How to Use Influencer-Generated Content to Grow Your Business

Do you know what the biggest benefits of influencer marketing are? You can boost your brand awareness, engagement rate, and grow your sales.

But that’s not all.

Influencer-generated content (also called IGC) has a long shelf life.

Your brand can reap the benefits of influencer-generated content even after your marketing campaign has ended. It’s a great way to get the most out of your collaboration and grow your business.

Unlike traditional advertising, you don’t need to spend money on paid ads. It’s all about working with what you have.

Not sure how to get the most bang for your buck with influencer marketing?

In this article, let’s take a look at how you can use influencer-generated content to drive business growth. We’ll also look at real-life examples, so you can get insights into how the influencer marketing industry functions.

5 Different Ways to Use Influencer-Generated Content (IGC) to Power Your Business

Blog posts, videos, or photos — whatever it is that influencers create for your marketing campaign has the potential to be repurposed. By amplifying influencer-generated content on multiple marketing channels, you can increase your engagement rate and attract new leads.

Also, it can save your brand a lot of time in content creation. What’s more, influencers have published the content once on their channel. Influencer content has already received likes, shares, and comments.

So, you can be sure that it strikes a chord with the audience. Based on the response it garnered, you can even get ideas on how to repurpose their content.

If your brand is looking to utilize influencer-generated content effectively, here are a few tips:

1. Re-Post Influencer-Generated Content

When it comes to influencer marketing, don’t hold back. Flaunt influencer-generated content on all of your marketing channels.

It’s the best way to increase your Instagram follower count, engagement rate, and traffic. When you repost influencer-generated content on your profile, it also shows that you appreciate the work of the influencer.

For example, Instagram makes reposting quite easy.

There are two major ways your brand can successfully leveraging influencer content:

• Repost influencer-generated content in your Instagram feed
• Repost influencer-generated content in your Instagram Stories

Let’s take a look at the Instagram strategy adopted by FOREO, a European beauty and wellness brand. Many posts on their Instagram feed are influencer generated. While reposting their content, Foreo also tags the influencers in their captions.

Additionally, they also feature influencers’ Instagram Stories as Stories on their own feed. To ensure that such posts don’t disappear from their profile after 24 hours, they add them as “Highlights.” All such influencer-generated content is grouped together under a Highlight titled, “FOREO family”

But what if your brand doesn't have new influencer-generated content to post?

If it’s been a while since your influencer marketing campaign ended, you can get creative while posting the branded content. Leverage trends like #throwbackthursday or #TBT to bring back focus to an influencer partnership.

For instance, Go-To skincare often features influencer-generated content on their Instagram page. As a part of their influencer marketing campaign, Instagram influencer, Katherine Alicia, posted a review of Go-To’s Fancy Face Oil Cleanser on her profile.

Almost a month after her Instagram post, Go-To shared the same image on their profile. Alongside the photo, the brand also shared her testimonial for social proof and tagged her in the post.

2. Feature Influencer-Generated Content as Website Testimonials

Reviews and testimonials are strong forms of recommendations for brands, especially when they come from an influencer. To boost your credibility and gain the trust of your audience, feature this type of influencer-generated content on your website.

You can feature influencer testimonials in the form of text reviews or even get them on video. On your website, you can showcase excerpts from the influencer-generated content as quotes. Alternatively, you can feature influencer-generated content as well.

If you’ve got multiple influencer testimonials, you can also make a separate website section to showcase what influencers have to say about your products or services. Alternatively, you can feature them on other web pages in such a way that they are visible prominently.

Take a leaf from Marucci’s homepage. They feature a testimonial from basketball star, Francisco Lindor, along with his photo.

Below the influencer testimonial, they also have placed a “See More” button which redirects users to another web page which has more influencer content. On the page, you can also see a video testimonial from Lindor.

3. Create Social Media Ads

Social media influencers know what resonates with their audiences. They create content on a regular basis, so they know how to position products in an appealing manner.

Do you know how you can leverage that?

Here is a simple solution:

Think beyond social media posts. Instead, create social media ads.

When influencer-generated content receives likes, shares, and comments, that’s good enough to tell you that people like that content. The influencer marketing campaign is likely to have given you enough proof that it’s engaging and likeable.

To maximize its potential, it’s a good idea to give influencer-generated content a facelift. Turn it into social media ads and post it from your business’ social media accounts on different platforms.

Through this strategy, your brand can reach out to your target audience directly. Simultaneously, you can win over their trust with an influencer’s endorsement. For the best results, you should create unique social media ads from influencer-generated content for different marketing channels.

Pro Tip: You can re-use the video from an Insta Story for a social media ad. How? Add a quote on top from the influencer to get people to relate and understand the context better.

For inspiration, take a look at this social media ad from Fourstarzz Media:

4. Get User-Generated Content

Want to boost your engagement rate? Encourage users to share their experiences of using your product or service.

Positive reviews in social media posts can help your brand gain credibility and win the trust of potential customers. This, in turn, can also influence consumer-purchasing behavior and help you drive sales.

User-generated content or UGC is like word-of-mouth marketing. It’s a strategy that lets you convert your customers into brand advocates. When a brand asks users to post their pictures with branded hashtags, it may look too promotional.

That’s where influencer marketing can help you out.

Influencers have a loyal following with whom they have built a good rapport. Devoted followers are more likely to take action when influencers prompt them.

What’s the bottom line? You can run a UGC campaign using influencer-generated content.

Here’s how:

Post-influencer-generated content on your social media channels. Along with it, feature a caption encouraging users to share their photos and videos using your product along with a specific hashtag.

To boost your brand awareness via influencer marketing, you can create branded hashtags for the UGC campaign. With an influencer’s endorsement, the campaign is likely to attract their followers.

If your brand promotes a social cause, this strategy can be a great way to gain traction for your campaign.

For instance, American fashion brand, Calvin Klein featured a post from influencer, Lupita Nyong'o, on their Instagram feed to promote their new ad campaign which explored femininity. In the post, the brand encouraged users to share who inspires them using the hashtag #IAMWOMAN.

5. Create Email Newsletters

Email marketing is one of the best content marketing strategies to grow your business. According to a report, for every £1 (approximately $1.25) that you spend, you can get an ROI of up to £32.28 (approximately $40.32).

Doesn’t that sound great?

To drive up your email open-rates, you can combine influencer marketing with your email strategy. The best part is you don’t need to put too much effort into it. Just reuse influencer-generated content for an email newsletter.

Featuring influencers in your newsletters can help you get the attention of your audience. Through this strategy, you can promote seasonal offers or even tell your brand’s story in a compelling manner.

For instance, online fashion brand, Nine West featured American television personality, Tyra Banks, in their newsletter. They leveraged their influencer collaboration to promote their fall collection.

Conclusion

When you collaborate with an influencer, think long-term. Even after your influencer marketing campaign is over, you can garner additional benefits by repurposing influencer-generated content and posting it via your social media accounts.

It’s a smart way to get the most out of your content marketing efforts. In the process, you can also save time on content creation. Additionally, this type of branded content can help you get more followers as well as boost your reach and engagement.

If your brand is not leveraging this strategy already, it’s time to dive in.

Are there other ways that marketers can use influencer-generated content to grow their business? Share your ideas and insights in the comments section.

This post originally published at https://www.fourstarzz.com/