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Episode 165: How to Get People Talking About Your Business: A Guide to User Generated Content
1.2k Plays2 years ago
Find it Quickly (In the Episode):
0:00 Intro
3:06 User generated content intro
3:45 Content based marketing vs curated ad marketing
4:07 Memes
5:06 User generated content is content created by your customers or clients
8:53 User generated content builds trust
9:19 Types of user generated content
13:45 How to source user generated content
19:43 Directions to make a specific request
Show notes and additional resources: https://daveyandkrista.com/guide-to-user-generated-content/
Recommended
Transcript
Creating a Substack: Pros and Cons
00:00:00
Speaker
You know, there are different things like I'm going to at some point record a video about how to create your own substack essentially. You know, so like right now, substack is basically a blogging platform and super easy to use. You can go, you can create your blog, publish to it, create a mailing list all in this platform and it's free. There are a few downsides, I think, to using something like substack, especially if you're going to monetize and not to get too far into that. You could basically replicate all of that functionality on your own website in a simple way.
00:00:26
Speaker
And so, you know, you can do that using Flow Desk. You can do that using ConvertKit.
User-Generated Content: Overview and Strategies
00:00:32
Speaker
Welcome to the Brands at Book Show, where we help creative, service-based businesses build their brands and find more clients. I'm your host, Davy Jones. Content is king, as they say, and today we're taking a look at what I think is some of the most effective content a business can use to market itself. And the best part is that its content of the business doesn't even have to make. That's right, we're talking about user-generated content.
00:00:57
Speaker
what it is, why it's effective, and how you can start implementing user-generated content in your marketing strategy. The download for our Quick Start Guide to user-generated content can be found in the show notes. It even includes a script that you can use to get users to record stellar video testimonials. It's a script that works too. We have seen amazing results for our teleagency clients using this exact script for video testimonials.
00:01:24
Speaker
Be sure to check out the show notes at dvandchrista.com for the resources that we mentioned during the episode, and we want to hear from you. Let us know what kind of content you'd like to see in the brand set book podcast as we move forward. To leave your feedback, just send us a DM on Instagram at dvandchrista. Now, on to the episode.
00:01:45
Speaker
All right.
Podcast Updates and Future Plans
00:01:46
Speaker
Friday recording of Brands at Book Podcasts, not our usual recording day. Usually, try not to wait until the end of the month either. But a couple of exciting interviews that had to be rescheduled for August. So, we're kind of filling in on those.
00:01:58
Speaker
I don't even know what they are. I have to look in our calendar. You don't always fill me in on the podcast schedule. Well, we've had a number of really, I think, great interviews lately. I'm really enjoying my conversation with Amy and Jordan recently. Also really enjoyed the marketing roundtable, which was kind of a new format too, which was kind of exciting and a little stressful to try because there's so many people. Yeah, there are four of you.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yeah, but I think it was helpful because you got to hear a lot of different perspectives about different marketing channels really talking about similar strategies though. It was interesting to hear like the way that PR and somebody who actually produces content and then Vanessa Kynes who helps distribute content, how everything fits together into overall marketing strategies. So if you haven't listened to that podcast, definitely go back and listen to that one.
00:02:41
Speaker
Yeah. And so we have a couple, I think, really exciting interviews coming in August. I won't share yet. But anyways, excited to chat this morning, busier than usual Friday too. We usually try to take it easy, but we, or at least I have a lot of meetings today, which I try not to do on Fridays. But, you know, it is the season of vacation. So I feel like everybody's just trying to fit things in when they can. And school starts in a couple of weeks, which is pretty crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And that's crazy as well.
00:03:06
Speaker
But we're here to talk about user-generated content. And if you don't know what that is, that's okay. But it's something I think that people should be paying attention to. Regardless of whether they are a product-based business or a service-based business, I think user-generated content is something that you can take advantage of or in your marketing. It's been top of mind. I think content in general and what content looks like in advertising has been top of mind lately for
Marketing Trends and Content-Based Strategies
00:03:31
Speaker
me.
