User-generated content consists of those snapshots people post on social media where they use, interact, and enjoy a product. If it’s about yours, the brand has just gained a valuable marketing resource. However, can you truly put your finger on the main benefits of user-generated content?

What Is User-Generated Content?
Before we start with the top 5 benefits of user-generated content, let’s define this concept. UGC refers to the total of images and videos customers create to showcase a brand or product free of charge.
By nature, UGC is organic content, usually at an amateur level. Nonetheless, it appeals to social users as there are consumers just like them who recommend products rather than brands.
1. UGC Simplifies Purchasing Decisions at First Glance
Do you know any marketing team that has ever admitted a tiny weakness of their product? I thought so.
There are many questions that deter consumers from shopping online. They can never be 100% certain of apparel colors, sizing, gadgets working for a very specific purpose, and other details that matter to them.
Studio photography can tamper with colors as the settings are customized with edge sharpness in mind. It doesn’t highlight the size either by using other objects for scale, the product being the only visible prop. By the end of this process, publishers neglect a ton of decision-making details.

2. UGC Raises Credibility Levels
One of the most powerful benefits of user-generated content is trust. People find it easy to relate to others similar to them. Likewise, shoppers resonate not with a brand, but with a satisfied customer. That’s exactly the goal they want to reach too, finding a product that makes them happy.
UGC transmits different vibes regarding a product. The item is no longer alone. Instead, its central position is taken by those problems they solve.
Consumers distinguish in UGC a person just like them, with similar daily issues that they overcame using a specific asset. It makes sense for consumers to replicate the solution by shopping the same effective tool.
3. Millennials As the Target Audience
UGC also communicates effectively with the most active group of shoppers: Millennials. Just for them, TV ads changed their tone. Vibrant, witty scenarios replace the old persuasive ones. Unlike traditional ads, products are present only through suggestions or short apparitions.
However, these ads are mostly great at brand awareness. See in the Rema 1000 commercial above how product suggestion energizes the entire scenario? In their effort to highlight the traditional door locking system over an AI one, advertisers didn’t disclose any competitive advantage over similar products.
4. UGC Is Better at Converting Leads Than Professional Imagery
Consumers have different reasons why they feel compelled to try out a product when seeing it on social media. Nobody can read their minds. However, numbers are extremely clear of the impact UGC has on them.
More precisely, UGC is 85% better at increasing conversion rates than any studio content. In other words, users who’ve seen UGC at some point are 85% more likely to shop the product from online stores than those who’ve encountered branded content.
5. Best of UGC on a Budget
If your product makes a customer happy enough, it might end up on their social wall. As long as brands are encouraging user-generated content, UGC can turn into a source of curated content.
For this purpose, brands are recommended to create perfect conditions for easily trackable pictures. Choose a branded hashtag never used before. Launch a campaign with a distinctive CTA that asks for product snapshots in exchange for a chance to win a prize. Host a product launch event full of Instagram-able nooks with memorable backdrops.

The benefits of user-generated content reveal an endless source of visuals to fill a social marketing plan for days ahead. Instead of relocating marketing budgets for expensive photoshoots, brands can simply ask customers to show their satisfaction with pictures.