Using a Visual Marketing Platform to Enhance User-Generated Content

Visual content is king. What's even more “king” than visual content posted across your print and digital marketing channels? Having a visual marketing platform that discovers top-quality, trendy, and captivating user-generated content (“UGC”). 

UGC, in the world of visual content, can be in the form of static images and videos posted by your customers. The ultimate goal is to repurpose UGC across your own marketing channels to achieve qualified website traffic, increased interest, and a rise in purchases: a domino effect, all leading to an uptick in revenue!

However, what is a visual marketing platform? SnapSea defines it as “An automated software platform that enables organisations to discover visuals that meet their specific needs—all powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence.” 

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Consider the example of a small jewellery brand. They currently scroll through their social media channels to see which of their previous customers tagged them in a post or caption.

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Sounds time-consuming, don't you think? An automated visual marketing platform would seamlessly complete this task for the jewellery brand. With these algorithms, user-generated content that matches their chosen hashtags, keywords, and locations are identified so that the brand is always presented with the most relevant visuals.

How can a visual marketing platform find you high-value UGC?

First, let’s define high-value UGC:

• Non-pixelated
• Quickly conveys your message 
• Highlights an essential attribute of your brand i.e. luxury, affordability, sustainability 
• Appeals to human emotions 
• Minimal text incorporated within the visual (if any)
  
  

Now that you know what comprises a high-value visual, let’s look at how a visual marketing platform can enhance your UGC.

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Leverages the largest social networks

95 million photos and videos are posted to both Instagram and Facebook per day. Of course, not all of that UGC is relevant to your brand. Still, you can imagine how important it is to use a visual marketing platform that consistently monitors these platforms to find you the “latest and greatest” visuals.

With the vast amount of images and videos being posted to these two social networks per day, one element that will never run short is variety. Visual marketing platforms will discover and connect you with a variety of user-generated content based on the custom keywords, hashtags, and locations you choose.

Take the hashtag #kenttravel, for example. Visit Kent, who was recently crowned the title 3rd best region to travel in 2022 by Lonely Planet, chose this hashtag—as one of many—in their custom-selection process (after selecting an automated visual marketing platform). All of these hashtags presented Visit Kent with a dashboard of unique visuals shot by previous travellers who explored and captured this english county.

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Finds relevant content

Timing is everything. A billboard ad for a bottled Sangria cocktail in January would not make much sense if you live in a country where the average temperature is below zero during the winter. You will be glad to know that a visual marketing platform does the opposite, always finding your organisation content that matches the time of year. 

If you are a destination marketing organisation, don’t miss out on sharing any significant events or festivals that are happening in your region at that exact time. Find content that is relevant, compelling, and most importantly, matches the current conditions outside.

Automates the approval process

Now that you have a solid understanding of how these intelligent and sophisticated visual platforms work, one last key feature worth noting is their ability to automate the approval process.

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Regardless of whether you are using an AI-powered tool or conducting the process manually, it is legally required that you must reach out to the original creator of the content to be granted permission. Only once you get the go-ahead are you able to repurpose these visuals for your own marketing channels. 

In light of this legal obligation, routinely direct messaging content creators to ask for their permission can be extremely tedious. Visual marketing platforms have the capability to automate this step for you. After the platform has discovered a photo or video that you are pleased with, the next step of sending a message to the original creator can be accomplished by selecting from a dropdown of precomposed messages. Often, these messages are drafted by your team beforehand and then stored in the platform for future use.

SnapSea’s AI-powered platform leverages all the above capabilities to provide your organisation with powerful user-generated content. Why not leverage the visuals your previous customers are posting and share these across your own marketing channels to attract a new stream of customers? 

This concept is easier than a simple math equation and one you don't want to sleep on!

Want to get started with an automated visual marketing platform today? Head back to SnapSea or give us a follow on LinkedIn.