User-generated content: the underused asset in your marketing mix
User-generated content occupies a peculiar position in many brand marketing strategies: widely acknowledged as valuable, consistently underinvested in as an intentional discipline. The reasons for that underinvestment are understandable. UGC does not fit neatly into traditional content production workflows. It resists the degree of control that brand teams are accustomed to exercising over their marketing output. And building the community conditions that generate UGC organically requires patience and sustained relationship investment. None of those challenges are insurmountable, and the brands that have addressed them are reaping substantial rewards.