What's the secret to successful corporate LINE operations? The key lies in the depth of relationships with "friends" (Part 1)

Among the many SNS platforms, LINE is becoming an indispensable communication tool in our daily lives. For businesses and customers alike, promotions and marketing utilizing LINE are now essential. While many companies operate LINE accounts, many also harbor doubts and concerns about their efforts, such as "Are we really using LINE effectively?" or "It feels like we're putting in a lot of effort without seeing results." What are the key points for success in LINE operations, and what mindset is necessary for companies?

This time, we asked Yoshimi Ogino of Dentsu Digital Inc., who is involved in designing marketing communications, creative direction, and analysis for SNS centered around LINE, to explain corporate LINE management. We present this in two parts: Part 1 and Part 2.

LINE's strength lies in its ability to deliver both "quality" and "quantity" in communication

Q. If asked, "What are the benefits for companies using LINE?", how would you respond?

Ogino: The biggest benefit is the ability to implement marketing strategies across the entire funnel in a way that naturally integrates into consumers' lives. I believe LINE's major advantage is its flexibility to adapt to the specific marketing challenges each company faces.

LINE continues to evolve beyond being just an SNS or communication app; it's becoming an indispensable life platform. In that sense, I don't think there's any other communication tool currently available that offers both the reach to targets and the depth of communication, combining both "quantity" and "quality" like LINE does.

Q. Should companies that haven't yet adopted LINE actively start implementing it?

Ogino: It's hard to say definitively; it depends on the specific challenges the company faces. For instance, LINE implementation would be effective for companies struggling with "inadequate customer nurturing." Conversely, for companies where "low service awareness makes brand recognition the top priority," starting with platforms like Twitter might actually be more effective.

Even among companies actively pursuing marketing strategies—like maintaining accounts across all major SNS platforms—surprisingly few can fully visualize and understand how each initiative contributes to the customer journey or marketing funnel. The appropriate approach depends on the company's specific challenges, their level of understanding, and their current strategies.

As a past example, we consulted with a company wanting to develop a usage tracking feature for their product. They were unsure whether to offer this feature via LINE or a native app. After internal verification, we concluded that offering it via LINE was optimal, based on the client's target age group, lifestyle, and product usage scenarios. However, I feel that if the target audience or circumstances had been different, we might have concluded, "In that case, it would be better to do it via a native app rather than LINE."

The key lies in whether the data acquired via LINE is being effectively utilized.

Q. I've heard that many companies already using LINE reach out for advice. What specific challenges do these companies typically face?

Ogino: The most common issue is when companies regularly post information on LINE and have a large number of users registered as "friends" on their official account, yet they aren't effectively utilizing the data collected there. Particularly, many companies fall into the trap of not sufficiently understanding who their "friends" following them actually are. They operate with low resolution, only delivering "what the company wants to say." This results in a situation where what the "friends" genuinely want to know isn't being delivered.

When implementing marketing initiatives, it's generally standard practice to clarify the target audience to some extent through persona setting and user insights before executing communication strategies. LINE also allows for such detailed targeting (*). Beyond basic demographics like gender, age group, and location, it's possible to analyze data on what content your "friends" typically engage with and what genres they've recently shown interest in. This enables highly granular communication segmentation. However, many companies still aren't fully leveraging this capability.

For example, if you have 100 "friends" and send the same message to all 100, some friends will receive information they don't want and perceive it as "noise." As a result, the message content might not be read properly or get ignored unread, leading to inefficient communication. We often hear concerns like this: companies are aware of the issue but don't know how to solve it.

Another common concern is about the output side: companies have data and understand what products or items their target audience is interested in, but they don't know what kind of message to craft, or what strategy or UI/UX to implement to effectively deliver it to their target audience.

Q. While LINE inherently enables nuanced communication tailored to target preferences, this potential often remains untapped. That's where you come in to support these concerns, right? By the way, what KPIs are typically set?

Ogino: Typically, we establish LINE's KGI (Key Goal Indicator) linked to the client company or brand's KGI, then build a KPI tree from there. However, we also design KPIs tailored to the specific purpose of the LINE campaign or each phase as needed.

For example, for companies that have implemented ordering or delivery functions on LINE, KPIs would be "number of purchases," the preceding "number of clicks," and the step before that, "number of message opens." For companies without their own e-commerce sites that can't track sales, metrics like "number of clicks" or "number of website visits" become the indicators.

As for LINE-specific metrics, the primary one is "number of friends." This applies not just to LINE but other SNS platforms too: if users don't follow your account, delivering content becomes difficult. Especially with LINE, messages won't reach users unless they're "Friends." So the first step, from a "quantity" perspective, is figuring out how to increase "Friends" = "users you can reach." Next, you consider how to avoid being blocked by existing "Friends" and how to acquire new "Friends."

Q. I see. Earlier you mentioned LINE is a tool that combines "quantity" and "quality." Now we've discussed the clear "quantity" metric of "friend count." What are the key points for LINE from a "quality" perspective?

Ogino: We consider what kind of brand experience should be delivered to what kind of friends to achieve our stated goals. For example, companies aiming to "increase customer LTV (Life Time Value)" are proactive about linking LINE IDs with their own e-commerce member information. This allows them to obtain detailed information, such as how many times a person named Mr. A, who has a LINE ID, purchases products on their e-commerce site each year. Once this is possible, they can send messages via LINE encouraging someone who orders twice a year to make a third purchase. By segmenting LINE "friends" based on their level of engagement with the brand and then communicating appropriately with each segmented group, it becomes possible to engage in communication that further enhances brand power.

Additionally, since action results like content click-through rates during regular operations can be obtained as quantitative data, A/B testing of creative elements is feasible. For instance, you might find that pink performs better than blue in a two-color tone and manner test. The qualitative benefits of LINE communication lie in the ability to improve "Friends" engagement and nurture customers through content refinement, coupled with the capability to monitor these initiative results over time and drive the PDCA cycle.

LINE combines both the "quantity" and "quality" of communication, making it one of the most accessible social networks in our daily lives as a life platform. In the upcoming second part, we'll discuss the changing importance of LINE in marketing and how "friends" are perceived on LINE.

• The Secret to Successful Corporate LINE Management? The Key Lies in the Depth of Relationships with "Friends" (Part 2)

※Audience Segment Distribution: This audience data is based on "assumed attributes" within LINE Family Services. These attributes classify users using their registered gender, age group, and area information, combined with their behavioral history, content viewing trends within LINE, and ad exposure data within LINE. Additionally, actual purchase locations are referenced as "purchase experience" in a non-personally identifiable manner ("assumed attributes" do not include mobile carrier or OS). "Presumed attributes" are classifications based on gender, age group, and area information registered by LINE users within the LINE Family Services, along with their behavioral history, content viewing trends within LINE, and ad exposure information within LINE (the information used for classification does not include sensitive data such as phone numbers, email addresses, address books, or chat content). Please note that attribute estimation is performed statistically and does not identify specific individuals. Furthermore, we do not provide personally identifiable information to third parties (such as advertisers).