User generated content (UGC) should be a key component in a finance brands’ overall marketing strategy, with 79% of people saying it impacts their purchasing decisions. UGC is not only budget-friendly but a way to break away from the polished brand veneer to better connect with your target audience in a more relatable way. It’s a great way for finance brands to build trust and confidence in their products as it generates transparency between business and consumer. In fact, 55% of customers trust UGC over other forms of marketing.
Make use of your customers’ experiences
“ 56% of consumers say UGC photos and videos are the content they want to see from brands. ”
With 4.48 billion social media users worldwide, gaining access to user generated content has never been easier, making it cost-effective and simple to implement for finance brands of all kinds. By utilising experiences from real customers it offers an opportunity for finance brands to create a personal connection with customers, build trust and foster a strong relationship.
User generated content is simple, it’s any content, usually images or videos, that a customer created rather than the finance brand itself. Often this content is created by consumers as part of a marketing or hashtag campaign, and either reshared on social channels or compiled into an advertising video. This method of marketing is highly effective with consumers finding user generated content 9.8x more impactful than influencer content.
Customers want personal content
User generated content fosters real and transparent relationships with consumers, benefitting the customer experience overall.
Authentic content that is tailored to a finance brands’ target audience is superior to a generalised marketing strategy as it creates a personal connection. It’s a way to connect with customers through real customer experiences and consumers like it – with 56% of consumers saying UGC photos and videos are the content they want to see from brands. By sharing real customer stories it builds trust and confidence in the true impact of your finance brand and proves that the values you promote aren’t just a marketing line. And what’s more is that these stories resonate, with 31% of consumers stating that ads that feature UGC content are more memorable than traditional ads without it.
User generated content works
User generated content is an opportunity to position your brand in a more real, relatable and approachable way that appeals to customers. Ads that utilised UGC as a component saw 5x greater click-through rates than ads that didn’t.
By incorporating UGC content, not only in advertising campaigns but within a content program, you can hyper-personalise and tailor your content and customer experience to a number of niche audiences. In fact, UGC galleries increase visitors’ spend time on a website by 90% and UGC increases conversions by 10% when included in an online purchase path.
Finance brands nailing UGC
By incorporating user generated content into all facets of a finance brands’ content marketing strategy they can improve customer loyalty, trust and brand recall. Let’s take a deep dive into two financial services companies that are nailing UGC content.
BlackRock – What’s your why?
The asset management firm BlackRock created a highly successful social media campaign involving their employees called ‘What’s Your Why?’. Employees from a diverse range of backgrounds and roles uploaded videos of themselves speaking about how they connect to BlackRock’s purpose.
The authentic nature of the videos, which were launched across LinkedIn and X, saw large success. BlackRock’s X video-view rate was 52.36% above their usual 50% and their LinkedIn video-view rate was 38.56% above their usual 34.3%.
Santander – Prosperity
Santander launched their video campaign Prosperity, which centred on their purpose to help businesses and people prosper. Utilising user generated video content brought to life what prosperity meant to different people, in a fun and humorous way.
Like BlackRock, this campaign was highly effective with Santander experiencing a 25-point lift in brand recall, a 19.9-point lift in favourability and an 18-point lift in ‘likelihood to recommend’.
Santander – Prosperity from Engine on Vimeo.
UGC is made for today
With social media’s dominance continuing to rise, user generated content is made for today’s consumer. Social campaigns that utilised UGC content saw a 50% increase in engagement showcasing a prime opportunity for finance brands to begin incorporating it into their social media strategies.
From web design to social media to traditional advertising, UGC content has been seen to improve engagement, brand awareness and trust. And with 90% of consumers saying UGC has more influence in their purchasing decisions than promotional emails and search engine results, there’s value in including your customers’ voices in your content.
