How Japanese Brands Will Use Instagram in 2019

2019 is here and marketing agencies in Japan are asking themselves,

“How to Use Instagram in 2019?”

Why?

*2018 was a giant year for social media in Japan and user adoption just keeps getting bigger and more aggressive.

*Instagram has a 50% year over year growth rate and a 45% year over year increase of females using the platform daily.

*If you don’t see the opportunity yet, then your competitor will.

Now, this is not to say all companies are suddenly going to throw out the fax machine, not at all.

However, you’d have to be completely blind not to see both the user adoption and daily penetration rates on Instagram and not identify that as a key channel for sales.

So, with that being said, here are 3 examples from our own learning lessons in 2018 and what we expect to see as a result happening in Japan for 2019.

(Start now, with this guide for getting your first 10,000 followers)

Post likes are going to become a priority

Though it’s debatable based on region, many marketers know that engagement rates tend to define the power of a profile more than the number of followers.

Why? Because engagement rates equate to trust amongst your tribe (or followers) and trust drives sales.

Additionally, with less than 91% of consumers admitting to like pages anymore, companies have to find new ways to attract, track, and work with their core customers.

As well, take into account the fact that Instagram has severally cracked down on fake accounts, auto-following apps, and other growth hacks making it harder to hack away to your first 10k Instagram followers.

So, enter the power of the post likes :)

Post engagements are important due to the aggressive ad targeting and retargeting ability to send specific ads to post engaged and video view users.

With this data, digital agencies will probably have a hay day creating new custom audiences based on who engages with the content and views videos as a oppose to automatic follower strategies and growth hacks.

Reason being is that post engaged followers are more likely to purchase than fake profile followers that were acquired via older growth hack strategies.

If done right, this approach can lead to a better post relevancy score, higher organic reach, and more ad sales from post conversions when the time is right.

(Download our Insta Guide to Getting Famous in Japan)

Creative content will outperform smart content

One of our biggest learning lessons in 2018 wasn’t what drove likes in Japan, but what drove followers.

While our previous post discussed the importance of engagements over followers, that doesn’t mean driving “opt-in” shouldn’t be a priority.

It’s just that your user “opt-in” numbers should emphasize quality over quantity.

In our case, while driving 1,000 likes with 100 yen/day wasn’t as hard as we expected, we found traditional follower strategies for new accounts tend not to work as well in Japan.

For example, anywhere else in the world followers join or follow an account for a variety of reasons based on their experience with Instagram.

Some of those reasons are often content curious based, while others happen to be algorithm gaming techniques.

After all, everyone is a marketer these days.

But not in Japan, followers of an account are not automatic but they can be cultivated.

We found out that cultivation of this process isn’t easy and not something anyone can do because cultivation of followers must follow a process of cultural acknowledgment.

This means combining cultural aspects that are more likely to drive purchase, not interest, and then integrating them into your strategy from the very beginning to create opt-in’s.

If done appropriately you’re not only delivering content, you’re delivering a “profile experience”.

And if the experience is following the rules that define the culture set, then your 2019 Instagram strategy will be fire.

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Influencer marketing will make its move

I’ve worked in influencer marketing since around 2009, specifically during the mommy blog boom.

During that time, I’ve seen a lot of trends come and go, but what I’m most interested in now is how influencer marketing will impact Japan in 2019.

For the last several years brands in Japan have found a way to work with Instagramers and YouTubers with millions of followers, and they’ve bee successful.

However, as the power of the micro influencer begins to take shape, I believe we’ll see an entirely new era of influencer marketing begin in Japan.

Let me explain.

Think about this, tens of thousands of profiles with follower bases between 5,000–50,000 exists all throughout Japan with the majority of them being untapped resources for audience reach.

These are all partnerships waiting to happen and brand ambassador networks waiting to be activated.

With the help of influencer agencies like Tokyo Creative and others, Japanese brands will have an opportunity in 2019 not only to work with influencer but create unique tribe-based communities.

This way they can focus on niche communities that they want to connect with and then use the impact that comes from Instagram to improve their sales conversions and growth in 2019.

We just published our latest online class, “How to Get Your First 10,000 Instagram Followers in Japan” — please feel free to check it out.

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