By combining the power of email and blogging, Zenni Optical was able to capture over 900 customer stories in just one week (that's more than 128 stories a day!), and the fun didn't stop there. To date, Zenni has collected almost 2,000 customer stories. Now that’s some great blog content. Here’s how they made it happen.

The Challenge

Using the latest in modern materials, manufacturing, and marketing systems, Zenni Optical delivers quality glasses directly from their factories to their customers. With the absence of "middlemen", Zenni is able to save each of its customers hundreds of dollars a year. This practice has helped Zenni build a large and loyal following. When Compendium met Zenni's marketing team, they were looking for a way to tap into their customers' passion for their products. Compendium's StoryCapture tools were the perfect fit for the job.

The Solution

Compendium’s business blogging platform and StoryCapture tools allowed Zenni Optical to easily capture, moderate, and broadcast customer stories. To start their story capturing, Zenni Optical worked with their email service provider to send an email requesting stories from their customers. Customers were then directed to a page on the Zenni blog where they could share their story and upload pictures of themselves wearing their glasses. Zenni used Compendium's administrative layer to moderate the user-generated content for spelling errors and missed words. Finally, Zenni broadcasted the stories to Facebook and Twitter. Customers received a follow-up email when their story went live on Zenni's blog. This emails urged the story-sharing customers to promote their micro-fame on Facebook and Twitter.

The Results

Just one week after sending their first email, Zenni collected 940 excellent customer stories. Zenni was able to use Compendium’s content calendar to strategically publish these stories over the next three months. Today, Zenni runs an on-going StoryCapture program, which has collected over 1,800 customer stories. Zenni's blog is now seeing over 10,000 visitors a month and their customer stories can be found all over Facebook and Twitter. Zenni is looking forward to doing another story-focused email soon, and they're expecting to receive even more stories than they did the first time.