You need to have a content marketing plan if you want to increase your brand’s awareness. It will likely include a combination of social media, blogging, videos, reviews, and paid advertising efforts. However, there is one element that you should not overlook. User-generated content (UGC) can increase your website’s click-through rates, grow your social media following, and improve the conversion rate of your website visitors. Thankfully, the event planning business is the perfect industry for encouraging and using UGC.
What is User-Generated Content (UGC)?
Marketing materials are traditionally produced by the company intending to use them. In the modern tech-savvy world, user-generated content is created by people who buy and use a brand’s product or service. This online media could be social media posts, pictures, videos, blog posts, forum discussions, comments, gaming content, or reviews. A significant portion of the online content you see today is user-generated content.
Why is UGC so Powerful?
Word of mouth has always been one of the most powerful forms of marketing and promotion. People are much more likely to trust and believe people they already know and trust than a brand’s marketing materials. User-generated content is the modern version of word of mouth. People connect digitally through blogs, reviews, and social media.
Authenticity
A sense of authenticity comes with user-generated content. The person creating it is not making it with the intent of the brand using the content. They are not doing it because they are getting some benefit. Instead, they are sharing their authentic experience. People viewing that content can sense this genuine experience and connect with it through shared similar stories.
Brand Loyalty
When you use a client’s or event guest’s original content in your marketing efforts, you deepen the relationship with that person. This creates a sense of brand loyalty. There is a sense of being a part of something bigger than themselves. It also gives them exposure and recognition that many people strive for in their own social media efforts.
Types of User-Generated Content
The most well-known and established type of user-generated content is reviews. However, as an event planner, this will only give you a limited amount of content. Your client may or may not write a review for you. However, it will be harder to get the guests of the event to write a review for your event planning business. You can focus on other types of user-generated content that event guests are more likely to create for greater engagement opportunities.
Reviews
Starting with the most widely used type of user-generated content. Clients are the most likely to leave you a review. Focus on generating reviews on a chosen platform to build a content database. Peer reviews and testimonials are trusted by 72% of consumers. They are more effective at establishing a brand’s reputation than the company’s marketing efforts. You can then use the reviews in your content marketing efforts.
Social Posts
Encouraging event guests to post social media pictures and videos is genuine experiential user-generated content. It creates a feeling of desirability and longing in the poster’s audience. You create a reputation of desirability by showing what attending one of your events is like. Viewers of the content will want to attend your events or have you plan their events. This user-generated content has a sense of authenticity, creating a sense of believability and realness that perfectly curated pictures and videos lack.
Blog Content
Using user-generated content in your blog posts effectively encourages clients to engage fully in the event planning and hosting process. Ask to use their pictures and videos when writing a blog post that features their event. Not only do you develop a stronger relationship with your client, but you also have unique and original content for your SEO efforts.
Live Streaming
Encouraging guests to livestream your event increases active engagement during the event. This increases the word-of-mouth promotion of your events through natural communication channels like social media. It also creates a sense of community and belonging by engaging people who are not attending the event.
Encourage Engagement With User Generated Content
When you encourage clients and guests to create their own content, you have a wealth of resources to enhance your content marketing efforts. Your event planning business perfectly lends itself to user-generated content. By creating memorable experiences, people will want to document and share. This is authentic word-of-mouth marketing that promotes your event planning business as trustworthy.
Another great word-of-mouth marketing strategy is to attend networking events. It allows you to connect with other professionals in the event planning industry. This will help you create more impressive events that prompt greater engagement.
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