Elle Japan – A Custom Social Engagement Strategy and Instagram SEO
Client Details
| Industry | Lifestyle brand encompassing luxury fashion, cafe, etc. |
| Service | Operations for a wide range of businesses primarily focusing on media-related activities, luxury fashion brands, cafes, sports, entertainment, and travel |
| Target market | Fashion-sensitive men and women in their early 20s to early 30s |
| Objective | Optimizing relevant hashtags for the latest lifestyle information searched by the target audience through an Instagram SEO strategy. Establishing a localized Parisian image for the ELLE brand in Japan by strategically using hashtags to increase followers and engagement |
Effectiveness of B to C Instagram SEO Strategy
Instagram SEO Strategies for Increasing Brand Awareness in the Japanese Market
A list of Instagram SEO clusters that captures the middle ground between the client’s needs and the target market’s needs
At Humble Bunny, we initiate our process by thoroughly understanding the client’s priorities. Since our primary goal is to ensure client satisfaction in all projects, in addition to conducting in-depth market research, we delve further into the client’s story, current situation, and key challenges. We then collaborate to determine how to effectively leverage their strengths for the Instagram SEO strategy.
Here are our steps for planning Instagram SEO strategy:
1. Market research (including competitors’ analysis) and hearing session with the client
2. Researching and listing Instagram SEO clusters (categories)
3. Selection of Instagram SEO clusters
4. Research and compilation of Instagram SEO hashtags
5. Final selection of Instagram SEO hashtags
Among the above steps, Step 2. Researching and listing Instagram SEO clusters (categories) is crucial as it determines the success of the Instagram SEO strategy. We spend time thoroughly researching and analyzing both the client’s needs and the market, extracting topics that even the client might not have known.
After creating the Instagram SEO strategy, we developed our original engagement metrics. Based on these metrics, we selected sub-topics with a high number of posts and significant engagement levels. We then conducted another layer of detailed research based on the selected sub-topics, compiled a final list of hashtags, and prioritized those that scored high with our engagement metric.
By adding the brand’s original hashtags to the list, which were not based on the engagement metric, we successfully created a balanced list of hashtags that takes into consideration both the brand’s and the market’s perspectives to increase ELLE’s brand awareness.
*Part of the Instagram SEO hashtag list
*Part of the Instagram SEO hashtag brand/market positioning map
By creating a market positioning map alongside a list of hashtags, we assessed whether the hashtags were primarily targeted towards the market (target users), the ELLE brand, or struck a well-balanced position between the two. This assessment helped us strategically plan the use of hashtags in the posts.
Strategic hashtag posting for increased followers and engagement
To enhance ELLE brand awareness by increasing followers and engagement, we devised a hashtag posting strategy focusing on the following three points:
1. Posts with a focus on descriptive content-topic hashtags
2. Creating posts combining high and low-posting hashtags to make them more inclusive and niche (combining high-posting hashtags with low-posting brand hashtags)
3. Including community hashtags in posts
By strategically combining various types of hashtags, we can create unique posts specific to the ELLE brand. Hashtags describing ELLE’s brand products tend to have a greater number of posts, as they depict target users’ behaviors, motivations, and emotions. By combining these with content topics, we analyzed that we can further increase the number of followers and overall engagement, and crafted the plan based on the learning.
We also speculated that we will be able to reach niche target users by creating a well-balanced mix of less popular hashtags and the commonly used popular hashtags, and proposed combining high, medium, and low post-volume hashtags. Additionally, we suggested including community hashtags such as “join the club” or “want to connect with the like-minded” to expand reach to previously undiscovered communities.
Report on the Brand’s Instagram Account AFTER Strategic Hashtag Posting: Followers’ and Engagement Perspective
The results of the Instagram SEO measures implemented through the hashtag posting strategy are shared monthly, accompanied by a multifaceted and data-driven analysis; it explains which posts led to a daily increase in followers, and which hashtags generated high engagement. We record the categories and hashtags that received a response from the target users, using them for the next posts. The report is submitted to the client with a focus on the PDCA cycle, focusing on concrete next steps rather than solely analyzing the data.
*Part of the Instagram SEO strategy report
The Key to Achieving Results in B to C Instagram SEO Lies in Precise Market Research and Analysis Based on Engagement Metrics
It is important to understand the evolving trends of the target audience in real time. Staying informed about market trends and competitors’ movements helps a company understand its position, and visualizing engagement on social media as data and analyzing concrete figures enables the creation of data-driven strategies, going beyond just intuition and trends.
As mentioned earlier, at Humble Bunny, our mission is not only to deliver results but also to assist clients in achieving their goals and happiness. We strive to support clients through various marketing activities, including Instagram SEO strategies, fostering a collaborative approach in our communication, and dedicating ourselves to projects every day.