It’s tricky being a marketing manager for a consumer brand in a fast-changing world, where trends seem to change as quickly as the weather.

So when a global threat to public health comes out of nowhere and touches every single aspect of all our lives, it can make marketing a logistical and expensive headache.

Yes, it’s true we’re not on the front line of the crisis – the government is not exactly putting out a public appeal for retired marketing managers to return to work – but brands and our relationship to them have a part to play in times of uncertainty, and continue to have the power to shape our lives. And, our consumers have the power to shape our response to them in return.

As our culture turns inwards – literally – our values are changing, with consumer focus shifting towards home ware, personal care, toys, food goods, and pets, more than before.

In this uncertain climate, a familiar product on the breakfast table has the potential to be an anchor in a storm; a small but vital addition to our wellbeing, and a sense of continuity that shores us up over the course of the day.

But how do you promote your brand in an atmosphere of near lockdown that makes it near impossible to carry out photoshoots or partnerships  at a time when marketing budgets are shrinking?

On top of this, people will be particularly sensitive to direct marketing efforts, it is not the time for brands to shove promotions in front of concerned individuals. Instead we need an authentic way to remind consumers we are there and trusted by others.   

Here’s the good news: the best peer-to-peer marketing content is already out there on social media.

It’s known in the consumer marketing industry as User-Generated Content, or UGC for short, with the holy grail being the content created by the people who love your brand the most.

UGC can be many things: funny, creative, and a source of the warm and fuzzies, which I think you’ll agree is something we could all do with right now.

Crucially, UGC displays confidence in your products, which is something consumers with increasingly limited spending power need more than ever. It is also the most trustworthy and authentic form of marketing, after all, it is easier to believe a regular person’s review over anything we say as marketers. 

When licensed and distributed to multiple-marketing channels, it can be a powerful influence on prospective customers.

#Content #Overload

For the lone marketer, the holy grail of UGC tends to be neither quick or easy to find. Simple hashtag searches can throw up thousands and thousands of unrelated posts, which makes it hard to find those golden needles in the virtual haystack.

How then do you curate and aggregate good reviews in any kind of practical way? Before you think “gee thanks, you’ve just created LOADS more work as my boss will soon be virtually breathing down my virtual neck because she read about UGC in your blog post AND on top of that I’ve got to somehow magically come up with spaghetti and toilet roll for my elderly aunt in isolation before the end of the day” please don’t panic – here at Miappi we’ve got licensing, curating and aggregating UGC down to a fine art.

Here’s where Miappi can help

Miappi is the platform that gives you the ability to deliver consumer authenticity throughout the purchasing journey – that’s real, smiling faces next to your products – with rights-approved UGC, whilst also giving you the tools you need to build lasting and ethical relationships with your best UGC creators.

Here’s how we can save you time in four steps:

  • Miappi lets you collect content from your most engaged consumers through direct upload to your campaign website and through social media hashtags, @username mentions and image tags.
  • Use Miappi to engage with your consumers and ensure you have the right permissions to use their amazing content in your marketing campaigns. Inline with GDPR it is important that you get explicit consent from content creators.
  • Leverage the Miappi dashboard to curate and publish your best user content to eCommerce pages, paid display campaigns, micro-sites, emails and more. Alternatively, may decide to simply decide to repost your best rights-managed content on your own social channels.
  • In the near future you will be able to use our new functionality Miappi Community to nurture real relationships with your most engaged consumers. Miappi will make it easy to maintain dialogues, offer creative briefs, cast UGC creators in your campaigns and reward them in creative, ethical ways. 

We offer a combination of robust technological smarts and a human eye to make sure we’re finding the best UGC for your brand needs.

So, whether you’re using existing content at point-of-purchase or spearheading a marketing drive for new content, we’re able to process thousands of posts for all manner of creative digital uses.

Go forth and prosper

We believe marketing under extreme limitations doesn’t have to be a minefield. The gold is out there already. Together we can find it.