According to a Twitter study, 54% of users said promotions on Twitter were what motivated them to make a purchase.
For businesses looking to capitalize on the sales potential of Twitter this holiday season, the company has recently released consumer insights and recommendations for how to use the social network most effectively.
Twitter Consumer Insights
The ideal audience for Twitter users are retail advertisers, the company explains, because they start shopping “early and heavily” and are prone to impulse purchases.
According to the study, Twitter users also intend to spend more over the holiday season versus non-Twitter users.
Here’s what’s at the top of their list this year:
- Clothing or shoes (75%)
- Gift certificates (71%)
- Movies, music or video games (65%)
- Electronics (63%)
Takeaways:
Launch your holiday campaign early, and command attention with selling points like competitive prices and positive reviews, as that’s what most users say influence their likelihood to complete a purchase.
Make your landing pages mobile-friendly, as seven out of ten Twitter users who purchase gifts online have used a mobile device to do so.
Buzz Leads To Sales
Conversations about holiday shopping reach an all time high on days like Black Friday, which is strongly correlated with sales data. Twitter offers the following example:
In November-December 2013, the correlation between conversation about buying TVs on Twitter and sales volume was 0.98 (with -1 indicating no relationship, and 1 indicating a perfect relationship). The results for laptop shopping were similar: our analysis showed a 0.84 correlation between the conversation and sales.
Takeaways:
Encourage conversation about your brand on peak shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. According to Twitter’s research, most users plan to take advantage of limited time offers during the holidays, so consider adding some of those to your marketing campaign.
Twitter’s Influence On Holiday Purchases
When a Twitter user finds a new product shared on the social network, they often end up buying in. In fact, 52% say they learned about a product they later purchased because of Twitter, and 39% say Twitter serves as their new holiday shopping list.
Twitter is also part of the purchase process for offline sales. 54% check Twitter to learn about products when at a retail store.
This study was conducted during August 2014. 2,100 U.S. holiday shoppers age 13+ were surveyed, and more than half of those surveyed said they use Twitter regularly.
