Sep 6, 2024 1797 reads

Catch the Back-to-School Wind: Effective Marketing Strategies for 2024

What is Back-to-School? Back-to-School is a significant period in marketing when students and parents purchase school supplies and clothing for the upcoming academic year. It also marks the start of the consumer shopping season and the transition into a new season. In Turkey, this period is typically considered to span August, September, and October. Who is the Target Audience for Back-to-School? Students, families, and teachers all engage in shopping to prepare for the new school year, covering needs ranging from electronics and stationery to clothing and footwear. With the rise of online education post-pandemic, demand for technological devices peaks during this time. What Are the Global Figures? The National Retail Federation forecasts that families with young children will spend a total of $38.8 billion on school shopping. For college students returning to school, this figure could rise to $86.6 billion. These numbers highlight the increased importance of technological products due to the digitalization accelerated by the pandemic. Online shopping remains a popular option for both families with young children and college students. Numerator has shared new data for the 2024 school shopping season. With the growing use of technology in classrooms, traditional school supply sales have decreased year-over-year, while online retailers have increased their share of the school supply market by 15 points over the last four years. Amazon leads in this sector. In the 2023/24 academic year, 90% of students used computers or tablets in their classrooms, and 80% used technology for school at home. Key findings include: Even young children use digital technology. While 2nd graders are least likely to use a computer or tablet for homework at home (60%), their use in the classroom is higher (83%). Computers are more commonly used than tablets. Last year, 69% of K-12 students did school work on computers, while 47% used tablets. 66% of households reused last year's supplies. Only 34% indicated they would purchase all new supplies. Online retailers captured 37% of school supply spending. Amazon has moved up to second place, surpassing Target. Effective Back-to-School Marketing IdeasInfluencers Appeal to Youth Young consumers place significant importance on the opinions of influencers they follow on social media when making shopping decisions. Partnering with influencers who appeal to this demographic can boost your brand's visibility and popularity among younger audiences. Collaborate with BTS influencers on platforms like TikTok and Instagram to effectively convey your brand message to young people. Parents and Teachers Matter too! The back-to-school period is crucial for parents and teachers as well. Parents are busy shopping to meet their children's needs, and teachers are preparing their classrooms for the new school year. Offering special promotions and discounts for parents and teachers can attract their interest and boost sales. Promotional Gifts In Turkey, promotional products are highly attractive to consumers. During the back-to-school period, consider offering school supplies, bags, or stationery sets as small gifts with purchases over a certain amount. These giveaways enhance the shopping experience and increase customer loyalty. Share User-Generated Content (UGC) on Social Media User-generated content plays a significant role in social media marketing. Share photos and videos that your customers post about your products to build brand credibility. Encourage customers to create UGC to increase engagement and expand your brand’s reach organically. Content and Theme Consistency Ensure that the content and themes used in your Back-to-School campaigns reflect the needs and expectations of your target audience. For instance, guides, shopping lists, and preparation tips related to returning to school can engage your customers. A well-aligned content strategy will make your brand message more impactful and effective. Choose the Right Products Selecting appropriate products based on your expertise and stocking up with relevant sizes and quantities can boost sales. Stationery, technology products, books, and clothing are always safe choices. Offering exclusive Back-to-School collections can set your brand apart from competitors. Back-to-School Promotions Implement various promotional strategies to attract customers. Percentage-based discounts, bundle deals for anticipated purchases, and student discounts can help drive sales. Email Marketing Email marketing is a key strategy for assisting parents and college students with their school shopping. Personalized content and discounts can effectively engage your customers. Customize Your Store for Back-to-School Make sure your website's landing page reflects the back-to-school theme. Display products under specific categories to simplify the purchasing process. Add Valuable Content to Your Blog Write blog posts offering guides and tips related to the back-to-school season to attract customers. Expert reviews and checklists can also be helpful. Partner with an Educational Institution Offering donation options to customers can build brand loyalty. Contributing to local schools can positively impact the community. Include a Gift with Every Purchase Adding a gift with purchases can enhance customer satisfaction. Offer unique gifts for customers who make purchases above a certain amount. Increase Reach with a Referral Program Encourage loyal customers to introduce your brand to their family and friends, boosting sales. Facilitate this process with referral links or unique codes. Invest in Customer Reviews Remember that shoppers look for brands they can trust. Product reviews play a significant role in purchasing decisions. Promote customer reviews to influence potential buyers and build trust in your brand.

