Why UGC Isn't Growing Your Brand

Marketing Shenanigans (#018)

Brands are obsessed with UGC—but it’s not growing your brand. Here’s why:

Let’s get one thing straight: UGC is great for scaling ads. It’s authentic, relatable, and it gets clicks. But if you think UGC is all you need, I’ve got some bad news.

UGC alone won’t build your brand.

Here’s why: Your brand isn’t just about relatability. It’s about creating a lasting emotional connection.

Think of content like music at a wedding:

• Different moments call for different vibes.

• You wouldn’t walk down the aisle to Snoop Dogg (as sick as he is).

• And you shouldn’t lean on UGC for every part of your content strategy.

What truly builds a brand isn’t relatability—it’s emotion. Emotion is what makes people remember you long after they’ve scrolled past your post or watched your ad.

The Problem with UGC

It doesn’t define your brand’s voice, values, or mission. It doesn’t capture the “why” behind what you do. It’s just a tool—one that works well for scaling ads, sure, but when you use it for your organic feed, it dilutes your brand identity.

Ask yourself:

• Does your content inspire loyalty or just get likes?

• Are you telling a story, or are you just chasing trends?

• If someone sees your post, do they immediately know it’s you?

Building a brand means going beyond clicks. It’s about crafting content that connects on a deeper level and the thing about UGC is, it’s not that deep.

Effective brands don’t need to sell because they leverage desire. You don’t create desire without investing in people first.

The Takeaway

UGC has its place—mainly in performance marketing. But if your goal is to build a brand that sticks in people’s minds, you need to focus on content that connects emotionally.

Because at the end of the day, relatability might get you clicks—but connection is what gets you customers for life.

Cheers,

Teddy

Teddy Giard

In case you don’t already know, my name is Teddy, and I operate a firm that specializes in marketing strategies for outdoor brands. Our approach is simple: align your product development timeline with your marketing production timeline; by doing so, we can own the distribution of our message and our products.

If you’d like to explore working together, feel free to fill out this form, and if we’re a good fit, we can schedule a discovery call. We ask this because we keep a fairly narrow target for whom we work, and we like to be as open about that on the front end as possible. After all, time is life’s most valuable resource.