7 Tried & Tested Content Marketing Ideas for eCommerce Businesses to Try Now

According to a recent study, 81% of shoppers conduct research online before making a purchase. It’s no wonder that eCommerce businesses are focused on attracting the attention of such customers via content marketing on various online marketing channels. You’re probably an eCommerce business yourself or an agency in charge of creating content for one.

If you are either, you probably know how hard it is to create content that works and helps you achieve your goals. This post describes 7 content marketing ideas that have worked for other eCommerce businesses for you to try.

Note: [4 out of 7] of these ideas are easier to execute with the help of a social media management and employee advocacy platform like DrumUp.

1. Find artistic social media ambassadors

What you create/curate visually will decide how successful you are on the internet. However, creating visually stunning social media content can be an expensive affair, which is where UGC comes in. Visually inclined social media ambassadors can help you create great content and market it via engaged social media channels.

Check out how Huckberry utilizes it’s ambassador generated social media content.

2. Create How-to or DIY videos featuring products

Instead of simply displaying your products, try and create use-cases for them within your content. The best ways to do this is through How-to and DIY videos that not only feature your products but also describe the best way to use them. How-to videos are great for complex products that typically need guides or manuals and DIY videos are great for products that have multiple use-cases.

Check out how Lowes has created a DIY video around its DIY fireplace kit product.

3. Connect products to celebrities and trends

People are influenced by celebs’ style, food-habits and behaviors in general. eCommerce marketers can use this to their advantage by connecting products to current trends and what celebrities are doing/wearing. To implement this strategy, you first have to identify which celebrities you target groups follow and then follow them to identify occurrences to use in your marketing.

Here’s how Mr Porter connects its products to celebrity lifestyles.

4. Share customer and employee stories

Stories are at the heart of social media. You can drastically improve customer engagement by increasing the incorporation of stories into your content marketing. Anything shared in story form – behind-the-scenes content, employee achievements and struggles, customers’ achievements and struggles – can go a long way in improving the results of your content marketing.

Check out the engagement on stories shared by Asda. Customers care about and connect with well-narrated stories.

Note: You can get more engagement and reach more of your target groups by getting employees to share your stories via DrumUp’s employee advocacy platform.

5. Display products and promotions via engaging GIFs/videos

Yet another creative way to share products and promotions is via engaging GIFs/videos. Creating GIFs/videos today isn’t much of a task, considering the availability of several easy-to-use GIF/video editing tools. The easiest way to incorporate GIFs/videos, however, is by curating them with the right caption and connecting them to your products/services. When doing so, ensure that you verify the license of the content that you wish to share.

Here’s how Net-A-Porter incorporates GIFs into its content marketing.

Note: DrumUp lets you curate copyright free GIFs from GIPHY within the dashboard.

6. Curate relevant content from non-competing entities

Content curation not only saves you time and money but also helps you build relationships with marketing allies in your industry. Today, almost every entity on social media runs on collaborations. And you can create collaborations by curating the right content. All you have to do is ensure that you have the right permissions to share engaging content.

Here’s an example of Grazia sharing the right content (with attribution).

Note: DrumUp lets you set-up RSS feeds and keyword based content streams for content curation. The keyword based content streams come with @mention and #tags, making it easy for you to attribute content.

7. Get C-suite executives and employees involved

People connect most with people, which is why you need to get your C-suite executives and employees involved in content marketing. Organic reach when C-suite and executives and employees share will also be much higher than when you share, giving you extra reach and engagement. Employee advocacy is also said to increase conversions, retention and general customer engagement.

Note: With DrumUp’s employee advocacy platform, you can simplify content sharing with employees, gamify participating and track the impact of their shares.

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Content marketing is the smartest way for eCommerce companies to reach and influence their target groups on online marketing channels. With effective content marketing ideas, you can engage your audience and surpass your content marketing goals.

Featured image by Maykzz@freepik.com

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Is Your Business on Instagram?

A recent survey by marketing firm Hashoff found that B2C social media influencers plan to spend most of their time on Instagram next year and increase their efforts on YouTube too. Many respondents also believed that Instagram offered the best tools for creators, beating out Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Snapchat. Get more information here.

According to Statista, by 2019, Instagram will surpass 111 million active users in the United States alone. Globally, 41 per cent of Instagram users are 24 years of age or younger. For B2C companies that consider Generation Z (born between 1998-2016) to be most valuable to their business, Instagram marketing is bound to take off in a big way.

