First off, what exactly is user generated content (UGC)? This is content that is created by your customers. It can be anything from a blog post, product reviews, photos, videos or comments.
Content marketing is currently a top marketing strategy for most businesses. A report by Demand Gen shows that 47% of customers surveyed will read about three to five pieces of content prior before they consider reaching out to a company to get its products or services.
Creating content is time consuming and not every business owner has the time to create so much content to keep their customers happy. But you know what? Many of your customers are actually more than willing to create content for you. All you have to do is ask 🙂
Why You Should Encourage User Generated Content
There are a few other good reasons to encourage user generated posts including:
1. Relevancy
UGC will keep your website content relevant. People will only find your content useful if it’s relevant to them. Who knows what they want more than your customers? So listen to them.
2. Increased User Engagement
By allowing people to contribute to your website you make them feel important and a part of your website. In return, they will stay on your site longer and engage with what others are saying.
3. Improved SEO
The more content you have, the more Google will love you. With high quality user created content your SEO will be greatly improving your search engine ranking. We all want the coveted first page position, don’t we?
4. Increased Conversion Rates
Reviews are a major way to convince people to trust your business. The more reviews you get the higher your conversion rates will be.
How to Curate User Generated Content Using BuddyForms
Now that you have a clear picture of what UCG is, and why it’s awesome, let’s talk about the perfect way to get people to give you content.
BuddyForms is one of the best plugins to use if you want an intuitive and user-friendly process for users to submit user created posts.
Why is that so?
- Creating forms to collect content is super easy
- Content submission is equally as easy
- It easily integrates with most WordPress themes
- It comes with shortcodes that allow you to embed forms within your web pages
- Users can upload files and add them to their posts as attachments
- It allows users to revise their posts as they wish and you get notified via email whenever a post is changed.
BuddyForms is a great solution to collect user-generated content that will keep your website above the rest and promote your business.
Remember; always get permission to publish content from the users and inform them on how you’ll use the content.
Download BuddyForms and start collecting content for your WordPress site today!
