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| Free People's "#myfpdenim" Campaign |
Selling products online can be a challenge, but the best way to showcase those products and make more sales is through photos. Yes, having a detailed product description is great, but people also want an accurate visual depiction of what you’re selling.
In a previous post we talked about how to tell the story of your company through photos, which is something that many businesses are now doing through sites like Pinterest and apps like Instagram. There’s something about a picture that can convey what words or text on a web page cannot. According to an article posted at GetElastic.com, websites that include photos of real people seem to convert more than those without photos of people. However, keep in mind that using stock photos of models may not be as effective either.
This brings us to this idea of crowdsourcing customer photos in order to add even more value to the shopping experience. What if customers could upload their own photos of them using or wearing your product(s) to your website? This would give potential customers a better idea of how your product(s) look in “real life”. Fashion retailers such as Free People and Giorgio Armani have already embraced this concept and are using crowdsourcing, or customer contributions, for marketing campaigns and ways to make their websites more interactive.
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| Giorgio Armani's "Frames of Life" Campaign |
How Crowdsourcing Photos Benefit Your Business
One way that crowdsourcing can benefit your business is that it can reduce photography costs. The thousands of dollars that you spend hiring a professional photographer and models can now be used for something else. You still may want to have a professional take close-up shots of your product(s), but the photos you use for ad campaigns can now be outsourced to customers.
Photos from your customers can also be more creative than anything you could ever come up with. These photos may even give you ideas on how to improve your product(s).
Having your customers submit their own photos to be included on your website creates a sense of community that you may not get through your Facebook or Twitter pages. If you have loyal customers who are enthusiastic about your brand, they are more than willing to contribute to your success. Some customers may need more compelling incentives like prizes or monetary incentive, while other customers simply like the personal recognition and knowing that they are featured on a popular website.
Have you considered crowdsourcing photos as a way to enhance your ecommerce site?
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