How Instagram has grown

The photo-sharing app, created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, was bought by Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion. From 30 million users back then to today’s 800 million monthly active users, Instagram has emerged as a leading networking and marketing platform.

Instagram’s business profiles and tools were first rolled out in mid-2016 to US, Australian and New Zealand companies followed by a global rollout at the end of 2016. As of November 2017, the photo-sharing platform has 25 million active business profiles and 1 million monthly active advertisers.

Like parent Facebook, Instagram makes money from advertising. Advertisements accounted for nearly 97% of Facebook’s 2016 Q3 revenue. According to Citi Research, Instagram could generate $10 billion in revenue in 2019. Playing catch-up will be Snapchat, whose revenue is estimated to grow to $3 billion. Though Instagram has more followers than Snapchat, Snapchat users spend more time on the site, hanging around for over 30 minutes on an average per day.

Important Instagram statistics

-Users spend five times more time watching video content than static content.
-65% of top-performing Instagram posts feature products.
-80% of users follow at least one business on the platform.
-60% of users learn about a business or product on Instagram.
-One out of five organic Stories attracts a direct message.
-User-generated photos have a 4.5% higher conversion rate, increasing to 9.6% upon interaction with the post.

Check out this article for more statistics.

Instagram marketing tips

New to ecommerce social media marketing on Instagram? Consider these opportunities:

Get your brand hashtag: Create #yourbrand #keyproduct and encourage followers to use them. Brand hashtags expand the reach of your posts and allow you to curate a single location for potential followers to discover your brand.

Generate user content: UPS has turned to its customers to fill its Instagram page with visually appealing images. Small businesses post content using #TheUPSStoreCustomerhashtag, which UPS shares to its account.

Use Instagram Stories: Businesses are using Stories in interesting ways. You can deliver special offers via stories, highlight behind the scenes activity or host a takeover (boost collaboration by tagging other accounts in Stories). As an early effort, reach out to influencers and build relationships with them.

Creativity pays off on Instagram. For attractive, refined and professional-grade photos, explore various photo editor apps to curate a toolkit that works for you. Have a look at these popular tools: Layout, Hyperlapse, Boomerang, VSCO CAM, Snapspeed, Afterlight, Aviary, Camera+ and Pro-Camera.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

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5 Creative Strategies to Stay Inspired to Write All Year [Infographic]

If there's one thing we know about inspiration, it's that it's not very good at giving advance notice of anything.
It crops up at the most inopportune time -- like when you're without a pen or a device to otherwise record a brilliant idea.
And other times, when you need it the most -- it's nowhere to be found.
It also has its very own version of low seasons, when writers are left without special events or holidays to stimulate creativity. Now that the holidays are behind us, for example, many of us are feeling deprived of prolific cheer?

Download our free guide here for tips to become a better writer. 

 But as it turns out, these claims are little more than excuses. Inspiration, it turns out, can be sought any time, anywhere.
One of our very favorite infographic artists, Henneke Duistermaat, knows this to be true -- and thus compiled her thoughts on the matter in the captivating visual below.
Have a look, and discover how you can find the inspiration to write and blog -- with consistency -- all year.
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The Right Way to Think About Google

 Oops, they did it again.

Our friend Google caused a panicked rumble through the tech world late Monday afternoon, when they announced they’d be restructuring under a new holding company called Alphabet.

Never mind that this is something companies do all the time. Never mind that there’s no reason to think it will change what’s happening with search in any way. Never mind the weird, April-Fools-looking new domain.

Google can’t really do “normal things,” because every time they make even a small visible change, most of us wonder,

What will this do to my rankings?

Why the collective jumping at shadows? Well, because if your business depends on your search rankings — and we’ll talk about that in a minute — you probably have a certain amount of Google-induced stress disorder.

Key elements change. Abruptly. And secretly. And you’re left scrambling to pick up the mess.

And to be honest, it can get right on your last nerve.

But if it causes you more than a few moments of irritation, you may benefit from shifting the way you think about the web’s favorite 800-pound gorilla.

Here’s how I’ve learned to think about Google (courtesy of advice from Copyblogger’s founder, Brian Clark). Which means when they pull stunts like this — and they do, with some regularity — my pain is limited to a few curse words and some moderate tweaking.

I have five rules for keeping my sanity when dealing with Google.

Rule 1: “What’s my plan if this goes away tomorrow?”

Any time you use a tool from Google (or from any third party you have no control over), this question will help you.

Sooner rather than later, ask yourself what your backup plan is — if and when the tool (or your search ranking, for that matter) dissolves overnight.