00:03:31
Speaker
Is that because you feel like things have shifted recently? Yeah, I think things have been shifting for a while, right? And I think TikTok is a good example of this, where you see more of this content-based marketing, I think, on a platform like TikTok, at least the companies that are doing it well, right? Right. Whereas, in getting away from what you see on maybe Instagram, which are more curated
00:03:53
Speaker
Okay, just as an example, we used to produce really curated ads for till agency like for ourselves like our own marketing, right? Right. And you know, especially lately, they just haven't been doing great. And so we shifted to, you know, basically memes, right, which is like, which sounds so silly to be running ads of memes.
00:04:13
Speaker
Yeah, right. But we get way more engagement. That's crazy. And, you know, there's a certain creativity that goes into it. And I think everybody loves a good meme, right? And so you see businesses, I think, investing more in content and less in, you know, just kind of the traditional ad that pitches the product.
00:04:31
Speaker
So does user-generated content have to come from a user or could it be like obviously a user's probably not sending you the memes? You guys came up with those, right? Or you found them? Sure. Yeah. So maybe I'll quickly define user-generated content here real quick and then just kind of talk about this shift or some of the trends that we're seeing in advertising right now. And then we'll get into some of the benefits, types of user-generated content, how you can implement in your business as well.
00:04:54
Speaker
And this is actually part of a guide that I help create for Till Agency. So I'll try to link to this in our show notes. It might be something you have to download, but it's free. So anyways, you should generate content is content created by your customers or clients versus content created by your business. Just a simple example of this would be an unboxing video.
00:05:14
Speaker
So if you, you know, for instance, like if someone got a farm fed box, right, and they took a video themselves unboxing it and showing off what's inside the box, that would be a pretty straightforward example of user generated content.
00:05:26
Speaker
And then do you take that content and are you specifically talking about running it as an ad or even just sharing it on your own social channels? Well, as we get into kind of the benefits of user-generated content here, I mean, that is one of the benefits is that it's just highly versatile content, right? I mean, just from an organic level, when you're encouraging or putting customers in a place where maybe you're motivating them through something like an affiliate program or just making it easy for them to create content, all of a sudden, not only do you have like this great organic content being shared,
00:05:55
Speaker
But you can typically ask for that content as well and then repurpose it for something like an ad. So maybe you're just running whatever video that your customer or client created as an ad, or you can take a bunch of them and you can splice them together into a video that's just a number of testimonials and people showing off your product or service.
00:06:16
Speaker
So the point being is it's really versatile content, but it is content that's created by your customers or clients. Hence it being user generated. So that's what user generated content is. And in general though, we've seen businesses shift to promoting user generated content, creating content that's sort of similar to maybe user generated content. And in general, creating content that just doesn't feel like an ad. It's maybe more humorous. What comes to mind
00:06:43
Speaker
And in the show notes, maybe I'll try to post a few examples of companies that are doing this. I saw somebody post about, I guess, some funny content by that sparkling water company. Is it liquid death?
00:06:55
Speaker
Is that the one that you and your brother like? Yeah. Yeah. Is that the name of the company right? I think it is. Yeah. If I'm misremembering this. People are going to think like you drink liquid death. It's sparkling water. Anyways, I will. And it's not alcoholic either. Yeah. Yeah. And I should look up the name of that. Just make sure I'm getting it right. But anyways, apparently they posted like a funny, you know, commercial, but I think that's the trend, right? Because when you come across content like that, all of a sudden your guards are lower. You want to watch it regardless of whether you're really interested in the product or not, just because it might be entertaining.
00:07:24
Speaker
So it's just more easily consumed. I think user-generated content fits that model.
00:07:29
Speaker
Do you follow Trey Kennedy on Instagram? I feel like he gets paid a lot of sponsored posts to like create funny things for like fireball whiskey. Yesterday he was talking about like a chicken wing company and you don't even know what's an ad at first because it just feels like funny. I think we increasingly have seen that over the last couple of years. So this is not necessarily anything new, but I think it's definitely something that has, I think we're still on the front side of that trend.
00:07:55
Speaker
Okay, do you feel like traditional ads are going to go away and everything's gonna be replaced by things that maybe don't feel as much like an ad? No, I don't think so. I mean, it's like people who say, you know, it's like TV commercials are going away or, you know, radio spots or whatnot. I mean, there's still I think a time and place for those kinds of things. I mean, think about direct mail. Like, do you get any less junk mail?
