Tips and Tricks For Using Snapchat For Business

When Snapchat was first released back in 2011, it wasn't intended to be used by businesses to raise brand awareness.

But with Snapchat’s rise to prominence in the digital world, it has become one of the newest and best ways to promote your business.

With over 100 million daily active users and 400 million snaps per day, Snapchat is one of the fastest-growing social media channels with 71% of its users aged 18-34. But even if your audience doesn't fall into that demographic, Snapchat is becoming a vital part of social media marketing - and yet, many marketers are still struggling to thrive with it.

The platform lets users take a photo or video which lasts for up to 10 seconds. You can then include fun face recognition effects, filters, digital crayons, text and emojis. The limited lifespan makes snapchat the perfect tool for delivering a call to action that creates excitement and a sense of urgency.

Increasing brand awareness is typically the most common reason businesses use conventional social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but Snapchat is a great way to showcase your brand’s personality and creativity.

When using Snapchat to promote your business, you need to focus less on direct marketing and more about telling stories using Snapchat’s ‘Story’ feature to compile images and videos that last for 24 hours.

The difficulty businesses have faced with Snapchat is its lack of audience insights. The only information you can gain from Snapchat are usernames and you can’t define age, gender or location. This can be an issue if you’re trying to define what audience is viewing your Snapchats. However, with Snapchat, you can increase your community engagement and brand awareness through innovative marketing campaigns, a few of which we will explore below:

Giveaways

Businesses often use social media to host giveaways asking fans to like, retweet, share and comment for a chance to win something in return. Snapchat can be used in the same way and its popularity with a young target market coupled with its ability to create and share offers and vouchers in a matter of minutes, makes it the perfect tool for this. It can also be a great tool to not only reward customers, but to create excitement ensuring your customers keep on checking back for more offers or exclusive content.

Product Promotion

Businesses and celebrities sometimes also use the app to promote new products and ask users to ‘Screenshot’ their Snap to redeem a discount. A few brands have also offered to send discount codes to customers who send them Snaps using their products. Not only is this a great way to pick up content for future social media posts but it’s also a great way to attract people to follow your Snapchat account.

So now a few of our Snapchat top tips:

Keep it short.

Mobile video is often viewed in bursts by people who have a low attention span. Therefore, it’s always best to keep your snapchat story short and sweet. Individual videos taken with Snapchat are limited to 10 seconds, but over the course of a day, you can collect multiple snaps into an overall “story” that friends can watch all at once.

Take people behind the scenes.

Snapchat can be a great place to tease followers with secret content. If your company does a lot of interesting behind the scenes work, share it! Fans of your business love an inside view of your business and Snapchat is the perfect platform for this. At the end of the story, include a teaser and send fans to your website or to your other social media channels.

Product Sneak peeks.

Sneak peeks on Snapchat are one way to build customer loyalty and buzz around a new product before it even hits the shops. Your brand’s Snaps could include a string of teasers leading up to the product launch.

When you send out an image of your new product, treat your community like personal friends rather than customers.

In late 2015, Taco Bell wanted a friendly and convenient way to reach their customers with information about the new beefy crunch burrito. Snapchat fit their needs perfectly due to its popularity with their target market.  

Tell customers about holiday specific sales and events

Sending snaps of a holiday related greeting or invitation is a great way to keep your brand at the forefront of your customer’s minds throughout any holiday season. Use Snapchat to promote your brand or products to customers long before they decide to shop.

But you don't have to wait for the major holidays. Every month comes with lesser-known celebrations like ‘International talk like a pirate day’ or ‘Chocolate milkshake day’. These are prime opportunities to engage with your fans in a new and interesting way.

What do you think? How are you currently using Snapchat for your business? Let us know your experience and thoughts and if you think you might like a little help, why not get in touch.