Ecommerce Email Marketing Guide: Best Strategies, Tools & Emails to Use
Content Types
Written by:
Mahnoor Sheikh
Social media is quickly becoming the no. 1 place for brands to connect with their customers.
And for good reason, too.
78% of consumers will buy from brands they have a positive experience with on social media. And 71% are even willing to recommend these brands to their friends and family.
If you’re struggling with ideas for your next “big” social media campaign, we’re here to help you find inspiration.
In this post, we’ll take a look at 8 amazing social media campaigns and what makes them so great. We’ll also show you how to replicate their success for your own brand.
Let’s get started.
It’s no secret that one of the biggest selling points of the iPhone is its camera.
So, when companies like Samsung and OnePlus started rolling out phones with even better cameras, Apple had to come up with a strategy to stay above the competition.
Enter the #ShotOniPhone hashtag, which is currently featured on over 21.5 million posts on Instagram.
Apple encourages its users to share photos they take with their iPhone cameras with the hashtag #ShotOniPhone. The best ones get featured on Apple’s official Instagram page.
With a branded hashtag, Apple empowers its users to show off their photography skills. By reposting some of the best shots on their feed, they are able to show people how easy it is to take beautiful photos with an iPhone camera.
At the same time, they’re able to get their users to produce great-looking content for them. This is important because people are more likely to trust other users like themselves over brands.
Find ways to show your audience what your product can do, and then encourage them to replicate similar results using your product.
This is a great way to get your hands on some user-generated content, which you can use to build trust and loyalty, and create a viral trend that both existing and potential customers would want to hop on.
Warby Parker offers a great example of leveraging user-generated content to create engagement and a positive image around the brand.
But unlike other brands, Warby Parker did something different. They tapped into their customers’ love for dogs to create a unique campaign: Warby Barker.
When Warby Parker discovered that “Warby Barker” was one of their most misspelled keyword searches, they decided to use this as a marketing opportunity.
The eyewear retailer created a website where they posted beautiful photos of professional dog models wearing Warby Parker eyeglasses. The website ended up receiving 2.5x more traffic than the original Warby Parker site!
Then, on Instagram, they encouraged their customers to share photos of their pups wearing WP glasses and use the hashtag #warbybarker for a chance to get featured.
With this campaign, Warby Parker tapped into two things backed by their own research: their audiences’ interests (dogs) and one of the misspelled keywords.
This is exactly why this campaign was so successful. People could relate to it, and it’s the perfect way to generate UGC since who doesn’t like to flaunt their pets?
Whatever campaign you’re thinking of launching, make sure it’s backed by in-depth research into your audience, competitors, trends and your brand strengths and weaknesses.
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With its international borders closed during most of 2020, New Zealand decided to launch the Do Something New campaign to encourage its own citizens to get out of their homes and explore their country’s hidden gems.
According to the Tourism New Zealand chief, the country’s tourism sector took a big hit during COVID-19. This campaign intended to offset the impact by convincing Kiwis to spend as much on domestic travel as they did on international trips.
As part of their Do Something New campaign, TNZ has released several videos over the past year to encourage Kiwis to travel and explore their own country.
Below is one of their videos that pokes lighthearted fun at people traveling under the ‘social influence’ and neglecting the real, cultural history of the place.
They also worked with creative agency Special Group to release a song that takes New Zealanders on a domestic road trip to try something new.
TNZ also encouraged people to share their own travel photos using the hashtag #DoSomethingNewNZ on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for a chance to win a $500 domestic travel voucher.
New Zealand’s fun, targeted campaign was launched across multiple social platforms over a span of several months, which helped them reach a large audience and reinforce their message over time.
Plus, even though the message behind the campaign had a serious intent — recovering the hit to the tourism sector — the ads created maintained a lighthearted, positive and fun tone.
They realized that the pandemic is here to stay — at least for a long time — and that it takes time for people to change their habits. They also encouraged people to share their experiences and photos by incentivizing them with a travel voucher.
The idea behind your social media campaign should be well thought-out. Using light-hearted humor without being offensive can also help you deliver your message in a positive and fun way.
Also, finding ways to adapt the campaign to multiple social media platforms can help you reach a bigger audience, as long as you know who you’re targeting.
Kohl’s, the largest departmental store in the US, collaborated with Tone It Up in 2017 to launch a live event on Facebook that motivated people to stay healthy with an at-home workout.
The campaign was able to reach 50,000 people, and was part of the company’s efforts to further their fitness category, which makes up a large chunk of their sales.
In January 2017, Kohl’s partnered with Tone It Up for a live workout event hosted on Facebook.
The campaign used the hashtag #GetActiveWithKohls, and aimed to promote a healthier lifestyle. Naturally, the team was wearing activewear from Kohl’s during the event.
Koh’s campaign was launched at the beginning of the year — the perfect time to connect with people with ambitious fitness and active lifestyle resolutions for the new year. It was also a great way to push fitness products and activewear to the audience.
Hosting a live event back in 2017 was also an innovative move, given the fact that the feature was still new to the platform, and not many brands were taking advantage of it.
Timing is key — plan and launch your campaigns at the right time to see maximum results out of them. Take advantage of recent trends, and pay attention to the buying behavior of your customers.