00:08:15
Speaker
No, we get so many catalogs and I don't even know why what they are. It's so crazy. Yeah, but that's the thing is that the reason that still happens is because it still works, right? You know, and maybe it doesn't, maybe you're thinking, well, that never works on me, you know, but the amount of mail that's sent out and the percentage that they're counting on, right? That's all they need to make it work. Cause it's such a cheap way to get in front of people at the end of the day. I mean, maybe not for many of us running local businesses, right? Before a national brand like American express, right? It still seems to make sense.
00:08:44
Speaker
Okay. So anyways, going back to the benefits of user generated content, and I'm going to roll through these pretty quickly.
Encouraging User-Generated Content
00:08:49
Speaker
One, I think it builds trust. Again, if you see somebody sharing content and they're not affiliated with that company in any way, like they're just a user of that product or service, it's more likely that you're going to then trust that brand, right? Right. And as a business, are you hoping that people just share on their own or do you feel like you need to encourage them to share?
00:09:09
Speaker
Yeah. And so we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves here, but I definitely think that you need to help encourage people to share. And so, you know, that can be done in all sorts of different ways. You know, it could be done by simply telling people like, Hey, if you share about this, we'll give you a coupon for, you know, future purchases. It could just be, you know, in the way you package a product, right? I mean, the things that are really like when you get something in the mail and it's nice and neatly packaged, like don't you just naturally think, Oh, I got to take a picture of this.
00:09:38
Speaker
Yeah, or share about it. We send Jenny's ice cream to people often and people always like to share about that because it's just so fun to like open up the box of ice cream and see what's inside. Yeah, and it's packaged in a really, you know, neat way. Yeah. And so those are ways that you can encourage people to share, you know, but then there's of course more overt ways that you can encourage people to share as well.
00:09:59
Speaker
Right. I think it assists in building client and customer avatars in the sense that when you're encouraging people to share about how they're using the product or service, you can hear customers or clients talk about your product or service, and they may talk about it or use that product in a way that you didn't anticipate, right? Or they might find benefits in your service that you would never have thought.
00:10:20
Speaker
We talked about this a few weeks ago in a different episode, and I think you related this to FarmFitBox searching for a cattle brander to use to stamp on boxes, right? That's right. We wanted to brand boxes, right? Yeah. And so we were looking for a box that, you know, had a brand, or I'm sorry, we were looking for a brand that could be used on a cardboard box. Right.
00:10:43
Speaker
Nobody's advertising that, but I came across posts of people who are like, that's what I got this brand to do. So through the customer testimonial, I was able to find what I needed. So increases brand prominence. I mean, I think it's probably pretty obvious that if people are sharing about your brand, your product, it's more likely that your brand is going to be introduced into new communities. And then I also think it increases shareability of the content as well.
00:11:08
Speaker
Other users, other people are more likely to share someone's user generated content than content created by brands.
00:11:15
Speaker
Right. Is that because it's more funny or because it feels less like an ad or because like if you're the one featured in the content you want to share because it's something to share in your feed like, Hey, I'm in this. Yeah. I think it's all of the above. I mean, like, I think when people create content that's not meant necessarily to sell the product, right? There's more likely that all that's going to be true, whether it's maybe created in a funny way or it's just shared by a friend or, you know, whatnot.
00:11:41
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Yeah. So all reasons that maybe you should consider creating user generated content. And there's a lot of different kinds of user generated content that you can create. I think I'm going to talk about a few of the primary ones. I think these are the easiest way to get started with user generated content. And that's through testimonials. Okay. You know, simply reaching out to people and asking them to share about how the user product and how it's benefited them. Oftentimes you'll want to provide some sort of incentive for people to share, right?
00:12:09
Speaker
especially if they have to take extra step of like recording a video, right? Yep, exactly. And you know, we have like an easy script that we use to like encourage people to share, I think in a meaningful way, right? I mean, like you always run the risk and this is true of testimonials in general of people are just being like, Oh, such and such product was awesome. And you're like, well,
00:12:31
Speaker
You know, I appreciate it, right? But maybe not. That is probably not going to connect with people most effectively. Is this script in your free tail guide that you mentioned earlier? Yeah, it's in the free tail guide and I can go through those things right now, but you might tell people to basically record themselves answering these questions. Right. And, uh, you know, when you edit, like they don't have to worry about how they record it necessarily, especially if you're going to be the one editing the video because you use things like jump cuts to make the video scene seamless.