Dec 29, 2022 1019 reads

How to Build a Successful Brand Community

Are you looking for ways to have better and stronger communication with your audience? If so, you’re on the right track, because building a brand community will certainly carry your customer relationships to a different level.Brand communities can be described as a place where your most loyal customers are branded together. They feel lucky to be involved as they find like-minded people in a community.This useful guide here is to help you better understand what a brand community is, why it would be important for your company, and how it should be created.So, let’s quickly roll to the important part!What is a brand community?A brand community can be described as a group of people who not only falls under the "customer" expression but those who feel an emotional connection with the brand.People who buy from your company, also love to see your content, influence others with it, and frequently engage with are the keystones of your brand community.But be careful with one thing that is often misleading: Having a brand community doesn't have to do with increasing brand awareness.While brand awareness stands for people who have purchased from your company or at least know about the company, the brand community represents people who enjoy almost anything about your brand.Why should you create a brand community?Really, why shouldn’t you? It is a very easy and strong way to have a bridge between your brand and your most loyal customers.Having a brand community created you can test your brand’s new features and products, collect feedback, and generally improve your brand in light of your regular customers’ reviews, which will make you have customer-driven decisions for your brand.You should also know that your brand community probably already exists somewhere on social media. What you need to do is to find the community, connect with it and build a strategy to keep it going and growing.Sounds appealing, right? Then let’s move on to the how-to part.How to build a successful brand community?Now that you are aware of your people’s existence, it’s time to reach and bring them together, and give them a familiar feeling that will make them feel belong.There is not only one approach to creating a strong and successful brand community, there are many various ways to achieve that.Let’s go through a few essential steps, so you can decide which brand community is right for you.1. Describe your brandFor starters, you should make sure you know what your brand is, which goes above and beyond your brand’s offers and sells.Your company’s objective, vision, personality, and brand voice all matter here.What does your brand want to be known for, what is it trying to do and why, and who does it want to influence?Setting on these crucial details will make you promote your brand’s core values, and attract the target audience.2. Set your goal and metricsAs we mentioned above, brand communities have the advantage of giving you a way to base choices on client feedback, and many more. But you should take some time to ask yourself some questions before starting a brand community.Questions like these might point you in the correct direction as you create a strategy for your brand community. Are we assisting people with questions related to our product or their professions?What are the metrics we want to track?Which purpose will the brand community mainly serve?What are we / will be doing for our community members to keep them engaged?Once you determine the answers to these questions and set your goals and metrics, you can move on to the next steps.3. Choose a platformThere are some different platforms you can choose to use to engage with your brand community. First, consider the pros and cons, the native behaviors, and activities to choose from, then use either one or a few of them that will work the best for your audience and the brand itself.Social Media We can't think of a brand without social media usage. Social media is a trendy and easy option to use for creating your brand community. In creating a brand community in social media channels, you can either create an account/page for your community to follow and stay engaged, or you can create a private group where your loyal customers can join and stay connected.An example of using social media to create a brand community can be Ring Concierge.The jewelry retailer’s Instagram page, which is run by the owner of the brand herself, has more than 500,000 followers.She uses their Instagram page transparently and frequently gets in touch with their customers through interactive stories where she holds Q&As and finds out their audience’s opinions on potential new products.Communities can be built by a simple brand hashtag, which adds credibility and user-generated content to the feed page.And another way to use social media for building a brand community is through social media groups where your customers can join and interact with each other and your brand.Instant Pot, an electric multi-cooker manufacturer has a Facebook group with over 5 million member, which creates an international space for their customers to share unique recipes, ask questions, and share the joy of cooking using their products.They also offer trouble-shooting in case any of their customers face an issue or have product- related questions, and occasionally hold giveaways for their members within the group.ForumsAlthough they sound a little outdated, forums are still great for larger communities to discuss products and interests.EA's (Electronic Arts) forums can be a good example of this. The company that has published a wide amount of video games to this date has managed to gather its customers into one community, and it works perfectly for them.Not only it allows people to discuss the games they are playing, find solutions, and even talk about shared interests, but it also benefits EA in ways.Thanks to their forums, EA can easily learn about the problems with their products, keep the thrill of their games going and reach out to gamers for announcements. They can also find out what their customers would like to see in EA's future games and make customer-driven decisions.Third-party community platformsMany brands have used third-party community platforms to lay their brand communities on, and been able to connect with their customers directly.Platforms such as Slack, Mobilizer, and Discord allow you to create various channels and threads for your community members where they can check out and interact with others.Gucci, for example, has created their own Discord server named “GucciVault” as a part of their NFT strategy, where they could directly get in touch with their customers and allow them to talk about NFT-related topics.The luxury clothing brand had offered special roles and perks for its first 20,000 members, and it took less than two days to hit the mark.Loyalty programsAnother way to develop your brand community is to create a rewarding membership program for your most loyal customers.An example of a rewards program that works on a give-back or referrals basis is Starbucks, which gives regular customer perks.Members using the Starbucks app earn Stars that add up on each order and return as perks such as free drinks or shots.As well as on orders, members also earn Stars through referring the app to their friends which in return ends up bringing more members and building a bigger and better community.4. Engage with your brand communityNow that you've finished creating your brand community, all you need to do is to keep going with engaging with your community.Responding quickly and caring about their opinions by creating conversations and discussions will keep them engaged with your brand.In short, give your community a reason to stay connected as it grows bigger and bigger!

