Why build your own content, when you can have someone else build it for free? Interview campaigns are one of the best ways to build reputable user generated content.

Don’t waste your time structuring a poor interview campaign. Follow these easy tips to design the best email campaign for user generated content.

Step 1: Creating the Message

Designing the Best Questions

Interviews can be slightly intimidating to any individual. Make your recipient feel more confident by starting off with an easy question. If the reciepient reads the hardest question first, that person may think they’re unqualified or they don’t have the time to answer such detailed questions.

You can rearrange the order of the questions once you have their responses.

Sending Questions in Email, .txt, or doc

When you send interview questions, should you paste the questions directly into the email, add a .txt, add a .docx or do all of the above? This is an ongoing debate within our firm, so I’ll let you decide.

Email

(+) Recipients prefer to work directly in email
(+) Can copy and paste the interview into the format that person prefers
(+) Two less steps of downloading and uploading for you and the recipient

.Txt or Docx

(+) Easy one step download
(+) Allows recipient to forward documents to others
(+) Formatting is already complete
(-) Fear of downloading document from unknown sources
(-) Programs may be incompatible

Introductions, then Sales Pitch

There are few circumstances when you should go directly into a sales pitch. This is one of them.

Your first sentence should introduce who you are. Your second sentence should tell more about what your company does. Your third sentence should inform the recipient how your company’s interview can actually benefit the reader.

If you already have a few responses to your interview, make sure to include a URL to these interviews. When people see that others have responded to your interview, they’re more inclined to keep up with the competition.

Step 2: Finding Points of Contact

Focus on Smaller Businesses

Sometimes it’s easy to hook the little fish in the pond, over the big shark in the ocean. Send your interview campaign to smaller businesses who are eager to get their name out there. You may notice a better response rate from smaller businesses who have more motive to answer you back.

Target the Public Relations Department

When writing an email campaign for UGC, you should reach out to a professional in the industry. This could include entities such as government agencies or small businesses.

Finding the best individual point of contact is key to a successful campaign. Most small businesses will have their employees listed on a “Contact” or “About” page. I have found that the best point of contact is the PR or marketing department.

Have Multiple Points of Contact

Once you’ve found a point of contact, find another. Many times you will get “out of office” replies, or just blatantly ignored. Sending an email to one person, while CC: the other, holds both people responsible to responding to you. Sending an email to two people will also help you build buzz around the office, which will further increase your odds of getting a response.

Step 2: Contact from Your End

Use a Business Email Address

Email that comes from a credible source is more likely to get a response. Email coming from joeschome@gmail.com doesn’t look as good as interviews@businessconsultant.com.

Use multiple Email Addresses as Backups

Email can be blocked for a number of reasons. This is why it’s important to use backup email addresses.

Don’t: Send the same interview out at the same time from several email addresses.
Do: Send an email out from interviews@businessconsultant.com. If you don’t get a response within a week, send the same email from BusinessInterviews@gmail.com

Step 4: Sending the Email Campaign

Contact on a Monday

Messages sent Monday-Wednesday receive the best response rates. Employees are eager for a new project at the beginning of the week, and will be more likely to answer your interview.

Sending messages on a Friday guarantees a smaller response rate. Employees may read your message Friday, but by the time Monday rolls around, it’s long been forgotten, and there’s no “new message” icon there to remind them.

Crafting the Best Subject Line

Keep the subject short and sweet
Exclude spam related words
Explain how the email benefits the recipient
Include who you are
If your message requires an urgent response, say so.
Do all of this in 7-1o words

Avoid hyperlinks in the body

One common spam filter is hyperlinks. Try to avoid adding a hyperlink to the body of your first email. If you have to add a hyperlink, break it up so it is not as easily recognized as a hyperlink, but still makes sense to the recipient.

Ask to be white listed

The best way to ensure your messages will be received is to ask the recipient to white list your email address. This protects you from being blacklisted in any future contacts. You worked so hard to establish the connection, ensure it will remain opened.

Step 5: Including Social Media

Twitter Improves Response Rates

The best way to improve your response rate is to use social media. Since social media occurs in “real time” it’s more likely that you will receive an immediate response on a social media channel.

Do not send your entire message through social media. Simply ping the related social media account to inform the owners that you have sent them a message. This also helps to find out whether or not your message arrived to the right account.

Contact through multiple channels

A successful interview campaign requires an aggressive sales tactic. There are many reasons why your message could get lost, so to ensure the best response rate, send your message through multiple channels: Email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Again, don’t contact all of these points at once. It’s best to follow this order:

Email
Twitter
Other Social Media
Phone Call

Step 6: You Receive a Response

Post the Interview ASAP

Once you get the interview response, post it ASAP. Once it’s posted, message the interviewee with the link where the interview has been posted. This increases the odds that the person will then link back to your interview. Wallah, delicious link juice.

Track your data

Track all relevant data:

Business Name
Website
Contact Name
Job Title of Contact
Contact’s email address
Subject Line of your email
Channels on which you contacted
Website for business social media account
Week day, Date you sent email
Week day, Date you received response

Give Credit Where Credit is Due

At the end of the interview post, make sure to give credit to the business who completed the interview. Post a link back to their website, and increase the odds that they will link back to you.

Make the Interview Public

Sending out interviews can be a time consuming task. Once your interview campaign has built traction, you can write an interview post directly on your site. Include a post that is similar to the email you would send out. At the bottom, include the interview. Add an email address that you want to receive the interviews at.

Now that you know the “20 Tips for Writing the Best Email Campaign for User Generated Content,”
learn the 10 Things You Should Never Do in Email Marketing Campaigns.

Author: Kelsey Libert

20 Tips for Writing the Best Email Campaign for User Generated Content