It is not every day that you see a beauty brand take to Social Media like a fish to water, and make the most of it. Especially nowadays when Social Media bigwigs like Pinterest and Instagram are being dominated by beauty brands. After all, in the world of visual media beauty takes the precedence.
If you are a business, chances are you have already dipped your toes in Social Media. This week let’s take a look at the online presence of Sephora, a French cosmetic brand, and how they engage with their audience on various social media platforms.
To quote Julie Bornstein, SVP of Sephora Direct:
“I’ve been in e-commerce for more than 12 years, and things have changed dramatically in the last two years. It’s an exciting time, and we’re really just starting to figure out what’s possible with social commerce. Having new ways to connect with our customers – through Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and on our site, BeautyTalk– gives us more insight into what customers want than ever before.” (source:brandchannel.com)
Sephora glams it up pretty nicely on Pinterest. Their pin-boards are fun, aesthetic, and inspiring. The social media team pins the DIY tips regularly. They maintain various boards for the products they have and also create interesting contest boards.
Sephora’s pin-boards are a real eye-candy.
And aware that they are of the power of social media, their new updated website is well integrated with Pinterest. Each and every item (almost 14,000 products) on Sephora’s web-store has a “Pin it” button that allows a user to pin the product image on their personal boards on Pinterest.
Sephora’s new Instagram feed gives followers a behind-the-scenes look at the company. They will also be able to see which trends and products are driving the buzz in beauty. This, along with the appealing photographs will definitely help in hiking up their sales!
The brand recently had a “15 Days Of Beauty Thrills” sweepstakes which encouraged the users to “Like” their Brand Page in return for exclusive gifts and coupons. Fun and smart! According to Bornstein, “We grew our fan base about six times our normal growth rate, and we saw a bigger lift in sales than what we normally see on Facebook.”
The best part about Sephora’s Facebook strategy is that they have one Facebook page per country, each in a different language. example – Sephora Singapore . These pages are focused on the conversations like “Beauty Talk: Get Advice. Give Advice. Join the Conversation.” Fans can also post questions on their Facebook wall and Sephora does a great job replying to their queries.
They post interesting questions every week, motivating fans to participate.
Their main goal here is to engage with people about beauty and shopping. There are challenges organised on the Facebook page to get people involved: make up contests, video contests, polls and quizzes! In Europe, the Make Up Masters contest challenges the best european Make Up artists, giving away a week of make up training with a prestigious brand away as the prize! With enticing offers like these, Sephora is able to entice users to interact and spread the word.
On Twitter, you can follow their channel to hear more about their latest deals and contests. To qualify for entry, a tweet message must be a targeted reply to Sephora’s Twitter account (i.e., @sephora) using Twitter’s @reply function. However, the brand doesn’t seem to engage with their fans on this particular social media platform. Out of the hundreds of tweets we read on Sephora’s Twitter channel, there were hardly any which answered queries or retweeted fan’s tweets.
Mobile Apps
For the smart-phone-savvy women, Sephora has also launched the mobile app on iPhone and iPad which allows them to browse the products, read reviews and also buy them on phone.
Other Ways Of Digitalizing:
And if you think you’ve heard it all, you’re in for a surprise! Sephora is now introducing in-store iPads to help the users browse through their previous shopping history or just to simplify the checkout process. Imagine not having to stand in line at the never-ending queues. Imagine being able to use their in-store iPads to scan products available in the store and read up reviews instantly.
Overall, we would rate Sephora’s social media highly. Sephora’s online aura is a tasteful treat for their fans worldwide. How much would you rate them and why? Let us know in our comments.