Sep 3, 2022 1036 reads

2022 UI Design Trends

2021 was a year full of innovations for the design world in many respects. With the emergence of the Metaverse, we began to see significant shifts in trends. In 2022, where very different topics have arisen under UI design trends, user interface design and user experience continue to offer new experiences. As experiences evolve with digital, questions like “what is UI, what is UX, and what is the difference between UI and UX” have entered our vocabulary. Briefly, UI stands for User Interface—the entirety of designs that make it comfortable for the user to spend time on an interface. UX stands for User Experience—designing the interface to be easier, more effective, and more comfortable to use. Thus, both UI design and UX design progress in the same plane to deliver a comfortable experience. Every year, there are evolving and changing topics for all these experiences. Let’s take a look at the graphic design movements that were frequently seen throughout 2022 and will continue to emerge.Minimalism and SimplificationWe’ve known the minimalist approach for a long time, and in 2022—just like in 2021—we continue to see it frequently in designs. Minimalism appears not only in design but in all areas of life, even as a lifestyle. The community of “people who are minimizing/simplifying their lives,” increasingly popular lately, keeps growing. To closely examine how major technology companies embrace minimalism, we can look at the interfaces of brands like Apple, Meta, and Oculus. This trend, with its clean designs and floating elements, grows year after year and maintains its place among UI trends.BrutalismIn contrast to the heavy gradients and cute 3D objects and shadows we frequently see, brutalism maintains its simplicity and clarity. Brutalism lays reality bare with its sharp outlines, bold typography, flat design, and contrasting colors. This movement often features delicate details, crisp visuals, and distinctive typefaces. We’ll continue to see it, especially after its appearance in Spotify Wrapped.NFT and Democratic ArtOften difficult for people to understand, NFTs have stormed into our lives and driven us into a frenzy. Now we can sell our digital creations and earn money. This movement—where anything can be art and everyone can participate—has no boundaries. In a movement that combines many topics we’ve frequently heard in 2022 UI trends, the creator decides what counts as art. NFT and democratic art will continue to grow in user experience designs.Claymorphism in 3D3D as we know it is evolving. This simplified version is called Claymorphism. Claymorphism’s heavy light-and-shadow effects, vibrant color transitions, and soft tactile feel immerse us in true virtuality. This trend has begun appearing frequently in mobile app UI designs. Technology companies widely use it in both mobile and web interfaces, creating a “playful” vibe that meshes seamlessly with technology. Many game companies have also embraced this trend, which will continue to shape game UI design.Wild TypographyHistorically, designers aimed for “sequential consistency, absolute order, and fixed dynamism” in typography. Now, we can decorate text any way we want—tilt, stretch, slice, fragment, even swap letters with emojis. Yet we must always keep the user’s readability and comfort in mind. Wild typography, as its name suggests, favors sharp layouts and is often chosen for bold statements. It’s firmly established itself in the UI and UX world. Game studios in particular are using this style, and it shows no signs of fading.Eco-Friendly “Cardboard” StyleAs environmental awareness rises, we gravitate toward everything recyclable. This “recyclability” trend has cemented its place among UI trends. In user interface designs, gray backgrounds—evoking cardboard—and cold, muted palettes dominate, while lively 3D objects are absent in favor of a natural aesthetic. This trend highlights real life and naturalness, offering users a delightful experience in UI and UX contexts.HolographyOnce criticized for being jarring, over-the-top holographic patterns continue to thrive in 2022 design trends. This style meshes perfectly with the metaverse, holograms, and VR worlds, boosting creativity to the max. Neon gradients and bright shapes define it, making it eye-catching and futuristic. The crypto world also widely adopts holography. In UI design, it remains a powerful way to captivate users. It’s especially prevalent in gaming, where vibrant lights, reflections, and luminous visuals enhance the dreamlike quality.Aura BackgroundsThis background style uses soft brush strokes behind focal elements in gradient hues. It conveys the floating, color-rich emptiness of virtual spaces. Soft brushes, gentle colors, and subtle blur suffice to evoke this effect. We’ll see even more of these aura backgrounds across industries, as the trend continues to grow.Glassmorphism and Glass-Inspired ElementsGlassmorphism draws from real-world glass objects, giving a blurred, semi-transparent feel. Background blur, translucent elements, and gentle color blends create a captivating flow. Banks, games, and financial apps often rely on this style. Its polished, immersive look endures in many digital experiences.

