Learn how one of Brafton's clients honed in on its most valuable social customers to generate more referral traffic and website conversions.

Industry: Home & office decor
Content: Social marketing
Highlights: Conversions from Pinterest content triples

When marketers need to prove social media strategies are delivering ROI, they may instinctively pull data about follower count growth or reference sheer engagement volume, looking for more Likes or shares in the last quarter. Engagement metrics are great indicators of what kinds of social content resonate with target audiences, but they can steer marketers down a misleading path where they think bigger audiences are better than smaller, more qualified traffic.

The success one Brafton client experienced demonstrates why it’s valuable to start with a comprehensive strategy, and use initial results to find the money audience that’s highly convertible.

Divining the ideal audience with a broader social strategy

Pinterest became the No. 1 source of referral traffic to the site, and also the primary driver of pageviews

With products that translate in to attractive visual content, the client worked with Brafton to create a social marketing strategy around those strengths. It began with a diverse approach, targeting networks like Pinterest, Facebook, StumbleUpon and Twitter.

Over time, it became clear the brand had an active audience on Pinterest that was responding well to the social content it pinned. In fact, Pinterest became the No. 1 source of referral traffic to the site, and also the primary driver of pageviews.

A company saw that its Pinterest content drove a significant amount of conversions to its site.

By refining the social strategy further to reflect followers’ preferences, the company successfully honed in its ideal audience of ready-to-convert leads. The traffic from Pinterest was fueling nearly half of all social conversions (three times as many as Facebook).

Better (not bigger) audiences mean more money

Because it had proven a results-driven network, it was surprising to see that the volume of Pinterest conversions dipped during Q3 2013, compared with data from the previous year. However, a closer look reveals that the number of individual conversions might have dropped, but the dollar value of each transaction tripled. Essentially, the company was generating more money with fewer purchases.

The dollar value of each transaction tripled

This is a sign the company had whittled down its ideal audience even further so the social content it shares is tailored to brand’s most valuable customers. It can seem risky to ignore larger audiences bases in favor of smaller pools of big spenders, but there is a sweet spot where companies that reach this point can confidently create the type of content they know loyal customers like.

It’s up to strategists and marketers to recognize when they are zeroing in on this select group and create content that generates stronger results.
