Client: Eyecandy Lash Beauty (@eyecandy.lashbeauty)

Campaign Timeline: November 2, 2023 - December 15, 2023 (~7 weeks)

Objective: to increase user engagement on Instagram

Deliverable: engagement campaign consisting of weekly Instagram story polls

Eyecandy Lash Beauty is an eyelash and brow bar located in Katy, Texas. Taking place on the business's Instagram stories every week, this campaign consisted of beauty-related polls to learn about their audience's personal beauty preferences and opinions on trends, and ultimately increase their engagement on Instagram.

For the first two weeks of the campaign, we used basic questions in the polls—I'm talking very basic questions such as "Are you team lashes or team brows?" and "Which is better: [this] or [that]?"

Naturally, it also made sense to use photos showcasing Eyecandy's work for these particular polls. After all, the questions were directly related to the business's services. For example, the poll about lash extensions vs. lash lifts utilized client photos that highlighted those services.

Starting with basic questions gave me a good idea of what I was working with. Together, Eyecandy and I learned:

Which users participated in the polls (and which users didn't participate),

Which days of the week and times of the day users are most likely to engage, and

Which themes piqued the audience's interest

This data was super important. Not only did we learn the basic who/what/when for the campaign's execution, but we also used our findings to improve our strategy for the remainder of the campaign period.

By the third week, we found ourselves in a small rut: we ran out of questions for the polls. I mean, there are limited questions we could ask about eyelash and eyebrow styles before they get redundant (and we don't ever want to get to that state!).

So what do you do when you get stuck? The answer: you get creative; you think outside of the box.

So that's what we did. For the next phase, we expanded our poll questions to lean into broader topics like lash and brow trends. Soon, the questions encompassed more general topics on beauty, such as personal routines and makeup preferences.

Broadening the poll topics also allowed us to use a wider range of visuals. For these polls, we didn't use Eyecandy's client photos; instead, I used images that referenced pop culture (e.g., films, celebrities, etc.).

Leveraging the questions' relevance and the audience's familiarity with the images' subjects proved to be beneficial. I found that:

Polls that covered broad trends had more votes than polls that were explicitly related to Eyecandy's services. Although the business does offer services that fall into current beauty trends (e.g., lash extensions and nanoblading), questions directly tied to such services were too focused for the audience. On the other hand, the questions that extend beyond the scope of eyelashes and eyebrows were broad enough to be relevant to more people.

Polls that utilized images referencing pop culture had higher engagement rates than polls utilizing images of hyper-niche subjects. The images showcasing runway makeup and beauty did not resonate with Eyecandy's audience, but the images that included celebrities donning certain makeup and beauty trends did.

As the campaign went on, we watched the views and votes rise and drop. But ultimately, the business's goal was met!

Let's take a look at the numbers:

During the course of the campaign, Eyecandy’s impressions increased by 21.1%.

Additionally, their user engagement increased by 45.1% compared to that of previous months.

Eyecandy's goal to increase their user engagement was met after executing an engagement campaign on their Instagram stories. By polling the audience, we were able to determine which services were popular among their clients and which topics resonated with their target audience.

Consequentially, we also learned more about Eyecandy's audience patterns of behavior—specifically, we learned which users are more likely to engage with the business's content, when those users are more likely to engage, and what topics are more likely to drive engagement.

And as marketers do, I keep track of this data to inform and improve any work I do. This was a success story, and I plan to use what I learned to share with my clients and readers like you *wink!*