Sharing is caring: Consumers who share more likely to convert

ASIA PACIFIC - Brands should make identifying consumers who share content a priority, as they are nine times more likely to convert than those who do not do so, according to a report from RadiumOne. 

However, more than 75 percent of sharing activities occur through 'dark social' (sharing via email, text and copy-and-paste), which cannot be tracked through web analytics programmes.

“The key to success is always going to revolve around keeping abreast of consumer behaviour, wherever that many occur,” Kerry McCabe, the company's president, said in an email response to Campaign Asia-Pacific. “Tracking all sharing activity and then activating this data to drive greater paid media ROI is an easy and effective strategy for brands.”

By using analytics tools implemented in tandem with event-based pixels, McCabe said it is possible to gather, understand and activate dark-social signals across all of a brand’s paid, earned, shared and owned marketing channels across the open web and mobile.

It's important to note that sharing is not always from one person to another, according to the report. In many instances, consumers email or text themselves links, and self-sharers have a 16X lift in conversion rate. Furthermore, traffic from dark social is far less likely to be fraudulent as it requires the completion of multiple human steps.

Source: RadiumOne

“By analysing and acting upon consumer sharing signals, marketers get a real-time view into what consumers are interested in and where they are on their journey," said McCabe.

With these findings in mind, McCabe said brands need to reallign their marketing strategies since consumer behaviours is still an untapped resource for many brands. 

“The reality is that approximately 90 percent of social and sharing marketing budget is going to public social networks, yet less than 25 percent of all social and sharing activities occur there,” said McCabe.  “Re-balancing this is proving valuable for those brands already there, and focused on creating connections that matter with consumers.” 

Source: RadiumOne

Ed Terpening, industry analyst at Altimeter, said in a recent article that dark-social insights combined with consumer insights gained from apps and other social channels can help better define audience behaviour and create opportunities to engage effectively.

A few brands, such as Adidas, are trying to track communications being shared privately through messenger apps. The sportswear brand has recently set up "hyper local" communities on WhatsApp that send out exclusive release and invites to targeted consumers.