Sep 3, 2022 1088 reads

The Key to Personalizing your Content: Persona Building for Digital Marketing

If you’ve ever wondered how classical marketing has evolved over the years into personalized marketing, this blog post right here presents one of the building blocks of the matter. The digital age presents us with a constantly evolving environment when it comes to marketing practices. When some brands are flexible and agile with keeping up with these evolvements, some are having a much harder time adapting. Our deep dive will begin by explaining how classical marketing is evolving into personalized marketing, and continue by explaining the importance of building spot-on personas that align with our key performance indicators. Classical Marketing vs. Personalized Marketing We’ve been observing different ways of managing masses ever since the 1928 release of Edward Bernays’ Propaganda studies, which goes into detail of how people can be manipulated into taking action around a common goal. It is safe to say that the classical understanding of marketing formed around this idea, way before the concept of digital. Before, products were presented by creating a hype around them, a hype that assures that individuals are missing out on something by not owning them. However, in modern society, when there are innumerable products and services, is there really one type of hype that motivates all individuals? This is exactly when personalized marketing comes into play. Individuals that are motivated by the exact same needs do not exist in modern society anymore. Sure, there are some commonalities between different individual needs, but there are many varieties that did not exist beforehand. Whether you are a world famous, well-routed brand or a beginner, this is one fact that applies to all: We must acknowledge the existence of not one but multiple different target audiences that our brand can attract. Later on, we must find the common purchasing motivations within these audiences and form our ad creatives accordingly. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What is a Persona? A persona is basically a fictional character that we create in marketing studies in order to get to know our target audiences. Personas’ characters are defined by their characteristics via demographic details along with their interests, behaviors, motivations, fears and goals. These characteristics should align with our brand’s value proposition and be identified accordingly. Creating personas can be interpreted as designing interactions with our audiences. With our personal interactions, as we understand what someone is motivated by, we shift the way we talk to them. It is a very similar case for a brand. As a brand, we have an established tone of voice and we shift our messages according to the wants and needs of our personas. Now that we know the “what” of personas let’s move onto the “how” we create them. How to create personas for marketing operations We’ve established that personas are fictional characters that are formed to represent certain percentages of a population. However, we must not rely on our imagination while creating them. Characteristics of a persona should be defined according to research and/or data gathering processes. If you are a rooted brand that is already engaged in digital operations, the best thing to do would be to analyze your existing customers and group them under certain criteria. This part may sound like classical CRM methodologies and we cannot say that they are totally unrelated. The real challenge is for new brands or brands who wish to reach a completely different audience profile than the ones that existed beforehand. The first thing we need to do is market research. As any source on marketing will tell you, knowing your audience is the key. However, the research should not stay limited to the people who are most likely to use our products. If our product is a rather expensive one, we can assume that it will be more desirable for people with higher income. But is that all? Aren’t there moments in other people’s lives where they save up intensely in order to become an owner of our product? The answer is yes. Therefore, our biggest challenge would be to determine these moments for our audience and choose where we will