You’ll notice that Brian asked and answered this question publicly about the Authorship program way back in April, 2013 — making us all look like Big Damn Heroes when Authorship did, in fact, blow up.

Did we think that would happen? Actually, we didn’t.

Were we prepared when it did? You know it.

Ask yourself right now what you’ll do if Facebook disappears tomorrow, or Twitter, or your Google search results position, or your pay-per-click campaign.

When tools and programs disappear in the online world, they often do so literally overnight. You need a solid plan in place for when that happens.

Rule 2: Google owes you nothing

Ranking in the search engines is not a civil right.

You don’t “deserve” to have your content found by Google. (Or Bing, or Yahoo, or anywhere else.) That’s not a service that Google has promised you.

Weirdly enough, Google won’t even promise you that they’ll accept large amounts of your money to run advertising on their AdWords platform. They can take that away any time as well. Without necessarily giving you a reason.

Too often, we think that because we put a ton of work into being found on the search engines, that we are somehow entitled to that juicy position on the results page. It doesn’t work that way.

The greater your sense of entitlement about what companies like Google owe you, the more frustration and anger you’ll feel when you get smacked. Which you will, if you’re in the game long enough.

Rule 3: You owe Google nothing

You also don’t work for Google. They don’t send you a paycheck or have you under contract.

Whether or not you want to abide by their thoughts on best practices is completely up to you — and you should make that decision like an adult, weighing the pros and cons and keeping Google in its proper perspective.

Spending hours picking apart every syllable Matt Cutts may utter, trying to understand what he thinks the definition of is is, and making violent changes to your business model because Cutts mentioned he likes or doesn’t like something, is a sucker bet.

Refer back to Rule #2. It doesn’t matter how many hoops you jump through. Whether or not you do everything “the way Google wants,” (which you usually have to guess at, because they have no interest in telling you), they don’t owe you that search result.

As I’m fond of saying, Google is a lot like that really mean girl from high school. Your best shot at getting her to like you is to ignore her while you go about getting social sharing, links, and publicity because you’re trying to reach people. The less you care about what she thinks, the better light she tends to see you in — because real people already like you.

(And if she never gives you the time of day? Meh, you don’t need her anyway. Truly.)

Rule 4: Use the tool for what it’s good for

None of this is to say that having a good search result isn’t helpful. It can be, especially for some topics and business models.

We earlier recommended including the Authorship markup on content because it was quick and easy to do with Genesis, and the potential looked promising.

All of our SEO recommendations work that way. If you can tweak your content without messing it up for your human readers, and without putting every hour of your day into it, go ahead and do that. Use a few simple tools that will let you get your content optimized efficiently.

And if your company has the resources to hire a strong team that devotes all of its time to search, that’s fine as well. But don’t do it if you can’t genuinely afford it, and don’t do it if you can’t weather the inevitable storms.

Recognize that search is a long game. Put it in its proper place. Use other ways to connect with and engage your audience. And if a great search placement shows up over time, that’s terrific.

Rule 5: Serve the audience first

This is the granddaddy of them all.

Google robots don’t have credit cards. They can’t buy your product or service.

Instead of trying to serve Google, serve the people who will eventually become your customers. Create content that interests them and meets their needs. Make it useful. Make it entertaining. Give it some real time and attention.

The audience is where everything good comes from. Google is just one way for that audience to find you.

P.S. Same as it ever was

A slightly different version of this post was originally published in September 2014, when Google had just killed the Authorship program. And it might get republished later, when they do something else that causes a collective heart attack.

We created a new image, and I wrote a new introduction. After the words “you’re left scrambling to pick up the mess,” the only edits I made were changing the word this to it and adding a quick clarifying phrase in the first point.

Why do I point this out? Because nothing’s changed, and nothing is likely to change.

Google is going to shift. Sometimes abruptly. That doesn’t mean you need to go along for the ride. Develop a sustainable approach, and leave the panic attacks and the dysfunction behind.

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Out of Blog Post Ideas? We got you covered!

If you’re looking for a new way to come up with blog post ideas, you’re in the right place.  You may not know this, but writing blog posts without conducting keyword research FIRST is pretty much the biggest waste of time since Laser Discs!!

You’re essentially HOPING that people will find your content interesting. It’s a gamble with high stakes. If you don’t know what your audience likes and wants, you begin to become irrelevant to them.

You lose your credibility as an authority in your niche and your income and reputation takes a beating.

