How Sephora Used Facebook to ‘Thrill’ Its Fan Base

June 20th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

There are a lot of beauty junkies out there, and they’ve taken to social media networks to fuel their obsession. A list of the most-followed Pinterest accounts is dominated by beauty brands, and some of Instagram’s most engaging accounts offer beauty and fashion tips. There’s a huge market for beauty lovers, and Sephora plans to own it.

The brand has proven itself to be incredibly savvy when it comes to digital and social. Its website redesign in April was a “multi-year project to rebuild the whole shopping experience,” says Julie Bornstein, Sephora‘s SVP of digital, and it offered more targeted product search and a smarter shopping experience. Bornstein says the website updates lie at the intersection “where beauty meets intelligence.”

Over the past year, Sephora has seen a 300% increase in mobile shopping, and 70% of its mobile traffic comes from iOS devices. iPad traffic to the company’s home page was up 400% in Q1 from 2011 to 2012, and 20% of traffic to the site comes from mobile devices. In short, Sephora knows a thing or two about digital and how to use it for maximum effect.

So when the company’s website makeover was ready for its close-up, the brand called on its beauty providers and a little platform called Facebook to engage fans and drive traffic to the freshly developed site.

The Mission

The team at Sephora conceived the 15 Days of Beauty Thrills sweepstakes, which leveraged its partners in the beauty industry — whose nail polishes, eyeshadows and serums are sold in Sephora stores worldwide and online — to furnish the “thrills” for users. Naturally, the brands obliged to the request, as the value of exposure to Sephora’s 3.5 million Facebook fans, 522,000 Twitter followers and 30,000 Pinterest followers, in addition to the company’s growing web traffic, is too key to pass up.

“Sephora has the biggest audience of beauty lovers in the world, so it’s great exposure for their brand and it’s a great way to celebrate together — they’re real partners with us in everything we do,” says Bornstein.

“Thrills” included a Fiat tricked out with a Gucci interior, a trip for four to the Make Up For Ever Academy in Paris and a $5,000 shopping spree at Sephora. There were also daily “mini-thrills,” a small gift included with any online purchase.

How It Worked on Facebook

The U.S.-only campaign kicked off on May 21, living on Sephora.com and running promotions in-store and across social channels. The company did some “special things” for Facebook, with a fan-gated app (built in-house) to bolster engagement and build the brand’s community.

On Facebook, fans were able to learn about the next day’s thrill at midnight, incentivizing people to “like” the Brand Page in return for these exclusives. Bornstein says the brand also beefed up its Facebook ad campaign, targeting women between the ages of 18 and 35 who are interested in beauty and fashion. “We had a great response,” says 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 brand also saw an increase in traffic to the website, though it declined to specify any numbers.

Bornstein credits the success of 15 Days of Beauty Thrills to three things:

It was a great campaign (always a necessary ingredient).
There were compelling exclusives on Facebook.
A juiced-up ad spend to bring more awareness to the Sephora brand, Facebook Brand Page and website.

Sephora’s Day-to-Day Social Media Engagement

The brand has proven itself to be a leader in the social space, with digital think tank L2 assigning it a “genius” Facebook IQ and giving it top billing in a study of “mobile IQ.”

While engagement spiked during the 15 days of the campaign, the brand continues to see high levels of Facebook engagement and fan interaction throughout the week, and you can see myriad discussions about customer experiences in-store and online on the Timeline.

The primary goal of Facebook for Sephora is to offer a forum for discussions of beauty — it’s a place to discover products, find inspiration and discover beauty tips. It’s also a customer service channel, and a group of agents in the customer service department are tasked with managing inquiries and taking feedback on social media platforms. Lastly, it’s a platform through which the Sephora team can share what’s going on at the company. Overall, it’s a forum for dialogue, and it’s not uncommon for a posts to net thousands of Likes and dozens of shares.

“I would say the engagement is consistent when there’s a strong, engaging message,” says Bornstein.

One major component of Sephora’s Facebook presence is Fan Fridays, a weekly special or giveaway that’s available to Sephora Facebook fans on Fridays. “Clients know to come and look, and we always come up with fun things to do, and we really try to vary it,” says Bornstein. “We’re not a typically promotional company, so it’s not about discounting — it’s more about cool offers, new things going on and first looks.” She adds that the reliability factor has enticed fans to come back every week, and in order to keep them coming back, the brand tries to make the offer truly special and to provide a reason for someone to opt in to the Facebook community.

“Facebook is one of those territories where you continue to test and learn,” says Bornstein.