How user-generated content can skyrocket your startup's growth

THE INTRODUCTION

Hello 👋 Marketing Context Fam!! Welcome to this week’s edition.

Firstly apologies for missing the last week’s edition…was not keep too well…anyways we are beck this week with another awesome deep dive!!!

In todays edition of startup marketing deep dive we unpack a critical startup marketing process of “leveraging user generated content to drive growth”.

We will cover:

• Why a user generated content ( UGC) matters for startup marketer

• Unpack the core concepts

• Strategy teardown:Duolingo’s UGC strategy

• Role of marketer

• Resources

Let me ask you this..

What if your users could become your most powerful marketing asset? Intrigued? Good.

I remember a time I stayed up until 3 AM. I was trying to find a cost-effective way to showcase a product feature. (Those were my good old days at a startup.) Then, it hit me what to do.

Grab your coffee and buckle up; I have a game-changing strategy.

Imagine they are creating content so compelling, it's driving more than 50% of your new signups. Sounds like a dream? Well, pinch yourself! DUolingo made this dream real.

Today, we're dissecting this masterstroke and showing you how to adapt it for your startup. Buckle up – we're about to turn your users into your most powerful marketing asset! It might save your sanity and your startup's growth.

THE CONTEXT

Why it matter?

User-generated content has become a major marketing tool. Every startup, from Duolingo to HubSpot to Airtable, uses it to fuel initial growth.

As a startup product marketer, you can ignore this powerful tool at your own peril.

Imagine you've built a product with remarkable versatility. It's the "Swiss Army knife of your industry". But here's the kicker. How do you show its value across different use cases? You must avoid confusing your audience or overworking your marketing team. Sound familiar? I thought so. But here's what you must be thinking: what makes user-generated content so critical?

THE DEEP DIVE

Let's break down the strategy for using User-Generated Content (UGC) to drive growth.

Start by answering these questions.

• Why do you need user generated content?

• What purpose does it serve?

UGC can serve different goals for different organizations.

For example, when HubSpot adopted their UGC strategy, they used the content to boost SEO. This increased traffic and new users to their site. It also educated potential customers, whom they eventually converted to their CRM platform.

Duolingo's user generated content to develop their learning module. This created some dependency. But, it let Duolingo use a larger user base. They created high-quality content with it. They then used this to feed their growing user base of language learners. Will do their strategy teardown later in this article.

So, once you know your UGC's purpose, you can address its operational needs. Keep read

Identify UGC opportunities

Start by analysing your product user's behaviour. Where are your users already creating content or demonstrating unique use cases? This could be anything from custom workflows to new ways to solve problems with your product. The key is to find areas where user creativity naturally emerges.

But here's the million-dollar question: How do you turn these organic behaviours into a UGC program? Hold that thought – we'll get there soon.

Design your UGC framework

Now that you found the UGC opportunity, create a framework. It should outline the content creation approach, which in turn should encourage and help users to create content. This involves:

1. Defining content types: What UGC fits your product and helps users? This could be templates, case studies, tutorials, or even user-created add-ons.

2. Setting guidelines: Establish clear criteria for content quality, format, and brand alignment. This ensures consistency and maintains the value of your UGC ecosystem.

3. Creating submission processes: Develop user-friendly tools and processes for content creation and submission. The easier it is for users to contribute, the more likely they are to do so.

Implement incentive structures

Here's where I answer that million-dollar question from earlier. “How to turn organic user behaviours into a thriving UGC ecosystem?”

The answer: Make it rewarding for users to contribute. This is where the magic of gamification comes into play.

Lets look at some of the ways we can gamify this process with a reward mechanism:

1. Point systems for different types of contributions

2. Leaderboards to showcase top contributors

3. Badges or levels to recognise consistent participation

4. Tangible rewards like product credits or exclusive features for high-quality submissions

The gamification and reward mechanism cannot be random. It needs to be in sync with your business requirement. This will help you answer our earlier questions about the purpose of this user-generated content. (*)

Ok now you have the idea about how to generate content and what to do with it and how. Does the buck stop here?

This may be true for established brands. But, for startups, there is more to it than just content creation and consumption.

A major challenge for early startups is advocacy. If handled well, it can drive early growth. Now advocacy can only develop when you are able to create a pool of early power users or super users as some call it. One way to leverage super users is to sync them with your UGC strategy. Do this by forming a community and sharing ownership among your users.

How do you strike that balance? Let's explore that in the next step.

(Super users play a much bigger role then just content creation, they help in defining your pain point and also help dynamically refine your ICP as the market and the product environment changes. I wrote a post on this. (read it here)

Build a Community Around UGC

I've said this before. UGC is not about the content you leverage for your startup's growth. It's about building a community of engaged users who learn from and inspire each other.

At Exclusively.com (Snapdeal), I invested in a community. It aimed to use user-generated content to boost growth. I urged our early users to share testimonials and create DIY content on our products. Our target audience was looking for this. We offered them a safe, dedicated forum to share their experiences and concerns. We also used our UGCs to solve many user problems.