If your content strategy is to rely solely on your “intuition” and “gut feeling,” you’ll not last long in a competitive environment. It’s a no brainer really – you cannot serve your customers unless you know what they crave most. So don’t even bother writing your next blog post before researching your keywords thoroughly.

But What Exactly is Keywords Research?

Keywords are like billboards – they help search engines to direct people to your website or blog.

Imagine that you own a fried chicken joint. In order to make good money, you need to get customers flocking to your place. The logical thing to do is to serve some really kick a$$ chicken.

However, even if you make the best freaking chicken in the world, you’ll remain broke as a joke if your place is located in the middle of the desert!

You need a road leading up to your place and you need advertisements so that people know you exist in the first place. Similarly, even if you write some really useful and engaging content, your blog will never become popular unless it attracts a good amount of traffic.

You can have the NICEST looking website in the world, BUT if nobody knows about it, it’s only going to be worth the $9.99 you paid to register the domain.  One way to attract traffic is through paid advertising. However, this method can make a pretty good dent in your wallet and it is often unpredictable when you’re just starting out.

If you want to receive organic traffic, you simply cannot ignore the importance of good ol’ keyword research and backlinks. These two methods may sound old school, but they are the two indispensable ingredients in the recipe for online success.

In simple terms, keywords are the queries that people type into search engines. If you hope to be a good blogger, you MUST know what your potential audience is searching for. Keyword research enables you to learn what’s HOT in your niche. It makes it easier for people to find you and it supplies you with GREAT TOPICS for your next blog post.

A Step-By-Step Guide to Keyword Research

Most bloggers are very good at content creation. However, they struggle with the technical aspects. Whether you are a newbie or a seasoned pro just brushing up on your knowledge – check out this fool-proof approach to keyword research.

1. Make a list of the most important topics in your niche

Let us say that your blog is related to the topic – weight loss. Hence, your list will contain the basic topics such as nutrition, diet, fitness, workouts etc. Consider the most common questions that people ask you. Imagine that you are creating a navigation map for your website – this will help you to come up with logical categories and subcategories.

2. Now write down all the possible keywords for each topic and subtopic

For example; The topics “weight loss” or “lose weight” will contain keywords like:

• how to lose weight in a day
• how to lose weight in a month
• how to lose weight in your thighs

Don’t be afraid to include long tail keywords like – does eating fat make you fat?, how much protein to eat to lose weight?, are carbs bad for weight loss?, lemon juice for weight loss, protein shakes etc.
These long tail keywords are easier to rank for than generic terms.

The list for the topic “diet” will include keywords like:

• the best diet to lose weight
• atkins diet
• paleo diet
• ketogenic diet
• the raw food diet
• vegan diet

Nutrition is too vague, not enough long tail intent keywords, so in this example, I’ll look at “exercise,” and the list of keywords will go something like this:

• is cardio bad for joints
• muscle training
• pull ups
• push ups
• squats
• running
• jogging

If you already blog regularly, do include topics that you’ve already written about. They will help you to come up with new ideas and to keep track of your content strategy. Keep writing until you have exhausted all keyword possibilities. At this time, you’ll think that you’re done but you’re just getting started.

3. Now go to google and start typing the keywords that you’ve written down

This will open up another treasure trove of keywords that are currently trending. For example: When you type in “how to lose weight,” google will come up with a list of suggestions that include “how to lose weight in 10 days” and “how to lose weight fast without exercise.”

It will probably take years of hard work for you to rank highly for something generic (and competitive) like “how to lose weight,” but other long tail keywords are (relatively) easily winnable. These keywords will help you build your brand and establish a fan following – they may seem odd but they are your first stepping stones towards success.

As a “provider of information,” you’re bound to think things out very logically and in an orderly fashion.  However, you’ll notice that your audience tends to think in a rather irrational, highly emotional and unrealistic manner.

Searches like “how to lose weight fast” and “how to lose weight in a week” will be ridiculously popular. If you write about making money, you will come across keywords such as “how to become a millionaire in a year?” and so on.

Instead of ignoring these types of non-realistic queries & questions, try to address them in a realistic manner, and guide people in the right direction with your killer content!

4. Look out for the related keywords at the bottom of the page

These are pure gold!

By now, you probably have at least 50-100 keywords or more (depending upon the depth of your niche). Some of these are long tail and some are generic. You may have noticed that you need no special talent to gather these keywords. You just need to be proactive.

Keep your list of both specific and longer tailed keywords, and remember: long tail (more specific) keywords generally convert better.

