Communities I LOVE: Sephora Community
The Sephora community has been built to an incredibly high standard.
It covers many of the basic building blocks required to develop an engaged community, including:
- Clear instructions to onboard new members with low barriers to encourage active participation
- Many different ways for members to engage with others in the community depending on their own needs and personality
- Content is organised efficiently and the search functions work well
- Fully responsive (works great on both web and mobile versions)
- Meets many of the different needs of community members, whilst also helping to achieve business goals (increase sales, customer retention, organic marketing)
HERE IS THE AESTHETICALLY PLEASING AND VERY “ON BRAND” HOMEPAGE:
THERE ARE COMMUNITIES WITHIN COMMUNITIES!
When you click on the groups page, members can search for the group they wish to join.
They can view how many members are in each group and the number of comments.
The names of the groups are really fun and “on brand”. Who wouldn’t want to join the Best Hair Ever group?
Epic description: “The long and short of it. *Flips hair* “
IT’S EASY FOR NEW MEMBERS TO GET STARTED
There is a welcome video on the homepage with beginner tips to get started.
There is an FAQ.
In the toolbar at the top of every page there are 2 call to action buttons to get started: “Start a conversation” and “Add a photo”.
THE GROUPS ARE INSANELY WELL ORGANISED.
You can view posts within in each group by most recent, popularity, unanswered and bookmark your favourites. You can see trending tags, topics and even search the group for a certain member.
MEMBERS HAVE THEIR OWN IDENTITY AND CAN EARN BADGES
You can see who is a “boss” and who is a “rookie”. There are many other badges that members can earn and it’s a great way to encourage engagement.
Members are also given their own profile page that they can personalise, and it shows their most recent posts, images uploaded and other activity.
THEY TRULY UNDERSTAND WHAT THEIR MEMBERS WANT
Beauty & skincare fanatics want to chat with the brands.
They want to earn points to receive discounts and free products.
They want to connect with others equally passionate about beauty/skincare and learn more from experts.
They want to grow their own fan base.
They want to share tips and receive recognition for their efforts.
The Sephora community covers all of the above. ✅
YOU DON’T NEED TO BE A MEMBER TO TAKE A SNEAK PEAK.
This is a great way to encourage new members (who are sitting on the fence) to join but taking a look around first.
I was able to view all of the above without creating an account.
Sephora gets TOP MARKS from me for how they manage their community. I’ve learnt a lot from them and appreciate all of the hard work that went on behind the scenes to create an incredibly effective platform for their members.