Zappos is an online shoe retailer and apparel store that was founded in 1999. Since its founding it has grown to be the biggest online shoe retailer thanks to its excellent customer service and exemplary marketing strategies. Its customer friendly return and shipping policy is one of the key reasons for its impressive success story. Find out how Zappos used social media marketing to build a strong online brand and what you can learn from it to successfully implement social media strategies for your own business.

1. 5 marketing strategies
you can learn from
Zappos to boost your
business

3. Table of Contents
Recommend products based on Pinterest user’s pins
1
2 Run Sweepstakes on Twitter and use your own products as winning prizes
3 Give personal gift recommendations on Facebook
4 Let your customers create a Pinterest board with their wish list
Get your Facebook fans to like your contest before entering it
5

4. Recommend products
1 based on Pinterest
user's pins

5. Recommend products based on Pinterest user’s pins
● Zappos created a great variety of Pinterest
boards showcasing its different fashion
collections.
● It uses Pinterest to give its customers
recommendations on what to purchase based
on its follower’s pins.
● Zappos responded to a photo of a silk dress a
user pinned by recommending similar clothes
from its online store.
● Pinterest is a very fast growing social network
and one of the reasons why it’s so successful
is the fact that users trust and act on Pinterest
recommendations.
● Pin boards are a useful tool to give a more
visual look of a brand and show a company's
core values.

6. What can retailers learn from this?
Use your pin board to give recommendations that refer to your
1 products
2 Connect with your audience by integrating trends
3 Encourage fan collaboration to get user-generated content

7. Run sweepstakes on
Twitter and use your
2
own products as
winning prizes

8. Run Sweepstakes on Twitter and use your own products
as winning prizes
● Zappos knows that sweepstakes are a great
way to encourage customer engagement and
therefore organizes Twitter, Facebook and
Pinterest sweepstakes on a regular basis
● To enter the participants have to send a
Tweet on a specific day at a specific time.
● The winning prizes are a $ 2,500.00 shopping
spree and a video consultation with a Zappos’
stylist
● Sweepstakes are a great way to boost your
social media following and help you increase
brand awareness.

9. What can retailers learn from this?
1 Make email address necessary for entry
2 Encourage participation by promoting your sweepstakes via
social networks
3 Use your own products as winning prizes
Use Wishpond Sweepstakes App
4

10. Give personal gift
3 recommendations on
Facebook

11. Give personal gift recommendations on Facebook
● Zappos offers a special Valentine’s Day
service to help its customers pick a Valentine’
s gift.
● Users simply need to log into their Facebook
accounts for the Zappos team to look at their
friends’ Facebook and Pinterest activity.
● That allows the team to find out more about
their taste and preferences in order to give
personalized gift recommendations.
● So far 3000 customers found a gift by
receiving personalized gift suggestions
● Giving personal gift recommendation is a
great way of providing special customer
service that fits the clientele’s needs and
exceed their expectations.

12. What can retailers learn from this?
1 Give product recommendations based on your
customer’s Facebook or Pinterest profile
2 Promise to not share your customer’s account information
with anyone
Find out which of your products fit your customer’s needs
3 and interests
4 Promote your gift recommendations on all your social media
channels

13. Let your customers create a
4 Pinterest board with their
wish list

14. Let your customers create a Pinterest board
with their wish list
● Zappos found a great way to get user-
generated content by letting its customers
create wishlist boards with their favourite
Zappos products
● Followers can see and repin what others want
to purchase or get as a gift.
● That keeps the community constantly involved
and promotes products in a very efficient way.
● By driving followers back to the business
website visitors get easily converted into
buyers.

15. What can retailers learn from this?
To showcase your products and get customer
1 engagement let users pin their favourite products on a
wish list board
Convert followers into buyers by linking your Pinterest
2 profile to your website
Respond to what your followers are pinning to show interest
3 and keep your community active
.

16. Get your facebook fans to
5 like your contest before
entering it

17. Get your Facebook fans to like your contest
before entering it
● Zappos frequently uses like-gating contests to
generate new Facebook fans.
● In one of its contests the participants had the
chance to win a 3-piece skin-care set by
simply liking a picture of the products and
clicking on a link to enter the contest.
● From the 88 likes the post got, ten winners
received a skin-care set.
● Like-gating is an effective way to increase
reach on Facebook to generate leads and
quickly drive up the fan base.

18. What can retailers learn from this?
1 Get your fans to like a post or your page before they
can enter the contest
2 Use your own products as giveaways to promote and
showcase them
Make sure your like-gating adheres to Facebook
3
guidelines

19. Thank you for viewing!
Contact us at sales@wishpond.com for a personal social marketing consultation.
wishpond.com