catch their attention. That is why, when creating personas for marketing operations, aspects such as motivations, fears and interests are much more relevant and important than generic demographic segmentations. In order to presume our audience’s moments of intent, we need to be looking into their other habits so that we can decide on what part of their life journey our products or services would fit the most. If you wish to dig into this way of thinking more, you can start by researching what an empathy map is, but that is not what we are mapping out today. How we get to know our audience is done through data gatheration. Whether the data comes from website cookies or general publicly available research findings, we need to make sure that our presumptions about our audience is as accurate as can be. Not sure where to start? Well, there is always Google Trends which shows the related searches your audience is more likely to make if they show an interest in what you offer. There are websites such as Statista that publish research reports and give you a wider understanding of your audience’s habits. Keyword Planner is also a crucial source as it offers related search terms that might be outside of our scope when trying to understand our audience’s behavior. When you think you have different enough characteristics to compile under different personas, start creating the structure. If some personas have a lot more motivations or fears than others, perhaps they can still be divided into different personas. If they have less motivations or fears than others, perhaps there isn’t much need for taking them into account separately. After your personas are done, start building your creative structure accordingly. How to create personalized communication for different personas Now that we have decided on our personas, it’s time to decide how we communicate with them. Since we know that all of our personas are differentiated with their motivations, we need to come up with different visual assets and texts that will feed into their motivations the most while reviewing our brand. Do we use video assets or static ones? Do we ask intriguing questions to our audience or do we simply state how awesome we are? The answers all depend on how we’ve built our personas and how we think we can best catch their attention. Let’s talk about Spotify for a moment. They provide the ability to stream music, and everyone likes music right? Then why does Spotify use different ad creatives? Well, it has several different premium packages that apply to different types of people. Everyone listens to music, but not everyone’s motivations for listening to music are the same. Even our own motivations may differ during the day! That’s why it is crucial for us to see different ad visuals that will attract different kinds of emotions and users. Taking a look at some of these visuals, it is possible for us to compile them under 4 different motivations to use Spotify. The first image reflects capacity, which implies that it is an all-in-one platform for your music needs and you will most likely find what you are looking for in there. The second image talks about finding your own beat, which emphasizes your individual music taste, and no matter how typical or edgy you are, you have a place within Spotify! The third image talks about finding your own rhythm, which suggests that no matter how your mood can vary throughout the day, Spotify has got the song to match your level of emotion. The last image focuses on the price aspect of Spotify, which does not apply to a more particular need than financial benefits. Depending on our mood, all of these visuals may have an effect on us at some point. Regardless, they are likely going to hit all their potential users in the right spot for choosing different benefits to talk about all at once. It is important to note that there is prejudice when it comes to personalized marketing, and it is believed that it is the costlier way to go. While that may be true in some cases, spending a large budget on a standard mass audience does not allow you to test out what you are doing right. Although mass targeting is a viable option for the awareness stage of the marketing funnel, we still need to understand what makes the funnel go more and more narrow.

