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Content marketing offers you the chance to be more transparent, and there are plenty of people that think you should be. Most notably – your customers.Read on to learn how Zappos mastered the art of transparent content marketing and became a beloved brand along the way. A lesson from Zappos If you look at the Zappos Family Core Values , you’ll find “ Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication .” “Fundamentally, We Believe That Openness And Honesty Make For The Best Relationships Because That Leads To Trust And Faith.” Zappos. The fact they’ve included this statement in their core values confirms their belief in its importance to their business model. Their entire business model revolves around delivering the best customer service possible, and they make a point of doing so in a completely transparent way – sharing their customer service interactions with the world! Transparent customer service The company pulls all tweets that mention @Zappos and @Zappos_Service and presents them in a conversations web site . Zappos averages about 40 Twitter-based conversations with its customers per day. The number climbs as high as 85 conversations on some days. In general, the team tries to respond to almost everyone who asks questions about Zappos.Ask yourself this – would your brand be willing to air it’s customer service conversations with the public? A look behind the curtain A major part of the company’s content marketing strategy is to encourage customers, and even other companies, to look behind the curtain and see how the company actually works. They are who they say they are, and they want you to see that.They have created a shopping experience that includes a YouTube Channel , a Pinterest Page , and a Digital Magazine.Within each of these channels, they include content about the inner workings of their company. Content that just wouldn’t fit in so many other communication mediums. And it works amazingly well in these channels. Zappos Insights is a department within the Zappos Family of Companies created simply to help share their culture with the world. They offer tours of the Headquarters, Q&A sessions with Zappos leaders, an Insights content membership , and full culture immersion with their 3-Day Culture Camp event.What other brand not only shares their secret of success, but also is willing to teach you how to replicate it?Now that’s transparency! Conclusion Zappos raised the bar for transparent content marketing from the inside out. Starting internally with their core values; delivering an observable customer experience externally via Twitter; and sharing the secret of their success in a variety of medias – live events, members only websites, trainings, and yes, social channels like Pinterest and Youtube.However you choose to tell your story, make it transparent, valuable, interesting, and relevant to your audience. With so many ways and channels to communicate with your customers, you can find a method for almost any message.