Demand Generation and Dark Social: How To Use Them Together

In the bustling cityscape of Chicago, businesses are continually vying for consumers' attention. At the heart of this struggle lies demand generation—a focused approach to stirring interest and awareness in what a business offers.  

This article examines how Chicago demand generation can unlock a new dimension in marketing strategies. In particular, it discusses how it synergizes with dark social, a mysterious yet potent facet of online social interactions:

• Dark social and its effect on demand generation.
• Steps in using dark social and demand generation together.

Let’s go!

Dark Social and Its Impact on Demand Generation

Coined by Alexis C. Madrigal in 2012, dark social refers to sharing content that occurs outside of what can be measured by traditional web analytics tools. In this context, "sharing" can mean anything from sending someone a link in a direct message to emailing an article. 

Despite its name, dark social is not something sinister. Instead, it is a part of the digital world that is harder to illuminate. 

The volume of consumer outbound sharing from publishers’ and marketers’ websites has increased. This trend significantly affects where traffic comes from and how businesses understand their audiences. 

Dark social is an influencing factor that shapes consumer behavior and demand. It impacts how social media affects SEO and, consequently, a brand's overall online visibility. Through it, users share content with their networks that likely share similar interests, making it a potent, albeit challenging, platform for generating demand.

Steps in Using Dark Social and Demand Generation Together

Harnessing the power of dark social in Chicago demand generation requires a strategic approach. Here, we present actionable steps to effectively integrate these two facets of digital marketing, offering a greater edge in a competitive landscape.

     1. Understanding the Audience

How well do you know your target audience? This question is what businesses must first answer when creating any marketing strategy.

Demand generation involves creating awareness and interest, unlike lead generation, which focuses on obtaining contact information. A deep audience understanding allows businesses to design personalized content that generates desire for their products or services.

Businesses have several ways to get to know their audience better. These methods include conducting surveys, monitoring social media activity, or holding focus group discussions. Analyzing demographic and psychographic data provides invaluable insights into their audience's preferences and behaviors.

For instance, with Chicago demand generation, local firms have the ability to use listening tools to capture consumer sentiment about their brand or products in the city. These insights help them tailor their dark social strategy, ensuring that their efforts hit the mark.

     2. Tracking Dark Social

After comprehensively understanding the target audience, firms must then track dark social activity. One of the challenges with dark social is its elusive nature. However, specific tools and techniques can shed some light on it.

URL shorteners or UTM parameters help track the sharing of your content. When users click on the shared links, these modified URLs provide information on your traffic source. 

Another method is to analyze direct traffic. If a long, complex URL has a large amount of direct traffic, it is likely shared via dark social channels. Employing these strategies allows businesses to get a clearer picture of the interactions, contributing to a more informed marketing strategy. 

Tracking dark social unveils valuable data that helps optimize demand generation campaigns. It provides insights into which content gets shared, who shares it, and how it affects conversions. This analysis builds a strong foundation for the next stages in the fusion of dark social and demand generation strategies.

     3. Creating Content for Dark Social

With useful data, firms can progress to creating content for dark social. Since content shared through dark social is often more personal and direct, it must be engaging, easily shareable, and valuable to the recipient.

Consider these three attributes:

• Relevance: Ensure that the content is pertinent to your audience. Offering solutions to specific problems or answering common questions makes the content appear more personal and useful.
• Simplicity: Craft content that is easy to understand. Avoid jargon and complex language, aiming instead for clear, concise messaging.
• Shareability: Encourage sharing by making it easy. Include share buttons for popular messaging apps to streamline the sharing process.

     4. Integrating Dark Social Into the Demand Generation Strategy

Once tailored content is ready, businesses can integrate their dark social findings into their demand generation strategy. The integration process may be broken down into three primary steps:

• Utilize Insights: Use the knowledge from tracking dark social to identify what resonates with your audience. Leverage these insights to refine your demand generation campaigns, making them more targeted and effective.
• Adjust Content Strategy: Modify your content based on what is most frequently shared on dark social. If a particular topic, format, or content style gets more dark social engagement, incorporate it into your strategy.
• Optimize for Conversion: Make it easy for recipients of dark social shares to take the desired action. This might include signing up for a newsletter, downloading a whitepaper, or purchasing a product. Include clear and compelling calls to action in your content.

The integration of dark social into demand generation is an ongoing process. Regularly analyze your results, optimize your strategy, and adjust as necessary to stay ahead in the dynamic digital landscape of Chicago's market.

     5. Evaluate and Refine the Strategy

As in every marketing strategy, it is crucial to evaluate and refine. Post-implementation, businesses must ascertain how well their demand generation strategies synergize with dark social. 

• Ongoing Observation: Continually monitor dark social activities using the same tracking tools. Identifying trends, patterns, or any changes in behavior can produce valuable, real-time insights about the audience.
• Assessing the Data: Periodically analyze the data gathered. This process is essential to gauge the impact of the dark social strategy on demand generation. Key metrics include heightened engagement, superior conversion rates, and increased quality leads.
• Strategic Revisions: Based on the analysis, modify the content strategy. Pivot audience targeting or overall approach to enhance dark social efforts. 

Summing Up

Integrating dark social into a Chicago demand generation plan can provide significant benefits. Digital Authority Partners (DAP) helps you navigate this integration process with precision. Contact us today to harness the power of dark social and drive your business growth.