Here's how you can nurture this community:

Building a community is a team effort. But, it's you as a marketer who has to nurture it. The success of your efforts in generating and leveraging UGC depends on it

Here is how I would go about it

a) Create a dedicated space: Make a section in your product/ product page for users to browse and engage with UGC. 

b) Facilitate Interaction: Allow comments, ratings, and sharing. This will spark dialogue on UGC.

c) Highlight success stories: Show, often, how UGC helped users succeed.

d) Encourage collaboration: Create ways for users to improve each other's content. This will foster a culture of innovation.

Integrate UGC into Your Product Experience

One of the biggest pitfall I have seen is not making your user generated content part of your product roadmap

Let me share the example of Awvent (my startup). When we started, we were chasing a use case in real estate. This was pre-COVID. We went all in on our content strategy and aggressively pursued a UGC roadmap.

We developed our content and UGC strategy around the category we were serving. This way we were able to go broad and target a much larger section of the market.

However, this strategy is often misaligns with product roadmap. It can also create conflicts with user journey and rollout priorities.

When covid happened ( which non of us anticipated) the market changed completely. Post covid we had to pivot.

Being a early startup and having put all our eggs in one basket, we had to dump our earlier strategy and start all over again. This was true for our UGC strategy too.

Lesson learnt, here is my advice.

Don't let UGC be a standalone strategy. Make it part of your product roadmap. Weave it into your product experience. Build it as your features and capabilities evolve.

Here is how you should do it

a) Onboarding: Show new users relevant UGC during onboarding. This will quickly demonstrate its real-world value.

b) Feature discovery: Use UGC to showcase different features and use cases of your product. This way your UGC strategy is also closely aligned with your product development.

c) Problem-solving: If users face issues, direct them to helpful UGC.

d) Inspiration: Highlight innovative UGC on a regular basis to spark new uses for your product.

Measure and Iterate

Like any growth strategy, your UGC program should be data-driven. Create your own impact-measure- refine matrix.

Some of the key metrics that you can track include:

• UGC submission Rate: How many pieces of content are users creating?

• UGC usage rate: How often are other users engaging with the content?

• Conversion impact: How does exposure to UGC affect user activation and retention?

• User engagement lift: Do users who engage with UGC show higher overall engagement?

• Customer acquisition Cost (CAC) Reduction: Is UGC helping to lower your CAC?

Use these insights to continuously refine your UGC strategy. What types of content are most impactful? Which incentives drive the best results? How can you further integrate UGC into your product experience?

This process will do more than gather user content. It will build a self-sustaining ecosystem. It will drive engagement, show value, and fuel growth. It is a strategy. It turns your users into your best asset for marketing and product development.

But how do you kick this off in your startup? And what pitfalls should you watch out for? We'll tackle those questions through Duolingo’s strategy in the next section.

STRATEGIES IN ACTION

About the Product

Duolingo is a free language-learning platform. It combines gamification with educational content. The app offers courses in multiple languages. It's designed to make language learning fun, accessible, and effective for users worldwide.

The Challenge

Duolingo faced a common ed-tech challenge. They needed to keep users engaged and learning consistently. But, they had to do this without making the process feel like a chore. They needed a way to create a self-sustaining ecosystem that would drive user engagement and growth.

The Approach

Enter Duolingo's UGC strategy. It's not just a feature – it's a brilliant GTM strategy disguised as a community-driven platform. Here's how they did it:

1. Community-Driven Learning: They created forums for users to interact, share tips, and support each other. ( Forum Visual)

2. Gamification: They implemented leaderboards and streaks, turning learning into a fun, competitive experience. ( focus on streak)

3. User-Created Content: They launched the Duolingo Incubator, allowing users to create new language courses.

4. Social Sharing: They enabled users to share achievements on social media, driving organic growth.

5. Data-Driven Optimization: They used A/B testing and user feedback to continuously improve the platform.

   

   Duolingo UGC and community forum

The Impact

• 4.5x increase in Daily Active Users (DAU) over four years

• 74 million MAU, a 50% increase from 2022

• 5.2 million paid subscribers by 2023

  

  Duolingo growth timeline

MARKETING MINDSET MOMENT

Role of a marketer: Owning the strategy

Startup marketing managers must design and implement a user-generated content strategy. Their role in this process is critical.

It is an "outside-in" role and we should know our users better than anyone else. Use this user knowledge with your strategy to engage them. Create a framework to leverage content generated by and for the users

Conclusion

By now, you're probably buzzing with ideas on how to implement this strategy in your startup. And you should be! Duolingo’s strategy is a simple one on the surface but a masterclass in using user-generated content for growth.

Remember, your users are your greatest asset. They know your product's value better than anyone. They use it every day. You're not just showcasing your product. You're giving them a platform to share their expertise. You're building a community, driving engagement, and fuelling growth.

RESOURCES ON SPOTLIGHT

How to get more user generated content ( Link)

What is user generated content and how to use it (Link)

Curating and leveraging user generated content ( Link)