Shutterstock is a family of brands powered by a global network of creators and cutting-edge technology. We provide high-quality licensable assets, data, generative AI solutions, and full-service studio production to help customers fuel great work. The launch of GenAI Pro marked a pivotal moment for Shutterstock as we expanded our market leadership in AI-powered creativity—we weren’t just launching another product; we were reimagining what business-ready AI could look like.
GenAI Pro is Shutterstock’s AI image generation suite and the world’s best aggregator of AI models. Single-model AI tools risk becoming outdated overnight, but with GenAI Pro, customers can pay for just one subscription and always have access to the latest models. Our tool also offers private generations, business-ready licensing, and human review of selected outputs before licensing. Our multi-model and human review capabilities are industry firsts that set us apart.
Competitors focus on flashy, consumer-grade AI tools. We set out to deliver something different: a platform designed for the speed of business, backed by privacy, licensing protection, cutting-edge models, and the human touch missing from so many other AI offerings.
From an email marketing perspective, our objective was to create a compelling educational campaign that would highlight GenAI Pro's capabilities and meaningfully engage our audience. This campaign had three goals: deliver content to deepen customer understanding of our product, meet or exceed our open and click rate benchmarks, and turn qualified customer interest into sales pipeline and revenue. We aimed to lead with approachability without losing edge, foster urgency without fear, and build trust without slowing innovation.
We brought this vision to life with an eight-part email journey that mirrored the customer’s decision-making process. Starting broadly, we then drilled into the features that truly set GenAI Pro apart. Our product provides the latest AI models in a continually updated aggregator, along with business-ready protections and intuitive tools: style reference for unified visuals, private generations for secure workflows, and human review—where customers can send assets for approval before licensing, giving users unmatched peace of mind.
Execution involved cross-functional collaboration between CRM, product, engineering, creative, and operations. We began with an overall campaign strategy, ensured alignment across teams, and then hit the ground running—designing each message with intention. Our emails were built in HTML using a responsive, modular template that was optimized for mobile & dark mode, and supported by a clean design to drive engagement without distraction. We also used images generated and human-approved with our own AI tool in some email graphics, as a proof of concept to build trust.
Another key part of our email strategy was the design of our call-to-action buttons. Instead of a generic “learn more,” many of the CTA buttons read “click here and we’ll reach out.” This shifted the journey from passive clicks to proactive conversations, enabling our sales team with daily lists of leads to generate pipeline and revenue. As our product offering evolved and some customers gained access to a self-serve checkout page, we used audience segmentation tools and dynamic content capabilities to serve specific customers CTA buttons like “Buy now”—you’ll see this in our “powerful AI to fuel great work” email. By blending marketing and sales enablement, we ensured that engagement quickly translated into pipeline and bookings.
This project came with its share of challenges. Having just completed a company-wide rebrand in June, Shutterstock needed this campaign to do more than launch an innovative AI product—it had to also reinforce the power and cohesion of our refreshed brand identity. The rebrand allowed us to amplify our impact and use GenAI Pro as proof of Shutterstock’s continuing innovation and future-facing vision.
The other major challenge we faced was timing. AI tools across the market are evolving rapidly, along with daily engineering advancements in our own tool. Our emails had to keep pace without losing clarity or consistency. To navigate this challenge, we prioritized communicating both excitement and reassurance, positioning Shutterstock as a trusted B2B AI partner in a crowded, hype-driven market.
The result of our work wasn’t only an email campaign—it was a launchpad for GenAI Pro’s success and a critical project for proving the importance of our email channel in empowering and inspiring our customers to confidently use AI in their creative workflows.
Our GenAI Pro email series delivered results that exceeded expectations, both in campaign engagement and in direct business impact.
In just two months, this campaign delivered:
This campaign didn’t just drive clicks. It delivered revenue and sales pipeline, reshaped customer perceptions of AI, and reinforced Shutterstock’s market leadership in business-ready AI.
Above all, this campaign gave Shutterstock a powerful new story to tell: that we are not only building the future of AI for business, but also marketing it with creativity, clarity, and results worthy of industry recognition.