Also, keep in mind that social media platforms and technology in general is always evolving. Make sure you experiment with new and unique features that help you grab your audiences’ attention and stand out from the competition.
For 15 years, Dove has been speaking out against image manipulation, Photoshop and digital distortion in media.
Dove’s ‘No Digital Distortion’ mark is part of their larger Self-Esteem Project, and furthers this point of view by aiming to promote confidence in real beauty, not ‘fake’ and edited images.
No Digital Distortion is part of Dove’s efforts to eradicate image manipulation in media, which can lead to low self-esteem, anxiety and depression in young girls all over the world.
Dove used this stamp across all of their static brand imagery to show that the women used in those images have not been digitally distorted, and their photos are 100% real.
The campaign was launched as part of their bigger Self-Esteem Project, and has been implemented across all the brand’s touchpoints — from print to digital to social.
Dove’s campaign is widely successful because it delivers a powerful message about self-esteem and perceptions of beauty. It’s an idea that its customers, especially women, can relate to on a personal level.
Plus, implementing it consistently across all touchpoints, and running other campaigns that follow the same ideology at the same time, helped reinforce the brand’s message and build trust and credibility with the customers.
If the idea behind your campaign is powerful and relatable, it’s more likely to go viral and be successful. However, it also comes down to its implementation and ultimately, consistency.
The fact that Dove is holding itself accountable is also a bold move, which helps increase the brand’s credibility and respect in front of customers.
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Project management tool Trello’s #WhereITrello campaign is one of the best examples of how SaaS companies can leverage user-generated content (UGC) on social media.
Trello encouraged its users to share photos and stories of their workspace using the hashtag #WhereITrello.
This is #WhereITrello. Yes, I use Trello for work but I also depend on it to run my side project, my South Asian satire news site! I have 3 wonderful comedy writers sprinkled around the US so our common home is our editorial Trello board ♥️. We're not big time yet, but one day! pic.twitter.com/plUwCROxlo
— Rani (@raanstermonster) July 11, 2018
While it wasn’t difficult to convince people to post pictures they could be proud of, Trello still offered an incentive of limited edition swag. The hashtag has since been used thousands of times on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Trello’s campaign was widely successful because it appealed to their target audience — freelancers and remote workers.
People working in beautiful places like the beach, a coffee shop or even their home office usually jump at the chance to show off the workplace they’re so proud of.
For Trello, this campaign meant tons of user-generated content that increased brand awareness and also functioned as social proof for potential customers.
Before launching any user-generated campaign, conduct research on your customers and find out what types of things they like to share and what makes them feel proud.
Use this angle to fuel your campaigns and watch them run on auto-pilot.
Bejeweled offers one of the finest examples of mobile app marketing with its #ShinyPlace campaign that won the app millions of downloads.
Bejeweled, a puzzle game app, partnered with top Instagram influencers, including David Lopez and JiffPom, to create various posts and video ads that showed them playing the game while using the hashtag #ShinyPlace.
View this post on Instagram
The goal of the campaign was to increase brand awareness and engagement about the app, and drive more app downloads.
Partnering with top Instagram influencers helped put Bejeweled in front of millions of potential customers.
More importantly, it drove millions of app downloads as people rushed to hop on the bandwagon and use the same apps as their favorite influencers.
Working with influencers, especially on platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, can do wonders for your mobile app marketing.
People who download these apps are avid smartphone users, so it makes sense to reach them on the same devices. Focus your marketing efforts on platforms that are mostly used by your target audience.
Also, working with influencers can get the word out about your brand and build trust with customers. This is especially useful if you’re a new brand and want to increase brand awareness, and ultimately drive more sales.
Adobe has always been the market leader when it comes to creative technology and software. Their social media campaigns focus heavily on creativity and self-expression, which is exactly what their recent Instagram campaign for Adobe Photoshop is all about.
Adobe Photoshop recently launched an Instagram hashtag — #PS_YourWorldYourCanvas — that encouraged users to transform their window views using photo manipulation, and share them on their feeds using the hashtag.
Photoshop reposts the best images on their own Instagram profile and gives credit to the artist by tagging them in the caption.
Similar to Trello, Adobe does a wonderful job at leveraging user-generated content to grow brand awareness and engagement.
Reposting beautiful work by Photoshop users helps the app showcase what you can do (or create) using Photoshop, impressing potential customers and offering recognition to existing ones, strengthening their loyalty with the brand.
Tap into the needs and desires of your customers to create a branded hashtag that they would gladly use. When collecting user-generated content, think about how you can get existing customers to use your product to its maximum potential and showcase the results.
Creating a successful social media campaign requires careful planning and research. But more than that, it needs to be aligned with your brand — both visually and in terms of storytelling.
If you're looking for a platform to help you create on-brand social media content, check out our social media graphics creator. Access thousands of photo, video and story templates, play around with animation and music, save your brand assets for future use and more.
We hope the examples above gave you plenty of ideas and inspiration. What's your favorite social media campaign? Let us know in the comments below!
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About the Author
Mahnoor Sheikh is the content marketing manager at Visme. She has years of experience in content strategy and execution, SEO copywriting and graphic design. She is also the founder of MASH Content and is passionate about tea, kittens and traveling with her husband. Get in touch with her on LinkedIn.