For example, Somebody searching for “weight loss” could be doing anything, they could be casually browsing, doing a research paper, who knows – it’s a very generic phrase & they’re not likely to do anything with any information they find.  On the other hand, somebody searching for “how to lose weight in the stomach” or “how to lose weight in the face” is VERY specific as they know EXACTLY what they want.

Pro Tip: Now that you understand how this process works, check out InstaKeywords (100% Free) to help automate this process!

Step 1: Enter your Keyword and choose “Full” (Trust me on this)

Step 2: View and/or download your data, sort by keyword volume & more!

Check out this quick video I filmed showing this process in action, easy!!

5. Evaluate your competition

How are other bloggers ranking for the keywords on your list?

You can gather a lot of information about this by performing simple google searches for your keywords and checking out where your competitors are ranking. You can ALSO download the SEOBook ToolBar & Rank Checker for FireFox and use that. Come up with list of WINNABLE keywords that have reasonable demand and low to moderate competition.

You can use Google Adwords keyword planner to check the search volume and supply of keywords.
It won’t give you the EXACT volume unless you’re a paying customer, but it’s still good data to have!  As long as you have a google adwords account (free, don’t worry), you’ll be able to use it. If not, get signed up at Google Adwords.

Another option is Traffic Travis, there is a paid version, HOWEVER, the free version is plenty enough for now, and something I use on almost a daily basis.  It’s also great for newbies and nor the not-so-technically-savvy!

You should target the winnable keywords for next blog post. However, do not make the mistake of ignoring the generic keywords – they form the substance of your blog. Use the winnable to keywords to pull customers to your blog. If your content is any good, people will stick around for more.

Ideally, most of your niches and content should be evergreen – it should be useful even ten, twenty or thirty years from now. However, it is a good idea to make use of current and upcoming events to spike traffic to your blog.

For an awesome list of evergreen niches, check out my blog post on The Most Profitable (and evergreen) Niches for 2017.



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Feed the Content Monster with the Help of a Closed-Circle Content Loop

If there is one thing search engines love more than anything, it is fresh content — and algorithms continue to get better at finding and ranking it by the minute.

But what content marketer has enough time to dedicate to feeding the content monster all day, every day?

To keep up with search engines and still preserve your time, you have to create a closed-circle content loop for your content marketing strategy. Let’s look at how to do that.

What is a closed-circle content loop?

A closed-circle content loop is an inbound content system that focuses on both the atomization of brand-new content and the repurposing of old content.

By generating many different types of new content while also recycling old content in new and relevant ways, you can ensure that your brand always has a body of fresh work to feed to search engines.

Using this two-pronged approach, you effectively close the gap in your content strategy (hence the name) and answer the struggle all content marketers face every day: so much work to create and not enough hours in the day to make it happen!

Create a variety of brand-new content

While text content like articles and blog posts may be your content strategy’s bread and butter, feeding the content monster means adding a little more spice to your recipe. Podcasts, presentations, infographics, photos, ebooks, and videos are all important for generating a diverse content offering and boosting your SEO.

But content creation is a necessary ongoing investment. Creating all those pieces takes up time and money, whether you’re doing the work yourself or hiring a writer to do it for you.

Enter atomization.

When you take one big piece of new content and repurpose it in a variety of ways, you’ll cut down on the time and cost of creating fresh work.

Say you own a construction consulting business. You could create an in-depth 10-page ebook to teach customers how to renovate a master bathroom. That ebook can also work as an infographic, a series of “quick tip” social media posts, a video series on YouTube, and more.

By publishing in a variety of formats, one piece of content can multiply into many fresh avenues to connect with your customers. And that means fresh content for search engines.

Recycle old content

Unfortunately, nothing stays fresh forever — all types of food (even Twinkies!) have expiration dates. To feed the content monster, you’ll have to continuously revisit your old work.

Create a content calendar that resembles the table of contents for a book or user guide. Decide when each piece of content will become outdated and in need of a reset, and mark it on the calendar.

By keeping track of your publication dates, you’ll be able to recycle content many times over using the same atomization strategy you use for new work.

5 hacks for creating fresh content

These tips will help you create more effective content for your closed-circle content loop.

1. Focus on quality and quantity

Many experts have weighed in over the years about whether quality or quantity matters more for content marketing.

I’m here to tell you, when it comes to your SEO, the answer is actually both. If you want to see real results in search engines, you’ll need to post quality content in higher volumes. For a small business, this usually means creating something fresh once a week or every other week.