00:13:00
Speaker
Especially if you're going to be splicing together a number of different testimonials. So it might go something like, I love business name because fill in the blank. Product name makes it so easy to blank blank and blank. What people might not realize about product name is blank. I was hesitant to try product name, but whatever made you try it. And before product, I blank using product name was blank. Then explain how the product improved your life.
00:13:29
Speaker
That seems so simple. I mean, it is. But I mean, like, that's all it has to be. Right? I mean, those are the questions that people are asking themselves about a given product. Now, you know, as far as user generated content goes, this is kind of on the line between of user generated content, in the sense that like really unique, like for users generated content to be user generated, it needs to be created by the user, right? Right. So in the ideal world,
00:13:54
Speaker
you would be, you know, it would almost be unsolicited, right? You know, it would just be like somebody creating content around your product.
00:14:03
Speaker
And then do you feel like, so if somebody records a testimonial video like that, are you thinking it would be used for ads or like on your website or in social media feeds? All of the above. All of the above. And that's the reason why it's so versatile. Right. Is you can use that in YouTube videos, you can use that in, you know, across any social media platform, you can use that on your website, right? I mean, obviously with permission, you're going to want to get permission to do that. And I feel like you used it as a product, but this also works for services, right?
00:14:29
Speaker
Yeah, I think this works for products and services. I think it lends itself more easily to products, but I think it can be used for service. I mean, that example in particular, you know, I think can definitely be used for services. Yeah, absolutely. And it depends on the service too, you know? It's like, well, I'm not saying it depends on the service in whether it's going to work. I think some services lend themselves a little bit more to it than others. So do you think we have a lot of photographers who listen to us? Do you think a wedding photographer could use something like that?
00:14:59
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think that exact example, obviously, instead of product name, before I got married, I was worried about whatever. Things like that. And that kind of content can be used across in so many different places. Cool. That's awesome. And again, I think that, especially if you're a wedding photographer,
00:15:20
Speaker
And, you know, you get a bunch of your past writing grooms to do this, you stitch those together, you know, as it's being shared, right? Again, back to your earlier point, those past clients are probably more likely to share that stuff to their own feed, because they're featured in it. And their friends who are hopefully, or maybe considering getting married, hopefully see it. And you know, might think, Oh, that sounds like they had a great experience. Right. You know, so that's the idea at least. Yeah.
00:15:48
Speaker
With products, obviously unboxing videos are great and then use cases. User sharing the specific ways they use the product. And like I said, this can be really revealing because users might use a product in ways that you didn't expect. And how do you feel like other good ways to encourage people to share these? Do you think that it can happen with a note when they unbox or an email sequence? Or do you feel like you have to email individual customers and ask them to share these things? Yeah.
00:16:16
Speaker
All of the above, all those are good ideas. I'm thinking about like with farm fed box right now, we include a note and we say, hey, we want to see what you're cooking with this meat, share it on social media, be sure to tag us, that sort of thing. And that's just like kind of a low key way to encourage people to share on social media channels. And we're generally interested in what people are doing with the meat.
00:16:36
Speaker
Actually, I like to see what people cook with me because it gives me ideas. Exactly. So that's one way that we use it, FarmFitBox, SaaS businesses in
SaaS and Affiliate Programs for User Content
00:16:44
Speaker
particular. And so when I say SaaS, I mean software as a service. So think like Flowdesk, for instance. Flowdesk has affiliate program. That's not necessarily why we share about a company like Flowdesk. We really like their product too. But it is nice every time we make a video or every time we write a blog post about certain functionality in Flowdesk, we're able to share about it. And it encourages us to share about it.
00:17:06
Speaker
Well, their particular program is great because if you share, people also get a percentage off, which makes them more likely to click that link anyways. Yep, absolutely. And you know, there are different things like I'm going to at some point record a video about how to create your own sub stack, essentially, you know, so like right now sub stacks, basically a blogging platform.