Sep 3, 2022 1178 reads

Top 10 Things to do to Improve your Brand’s Social Media Presence

It is a well known fact that social media presence is one of the pillars of the digital marketing activities of a brand. However, are we using it correctly? When there are so many social media channels to choose from, are we getting lost in the mess when it comes to strategizing or are we simply trying to exist in the most popular ones? Granted, one might even argue that there is content pollution on social media. In a world where each and every individual has something to say, how can brands speak louder? With Gen-Z dynamically dominating their online presence through their selectiveness and creativity in creating content, brands sure have hardships to face. Here are 10 things to do to improve your brand’s social media presence. Remember, these 10 factors can be considered as a form of investment. You need time to acquire the desired results! 1) Channel Selection Not that it should come as a surprise but your brand does not need to have an account on every social media platform. Selecting a channel determines where you as a brand will invest all of your efforts into content creation, so the effort should be worth it. First, determine the visual standing of your brand. Is it image oriented? Does it have more of an illustrative approach? Are you blessed with video assets? How applicable is your brand for aesthetic content creation? If you are a clothing brand for example, Instagram appears to be a must. However, that does not mean you should be overlooking Pinterest as Pinterest SEO is also crucial in reaching your target audience. Make sure you know your target audience and determine which platforms they exist in. Even if you are a well established brand with one high functioning social media account, you might question the need for existence on other social media platforms that are not doing as well. 2) Content Mix According to the purpose of your brand, it is not a wrong move to exist on multiple social media channels. However, it is wrong to post the exact same content on each medium. Every channel has its own algorithm and not producing content in accordance with that may waste efforts in making the channel beneficial to your brand. Therefore, each brand should create a content mix for each related channel that they hope to exist in. Preparing a content mix is no more than simply deciding what kind of content is going to be shared on each channel. For example, an event agency may prefer to announce their events on Meta, post event pictures on Instagram and promote the events via TikTok live streaming. The purposes of these channels can of course be interchangeable according to the interactions they gain on each medium. 3) Post Frequency The one thing that is common for all social media algorithms is that it boosts accounts that are higher in their frequency of posting. In summary, the more you post, the more people see your brand. This is one thing that is easier said than done of course, since content creation for brands requires care and construction. For each platform, there is a recommended frequency of posting. For channels such as Pinterest, this is much less complicated. However, for multi-purpose share channels such as Instagram, the frequency of stories, Reels and regular static posts all contribute differently to how much the algorithm will support your account. Contradictory to popular belief, there is not a fixed formula when it comes to frequency. However, if you are posting one static post and one story from your brand’s Instagram account each day, expecting high organic impressions is not very realistic. 4) Active Follower Times One of the things that brands want to know about the most is when to post content on social media. There is not an exact formula for this particular topic either! The best thing to do here is to check out the analytics of the given social media platform and find out the active times of your followers. The channels determine a time gap for when your followers are most active, and that is when you should post. If you are a motivational account, you might find that your followers are most likely to engage with your content in the morning, as a kickstarter for the day. If you are again a clothing brand, you might find your account to be the last thing your followers check before going to bed. Of course the situation can be vice-versa just as well. If you are just starting off your account and do not have a fixed follower base, you can play around with different sharing times to see which one brings you the most interaction until your analytics has gathered enough of a base to make sensible remarks. 5) User Interaction Another thing that social media algorithms look for is user interaction. The likes, comments, shares, saves and overall engagement you receive on your posts are very crucial in determining how successful your brand is on social media. The more engagement you get, the more the algorithm will push your content to others. This is why calls to action are very important in your captions. Asking your followers questions, starting conversations in the comments, or encouraging them to share your content will boost engagement and improve visibility. 6) Influencer Collaborations Collaborating with influencers who share the same target audience as your brand can be highly beneficial. Influencers already have an established base of loyal followers, and with their help, you can increase your reach, gain credibility, and drive traffic to your brand’s account. Micro-influencers, in particular, can be especially effective because of their close relationships with their followers and higher engagement rates. 7) Consistency in Branding Your social media accounts should reflect the same branding elements as your website and other marketing materials. This includes your logo, brand colors, tone of voice, and overall message. Consistency helps create brand recognition and trust among your audience. If your posts are visually and contextually coherent, followers are more likely to remember and engage with your brand. 8) Use of Analytics Social media platforms provide powerful analytics tools that help you understand how your content is performing. Monitoring key metrics such as reach, impressions, engagement, click-through rates, and follower growth allows you to identify what works best for your brand. Based on these insights, you can adapt your strategy, optimize your content, and allocate resources more effectively. 9) Paid Promotions While organic growth is important, paid promotions can significantly accelerate your brand’s visibility. Running targeted ads on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok ensures your content reaches the right audience. You can set demographic, geographic, and interest-based targeting to maximize your return on investment. A balanced strategy of organic and paid reach can give your brand the boost it needs. 10) Staying Updated Social media is an ever-changing landscape. New features, algorithms, and trends are constantly being introduced. Brands that adapt quickly and make use of these updates are more likely to succeed. Whether it’s adopting new formats like Reels, trying out trending sounds on TikTok, or making use of new ad tools, staying updated ensures your brand remains relevant and competitive in the digital space.

