Nowadays, grabbing users’ attention is such a huge task for brands.
You run digital marketing campaigns and boost branded content only to get one sale at the end of the day.
And no, it’s not because you’ve got competition or something.
The reason is simple: people rarely pay attention to traditional marketing strategies anymore.
So if you want them looking in your direction, you gotta do something different.
What’s the ‘something different’ you can do?
Well, there are several options to try.
But one of them is to find someone they trust — like an influencer — and get them to do most of the talking.
It’s a simple strategy and in this guide, you’ll find how to leverage it for brand growth.
Let’s get the ball rolling!
What Is Influencer-Generated Content?
Influencer-generated content (IGC) is any type of content produced by an influencer in favor of your brand. It can be videos or images created to be uploaded on social media or a website.
The good thing about this type of content is that your brand doesn’t necessarily have to commission an influencer to create IGC.
Influencers can use your product, visit your business, and decide to create content they can share with their audience.
You know, like when you take pictures of dinner at your favorite restaurants.
Just that this time around, an influencer is the one doing that.
So that’s IGC for you.
At first glance, it probably sounds like a synonym for user-generated content (UGC).
However, they’re different and here’s how...
IGC is produced by an influencer while UGC can be produced by a content creator or anyone.
But if you’re going to make the most of IGC, you need to understand that there’s a type of content that often yields great results when produced.
Let’s unpack that a bit more.
What type of content works best when created (and distributed) by influencers?
Off the top of your head, you’re probably thinking “It’s definitely videos, no doubt.”
Well, you’re correct.
But do you know which type?
Here are content types that work best when produced by influencers:
1. Product reviews
These are videos where influencers share their honest opinion about your product with their audience.
A good example is this Hourglass Vanish concealer review by Samantha Izundu.
The comment section of the video was just buzzing with her audience saying how much they loved the video and how they think the product is great.
Impressive stuff.
Sometimes in product reviews, influencers highlight the product’s main features they’ve enjoyed.
And other times, they compare it with an alternative product.
Product reviews can also be in the form of unboxing videos. The type where an influencer unboxes a product while sharing their review.
2. How-to tutorials
Here, an influencer takes their audience through a step-by-step tutorial on how to use a product.
It’s a good option to consider if you want people to know how smooth your sales experience is.
An example is this How to use Canva tutorial by Natalia Kalinska. The video garnered over 2M views and 2.3k comments.
According to Insider Intelligence, it’s one of the top types of IGC people in the US and UK want to see.
Other quality content types to try include lifestyle videos or collaborative content between your brand and the influencer.
“Yeah, yeah; the influencers produced videos and it blew up. But how does that help my business?”
Well, let’s find out together.
How Influencer-Generated Content Can Help Your Brand
If asked what your number one wish is as a business owner, we’re pretty sure it’d be one or all of these:
- Lead generation
- More sales
- Brand reach
- New subscribers/followers
- More traffic
- Brand loyalty
However, the thing is pulling these off with traditional marketing is now pretty difficult. A much better alternative is IGC and here’s why:
Tapping into the influencer’s audience
When you collaborate with influencers, what you’re doing in a way is getting to introduce you to their audience.
Influencers already have a community of people who trust them so a partnership tells their audience “Feel free to support this brand, I endorse them.”
It’s like when one of your favorite celebrities performs at a political rally. That has a way of softening you up for that candidate. And when they speak, you wanna listen.
That’s what happens when you work with influencers. You’ll be tapping into their audience to increase your reach, get new followers, and more.
However, you just wanna ensure that the influencer aligns with your brand’s values and their audience with your target audience.
It would be weird if your ideal potential customers are between ages 18 and 24 and the influencer’s audience are aged 30+.
Infusing authenticity and credibility into the brand’s message
With IGC, your brand has social proof and that’s because it’s coming from these social media influencers.
When people see your ad, they won’t just wanna click Skip. They’ll be more inclined to pause and watch it.
Why?
Someone they trust and respect is doing the talking.
It’s like when you walk into a mall to buy groceries. On one hand, you’ve got a stranger trying to sell a product to you. On the other hand, there’s your best bud doing the same.
Who are you more likely to listen to?
Your best bud and that’s because you know them and consider them credible. Now it could even be the same product the stranger was advertising. But because it’s a stranger, you’re more likely to tune them out.
An influencer is known across their community. If they endorse a product, the community believes it’s authentic.
Now this isn’t just a statement, it’s a fact.
According to an Inmar survey, 84% of shoppers purchase a product because an influencer recommended it.
Simply put, IGC would make your brand more credible to people.
Driving sales and conversions by influencing consumer behavior
Want to generate more sales?
That’s something IGC can help you with.
Potential customers see how influencers use your product in a product review video and get hooked.
It’s someone they know using the product so they’re convinced it’s authentic content.
