CASE STUDY:

KonMari by Marie Kondo

Using an intentional editorial strategy to grow organic traffic by 72% and boost email list size & engagement, without losing sight of the brand’s voice or philosophy.

BRAND BUILDING & THOUGHTFUL GROWTH MARKETING

EDITORIAL STRATEGY, SEO STRATEGY, PARTNERSHIPS, EMAIL MARKETING, & LIST-BUILDING

The client

Invented by Marie Kondo, the KonMari Method is a simple but effective organizing system that uses a transformative criterion: choosing what sparks joy. KonMari is Marie’s official brand, which includes other initiatives like the KonMari Club, a member-only, year-long membership for self-improvement, and the KonMari Consultant Program, a certification course for future professional organizers.

The challenge

KonMari is a rare brand: instantly recognizable, emotionally resonant, and globally associated with its founder’s voice.

The challenge wasn’t creating content. Instead, we needed to figure out how to grow and evolve a founder-led brand through editorial and marketing channels when the founder is no longer the primary driver of day-to-day content. That meant prioritizing trust, tone, and philosophy while expanding the brand’s offerings, relevance, and reach.

The objective

Serve as the fractional editorial director and sole writer for KonMari.com, translating the KonMari philosophy into scalable, search-driven content that generates meaningful traffic, supports partnerships, and anchors the brand’s broader marketing ecosystem.

Our main goal

Drive sustained, high-intent traffic to the site that converts across the full customer journey, from newsletter sign-ups to paid offerings, including the Shop at KonMari, KonMari Club, and the KonMari Consultant Program.

The Results

From 2023–2025, content-led growth at KonMari drove a 48.82% increase in total sessions, with organic traffic up 72%, making it the site’s primary acquisition channel. Email traffic grew 115%, supported by the development and launch of several new lead magnets (quiz, workbooks, etc.) and consistently above-benchmark open and click-through rates.

Editorial content was the primary driver of organic performance: 17 of the top 25 ranking pages were articles I authored, with the remaining eight SEO-optimized Method pages written or overhauled by me between 2022 and 2024.

How we did it

built a scalable editorial system

Translated Marie’s philosophy and voice into clear editorial principles and formats, allowing a single writer to consistently produce content that felt like KonMari while supporting long-term growth.
executed a balanced SEO content strategy

Much like the KonMari Method itself, this work prioritized thoughtful, long-term impact—optimizing for meaning and audience, not vanity traffic.
I led multi-year keyword research, content planning, and optimization initiatives to create evergreen editorial articles and Method pages that now drive the majority of the site’s organic traffic.
brought an editorial voice to email and partnerships

I wrote all partnership content and campaigns for the primary email list, extending KonMari’s instantly recognizable voice and tone across platforms and external collaborations.
This approach turned high-performing site content into a consistent engine for subscriber growth and paid conversions across the brand.
leveraged metrics to iterate & grow

By tracking traffic, rankings, and engagement over time, we refined topics, formats, and conversion paths—strengthening both KonMari’s editorial authority and marketing outcomes without compromising brand integrity.