Enhance Email Performance With User-Generated Content

The digital landscape is perpetually advancing. In the last couple of decades, it has moved places with multiple channels opening up and making a thud. But, email marketing still remains one of the most potent channels for marketers across industries. 

According to statistics, 9 out of 10 marketers use email marketing to distribute content organically. But the fact remains that people’s inboxes get crowded every year, and their expectations from the brands they love continue to grow. 49% of the customers claimed that they would like to receive promotional emails from their favorite brands on a weekly basis. 

This means that brands need more visuals, rather impactful visuals, to support the growth of this staple marketing channel. Yet, the struggle of creating visuals that move the attention of the receivers and keep them hooked to the brand remains in place. 

Hence, many marketers are turning to the influence of User-Generated Content. 

UGC For Email Marketing

Unlike promotional or branded content, User-Generated Content (UGC) is unpaid content created by people for the people published online or on a social network. 

It can be created in any form: textual or visual, and seamlessly helps brands fetch users’ attention, engagement, and trust. Leveraging UGC can dramatically enhance the performance of a lot of campaigns.

In fact, the fascinating emails today have images that are most authentic to a particular brand, often created by real people. 

UGC also allows an interactive flow between you and your audience. Instead of forcing your products, you make way for two-way communication. 

Now that we have an overview of incorporating UGC in your email campaign, it is time to learn how to do it and why you must.

Why Must You Use UGC in Your Email Campaigns?

– Fulfill The Visual Appetite Of The Users

The users’ appetite for visuals has grown drastically, and for good reason: they convey information better, are influential, and impact the minds of the users. 

By showcasing users’ content in your email marketing campaigns, you can better showcase the usage of your product, generate authenticity and relatability in the minds of the users and encourage them to check your products out. 

Further, visual UGC can also improve your no-show rate. Highlighting genuine and compelling content can serve as a powerful way to ignite interest and a bit of FOMO into the minds of your potential users. 

– Turn Abandoned Shopping Carts Into Sales 

Cart abandonment plagues most eCommerce brands. When the shopper is known, email is often the most impactful way to stay on the top of the user’s mind and urge them to complete their purchase. 

Focusing on the visuals used here is important, as you’d otherwise miss the prime opportunity to close a sale. 

To fix this, consider showcasing fresh, authentic, and bright content generated by your users. 

– Celebrate Your Users’ Efforts Beyond Social Media

Social media networks have become the go-to place for people to share their experiences about products and places. 

But, to amplify your customers’ enthusiasm about your brand, you need to do something more than social media.  

Kmart Australia came up with ‘Loved by YOU,’ a marketing initiative and email campaign celebrating their users and the products they love. 

They created a hashtag #Kmartaus to encourage their users into content creation while repurposing the same further to their email campaign. 

– Increases Email Engagement Rate

Though email is a staple marketing channel, its open rate varies across industries, but it can be as low as 21.33%. 

Hence, to enhance the performance of emails among subscribers, leverage the potential of UGC. It is visually appealing and better engages the audience. 

It might spark their interest and make them want to check out the brand’s products and services, which means greater leads for you. Also, consider increasing email deliverability, employing an SPF record checker, and avoiding spoofing attacks.

How Can You Use UGC In Email Campaigns? 

Now that you know why you must include UGC in your marketing strategy, let’s examine some of the advantages of doing so. 

– Personalize Emails Using UGC

Personalization has become more than just adding identification. Off-late, it is about being appropriate. 

Thanks to user-generated content, finding suitable images or videos for personalized marketing emails has become effortless. You can run through the content generated on social media to find the most relevant posts to use. 

But, to avoid using inappropriate content, narrow down your options as you must ensure that the content matches your brand’s value and is of high quality. 

Now, use these visuals while sending an email to your subscribers. Tailoring content according to the audience type is a great way to enhance their experience and inspire them to click and get redirected to the product page. 

– Run An Email Hashtag Campaign 

Hashtags seamlessly help harness the power of UGC via emails. They not only connect brands with their followers but also enable the curation of UGC. 

Let us take oVertone’s email-based hashtag campaign as an example. The haircare brand sent an email asking its subscribers to use the hashtag #overtone and share their creations on Instagram. 

As a result, the brand was able to fetch a lot of UGC to repurpose for their next marketing campaign. 

– Showoff Your User’s Testimonial

UGC is not just visual content; it is also textual. Users share their views about brands on their product pages, which can be resourced in your email marketing campaigns. 

Testimonials increase the trust of the potential users in the brand and influence their purchase decision potentially. 88% of consumers say that reviews influence online buying action. 

Emails containing testimonials provide a snapshot of customer experience with the brand, thus, improving the conversion rate and driving traffic to your website. 

Here’s How You Can Integrate UGC In Your Next Marketing Campaign Using Taggbox?

Taggbox is a result-driven UGC platform aimed at providing global brands with solutions that can help them in attracting, engage, and convert users while also building brand awareness and advocacy. 

To integrate UGC in your next email campaign, leverage Taggbox Widget. A premium product that can help brands embed social feeds, UGC galleries, reviews, etc., on a brand’s web pages to enhance its performance and return on investment. 

Read ahead to get details on how you can do it.

1. Signup to your Taggbox Widget Account (14-day free trial available)

2. Click on the Add Social Feeds option to add UGC to the Widget

3. Choose your social media platform among the many options Taggbox Widget offers. Let’s assume that you have chosen Instagram. Enter your hashtag and click on create feed option.

4. You will successfully aggregate all the content created using your unique hashtag!

Now, let’s see how you can add this collected user’s content into your email.

1. Click on the Publish button on the bottom left corner of your Widget editor

2. Choose Email Campaign as your option 

3. Select your Email Platform Provider among the options

4. Choose your preferred layout among the grid options available

5. Select the content you wish to embed on your email & tap on the Generate Code button right below

6. Copy the generated email campaign code 

7. Log in to your email marketing platform and select the template where you wish to showcase the UGC campaign.

8. Paste the generated code at the preferred location on the email template.

Apply the required changes, and That’s it! You will have successfully added the UGC campaign on email using Taggbox Widget.

Effortless, ain’t it? You are all set to make the best of the two most promising strategies. 

Over To You 

Email is still one of the most commanding tools in the toolbox of marketers. It helps inform, engage, and sell to new and existing subscribers. 

Yet the challenges of providing for-unique and emotive content and personalized experiences while building a significant relationship with the audiences exists.  

User-generated content is instrumental in helping marketers overcome all of this and more while unlocking scalability and sustainability. 

So, now that you are through with the why and how of using UGC in your email campaign leverage it to enhance your brand’s bottom line. 

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