Humanising B2B marketing: the power of user-generated content
Written by Jamie Joseph
User-generated content is becoming increasingly relied on by businesses across the B2B market. This is because people care about people, not just results. Creating professional UGC is a crucial step in developing your brand presence and creating UGC that engages your audience is a must.
This article has been assigned the following categories: Marketing, Social media, Tips,
What is user-generated content?
User-generated content (UGC) is published information that an unpaid contributor provides to a website. A common example of UGC is a review such as a Google Review or Trustpilot review.
As the digital space has evolved, so has UGC and it now makes up 25% of brand search results on social media.
UGC not only reduces the cost of marketing for brands, but it personifies them, fostering greater trust in prospects and brand loyalty from clients. When a business is presented as a metric driven machine it appeals to far fewer people. Yes, the numbers are important, however, numbers don’t interact with you.
User-generated content in B2B marketing
B2B services are notoriously difficult to market, especially when you’re selling an intangible service with complex KPIs such as ‘increased productivity.’ People rely on recommendations, trust and personal connection to businesses when buying services, as there is a far greater risk than just purchasing a bad product once. Signing a contract with no real proof that you’ll see the ROI you’re looking for is daunting and so being able to see the people behind the business helps alleviate some of the pressure.
UGC is far more convincing when developing trust in an organisation due to the perceived honesty of people and the demonstrations of their work. A simple “day in the life” can illustrate how much expertise employees at a business have and the results they’re working to achieve. Pairing videos of staff with customer testimonials (also a form of UGC) attached to them can help remove any lingering doubt and, while results are important, gaining trust is equally important in B2B.
What type of content should you make
One of the most important things to understand with UGC is its purpose. Of course you want to make sales, but this is fostering brand trust and loyalty which will play a role in closing your sales. Lead generation is not the main priority with UGC, it actually plays a larger role in closing your sales by giving prospects a more informal opportunity to interact with and observe your business.
Who should be in your content
Your focus should be on your employees and your current clients, videos with employees from partner organisations also allow you to tag them and access their network.
How long should your content be
Short-form content is king in this day and age, so 10-30 second videos are a great place to start. Giving people content they can watch at work or at home in a bite-size form will boost your engagement in no time.
Does the quality of your content matter
Content should look casual in terms of its setting, but you should pay attention to your camera’s quality. 1080p content is the minimum quality you should aim for and good lighting is a must to ensure your content looks professional and is easy to consume.
Who should your content be for
Your target audience should not just be business owners, the purpose of your content is engaging people at all levels of the business who will be experiencing the benefit of your service and interacting with you.
When should you post your content
One often overlooked element of content creation and social media in general is timing. Timing plays a key role in gaining initial traction on your posts: if you post when people are usually in meetings or leaving work they’re less likely to take the time to watch it.
What should your content be about
This depends on your service. If you do something very technical that might interest people, then you could start with that or if you do something very satisfying that’s also great (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response aka ASMR is still trending, these are videos with ‘satisfying’ sounds or visual stimuli.) Employee focused content is also a very important element of UGC marketing, showing a short glimpse into everyday life at your office appeals to people, especially when your team will potentially be working alongside them.
Content ideas
Day in the life – Show the audience what a member of your team does
Get ready with me – Show off your team’s unique equipment
How we do ‘x’ – Give an example of one of your businesses processes
Come with me to meet ‘x’ client – Take your viewer to a meeting or event with you
Office tour – Show your audience where you work
Your focus shouldn’t strictly be on virality – going viral helps your exposure, but organically developing a follower base will progressively increase your brand’s presence and subsequently brand trust.
If you need help creating and capturing content or don’t have the capacity in-house contact Scaramanga Marketing
