User-Generated Content (UGC) can be a powerful tool in the arsenal of travel marketing specialists. Not only does it help to improve engagement with brand followers, but it’s an excellent way to promote a brand without creating all the content.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at UGC, the benefits of using it, and how to implement it at your travel brand.
What is user-generated content?
User-Generated Content (UGC) is a term that refers to content created by individuals, rather than a specific brand, business, or company. It may encompass many different forms of media, on an array of platforms. Some examples of UGC include the following:
- Images
- Videos
- Reviews
- Social media posts
- Blog articles
In short, anything created by individuals and posted online may be considered User-Generated Content.
Benefits of UGC
There are many excellent benefits and advantages to using UGC, and it can be a powerful tool when used correctly. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits.
First, UGC often helps to increase trust and authenticity. Because User-Generated Content is created by real people with real connections and relationships, people often consider it more trustworthy and authentic, compared to traditional marketing content.
It can also help to improve loyalty and engagement with your followers and potential followers. Mainly, this is because UGC gives people an opportunity to engage with your brand directly, through conversations, encouraging sharing, and sometimes building a sense of community around your brand. This, in turn, helps to improve your brand’s social proof.
When people are familiar with the keywords and hashtags around your brand, UGC can help to enhance your SEO. This is because people will naturally use those terms and phrases when you offer them a chance to engage, thereby boosting your search engine rankings.
It’s also a time and cost-effective marketing option, since it relies on external contributions that you don’t need to pay your marketing team to create.
Another, potentially unanticipated, benefit is that It gives you unique insight into your customers. This is mainly because, when given the opportunity to do so, people will automatically share their preferences, needs, and pain points. This gives you an opportunity to improve your products or services.
Along the same vein, UGC can help you find brand advocates who are passionate about your products and services. By seeing who loves to share positive experiences, you can discover advocates who may be willing to enter longer-term cooperation.
Leveraging UGC for tourism websites
Now that you know about the benefits of UGC, let’s take a closer look at the ways you can leverage it to help your tourism or travel brand prosper.
Building trust through authentic experiences
In many marketing niches, but specifically the competitive world of tourism and travel, authenticity is paramount. Many travellers are seeking increasingly more authenticity and trustworthiness.
They’re also trying to discover brands that facilitate genuine experiences that are in line with their expectations, values, and aspirations. Ethical marketing often includes UGC to help accomplish this.
User-Generated Content (UGC) can play a unique, and often pivotal, role in establishing trust and credibility with your target audience. By using UGC to showcase the real-life experiences of people who have used your services and products, you create a real, authentic snapshot of genuine experiences.
Building credibility
UGC elements like customer testimonials and reviews can be powerful tools while you’re trying to build credibility. This is sometimes also referred to as social proof, since people considering your products and services can see the honest thoughts and feelings of the people who have gone before them.
Encourage users to create content that showcases their positive experiences, whether that be discussing the exceptional service, talking about memorable attractions, or discussing unique local interactions.
When potential users see the real, genuine experiences that people have had, and the value it brought to the experience, they’re more likely to trust that your brand offers value.
Enhancing engagement with visual storytelling
Storytelling is a powerful tool that can help bring your marketing campaigns to a whole new level. The advantage of combining UGC and storytelling is that the stories haven’t been staged for the benefit of the potential user. Instead, they are a realistic reflection of what other travellers have truly experienced.
Visual storytelling is one of the most effective versions that you’ll encounter, captivating audiences and evoking emotions. Some types of UGC, like travel photos and immersive videos, help to create compelling narratives. These often resonate with potential travellers, while showcasing beautiful destinations and highlighting the unique experiences they offer.
Personalising campaigns with real stories
Another way in which UGC can be exceptionally valuable is through the power or personalisation. This tool is one of the keys of effective travel marketing, since it allows marketers to tailor campaigns to specific audiences.
By highlighting relevant experiences and authentic interests, you can effectively engage a certain part of your target audience. For instance, a family-orientated travel company could highlight User-Generated Content made by families who have participated in their activities or purchased their products.
On the other hand, an agency specialising in adventure-related travel could highlight the stories and experiences shared by some of their thrill-seeking clients.
AI: The behind-the-scenes UGC wizard
Although the main focus of UGC is authenticity and engaging with real people, Artificial Intelligence (AI) can still play a crucial role in managing the UGC you receive.
AI-powered tools in the travel industry are invaluable as they can help tourism brands to identify relevant content, curate content, and moderate content. Below, we’ll briefly discuss two of the main tools used for these purposes.
Content moderation platforms
AI has proven to be a good basis for building content moderation systems. Since it’s relatively flexible in its ability to be programmed and perform specific tasks, AI can help identify and remove inappropriate or harmful content, helping to ensure a safe and positive user experience.
Sentiment analysis tools
AI can also be used to create sentiment analysis tools. These may help gauge the overall sentiment of UGC. By providing insights into customer satisfaction, and analysing UGC for pain points and areas where improvements are necessary and identifying areas for improvement, AI can help to improve the overall reputation of your brand.
By leveraging AI, tourism websites can efficiently manage UGC and ensure that it contributes to a positive and engaging user experience.
Encouraging user-generated content
Now that you know what UGC can do for you, it’s time to consider how you can turn UGC into a more active proposition. In many cases, travel brands rely on the passive production of UGC. However, this often holds them back from accomplishing this tool’s true potential.
Instead, tourism brands and websites should actively encourage users to generate new content. Here are a few different strategies and tips that have proven effective in this regard.
- Running contests and giveaways: Contests and giveaways are an excellent way to encourage the creation of UGC. When users know they might win something when they create content, it’s a surefire way to get an influx of UGC. Ensure that the terms of the contest match your brand identity.
- Creating branded hashtags: Branded hashtags are an excellent way to get your UGC out there. People will come to associate them with your content, and by encouraging users to use them in their posts about your brand, you’ll increase your SEO and social proof.
- Providing pre-made templates and guidelines: When you provide templates and guidelines for users to follow, it makes it easier to participate in your campaigns. Furthermore, it will help to ensure a sense of consistency among all the UGC.
- Showcasing User-Generated Content: There are few things that motivate people like getting recognized for their efforts. Make a point of showcasing the best UGC from your campaigns, either on social media or your website (or both).
- Partnering with influencers: An excellent way to be intentional about generating UGC is to partner with influencers in the travel niche. This is an excellent way to promote your UGC campaigns, and to get people excited about participating.
- Offering exclusive perks: One excellent way to encourage the creation of UGC is giving special perks to users who participate. This may take the form of particular discounts, sneak peeks, and more.
- Making it easy to share UGC: If getting their content out there is difficult, it’s unlikely that users are going to persist in generating it. Ensure that your social media platforms and website are constructed in such a way that sharing UGC is easy.
- Providing feedback and engagement: Even the very best UGC campaign is likely to fall apart in the absence of engagement. It’s essential that you interact with users who are generating content about your travel brand. Thank users for their contributions, engage in conversations, and take other steps to help foster a sense of community.
Tourism brands and websites can significantly increase their engagement with followers, as well as the amount of User-Generated Content by following these strategies and tips.
Conclusion
As you can see, UGC is a useful tool that can help you take your travel brand to the next level. Through encouraging your target audience to generate their own content, you can get a lot of inexpensive publicity.
It can also help to improve your brand's SEO, improve user engagement, and more. If you’d like assistance with creating your own UGC campaigns, or incorporating more of it into your marketing campaign, have a look at our travel and tourism marketing services.
We’d love to help you promote your brand, both through User-Generated Content and a range of other means.