As such, they wanna learn more. They engage with the post and ask questions.
Before you know it, they’re bringing out their debit cards to buy.
Think it sounds too good to be true?
Well, about 67% of consumers say an influencer’s recommendation has made them spend over $150 in the last year, with 10% spending over $1,000.
That’s the power of IGC.
Repurposing content for other platforms
Now IGC isn’t just restricted to social media platforms.
Sure, it’s very popular in that particular marketing channel. But you can use it across any of your communication channels to reinforce the brand message as authentic.
That means you can run influencer marketing campaigns via other means such as:
- Email marketing
- Landing pages
- Paid ads
It adds creativity to your marketing efforts and makes it more engaging and creative.
By now, you’ve probably been convinced to start using high-quality IGC.
But where do you start from?
You’ve tried collaborating with influencers before but it didn’t go as planned.
Don’t worry, we’ll show you how in the next section.
How to Find and Contact the Right Influencers for Your Brand
Finding influencers can be tricky. But if you know where to look, your influencer marketing campaign will soon become a walk in the park.
Here are some ideas on where to look:
- Check your audience: Sometimes, all it takes is a quick look at your follower base on social media and you’ll find influencers who are a part of your community.
They have been around for a while and understand your brand better than most people. So feel free to start scrolling through social media for your next influencer.
- Influencer outreach tool: This software like Insense can help you save time when searching for micro-influencers and UGC creators.
On Insense, all you have to do is fill out a creative brief providing the details of your campaign and ideal influencer. Then, we’ll connect you with influencers and you can start getting IGC.
- Creator marketplace: A marketplace is just like Upwork but for influencers. Insense, for instance, is an example of a platform that has an influencer marketplace.
You can easily find your preferred influencer from our pool of 30k influencers and creators, using different filters like demographics, age, location, social media platforms, and more. This way, you can find influencers who align with your brand's style.
After you find influencers and your campaign is in full swing, your next step is to monitor the performance of the IGC.
Why?
To know what works so you can re-strategize and scale.
Here’s how to do that…
Key Metrics to Track the Success of Influencer-Generated Content
Monitoring the performance of IGC is how you know if all your hard work was worth it.
So, how do you know if it was a success or not?
By monitoring certain key performance indicators (KPIs) or metrics of the influencer’s posts.
Here are some of them:
- Engagement rates: This refers to how much social media users are interacting with the content. Are they commenting, sharing, or liking? Engagement rates reflect how well the audience connected with the content. If you’ve got high engagement rates, that means the audience is hooked.
- Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of people who clicked on your call-to-action (CTA). It lets you know how much the audience is willing to take the next step.
- Conversion rates: This metric is the number of people who finally made a purchase or subscribed. It shows the impact IGC is having, turning engagement into conversion. Conversion rate is the end goal of CTR.
- Follower growth: What’s the rate at which your follower count has increased since the IGC went live? This metric is another way to know if your campaign has an impact on your audience.
You might also wanna track metrics such as:
- Brand mentions
- Views/reach
- Impressions
- Time spent on page
All of these metrics can provide a detailed understanding of the IGC’s performance so you know how to maximize the campaign.
Now, aside from tracking performance metrics, another thing to consider when partnering with influencers is the legalities involved.
Let’s quickly talk about that before we wrap up.
Legal Considerations in Influencer Collaborations
‘Legal considerations’ is just the corporate term for all the rules and regulations set by authorities regarding influencer marketing.
It involves:
- Complying with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
- Disclosing the relationship between your brand and the influencer.
- Rights to content usage.
- Contract between you and the influencer.
Why is it important?
Well, legal considerations help protect the interests of the parties involved and maintain consumer trust.
Failing to comply with FTC’s clear guidelines can lead to consequences, including:
- Financial penalties from the FTC.
- Legal action against your brand.
- Reputational damage.
Okay, enough of the gloomy part.
We’ll let you in on a secret. Did you know that Insense can help you with some of these legal requirements?
Yeah, anything related to legal contracts and usage rights you don’t have to bother with if you’re on Insense.
Once you fill out the creative brief on Insense, that acts as a contract with the influencers if they agree to work with you.
Also, for any content commissioned on Insense, you get usage rights. You can use it to raise brand awareness in the future as, say, social media posts or web content.
***
Well, that’s it!
You’ve now learned what it takes to be a master in the art of IGC. But it’s not enough to learn, you need to put it into action.
So if you’re ready to take your brand growth to the next level, there’s one thing to do — find influencers and you’ll be good to go.
Ready to Find the Right Influencers for Your Brand?
You’re in the right place.
And guess what? The process is simple.
We’d outline it here but we have already taken a bit of your time.
So here’s what you can do:
Book a demo with Insense and a team member will walk you through everything you need to get started.
Sounds like a plan?
See you soon!
