Snapchat is one of the fastest growing social media hubs in the world. This image sharing platform provides augmented reality to give pictures a fun and entertaining edge. Each day, more than 400 million images are sent across the social media app. Because of the interest in this platform, it’s a good idea to add Snapchat into your marketing strategies.
In any given day, people send nearly 9,000 photos on Snapchat every second. It’s a fun and engaging system that goes beyond simple text messages. Since the app also uses filters and lenses to augment reality, such as giving yourself dog ears and a nose, it adds more of an entertaining edge than other systems.
Elements like Snapchat are exceptional additions to other hot marketing tools you might be using. So, what are some ways to use this app to your advantage? Here are some of the more effective methods I’ve discovered.
Using Promo Codes
Discounts and coupons are a time-tested way to encourage sales. It’s something nearly every brand has done since before Internet technology. An extremely popular method of engaging users with your business is by sending promo codes via Snap. Since you can type these messages over an image, you can engage your audience relatively quick to entice sales.
Sharing promo codes and discounts in this manner also encourages loyalty from your followers. If they are truly interested in your products or services, they will continue to follow the account to get discounts and deals. In fact, as many as 58% of college students may be likely to purchase a product if they see a coupon on Snapchat.
If you really want to grow your following, you can advertise in-store about Snapchat-only promo codes. This empowers users as they feel like they become part of an exclusive club. It prompts a similar feeling buyers get when they pay for certain memberships.
A sign in your store reading something like, “Follow us on Snapchat to receive exclusive coupons and discounts” can be exceptionally effective. This works whether you own an eCommerce site or a brick-and-mortar business. It’s also much cheaper than advertising promo codes through advertising methods like pay-per-click campaigns.
Introduce Products or Services
As Snapchat is image-based, an effective method of using the system is by sharing pictures of new products or services. As they say, “A picture is worth 1000 words,” it’s easier to engage your target audience to buy something new if they see it in action.
While you can’t create as long of a video as you can in YouTube, a 10 second clip on Snapchat may be all that you need to demonstrate a product. And because some filters in Snapchat are built specifically for augmenting those videos, it’s also easier to add a bit of entertainment to the demonstration.
Thanks to methods like Snapchat Stories, you can take the demonstration a bit further. It’s like adding chapters to a type of image or video book. Many people have found a great deal of success promoting all kinds of information through Stories. They can also be used to promote group moments and more.
Invest in Influencer Marketing
Just like any other social platform, Snapchat is ripe for influencer marketing. This is when you partner up with a popular person on social media to promote your business. You see this used heavily in YouTube, Twitter and Facebook – and for good reason.
Nearly half of millennials connect with their favorite social influencers more than they do with friends. As a result, many companies will pay these social media celebrities to promote products or services. Depending on the popularity of the influencer, your goods could be in front of thousands of potential shoppers in a very short amount of time.
One of the most effective tips for influencer marketing on Snapchat is finding someone who fits your business niche. For instance, you wouldn’t want a person popularized for fishing to promote computer hardware. That individual’s audience is watching for fish and not home electronics. It simply wouldn’t be a good fit as you would be showing products to people who are less likely to buy.
Find an influencer who matches your company’s industry and has a similar target audience.
Share Pertinent Business Developments
A lot of companies will use social media to share company developments. Things like new office spaces, products, achievements and more are often more effective being shared on social sites like Snapchat than a traditional press release.
Sharing relevant business information works by connecting followers to the business. If users feel they are getting direct information from the company, it builds trust in the brand. Trust then leads to loyal customers and a more reliable stream of income from repeat buyers.
In reality, sharing relevant business information is similar to how influencers build their own online networks. It’s all about sharing and engaging. Although influencers are still an important part to market to Snapchat users, there’s nothing wrong with cultivating your own following by sharing business information.
For example, you can send a Snap out to your followers when you reach a certain number of customers. Perhaps you can send images related to any charity organizations your business engages. All of this is effective for building and strengthening your relationship with your base consumer.
Share Your Other Social Profiles
One thing many businesses do is promote other social profiles with each other. It helps create an intricate web to connect users from Snapchat to Facebook, LinkedIn or even Twitter.
Why is sharing other social platforms important? Because it engages an audience who may prefer one system over another. Let’s say you had a Snapchat follower who prefers to use Facebook. By promoting your Facebook profile in a Snap, that person now knows where to follow you on his or her preferred platform.
When it comes to engaging your target audience in social media, you don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket. In the example above, the user who preferred Facebook may never see a promo code from your Snapchat account. The same can be said about virtually any other social media profile.
By widening your social net, you can collect far more customers. Although some people will use more than one social account every day, a large portion of them prefer specific systems. You need to target those people while sharing your social profiles on other platforms like Snapchat.
Driving Website Traffic
Unfortunately, Snapchat is much like Instagram in that you cannot add a clickable or tappable link in your shared images. However, you can still promote website materials and URLs in your posts. This is when having an easy URL and linking strategy comes into play. For example, pretty links in WordPress make things like this much easier.
