How e5 uses customer content to make emails more human

The challenge

People don't simply trust brands. But a recommendation from a friend lands. Stronger still: real customers sharing their own experience.

• Trust is earned

  Social proof helps customers decide faster, and feel good about it. Reviews and customer content lower the threshold.

• A community worth showing

  e5's community shares Instagram photos and writes reviews. That content deserved a prominent place in the brand's marketing.

• Not decoration, but message

  Customer photos had to strengthen each email's message, not just fill space.

• Less to make from scratch

  Existing customer content means the team doesn't have to create everything itself.

Our approach

Flowbox collects, manages and publishes user-generated content across channels, with automatic tagging, consent tools and HTML snippets for newsletters. Here's how we put it to work for e5.

1. 01

   Selecting the content

   We picked suitable customer photos in Flowbox using tags like colour, clothing type or audience. With the e5 team, we decided where UGC fits in the content calendar, such as the start of a new summer or winter collection, or themed campaigns.

2. 02

   Setting it up in Flowbox

   The selected images became email assets. Per campaign, we chose the relevant tags, and whether to show content by product, by flow or by a combination of features.

3. 03

   Integration in Adobe Campaign

   Through the Flowbox integration, customer photos appear where they fit the campaign context and back up its message.

4. 04

   Testing and optimising

   Later tests added calls to action like 'Follow us on Instagram' or 'Share your outfit & win' to push the impact further.

Takeaway

The first emails showed results straight away. Emails that perform better, and feel more personal and more human.

• More email engagement

  A clear rise in click-through rates, with more clicks on the visual blocks.

• Better deliverability

  Thanks to more active clicking.

• Extra reach on social media

  Click-throughs and shared content brought new followers.

• More connection

  Customers recognised themselves, or others, in the images.