Digital Content and Marketing

Solution Preview

A business that I feel does an effective job of providing relevant and interesting digital content on a variety of platforms that engages is Zappos.com. The company is a subsidy to Amazon and 80% of its revenues come from selling shoes. The remaining 20% of its revenues come from clothing, handbags, and accessories that account for 20% of annual revenues. The company was launched in 1999 by Nick Swinmum who along with Tony Hsieh and Alfred Lin invested in and launched the company. In November 2009, Zappos was sold for $1.2 billion with separate $40 million in cash and restricted stock units. In January 2012 Zappos was hit by the hacking of its computer systems leaking confidential personal information of 24 million customers. Zappos provides relevant and interesting digital content on several platforms in a manner that engages (Templer, R. A. 2021).

Image 1
How Zappos uses social media: Twitter ... econsultancy.com
Zappos has made its policies a content it markets. For example, it uses the phrase "Powered by service" as a part of its campaign. It communicates that it has a culture of customer care, trains its employees to provide customer service, and has policies that support the highest level of customer service. For example, the CEO of Zappos wrote a book on online customer service. Its strategy is to engage with and win online customers. For example, it provides a 365-day money-back guarantee and free shipping even if the customer decides to return or exchange the goods. Its policies are so appealing that customers of Zappos make it a point to read them. At the same time, Zappos advertises heavily on social media and its focus is on the needs and wants of the customer. For example, on Veterans Day, Zappos showed young veterans and their efforts with a non-profit Veterans Village. Zappos uses digital content to underline how its brand is different from other brands. For example, the focus on customer service is underlined in the video Dad's Day Off where on Father's day all his chores are completed. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZVyZQiAuyU

The lesson I learn is that when forming the digital strategy, the company must have a coherent marketing strategy the digital content should then support the marketing strategy.

One content strategy of Zappos is to give an insight into how Zappos works behind the scenes. This is engaging for customers because it allows them to see the company's philosophy and the human factor in action. It also shows Zappos employee events such as a team-building party and other events that help build Zappos culture. The content strategy that makes Zappos videos engaging is to make them seasonally relevant, entering into cultural conversations, and relatively short videos. For example, the haunted house reactions at Zappos both enter into a cultural conversation and are seasonally relevant. See: https://youtu.be/wfKR39LqU9Y

The digital content of Zappos is engaging because it captures the audience's curiosity, holds the attention of its audience and uses strong visuals to make the video content (Adeola, O., Hinson, R. E., & Evans, O. 2020). For example, Zappos came out with the Porta-Party idea which became engaging. See: https://vimeo.com/187375804
Zappos makes engaging digital content because it knows its audience, includes storytelling and includes persuasive content. It tells stories about the company and how they work. For example, there is a video that shows what makes Zappos work. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axlWBn7YQA4

In addition, there is content that shows how Zappos as a company started, developed and grew to its full strength. This is shown in the form of Zappos culture. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiIeImBFRK4

If we examine the content of Zappos ...