IGC vs UGC

Influencer-Generated Content vs. User-Generated Content

IGC and UGC are part of content marketing, which is the creation and distribution of relevant, helpful material for current and potential consumers in the form of videos,  blogs, newsletters, white papers, social media posts, emails, and similar formats. When done well, this content shows competence and makes it evident that a business values the customers it serves.

IGC vs UGC

What is IGC?

IGC is content such as social media posts that a paid influencer makes that specifically refers to your product or service. The strategic reputation management of the brand is essentially extended through influencers.

Top advantages of IGC:

• Your brand will always be reflected in the content.
• It will always be top-notch content.
• You can post content strategically. For instance, after a new product launch.

Top disadvantages of IGC:

• Can cost a lot of money.
• There is an increasing perception of insincerity, now that consumers are aware that all influencer promotions are compensated. 

What is UGC?

User-generated content is content posted by customers where they describe their experience with your product or service. They are generally happy clients. Of course, the main disadvantage is that brands have no control over the content's quality or how well it "fits" with the messaging they're attempting to promote.

Top advantages of UGC:

• UGC turns happy clients into fans.
• Over 60% of customers say UGC is more authentic.
• UGC is free or very inexpensive.

Top disadvantages of UGC:

• You can’t control the quality of the content.
• Often the quality of the content is pretty low.
• Even satisfied clients' best intentions can be ruined by images that make your goods look ugly or don't fit your brand image.

UGC creation is certainly more challenging than IGC. You can't expect your customers to reply as quickly or enthusiastically as a hired influencer will because you're asking them to do you a favor.

Why should you use UGC or IGC in your strategy?

Customers love to see other people’s opinions when buying a product or service. So, content generated by other people like UGC or IGC is necessary to stay on the market these days.

• Consumer behavior has changed, and consumers now demand authentic-feeling material that instantly engages them, adds value, and is conveniently inserted into the social feeds where they spend their time.

• The ultimate goal that the top brands actually pursue—their consumers' honest satisfaction and enhanced quality of life—is reinforced by IGC and UGC. They merely want that to be accomplished by their product.

• Brands now need to repair their damaged consumer trust connections.

Both IGC and UGC are still relevant in marketing in 2022. They share a lot of similarities.

They offer your brand the possibility to reconnect with your customers. Whether it is IGC or UGC, your strategy should include this type of advertising in your business’s portfolio.

But…!

What if we told you that we came up with a way to keep the advantages of both IGC and UGC and get rid of all the disadvantages? With this new format, we managed to get the best of both worlds! Our solution is to use nano/micro-content creators.

But just using nano/micro content creators will not suffice, as their DNA is similar to macro-content creators, and we’re back to square one. Why nano/micro-content creators though? Because they’re more cost-effective, more flexible to work with, and they’re also more reliable in the eyes of their audience.

However, our process also involves using minimalist scripting, raw footage from the creators & in-house video editing. So let’s break these three down:

Creating the script. What will this include?

• How the setup should look
• Equipment required
• Main product/service features
• Preferred shots
• Minimal copy 

Thirdly, we will need the raw footage from the creators.

And last step, connected to the previous one is in-house video editing, as we’ll be creating multiple variations from the same concept.

Just to get an idea of how these variations would go, we’re basically asking the creator to shoot 4 different intro, 4 different ways of shwoing the app/product/service & 4 different CTAs.

If you want to learn a bit more about generated content, we’ve attached a link to a PDF with more information on the subject that also includes a study case we did for Basmo, a habit-forming app for readers.
Link to download.