Perhaps one of the easiest methods is to simply place your site’s URL without the blog post extension. For instance, you can put, “Visit us at www.yoursitename.com for more information.” Change it up a little bit when writing text on your Snaps, though. You don’t want to use a simple cookie-cutter-style of text when sharing information.
The traffic you may receive from social media varies depending on your industry and the content. For some, it may only improve traffic by five percent. Others may experience a massive influx if the content is engaging enough.
The bottom line is the odds are very good that you will receive some kind of improvement to website traffic. Which is a bonus if your Snapchat marketing campaign was to simply show a new product.
Use Your Followers
An effective method for engaging your audience is by making them the stars of your social campaigns. You probably see this all the time when people retweet messages in Twitter or when YouTube personalities mention commentors.
When you call someone out in a social post, it validates that individual. As a result, he or she is more likely to develop a strong connection to your brand. This leads to sharing content with friends and family and reaching an audience who may not know you exist.
The most important part of social media is the “social” part. Too many businesses just add a post once a day and don’t engage the audience. This is a poor way to use such an invaluable tool. If you want to have an effective strategy, you need to include others in the conversation…even if that conversation is based on images from your followers.
Here’s an idea; why not run a campaign regarding fans sending you pictures using your product? You could give freebies, coupons and other prizes for the best pictures. This is just one of many ways you can use your followers to boost engagement in Snapchat.
Deliver Exclusive Snapchat Previews
As I mentioned before, users love the thought of having exclusive access to your business. If you want to fully take advantage of Snapchat, you can push an exclusive preview of products or services specifically for that platform.
This is similar to how some businesses run Facebook-only campaigns and coupon codes. The same effect can be achieved with a quick image shared among your followers on Snapchat. While you don’t want to completely alienate your users on other social platforms, an exclusive preview before a grand unveiling may be an effective method for marketing.
For example, let’s say you are showing off some new product or service that your business is adding but it’s not available yet. You can run an exclusive preview on Snapchat showing the goods now and then show it on all social channels once it becomes available. This gives your Snapchat users priority and makes them feel like they’re on the inside track when it comes to business information.
Promote Events and Gatherings
A popular method for using social apps like Snapchat is promoting events and gatherings. For instance, taking pictures of your business attending a local trade show can encourage followers to come and visit. It’s about sharing a business venture and letting others experience the event through imagery.
In some ways, promoting events using Snapchat works similar to delivering an exclusive preview. This is especially true if you don’t advertise the gathering on other social platforms live. Some companies, such as iHeartRadio, went viral with over 340 million impressions within two days thanks to promoting a music festival.
While I can’t guarantee your campaign will be as effective as a music festival, it goes to show just how good pictures and placements can influence engagement. Entertaining or inspirational storytelling snaps are often more effective at engaging an audience. If you can add either of those elements, it’s much easier to create viral content.
Context Cards
Context Cards add more to your images as they give users access to a variety of information regarding the Snap. For instance, you can find reviews, make reservations, find transportation to the business and find contact information.
This addition amplifies what is already available in the Snapchat Stories platform. Users can swipe up and see viable information regarding the business and have automatic information from the various partners of Snapchat such as Lyft and TripAdvisor.
Context Cards are only usable through Geofilters or the “Our Story” public feed appearing in Snap Map and Search. This means it’s not available on all aspects of the social media app. So, a basic snap of a picture to send to your group isn’t going to have the Context Card attached.
Promoted Filters
Promoted filters are the most expensive element to using Snapchat for business. These can cost more than half a million dollars for one day of advertising, so it’s less likely a small business would use them. However, these promoted filters are capable of reaching as many as 16 million viewers in a single day.
Promoted filters are those that augment reality and match your business niche. An example of this is Gatorade’s Super Bowl filter of virtually pouring the drink over those in the camera. This lens received 165 million views and increased buyer intent by eight points.
Another example is when the 2017 movie, “The Mummy” was released, users could change the eyes and facial markings of themselves to match the character in the movie.
I’m not saying that all businesses should invest in these elements of Snapchat. After all, they are a bit expensive. However, these filters and lenses have worked exceptionally well for many businesses in various industries. Everything from General Electric to McDonald’s has experienced great success thanks to the Snapchat platform.
This is merely an example of how social users today appreciate augmenting reality and adding more flare to a simple photograph.
SnapChat is also including the ability to create your own lenses for images. This means you can customize something to use with your followers that is more relevant to your business dynamic. While it may not have the same impact as paying for a sponsored filter, it’s still something that has great potential to engage your audience.
Social Media Marketing is Worth the Investment
Social media is one of the most prominent uses of Internet bandwidth across the globe. With more than half of the planet’s population logging into various social hubs, it’s worth the effort to connect to those users through apps like Snapchat. Not only will it keep your business relevant in the market, but it can help build a stronger relationship between your business and those users.