also user-generated content. For instance, you can use “rel=sponsored UGC” to indicate that a link came from user-generated content that’s sponsored. You can also use the nofollow attribute with the others to ensure everything remains backward compatibility with services that don’t support the new link attributes.

These two new attributes went into effect on September 10th, the date of the official announcement on the Google Webmaster’s Blog. This allows them time to incorporate the attributes for ranking purpose. But, in terms of crawling and indexing, nofollow won’t convert to a hint until March 1, 2020.

When this happens, if you’re using a nofollow attribute to block pages from being indexed, which Google never recommended, you’ll need to use an alternative method to block URLs from Google such as:

  • Meta tags
  • Password protecting the web server files
  • Using txt

If you’re concerned about the new approach encouraging link spam, the truth is a lot of websites that allow third-party contributions to their sites are using other moderation tools you can integrate into many blogging platforms. Using UGC and nofollow attributes will continue to be a deterrent.

For the majority, moving to a hint model means there will not be a change in how Google treats those links. Google will generally treat them the same as they’ve done before by ignoring them for ranking purpose. The hint model will allow them to assess how to use links just as they’ve always done, and how they’ve acted with no attributes are used.

It’s a good idea to use the new attributes because it will help Google better understand process links for web analysis. If people apply the attributes to links to your content, this can improve Google’s understanding of your content.

Categories
Digital Marketing

How to Make User Generated Content Work for You

User generated content, or UGC, refers to any kind of content created by users of a product or service. Most people think of reviews when it comes to UGC, but it encompasses everything from photos, blogs, videos, audio, tweets, forum posts, and more. You can use this content on your social media channels to promote your business.

What’s the first thing you do when you’re considering an online purchase? If you’re anything like me, and I bet you are, you search for reviews. You want to know what other people think of the product or service – regardless of whether it’s from a really big brand like Nike or Fitbit, or a small brand you’ve never heard before. I tend to do a bit more digging around if it’s a brand that’s not well known, just because I need to know more about the quality of the product and the validity of the service. If I see a lot of negative UGC, I trust it, and go looking for alternatives.

So if you’re doing that when you’re out shopping – you can bet that’s what your customers are doing. Because of that, UGC can help you, and set you apart from the competition if you use it the right way.

UGC is much like a free source of advertising for your business. Users provide this type of content for free because they want to share their experiences with others. When you ask them to use it, they appreciate the fact they were noticed by a brand they love. Because it’s not possible to share all the UGC out there from all your customers, let’s take a look at some of the other benefits.

 

Benefits of User Generated Content

  • Increased Engagement: Customers trust each other more than they do brands, so UGC gets more engagement. One study showed brand engagement increases by 28% when UGC is part of product videos. Plus, customers are twice as likely to share UGC with friends and family, compared to a piece of brand content.
  • Build Consumer Trust: UGC humanizes your brand, and more than half of customers trust UGC over the content you create for your brand website. As such, implementing UGC in your strategy helps to build better relationships with your customers and prospects.
  • SEO Boost: A study of 20 of the world’s largest brands revealed that a quarter of their search results are UGC. This means you’ll get more organic traffic, and more backlinks from content that’s linked to your site.
  • May Increase Conversion Rate: One report shows when customers see UGC while they’re shopping, the conversation rate increases by nearly 5%. And UGC interactions while shopping increases the conversion rate by nearly 10%.

 

Building Your UGC Strategy

Though a lot of businesses have tried UGC, only 27% of them have a strategy in place for its use. The content can get people talking about your business, and increase engagement while building trust, but it can only do this if its used correctly. If not, it can actually send your customers and followers in the other direction.

