Dark Posting On Social For Your B2C Business
Today, the average person sees as many as 5,000 ads a day, and there are over 5.3 trillion display ads shown online each year. Considering these startling figures, it comes as no surprise that so many businesses are looking for new and compelling ways to capture audience attention and build brand awareness. One useful tool that stands out is dark posting. These types of posts help your business reach audiences that may not yet be following your business page without having to post directly on your profile.
In the following blog post, we’ll take a look at how dark posting on social can boost your marketing efforts and lead to greater brand awareness.
So, what exactly is Dark Social and Dark Posting?
The concept of “dark social” was coined in 2012 by Alexis Madrigal, a former editor at The Atlantic. Traditionally, dark social involves sharing content through private means, such as email, direct messaging apps, and word of mouth—making it hard to track. When it comes to social specifically, dark posting on social, or simply dark posting, refers to targeted ads and content that are sent directly to people who aren’t already following your brand, bypassing the public feed and reaching potential customers in a more direct and private way.
Hootsuite defines a dark post as:
“An unpublished social post promoted as an ad to a specific audience. It’s a post that cannot be found organically and does not appear on your brand’s timeline. Dark posts can help with split testing, and help prevent your timeline from becoming flooded with promotional posts.”
Below we breakdown why it’s an excellent option for your B2C business.
Why does dark posting matter for B2C? ?
There are numerous benefits of dark posting on social and in our opinion, top reasons you should implement a dark posting strategy include:
Great results with less spam: This is perhaps the most obvious benefit of dark posting. Dark posts are not visible on your public profile, so you can run multiple campaigns simultaneously without overwhelming your followers. You can target various audience segments while maintaining a clean and focused main feed. By avoiding the clutter that comes with frequent public postings, you ensure that your brand’s public presence remains polished and professional. This strategy helps prevent your brand from appearing spammy, maintaining a positive perception among your existing followers.
Streamlined testing: Dark posts are an easy way to A/B test your creative, content, CTAs and audiences without cluttering your page.. This experimentation helps refine your strategy and communication, leading to more effective posts and stories across the board.
Powerful targeting: Dark posts let you tailor CTAs and content for specific groups, moving them along in the customer journey. Have a collaboration with a partner brand, for example? You can target just that specific audience. . Hosting a local event? Target only the audience in the surrounding area. This hyper-focused strategy optimises your ad budget, thus maximising your ROI.
Increased reach: Dark posts allow you to reach potential customers who may not yet be familiar with your business. By specifically targeting these individuals, you can significantly expand your audience base. This approach helps introduce your products or services to a wider audience, increasing brand visibility and awareness. Over time, this strategy can lead to more meaningful connections and higher conversion rates.
Greater personalisation and higher conversion rates: Dark posts should be strategically tailored to specific audience groups. Take the preferences, behaviours, and locations of each audience segment into account when crafting your dark posts. Each segment should receive messaging and creative that is most relevant to them at any given time. By using this personalised approach, your marketing efforts will result in higher conversion rates and a stronger impact across the board especially when we know that 84% of consumers say that being treated like a person, not a number, is vital to winning their business.
Top tips for successful dark posts
So, now you know why you need to introduce dark posts into your marketing strategy, we’re here to tell you how to implement it correctly. When crafting dark posts, be sure to keep the following in mind.
Identify your target audiences: Use data analytics and other available insights to identify potential customers who might not yet be following your page. Look at demographics, interests, and online behaviours to create comprehensive and detailed audience segments.
Create compelling content with a personalised touch: Develop content that resonates with the target audience in question. For example; If you’re a restaurant that’s trying to capture the interest of older people, you’ll target older demographics. You will need to take into account what they might be most interested in. For instance, instead of targeting them with dark posts about your club nights or student offers, you might instead target them with dark posts about your extensive menu options or early bird specials. Personalised offers, engaging visuals, and messaging that addresses their specific needs and pain points is a surefire way to get better results.
Maintain consistency across all collateral: Keeping your dark posts consistent is key to making sure your brand feels the same wherever your customers may find you. When your messages match your brand's personality, values, and vibe, it builds a clear identity that your audience can connect with. This not only helps people remember your brand better but also builds trust. It’s all about making a strong, unified impression that helps you connect more deeply with your audience.
Always be transparent: Be sure to make any partnerships or sponsored content crystal clear to your audience so you don’t lose their trust. Keep in mind that 86% of consumers say they’ll take their business to a competitor if they find a brand lacking on transparency.
Analyse and optimise: Keep an eye on how your dark posts are doing with analytics tools. Monitor performance metrics like click-through rates, conversions, and engagement. This info helps you tweak your strategy and make your future campaigns even more effective. By studying these numbers, you can see what’s working well and what needs adjusting, so your marketing efforts keep hitting the mark.
Dark posting on social is a valuable tool for smart B2C businesses looking to boost their brand awareness and connect with new customers via a more targeted, personalised approach. Continuous monitoring and optimising of your strategy is crucial to achieving the best results. Embrace dark posts and expand your reach, engage new audiences, and drive tangible growth.
If you are ready to unlock new and exciting opportunities for your brand make sure to get in touch.