Sep 3, 2022 62141 reads

What is User Generated Content (UGC) in 6 Questions?

1) What is User Generated Content (UGC)?User Generated Content is the content generated by various creative fictions with the direction of brands or services in line with the marketing strategies of the brand.How to use User Generated Content (UGC)?UGC is a type of content that attracts more attention because it feels more natural and sincere than content produced by brands. Therefore, brands often want to produce this type of content. From a broad perspective, user generated content has influence on both the brand and the user who created the content. While brands promote themselves naturally without requiring an extra budget, the user who creates the content has the chance to increase his or her audience when he shares the brand content on his own account. Thus, a structure that contributes significantly to both sides with a win-win strategy.2) User Generated Content with Statistical DataAccording to We Are Social Digital's 2021 report, there are 4.2 billion social media users in the world. This represents 59% of the world's population. 72% of brands say that user-generated content is helpful when connecting with their customers and increases customers' trust in the brand. 87% of brands use User Generated Content (UGC) when sharing their own content. The reason for this is that the reliability of advertisements decreases on the user's side, and they give more importance to the experience.According to The 2021 User-Generated Content Report, 90% of consumers think user generated contents are useful. Therefore, brands that want to get interaction and increase the trust of users prefer User Generated Content. On the other hand, the fact that it is much more cost-effective than professionally created content is one of the biggest factors that lead brands to this strategy. Overall, at least 8 out of 10 users say that UGC made a product they've never heard of indicates brand quality and positively influences their purchasing decision.More than 90% of consumers are impressed by positive reviews when shopping for a product or service. 64% of consumers look for reviews and comments about products or services on various social media channels before purchasing and then make a decision. This situation actually expresses how much users affect each other.93% of brands says that they have gained a new customer through videos on social media. On average, user-created videos about a brand for products or services (unboxing, product review videos, etc.) are watched 10 times more than official brand videos on YouTube. So user-generated videos often result in higher view rates.How Was "User Generated Content" Used in Covid-19?Especially due to the pandemic that the world has been in for the last 2 years, the relations between brands and consumers have completely changed. Prolonged quarantines and curfews can be used for brochures, billboards, public transport advertising, etc. disrupted traditional marketing strategies. In order to adapt to the new conditions brought by the pandemic, brands have changed their marketing strategies and focused more on digital marketing.In these difficult times when shopping malls are closed and social distance is the most important rule of our daily lives, User Generated Content has been one of the most effective choices for both parties, which is an alternative for both consumers who do not have the chance to physically experience the products and brands looking for a successful marketing strategy in this period. 3) User Generated Content ExamplesAccording to the data in the “Global Overview Report” published jointly by We Are Social and Hootsuite, users browse social media for an average of 2.5 hours daily from all devices. Therefore, it is possible to come across user-generated content frequently in our daily lives. User Generated Content example is when your friend tweets about a new product they have tried, or when they go to a hotel, they share their room and environment in their story by stating the name of the hotel. In such cases, user generated ads come to the fore.Global brands like Apple, Netflix, Starbucks are increasingly running User Generated Content social media campaigns to market their products to ensure the effectiveness of their campaigns.Coca ColaWhen Coca-Cola wrote the 150 most popular names on its products, it was in great demand around the world.  Everyone shared when they found their name on the Coca Cola bottles and there was generally a good response. People started to share Coca Cola constantly on social media. The Share Coke campaign has become popular in more than 80 countries around the world.AppleAnother successful example is Apple's #ShotOnIphone campaign. When Apple realized that users were not satisfied with low-light photos on iPhones, it launched this campaign to restore confidence in the iPhone's camera. The theme of his campaign was for iPhone users to take photos in low light and post them on social media. He combined the collected photos and videos with the most beautiful content shared on Youtube under the title "Shot on iPhone". Thus, it both regained brand trust and increased the bond between users. Currently, there are 22,339,418 posts on Instagram with the hashtag #ShotOnIphone**.