While email marketing can offer some of the best opportunities to connect with customers and drive sales, it can be difficult to create the steady flow of content that is necessary for success. After sending emails for so long, you might find that you start to run out of new ideas. Along with that, traditional advertising content is starting to lose its impact.
The answer to both of these problems is to integrate user-generated content (UGC) in with your email marketing strategy. According to a report from Olapic, consumers trust images from of other consumers 7X more than they trust advertising content.
Along with building trust, UGC has also been shown to boost conversion rates. Research from Yotpo showed a 5.6% conversion rate for customers that viewed user-generated content before purchasing, compared to just 2.1% for consumers that did not see content from their peers.
User-generated content not only provides a brand with an almost endless supply of media, but also is often more effective than traditional advertising. In this post, we are going to look at a few ways that brands can integrate UGC in with their email marketing strategy.
Customer Photos
One of the simplest ways to integrate user-generated content into your email marketing strategy is to use photos of customers enjoying your product or service. For example, you can run a contest to get customers to post photos and offer a prize to the person with the winning photo.
This strategy will increase engagement with your brand by encouraging consumers to interact, and it can also be a good way to raise brand awareness. Promote the contest on social media and email and as users post their photos, the message will spread to their friends and followers.
Customer Reviews
Customer reviews can be another option for user-generated content marketing. To start, positive reviews can act as a valuable form of social proof.
Most consumers trust online reviews in the same way that they trust a recommendation from a friend. If you can get more positive reviews, you can then feature these testimonials to win more customers.
One way to get more reviews is to send emails to consumers after they have received a product. Once you’ve made sure to check the validity of the email address, you can follow through via email to retrieve their testimonial.
Wait for the user to have a little time to get familiar with their purchase, and then send them an email asking for their feedback. Another option is to try to turn some of your negative reviews into an asset. You should respond to these negative reviews to show customers that you are interested in all feedback, but you could also take negative reviews and write emails that discuss the ways that you have addressed the issues.
Feature User-Generated Content in Emails
This is similar to the photo contest mentioned earlier, but with this the only prize is getting featured in an email. Create a hashtag for customers to use when posting photos that include your products.
Tell your customers that once a month you will select one of the photos and feature it in one of your email posts. This will get more people engaged by getting them to post photos, and it will also generate more interest in your emails because customers will want to open them to see who won.
You’ll likely see an increase in engagement by offering a small prize to the person that posts the winning photo, but also a good number of consumers will participate just for the fun of it. This is a method that could be leveraged for spreading awareness on social media, and it could also increase the efficacy of your email marketing strategy.
These are just a few examples of how user-generated content marketing can work alongside of an email campaign to inspire even greater success. Depending on your business, you could have any number of different opportunities to encourage your customers to create content for your brand.