How can software publishers generate web traffic through social networks?

Software publishers: the best web traffic acquisition specialists share their best practices with you. Let's start with Massaï: the agency has kept pace with developments in the digital world since 2001.

These (r)evolutions are always ongoing, because while there are start dates (appearance of this or that lever), there are rarely end dates. Massaï's teams are therefore in constant training, to understand the changes in platforms, algorithms, different types of reach, and so on.

But above all, we seek to understand all the finer points of social media "consumption": sometimes you're a private individual connected, sometimes an online professional.

Are your colleagues your "friends"? Do your customers "follow" you? Have your competitors created a buzz?

Social networks: stop the myths!

Contrary to popular belief, it's not just young people who use social networks: over 80% of people with Internet access in France are registered on at least one social network, with the average Facebook user aged 43!

The conversational crossroads of the web, social networks have today become media in their own right, with a considerable audience to target precisely and meticulously.

For example, you can easily reach sales managers in France, aged between 35 and 45, who have shown an interest in computer software in the last month, own their own home, are married with two children and have a monthly tax income of between €2900 and €4100.

Creating a tailor-made Social Media strategy is the key to success

To be effective, you first need to create personas, i.e. the typical customer you want to reach, in order to draw up a list of social networks to invest in. Knowing your audience's behavioral trends and understanding the logic behind each social media channel is essential to defining an effective and relevant content strategy.

In line with your marketing objectives, you also need to segment and adapt your communications by platform: Facebook users have different expectations than Twitter or Linkedin users.

In addition to professional networks (Linkedin, Viadeo, etc.), you need to bear in mind that the average user is in a moment of relaxation when he consults his social networks. They are under heavy advertising pressure all day long, and expect brands to offer entertaining, even humorous, content.

So be interesting before you're interested.

After this theoretical phase, you now need to apply these analyses and strategic reflections, by mediatizing your content in order to achieve your ultimate goal: creating conversions. Once again, there are steps to follow in order to be as effective as possible.

Media your content to gain visibility and create interaction

There are more and more users on social networks, and therefore more and more content. As a result, an average user won't be able to consult all the publications of his friends or the brand pages he follows, and this has tended for years to reduce the organic reach of publications.

Let's say you have 10,000 people following your Facebook page, with a publication reach of 2 to 5%, you'll reach between 300 and 500 people on average. Media coverage of your content is therefore essential to gain visibility and reach your objectives.

Let's start from the premise that you're not very well known, if at all (at least among your potential customers on social networks). You therefore need to prove your legitimacy and create enthusiasm before asking a user to visit your website or subscribe to your offer.

The first step will be to activate campaigns with reach-maximizing objectives, i.e. the number of people reached, in order to work on your notorietyThis will enable you to work on your brand awareness with a large audience, and to start building interest at a low cost.

This is followed by a phase of consideration and engagement through campaigns optimized for interaction. The aim here is to start creating a dialogue with your targets through expert content, such as tips, tutorials or in-depth articles: positive information.

After this period of seduction, it's time to take the plunge: generate traffic to your website!

Generate traffic and conversions to reach your goals

Start by installing the Facebook pixel, to understand your visitors' actions: what is your potential customer's typical itinerary?

How many add to the shopping cart without making a purchase? - reach the audiences that matter to you: re-target buyers? target people with the same profile as those buyers? - and analyze the effectiveness of your ads: which target generates the most clicks? The most conversions? The best profitability?

In addition to increasing awareness and creating engagement, the previous two steps have another benefit: creating personalized audiences.

Rather than re-targeting people who have never seen your content, you can re-target people who have interacted with your latest content.

People who are potentially interested in your brand. It's an effective way of lowering your acquisition costs.

But unfortunately, not all the people redirected to your website are going to subscribe to your offers, for various reasons (lengthy purchasing process, comparison with your competitors, people not sufficiently interested, etc.).

To remedy this, here's the final phase: conversion campaigns. Whether you're looking to generate visits to a particular page, sales or other specific actions, these campaigns enable you to reach people with the intention of taking the desired action.

If, for example, you want to optimize your online sales, Facebook will give priority to people who are used to making online purchases.

You'll also have a number of targeting solutions, starting with retargeting, where you try to reach people who haven't subscribed to your offers, but whose behavior on your site demonstrates a certain interest (downloading a white paper, subscribing to a newsletter, checking out without completing a purchase).

Depending on your activity, offering these people an exclusive commercial offer can be a good way of facilitating sales.

As a complement, create similar audiences of your customers, i.e. people with the same profile as your previous buyers, while refining it with other targeting criteria according to your personas, such as professional status, location, etc.

In conclusion, there's no such thing as the truth on social networks. The important thing is to test and analyze the performance of your content and advertising, so you can learn from it and optimize your campaigns. So Test and Learn!