Create Amazing Social Proof Images for Your DTC Emails with ChatGPT Image Generation

Email marketers know the power of social proof in driving conversions. Testimonials, reviews, and user-generated content significantly boost engagement and trust in your products. But what if you're just starting out or aren't sure how to incorporate social proof into your email in a nicely designed way?

In this post, I'll show you in 5 minutes exactly how to create a social proof image for your email using ChatGPT's 4o image generation capabilities using 3 different templates I've created. These templates are designed for email marketing specifically. I picked 3 different templates that could work for different kinds of brands and situations.

How These ChatGPT Image Generation Templates Work

ChatGPT's image generation is great with reference images. So to make this super easy for everyone, I've laid out 3 different prompts, with a reference template, that will give you amazing looking social proof images for your email.

We're going to cover 3 different templates:

1. The product shot with a customer quote

2. The lifestyle/customer shot with a customer quote

3. Stylized text of the quote

The goal in walking you through these templates is to both give you immediate images for your need now, but also to show you how you can do it yourself using different images.

Template 1: The Product Shot with Customer Quote

The classic product shot with a customer testimonial overlay is one of the most effective social proof formats. It shows off your product with a real customer's words to back it up. The challenge is designing that in a way that looks slick is tough.

The Reference Image

I've actually got two reference images for this one. One that's fancier with a "bleed" out of the box, and one that's more straightforward without a bleed in case that's harder to blend with your emails.

Download Product Shot with Customer Quote Template (Without bleed).

Download Product Shot with Customer Quote Template (With bleed).

How The Prompt Works

As will be the case with all of these, we're telling the prompt to target specific elements we want to change. The more specific, the better.

• Start a new 4o chat with ChatGPT

• Upload to the chat our template reference image above

• Upload to the chat your product image to replace the shoe

• Make sure you update the #what to change section in the prompt

  • Review title "Awesome, Unique Product"

  • Customer Quote

  • Customer name

  • How the CTA is styled and what it says to match your brand

  • Background color

  • Be specific about the font if you'd like it to be different

<TEMPLATE>
Use the image with the text "Awesome, Unique Product" as the template.
<TEMPLATE End>

<PRODUCT SHOT>
The image attached that does not say "Awesome, Unique Product" is our reference product image.
<PRODUCT SHOT END>

The Result

You can see the result below from using my exact prompt above with a wallet from Ridge as my product shot.

Pro Tip: ChatGPT sometimes has issues with creating "bleed" situations. If you run into that, you can try clicking "Edit Image" in their canvas, selecting the area you want changed specifically, and providing the instructions for the change.

There's a key line at the end there as well "Make sure it all fits and is a high quality image."

Sometimes when using a template image like we are, when 4o regenerates the image, it screws up the sizing. This helps make sure that happens way less frequently. If it does, then just drop that line back in, hit send, and it will recreate it in the right size.

Template 2: The Lifestyle Shot

Lifestyle images that show your products being used in natural settings are incredibly effective for helping customers imagine themselves using your products.

The Reference Image

Download Lifestyle Social Proof Template.

How The Prompt Works

Run through the following steps:

• Start a new 4o chat with ChatGPT

• Upload to the chat our template reference image above

• Upload to the chat your product image to be used in the lifestyle part of the template

• Make sure you update the #what to change section in the prompt

  • Customer Quote

  • Customer name

  • How the CTA is styled and what it says to match your brand

  • Background color

  • Be specific about the font if you'd like it to be different

  • BONUS: If you have a very specific style or person you want in the lifestyle shot, upload that in addition to, or instead of the product shot.

<TEMPLATE>
Use the image with the text "I'm obsessed with quality and your brand delivers" as the template.
<TEMPLATE End>

<PRODUCT SHOT>
The image attached that does not say "I'm obsessed with quality and your brand delivers" is our reference product image or person.
<PRODUCT SHOT END>

The Result

Here's 2 examples of using the lifestyle template. The first one uses the exact prompt above. The second one uses the same prompt, but where I give it an entire image to reference for the left area (from Brez's existing material).

While the prompt is designed to be plug and play, it can get tricky with describing the lifestyle shot. If you find yourself having a hard time with how the lifestyle shot on the left is turning out, upload an additional image of the model or person in the pose you want. This helps provide additional reference image context.

This sort of social proof can work particularly well in abandoned cart email sequence, showing potential customers what they're missing out on. It also works great in emails where you need a nicely designed break before the next section.

Template 3: The Quote Card

Sometimes, the most powerful social proof is simply highlighting a customer's words in a visually appealing way.

If it's helpful, this is also the easiest template to use as you don't need any reference images apart from the template itself.

The Reference Image

Download Stylized Quote Template.

How The Prompt Works

This last prompt is a super simple one. Follow the steps below:

• Start a new 4o chat with ChatGPT

• Upload to the chat our template reference image above

• Make sure you update the #what to change section in the prompt

  • The customer quote

  • The font

  • The background color

  • The text color

Here's my prompt for creating a quote-focused image:

<TEMPLATE>
Use the image with the text "I have tried them all, and all I can say is this is THE standard." as the template.
<TEMPLATE End>

The Result

The results in this one are quite a bit more straightforward. That said, if you see the below and you think that something like the review stars need to be a different color, you could easily change the prompt or follow it up to be more precise.

This template works exceptionally well in post-purchase follow-up emails to reinforce the customer's buying decision. It can also be a great way to end an email before your footer.

If you want to add some flair, you can adjust the prompt by adding a reference image and asking to make it a subtle background to give some texture.

Tips for Creating Effective AI-Generated Social Proof Images

After experimenting with dozens of prompts and images, I've learned a few key lessons:

1. Be specific about quality: Including terms like "professional photography," "high-quality," or "photorealistic" in your prompts helps get better results. High quality is especially a keyword for 4o image generation.

2. Describe the setting in detail: Mention lighting conditions, background elements, and atmosphere to create more authentic-looking scenes.

3. Request authenticity: Using phrases like "authentic-looking," "candid," or "user-generated content style" helps avoid the overly perfect stock photo look.

4. Iterate on your prompts: If your first attempt doesn't look quite right, refine your prompt with more specific directions.

5. Be specific about colors: I used simple colors in my examples, like "light blue". But if you know your exact colors, use them. 4o image gen works well with hexcode colors like #F7F7F7 and so on.

6. Don't go long: 4o image generation is particularly poor at "losing the plot". If you haven't gotten the results you want after 3 - 4 images, starting over in a new chat can actually get you better results. Over time, 4o image gen uses past results too much to influence the next one.

Conclusion

Designers do an amazing job at creating high quality, on-brand emails. But sometimes we don't have access to a great designer, or we need to get something out the door quickly. In which case, we can use ChatGPT's image generation capabilities to quickly create authentic-looking, on-brand visuals that drive engagement and conversions.

I've tried and tuned each of these these templates and prompts myself to make sure they work. Feel free to experiment with your own variations based on your brand and products. The key is to create images that feel genuine and help tell the story of how your products improve customers' lives.

If you don't have time to try these yourself, you can also use Raleon. We help many agencies and brands not just create great emails, but plan entire campaigns and briefs with segments to match.