  • Know what you want from the UGC. What are your goals? Get specific. That can help you determine more about the social media platforms you should use, and the types of content you should aim to get. Do you want to increase followers? Do you want to increase engagement? Do you want to increase brand awareness?
  • Where will you be? There are a lot of social media platforms, and the reason there’s room for them in the market is because they all offer something a bit different. What works on Facebook can work on LinkedIn, if it’s adjusted accordingly. But posting the same thing verbatim across all your platforms is one of the quickest ways to fall flat. It’s important to consider the difference in demographics from platform to platform – and know that it’s okay to skip one or more of them. Focus on the ones where you know your audience is.
  • It’s okay to ask for UGC. This is particularly useful if you’re running a contest – asking people to submit photos and/or videos of your product in use in exchange for a prize of some sort. But, when you’re asking for it, make sure you know your goal and can be clear about what you’re asking for. Otherwise, you’re going to confuse the audience, which will decrease participation, and may even send people away from your website. Get specific about the rules of UGC. A lot of people will send you content, but if it’s useless because it includes profanity, for instance, you’re wasting time. Choose hashtags carefully to avoid falling victim to trolls.
  • Choose a type of UGC. When you’re working on a campaign, choose one type of content, and add a hashtag to make it easy to track across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For instance, you can ask people to submit images with a hashtag, much like Starbucks did with their white cup contest. Close to 4,000 entries were submitted within three weeks.
  • Focus on community. Because UGC sparks engagement, you’ll be building your community. Make sure anyone who speaks for your brand in the community follows along with the brand image you’ve created. This allows for consistency, and helps the community manager to better handle the customer and advocate connections.
  • Choose the best to promote across your channels. Not everything that’s submitted will be worthy of sharing because it won’t necessarily reflect your brand. You’re not looking for average – you’re looking for fabulous. What caught your eye? If it catches yours, will it catch others’ attention, too?
  • Recognize the users you promote. That awesome content came from someone, and that someone deserves recognition for their time, effort, and dedication to your brand. It’s up to you to choose the best way to do it – many brands do a social shout out, but for more labor intensive UGC, and especially the contest format, a prize should be awarded.
  • Give your customers the tools to share your content. If you want your audience to share your content, or create reviews to promote your content, then you need to give them tools to make it easier. According to consumers, only 16% of brands give people the resources they need.
  • Share stories. Sharing your customers’ stories, with permission, of course, is an important part of brand awareness. It’s more than a case-study. Storytelling can separate you from the competition, but it doesn’t have to be your story to make a difference in the eyes of your audience.

Successful UGC Case Studies

Snickers

The “You’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign. What began as a campaign using famous celebrities like Joe Pesci and Don Rickles, turned into something even more amazing when ownership shifted from the brand to the users. Customers took it upon themselves t create parodies and references all across the web, which helped the campaign earn a solid place in pop culture.

 

Jamberry

Direct sales company Jamberry uses UGC to highlight each of their nail wrap products. Each has their own hashtag which users are encouraged to use when they post photos on Instagram. When customers look at the product pages, they can see a feed of Instagram photos from people who are wearing that wrap. It helps them see what looks like on real people, which can help them determine which wraps and nail polishes they want to purchase.

 

Coca-Cola

The Share a Coke campaign has been a hit. What began as a campaign featuring hundreds of the most common names has morphed into something much larger. The cans and bottles went on to feature generic type labels, such as “friend”, “grill master”, and “bro.” And in 2016, they took the campaign even further – Share a Coke and a Song. These bottles and cans features 70 famous song lyrics on the labels. They took this approach because music is a universal language and they wanted to bring unity to their diversified customer base.

They partnered with Shazam to bring music directly to the displays in the store. Customers can scan the lyrics on the product or signage through Shazam and record a lip synced video to share across social media using the #ShareaCoke hashtag.

Plus, customers can customize and order their own bottles at the Coca-Cola website.

 

UGC is Becoming Essential to ecommerce Success

When users create content for your brand, you’re ahead of the game. You get access to content that cost you little to nothing to create. You increase brand awareness, build customer trust, and customer engagement. But, not all UGC is going to be singing your praises – and that’s part of the territory. The best thing you can do is have a plan of action to address the negative. Domino’s is a prime example of using the negative comments to launch one heck of a comeback.

How is your business using UGC? How have you found UGC influences your own purchasing habits?

Exit mobile version
Skip to content