Personalization and User Generated Content (UGC) are integral parts of any ecommerce marketing strategy. While Personalization involves using data to create a tailor-made experience for users, UGC gains the trust of potential buyers because of the authentic content your historical customers share.

With UGC gaining popularity in recent years, the dilemma that marketers face is which works best with modern shoppers, personalization or UGC? While both are viable options, here are some points to consider.

Personalization

Personalization is an effective way to appeal to customers because it conveys a specific understanding of their needs. To scale, this relies heavily on extensive data and sophisticated technology – but when done well, it’s borderline magical. This enhances the customer journey by resonating with individual customers and offering a unique one-to-one experience rather than one-to-many.

Personalization Pros

The greatest benefit of personalization is that by using the data and behavior of current customers, you can target similar audiences and increase new customer conversion rates.

Similarly, your brand can market products to current customers based on shopping history making the buyer journey more personal and less complex, ultimately leading to more purchases. 93% of businesses that use personalization increased their revenue!

Personalization Cons

As consumers become more aware of data privacy, they’re increasingly opting out of companies that request an excessive amount of information. Finding the equilibrium between too little and too many data requests is crucial for keeping customers engaged, but not overloaded.

Additionally, as data security laws tighten, brands that don’t have the sophistication to properly manage customer data stand to risk legal action. Organizations that can’t commit to maintaining proper data-stewardship should forgo large scale personalization efforts.  

User-Generated Content

User-Generated Content (UGC) can help gain more new customers because the authentic content posted by your existing customers will help you authentically showcase your products. You can use UGC both as a marketing vehicle and as a sounding board for you to listen to customer feedback. Customers feel important when you share their content or engage with it, leading to a win-win situation for both your brand and consumers. Not to mention, UGC has shown to have a higher conversion rate and reduce content costs overall.

UGC Advantages

Today’s consumers trust word-of-mouth more than any other marketing strategy giving UGC a steep advantage. User-generated content is authentic and offers customers a true narrative of the experience of purchasing and using your brand's product across several customer lifecycle stages. As a result, customer acquisition costs are lower with UGC, and customer lifetime value is likely to increase as customers gain better brand affinity. When more customers share about your product, the process repeats itself and your brand's social proof continues to grow.

UGC cons

UGC marketing strategies may start to get expensive when you involve influencer marketing services and other strategies. This is one of the many reasons why brands see success with nanoinfluencers and micro-influencers. Additionally, without the right software in place, managing and permissioning UGC can be difficult. Luckily, there are excellent UGC platforms available to brands.

Which is Best?

If your brand’s mission comes first in your marketing message, UGC is the way to go. Your existing customers will resonate with images of people who embody your brand and align with your shared values. Brands that prioritize community stand to grow longstanding and meaningful relationships.Michael Gorman Is a UK-based freelance academic essay writer, proofreader, and editor. He has worked with various law essay, aussiessay and pro writers services and Study Bay in the past. In his free time, he likes to go out fishing, organize BBQ parties for his friends and write play scripts. He can be reached 24/7 via Facebook and Twitter.