As an e-commerce agency with monthly retainer clients, the most difficult task is pumping different and creative content on a month-to-month basis.

Not only is it extremely expensive, time and energy-consuming to plan professional shoots every month, but the content becomes redundant and deja vu. 

So, we started thinking of different alternatives that have a high turnover rate, and a real informative, authentic, and creative impact. 

Most importantly, we wanted something that converts into sales, and resonates with consumers. 

As you may know, the internet has a lot of misleading offers online, as well many fake influencers promoting low-quality white-labeled products.

Luckily, we found a solution that changed our entire business model and let us launch Kitschy the Agency’s sister company, UGC SHOP.

In this blog post, we will be talking about the difference between traditional content and user-generated content. However, before going into details, it is important to define the terms mentioned above.

On one hand, traditional content is the typical branded content that you usually see. It ranges from text, to videos, graphics, photos, and reports, and is mainly created by an in-house team or an advertising agency that works hard and long to accomplish this task.

On the other hand, UGC is any form of content—text, posts, images, videos, reviews, etc.— that is created by content creators (not brands) and is published to an online or social network.

How do they differ?

There is no doubt that both types of content are special in their own ways. However, UGC has been on the rise for quite a while now, and has proven to be the future of the marketing world.

Why?

• UGC is less costly

Traditional content is almost always much more expensive due to the production costs that come with it; from renting out studios, to hiring professional staff such as photographers, models, copywriters and art directors, one can affirm that UGC is the right way to do it, for even if it is organically sourced or produced intentionally with content creators, it would definitely involve less money and energy.

• UGC provides you with more content and variety

Brands usually focus on testing out their content, which means they need LOTS of it.

For this reason, it is much easier to create and scale UGC compared to traditional content, as one product demonstration video can be turned into a video ad, and multiple unboxing videos can be turned into a single ad or combined. 

Moreover, you’ll be stunned by the ideas you will discover from UGC without having to put in the extra long hours. 

Here are some quick examples of the various ad types you can create with UGC:

• Brand introduction
• Unboxing video
• Product demonstration
• Product review
• Selfie with product
• Lifestyle shots

•  UGC increases ROAS

When it comes to Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), you have to study the impact of your content.

No wonder 86% of companies are currently including different types of UGC in their marketing strategy, because not only does it work, but it drives better results than ads using traditional content.

This clearly shows how user-generated content is much more authentic, genuine and relatable, which definitely has more impact on the user compared to traditional content.

In short, both traditional content and UGC have their advantages. Nevertheless,  you don’t want to miss out on potential revenue only because you have decided to stick to creating traditional content.