00:17:25
Speaker
And it's super easy to use, you can go, you can create your blog, publish to it, create a mailing list all in this platform, and it's free. There are a few downsides, I think, to using something like Substack, especially if you're going to monetize, and not to get too far into that. You could basically replicate all that functionality on your own website in a simple way.
00:17:41
Speaker
And so, you know, you could do that using Flowdesk. You do that using ConvertKit. And so, I'm going to use those products, right, in my example. Okay. Right? And so, that's an example of user-generated content. Like, here's how you can use Flowdesk to create your own sub-stack type publication. Right. You know? So, that'd be another example of user-generated content for a SaaS business.
00:18:03
Speaker
And then of course like for courses and more info type products, selfie videos of people kind of sharing like how that changed their business. Right? Yeah. Okay. Cool. So we talked a little bit about sourcing, but I feel like, do you have more tips for getting sourcing? Because this is always like when I think about user generated content, like that's always my biggest hang up. Like how do I get all of this and not sound like sketchy or like actually get people to respond to an email?
00:18:28
Speaker
Yeah, so I think reaching out to past customers and clients is the easiest way. In an ideal world, people are just creating this content because they love your product. But that doesn't always happen. I feel like we do a pretty good job of sharing about companies that we appreciate. And I just as a business owner, I think I'm more likely to do that. And I think that's important.
00:18:48
Speaker
but not everybody's thinking that way. Not everybody uses social media or whatever. Sometimes you just have to reach out, especially if you know you've had a positive experience with somebody reaching out and ask. The great thing about user-generated content is that it can be really low-tech produced. It can be shot on an iPhone. The more professional it looks, sometimes the more likely it is to be skipped over.
00:19:12
Speaker
You sent me, there's a link in our notes about the top TikTok ads and like the backgrounds aren't clean, like they look not fancy at all. Like you would never know is an ad. Yeah. Right. And so that's, I think what you're going for. You want to show up in the feed and people think this is an ad. So messy house behind you. Yeah. See, it's a reason why you don't have to vacuum every day. Oh my gosh.
00:19:39
Speaker
So, and then like I said, affiliate and reward programs, things like that. Let's see a few other things that I'm going to mention and then we can wrap up here unless you have more questions. I guess directions that we send over people. And again, this is all in the guide. And so we'll link to this as well. But basically making a specific request, like do not reach out to people, especially if you're going to go with the testimonial idea and just be like, Hey, can I get a testimonial? Can you record it? Right. It's just like people don't know what to do with that.
00:20:04
Speaker
Yeah. Right. And they might not ever respond because it's overwhelming. Exactly. Incentivizing users, if you can. I don't think that this necessarily has to be done monetarily, but you know, I mean, it could be as simple as like exposure. Yeah. Whatever. I mean, you can get creative with it, I think. Providing a sample script. So I've already kind of read through a couple questions that you can ask people to answer. And then make sure to get permission too. So somebody might create a video about your product or your service. Right. You still want to ask whether you can use it. Right. So that's the other thing as well.
00:20:33
Speaker
So that's about it. I know that was a pretty good amount of information in there. I think the guide will be helpful if you're interested in something like this. Okay. But I definitely think this is something that people should be paying attention to in their advertising efforts moving forward. Right. Think content and less ad, right? Okay.
00:20:48
Speaker
Even though the two terms are obviously not mutually exclusive. And I think for a long time, good advertising has been very content-centric. But I think more and more we're getting away from, or rather we're just not seeing results from your traditional static Instagram ad that looks super curated.
00:21:10
Speaker
Right. Yeah. All right. Cool. Well, if you have any questions, like always, send us an email support at David and Krista.com. Tag us on Instagram or comment on Instagram or DM us on Instagram, whatever it is that you do on Instagram. You can reach out to us that way. And we read pretty much every comment, every email that we get. So if you have questions, send them over. A lot of times we'll respond. And if we don't or we don't have time to, we'll record a podcast episode usually about that question. Yes. Oh, I hope that's helpful. Thanks for joining us.
00:21:43
Speaker
Thanks for tuning into the Brands That Book Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving a review in iTunes. For show notes and other resources, head on over to dvandchrista.com.