How Mountain Hardwear's Organic Content Drove a 42% Increase in Social Traffic YoY

Key Takeaways

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Mountain Hardwear, a subsidiary of Columbia Sportswear, had a +42% YoY increase in their social from Q1 2021-Q2 2021. Mountain Hardwear’s organic social strategy is largely focused on Instagram. Their organic Instagram content focuses on the following content pillars: 

• Driving Sales: MHW uses Instagram to feature products and showcase USPs. Posts utilize Instagram’s shopping feature to generate quick sales within the platform. Promotional posts generate high levels of engagement with an average engagement rate of 0.6%. 
  

• Sharing UGC: MHW features user-generated content with inspirational captions to engage with its audience and inspire people to explore the outdoors. Additionally, MHW utilizes UGC to showcase its products. UGC helps supplement MHW's social content while reinforcing its brand trust. 
  

• Promoting Social Initiatives: MHW promotes the visibility of LGBTQIA2S+ guides and instructors on Instagram by celebrating highlights from its LGBTQIA2S+ SPI training courses. Furthermore, they promote their CSR pledge to sustainability through Instagram.
  

• Education: MHW cross-promotes its blog content on Instagram with CTAs to read more in the link in their bio. MHW partners with outdoor experts to create informative content for its audience. 
  

• Showcasing MHW Athletes: MHW features its brand athletes and ambassadors on Instagram and highlights their accomplishments/achievements.. MHW's brand athletes and ambassadors help increase awareness and act as brand advocates.

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Mountain Hardwear, a subsidiary of Columbia Sportswear, had a +37% YoY increase in worldwide web traffic from Q1 2021-Q2 2021. 

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During Q1 2021-Q2 2021, their social traffic increased by +42% YoY. Social traffic was predominantly from mobile which made up 68% of the total social traffic.

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Mountain Hardwear’s organic social strategy is largely focused on Instagram. In Q1-Q2 2021, Instagram posts made up 87% of their total published content.  MHW’s Instagram account has more followers than their Facebook, Youtube and Twitter accounts combined.

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Instagram Strategy: Content Pillars

From Q1 2021 to Q2 2021, Mountain Hardwear published five main types of posts on their Instagram profile:

• Driving Sales
• Sharing UGC
• Promoting Social Initiatives
• Education
• Featuring MHW Athletes

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Driving Sales

1. Product Feature. MHW uses Instagram to feature products and showcase USPs. MHW utilizes Instagram’s product tags feature to generate quick sales within the platform. 

2. Sale. MHW drives awareness about their sales with organic Instagram posts and encourages their followers to shop the sale with a CTA in post captions to visit the link in their bio.

Avg. ER: 0.6% 

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Avg. ER: 0.2%

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Sharing UGC

1. Inspirational UGC. MHW features user-generated content with inspirational captions to build a stronger connection with their audience and to inspire people to explore the outdoors. A majority of these photos are from professionals. They credit the source in their captions.

2. Product UGC. MHW uses UGC of people wearing/using their products to showcase their products and help drive sales. UGC increases MHW’s brand credibility and supplements its social content. 

Avg. ER: 0.6%

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Avg. ER: 0.3%

Fact: 85% of consumers find UGC more influential than any form of brand content

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Promoting Social Initiative

1. LGBTQIA2S+ SPI. MHW highlights content from their queer- and trans-centred training course that they help fund on their Instagram. MHW's mission behind the program is to help increase the visibility of LGBTQIA2S+ guides and instructors while providing a welcoming environment for the LGBTQIA2S+ community.

2. Sustainability. MHW uses their Instagram as a platform to share their dedication to eliminating single-use plastics as a company.

Avg. ER: 0.34%

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Avg. ER: 0.2%

Fact: 77% of consumers are more willing to purchase from a company with a CSR pledge.

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Education

1. Tips from Experts. MHW partners with outdoor experts to create informative articles for their audience. MHW promotes these blogs on Instagram and tags the outdoor expert in the caption.

2. Blog Content. MHW cross-promotes its blog content on Instagram to drive visitors to its site by using a CTA to read the full article in the link in their bio.

Avg. ER: 0.34%

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Avg. ER: 0.33%

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Featuring MHW Athletes

1. Mountain Hardwear Athlete. MHW highlights its brand athletes and ambassadors on Instagram. Athletes and Ambassadors include climbers, boulderers, competitive climbers, a routesetter, mountaineers, a rock guide, a photographer, an alpinist and a big mountain skier. 

MHW's brand athletes and ambassadors help increase awareness and act as brand advocates.

Avg. ER: 0.32%

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In Q1 2021-Q2 2021, Mountain Hardwear primarily posted photo and carousel posts. These posts tend to generate higher engagement rates relative to video and IGTV posts.

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