CH2 Marketing Strategy vs Sephora

One of the key to be successful is to keep up with time, fashion,innovations. Sephora's marketing team familiar with this rule. They concentrate on mobile, and have targeted social media strategies for YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. This beauty retailer has social, mobile, and even digital programs in-store firing on all cylinders.

Sephora’s optimized social site is very dynamic. User can find reviews, how-to videos, inspirational beauty boards, and a forum dedicated to "BeautyTalk", etc. Another exciting tool to reach the socially-connected and digitally-sophisticated consumer is YouTube channel which has well-over 10 million views alone. Most recently, Sephora integrated “Pin It” buttons on all of their web and mobile product page to allow for quick and easy sharing on Pinterest to compliment the editorial-inspired content on their boards. It will be interesting to watch how this socially-driven site redesign will impact customer experience, loyalty, and conversion.

Here is three main keys of marketing success from Johnna Marcus, Director, Mobile and Digital Store Marketing at Sephora:  

Marry customer service and social media to find success.  

Sephora dedicates staff to answer questions and address customer’s concerns. Perhaps the key to such a complimentary yet differentiated social strategy across all of the key platforms is that their team has dedicated staff including marketing pros, beauty experts, and customer service staff on hand. On Instragram specifically, Sephora gives their customers and fans a glimpse "Inside Sephora". Behind the scenes snapshots, how-to’s, and authentic customer experiences are all captured as visual stories. It’s no wonder that there are more than 33,000 followers to date (and counting.)

Embrace mobile to bring the in-store experience right to your customers hands. Powerful numbers on the use of mobile devices and the engagement with their brand on those devices. About 50% of Sephora's clients open their emails on mobile devices; there have been millions of downloads of Sephora’s apps to date; and mobile sales had a 300% increase in 2011. To reach their mobile-savvy customer base, Sephora made stunning additions to their app and mobile website to include information of nearly two million product ratings and reviews, added a critical find in store button, and created wishlists for customers to mark things they want to see in-person at their stores. And their tips for making all of this possible? Design for mobile first and focus on utility and usability, and target your messaging for the optimal usage times on smartphone and tablets. When customers have apps as part of their shopping tools, retailers can begin to start fully owning the in-store experience with self-created content and enhanced customer service to foster even more loyalty.

Sephora’s site redesign, social strategies, and mobile programs didn’t come to life overnight. It took years of planning – and through their hard work Sephora’s team has brought a personalized, social shopping experience to customers in a way that has bridged the gap between all shopping channels. And while we have always known Sephora for giving us beautiful products and makeovers, we’re excited to showcase them as one of our leading examples of a retailer that has had their site (literally) undergo one of the most beautiful makeovers of all: The makeover of the future of shopping, as we know it.