2. Pay attention to your title and keywords

Sure, you’re creating fresh content for search engines, but so is everyone else. In such a saturated market, sometimes your title is the only tool you have to attract readers to click on a results page.
Make it count.

Keywords can help. From your title to your body text to your captions and video descriptions, all of your content needs to contain the right keywords for SEO to make sure you are found by the right people in the first place.

3. Curate as well as create

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and that goes for content inspiration as well. SEO-savvy content marketers undoubtedly have a list of fellow influencers and websites that they trust for insider knowledge. Use it!

Most of your content will be created from scratch, but you can also create original work that is inspired by your favorite work online.

Did another business in your industry release an annual report jam-packed with awesome research? Consider writing an article that highlights the best pieces of data and add your personal insights to what that data means for businesses.

4. Invite your community to join you

If you want variety, get different writers. Boost the amount of content you’re churning out by inviting your community to become guest contributors.

Your biggest advocates will gladly create content in exchange for exposure. Plus, user-generated work creates a fresh dynamic for your brand and encourages other fans to engage with your company.

5. Measure, measure, measure

Don’t waste time on content that doesn’t convert. Track everything you publish, and note the pieces your customers clearly respond to.

Knowing what your audience wants to read or watch online will help you create new content in the future that speaks to their needs, and it will make sure you don’t waste time repurposing and recycling content that doesn’t actually work.

Feed the content monster

Content is the heart of your online lead generation efforts. Its impact on SEO is crucial to the success of your website, and ultimately, your business.

But creating enough fresh content to satisfy search engines can be tedious and time-consuming, especially for smaller businesses with limited resources. As a content marketer, you need to know time-saving content generation tactics and hacks that will feed your content monster, helping you boost your rankings fast and well.

By using a two-pronged, closed-circle content loop strategy, you’ll make the most of your content creation efforts and ensure that nothing you write (or design or record or film) ever goes to waste.


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Activate Your Fanbase With User-Generated Content

 In the digital era, everyone is a content creator, and that’s great news for marketers. Brands are boosting awareness by encouraging the public to share their customer experiences on platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Just to name a few notable examples, Coca Cola’s “Share a Coke” hashtag marketing campaign asked fans to snap Coke-themed photos of themselves, and Charmin solicits toilet humor from its Twitter followers. But this kind of user-generated content (“UGC”) isn’t limited to social media interactions between a brand its customers. Savvy marketers are starting to mix UGC into their email marketing campaigns — and it’s working. Recent studies have shown that UGC delivers a 73 percent increase in email click-through rates.

UGC is simply content about your brand that is created by your business’s customers or fans, whether that content is photos, videos, product reviews, or testimonials. One obvious benefit of incorporating consumer content into your email marketing is that it saves you time. Instead of having to constantly come up with new content ideas on your own, your customers are the driving creative force.

But the real key to the power and popularity of UGC is that it humanizes your sales pitch. You aren’t the one telling your subscribers how wonderful your products or services are; real customers do it for you. UGC is authentic, and when used as a part of an email marketing campaign, it builds trust in your brand.

One of the best forms of advertisement is a satisfied customer. As amazing as your email content-crafting skills may be, consumers are more interested in what their peers say about your business. In fact, 70 percent of consumers trust peer recommendations and reviews over professionally written content. Zulily takes advantage of this statistic with a “Customer Picks” emails that feature some of their best-selling products, along with a few brief but enthusiastic customer endorsements:

So how can you start integrating UGC into your email marketing? You can put out a call in your newsletter for subscribers to email photos or stories of their experiences with your products or services. Or you can come up with a brand-specific hashtag, ask customers to submit to you via social media, and feature your favorite responses in your next email. You might consider a theme for the submissions that is tied to an upcoming promotion or event.

To celebrate Star Wars Day and promote a Star Wars merchandise sale, Hot Topic asked its customers to submit photos of themselves in Star Wars gear. The best submissions were included in an email photo collage:

Of course a theme isn’t necessary. TeeFury’s emails showcase photos of happy customers wearing the company’s apparel:

To give your subscribers an extra push to submit, you can hold a contest, with a gift certificate or other prize going to the most creative submission. However you go about incorporating customer content into your emails, make sure that you’ve obtained permission from the original creator to use their content and that you’ve articulated exactly how that content will be used.

Once you get the go-ahead, don’t be afraid to experiment with different types of UGC. Photos might work well for one brand, while testimonials work better for another. But if content development is one of your email marketing pain points, then UGC could be the solution.

Read more about email content development here. 

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