Why The UK is great at driving traffic through social engagement

According to new research by Adobe, UK brands drove the most consumers to their websites through social media, in comparison with other European countries, with an average website traffic rate of 4.6% in 2015.

Adobe used Marketing Cloud data combined with a survey related to the online habits of over 5,000 consumers across Europe to look at how brands should use the web and social media to enhance customer experience.

Responses showed the most popular platforms for consumer brand engagement were the older ones such as Facebook, with 90% of those who use Facebook saying they use it to follow brands.

UK consumers are again near the top of the list when it comes to using newer platforms such as Snapchat (20%) and Instagram (31%). And it also leads the way when it comes to using Twitter, as just under half of consumers say they have a profile.

The figures also show that over half of those using Instagram, half using Twitter and a third of Snapchat users are using the platforms to follow or interact with brands.

The report highlights that consumers want proper, contextual ads. Under half of those questioned think social channels are getting better at providing relevant ads and content. On a positive note, 33% say they don’t mind seeing adverts from brands they don’t follow as long as they are relevant, indicating that there is certainly opportunity and reason to focus further on this area of engagement.

Managing analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, Becky Tasker, said that the challenge for brands lies in how they can make the most of social engagement whilst combining it with the overall customer journey. “By honing their advertising even more and creating exciting, more personalised content that users want to engage with and share regularly, brands can be assured of greater success, and really take their marketing to the next level,” she added.

Making the most of social media is a consideration that few businesses can ignore and many of our clients have used these platforms to good effect.  The platforms offer a powerful tool for targeting specific audiences, for example when launching a new product or service.

Gardening and hand tool manufacturer Spear & Jackson recently launched a new power tools range. For this we used both Google and Facebook ads to target in on those users with an interest in gardening, defining the audience by age and location.

For Vp Groundforce on the other hand, we opted for LinkedIn to promote their specialist excavation training courses, targeting by job title and industry.

Whatever your message or audience you really can’t afford to ignore social media. It is the way of the future when it comes to target-specific marketing and with a specialist to guide you, jump on the band wagon and see where it takes you.