**Netflix"Stranger Things" , which is one of the most popular series on Netflix, attracted great attention with its first season. Before the second season launched, they made a promotion aiming to create User Generated Content based on the name of the series.With the hashtag #StrangerThings2, they encouraged users to share weird things around. Thousands of people have shared strange photos, foreign objects with the hashtag #StrangerThings2. Thus, the interaction with the Netflix account has also increased. Netflix captured approximately 1 million viewers in 2 weeks. After the success of this campaign, Netflix continued to produce UGC with creative contents.DimesThe Turkish beverage brand Dimes created a communications strategy by using Tik Tok, a social media channel that appeals to its target audience, to promote its new products Milkshake and Smoothie. First, they shot a clip with the singer Aleyna Tilki, known and loved by young people in Turkey. In the clip, he said “choose your team” and asked users “who are you in this duel?” He asked the question and invited him to produce content.Agreeing with Tik Tok influencer, Dimes made a choice between Smoothie and Milkshake by making the influencer with ticked accounts dance in a certain choreography. Then they expected other Tik Tok users to do these dances. This strategy, which was carried out on both the offline and online sides, resulted in success.MigrosMigros, which is one of the supermarket chains in Turkey, is a strong example that can be given to user-generated content on Tik Tok with its "Department Wars Challenge" project. Groups of Tik Tok influencers prepared special dance choreographies in front of Migros aisles. He encouraged followers of Tik Tok influencers to like these posts and follow Migros. At the end of the competition, the followers of the best dancing group were given a Money gift worth 15,000 Turkish lira. Migros gained 130 thousand followers 48 hours after this project started. At the same time, it became one of the world record-breaking brands with 6.7 million comments and 74% interaction.4) What are the Benefits of User Generated Content?Consumers are 2.4 times more likely to view user-generated content as real compared to brand-created content. Therefore, there is the potential to reach more people by getting more interaction from collaborative ads.Regardless of the product or service, consumers want to obtain detailed information about the product or service before purchasing. The comments of the person who has experienced this product or service before are of great importance to them. 92% of consumers trust recommendations from their acquaintances and 70% trust online consumer opinions. Once the brand builds trust for the consumer, everything becomes easier and they can get many user generated content benefits.There is no doubt  that user-generated content has a great impact on the purchasing decision process. Users who see the content shared by people they know make a quick introduction to the purchasing decision process, even if they do not need the shared product or service. Nearly 80 percent of people say user-generated content has a high impact on their purchasing decisions.5) Should Brands Get Permission from Users Before Sharing Their Content?The brand should always ask the users before sharing them from their own account. Regardless of story, post or reels, sharing should be done with the consent of the users. In such content, where brand loyalty is important, user approval is important in order not to hurt the brand identity. 84% of users care about being valued rather than financial gain while doing business. Therefore, sharing user content with permission by brands will make them feel both valuable and part of the brand.6) What to Consider When Encouraging UGC Creation?Brands should know their brand identity and they should choose a social media platform that fits their target group and interests. Generally, brands prefer to progress through instagram. However, TikTok, which has been growing at full speed recently, is also an ideal platform for such content if it fits their target audience.At this stage, the brand should know its target audience well and proceed with a strategy that will not contradict brand awareness. It should not be considered on which channel the brand is more active, but on which channel users want to interact with the brand more.Before creating user generated content, it is important to set specific goals and prepare a road map.Half of the consumers have expectations of guidance when they create content. Therefore, brands need to clearly express what kind of content they expect in order to receive good feedback. Proceeding with the contents (campaign hashtags, social media contests) will be more descriptive for users.According to research, 48% of consumers will have tried or interacted in some way with virtual reality before the end of 2021. For this reason, the development of technologies that will provide users with virtual experiences continues. User Generated Content continues to be one of the most effective marketing tools ever created within digital marketing. Now, every brand that wants to increase brand awareness and brand loyalty uses this strategy. Contributing to the digitalization and e-commerce volume increased by the pandemic and presenting original and useful content becomes much more effective with User Generated Content.