Snapchat is a social platform that has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years. It now boasts an active user base of more than 530 million, and an average of 3-7 minutes are spent on the app per session. Snapchat is a powerful social media marketing tool for reaching new audiences.
Not only that, but Snapchat is more popular with a younger audience than other social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook. It presents an enormous opportunity for marketers to tap into this platform's market potential and establish a strong brand presence among millennials.
Let’s start with our tips.
Know your Audience
Snapchat marketing is a superpower because it allows brands to create content that resonates with their audience. Successful companies know as much about the people they are targeting so that they can make sure their product or service will be something your fans want and need.
Knowing your audience can be challenging, especially when you're dealing with a younger demographic. But it's essential to making the most of social media marketing on Snapchat.
- What do your fans want?
- Do they like jokes?
- Can you share advice like beauty tips?
- Do they like music?
Understanding what your Snapchat followers and fans need and turning that into valuable content can go a long way toward improving your brand's image and sales conversion rates. Audience insights tool in snapchat can also help you with this.
Understand Snapchat's Features
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Before you start a marketing campaign on this social media platform, you need to understand how it works. If your plans are too complicated or present too many hurdles for users to interact with your brand, they will lose interest and move on.
For example, there are three different types of snap stories you can send to your audience.
- The first type is the story snap, which lasts 24 hours and gets posted into your friends' feeds automatically.
- The second type is the chat snap, which functions like direct messages, only lasts up to 10 seconds, and allows you to interact with your followers in real time.
- The third type of snap is an individual post that shows up on someone's feed when they swipe right on it or tap "see more" at the bottom of their screen.
Some Key Features of the App Include:
Interactive Filters: These digital overlays add fun visual elements to enhance a user's selfie or photo while adding brand messaging. This feature has helped promote brands like McDonald's during holidays like Halloween.
Snapchat Lenses: The lenses allow users to take advantage of face recognition technology and put silly faces on their selfies and other objects in the background. Over the past few months, brands like Airbnb have used the lenses as a great tool to attract customers because it allows users to share custom filters while telling their friends about their experiences with the brand.
Snap Story Ads: The Snapchat advertising platform is designed to allow marketers and businesses to show targeted ads across the app. They're called Snap ads, and they're easily integrated into your existing marketing plans.
With Snap Ad tracking, you can see precisely how your efforts are paying off so that you don't waste any more time or resources on ineffective ads.
Discover New Channels
Snapchat is one of the fastest-growing platforms globally, but that doesn't mean you have to jump on board without knowing anything about it. On a platform like Snapchat, you can create tons of different things as an advertising channel for your company or product. Try sampling them out before investing in ads through an app like "Spectacles."
Use the Right Snapchat Filter
Snapchat offers custom filter functionality that is an easy way for brands to connect with their audience, and the average user loves them. However, if you're looking to compete in a crowded field, you need to make sure your branding message stands out from all the others. This is why you should always use a filter that represents your brand, thereby creating something fun and memorable for each marketing campaign.
Choose the Types of Content You'll Publish
source: digitalmarketinginstitute.com
Once you've crafted your brand message and decided which Snapchat filter to use, it's time to figure out what type of content you're going to publish. Here are a few ideas:
- Behind the Scenes: If follower base wants to know more about your product or service, behind-the-scenes videos can do just that! It allows them a peek into how things work in real life, so they feel more connected with your company or brand.
- Product Demos: A demo video is essential if you have new products that might confuse some of your fans who aren't very tech-savvy. You will also show their younger followers how easy it is to use certain products like contact lenses to purchase them too.
- How-to Tutorials: People love learning new things, significantly when the content can help them look and feel better. Consider doing weekly or monthly how-to on beauty tips for makeup or skin treatments so that they remember your brand.
- Industry tips: You can share tips and tricks through Snapchat stories to help people solve real-life problems, whether it's clothing care, cooking, or household repairs. You can even create a fun how-to guide on social media use so they'll think of you every time they need one of your products and services.
- Reactions Industry News: This is something new that Snapchat has added recently and it helps your potential clients keep up with news in their industry. It's a great way to show them that you're on the pulse of what's happening in the market, so they know who to trust when it comes time to make their next purchase.
Experiment With Video Content
If you have video content, this can increase brand awareness by telling the story of your product or service through relevant stories for each platform. Create different types of videos to see which one is getting more views and engagement.
You will reach out to people in different ways without losing your authenticity because video marketing is such an effective tool. Every company needs a voice but finding it has been difficult for many until now. Using videos on Snapchat will help you deliver your message in creative new ways and give you a personal touch so that your followers feel closer to you.
Track Your Engagement
Not having data is like flying blind and so tracking engagement and analytics is essential. If you want to know which type of content works best for your brand, data is the way to find out. If your followers are more engaged with your business' story, they'll remember it when they need one of your products or services and will be more likely to purchase from you.
Stop Being a Perfectionist
On Snapchat, you're able to use 10-second videos that are not as polished as other content you produce. They give your content an ephemeral nature and you use it to your advantage by making these videos seem more image-heavy. It will allow for a higher post engagement, so try using maps and other visual imagery with the text overlays for an exciting story. Use Snapchat for Business to grow it.
Use Hashtags (#) in Captions
As on other platforms, it's best to use hashtags for Snapchat because it allows your followers to find new stories that they might be interested in quickly. While not as effective as other forms of social media, hashtags can help you build a larger audience than just your current followers. Hashtags can also help you find like-minded businesses to connect with, which can be mutually beneficial in the long run.
Give People a Reason to Follow You
You can give your audience a reason to follow you through Snapchat by posting stories that are both educational and entertaining. If someone looks at your story and thinks it's interesting, they might make a note of the username so they can check out other stories you've posted in the past.
Being active on Snapchat means that you need to have an account on this platform. You can do this by following different accounts that deal with products related to yours or from brands in your industry. This will help build up your followers much faster than posting content without engaging anyone yourself first.
Leverage the Platform for Great Results
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Snapchat is an excellent platform for getting people involved and engaging them in your brand. Here are a few reasons why you need to consider using Snapchat as part of your marketing strategy for this year.
Engagement
As far social media platforms go, Snapchat experiences one of the highest forms of engagement out of any social media platform. If you're trying to run a business, then there's no way that you can call yourself successful without an engaged following that serves as your customer base.
Your followers will feel like they have a personal relationship with you by watching videos from your perspective. Everybody knows that it's not just about the product or service but how much thought goes into creating something so valuable and unique. By including live stories in your Snapchat marketing plan, you'll be able to show people every side of your business.
Reach a Young Audience
Snapchat is an excellent platform for reaching out to a younger audience. If you want to get the attention of millennials or Generation Z members, then this is the best way to do it. This demographic uses social media more than any other generation, and they're looking for brands that are willing to reach out to them where they are most comfortable.
By using relevant hashtags with your story, you can start making meaningful connections with people who can use your services or directly purchase some product from you. The word-of-mouth referrals will take care of themselves when likes and hearts are used in your snaps.
Gain Authenticity
One of the most important things you need to do with social media marketing is creating an authentic presence. Snapchat provides an excellent opportunity for brands to be more personable and less corporate, which not many businesses take advantage of.
Using real people in your videos and stories (real content marketing) will help foster trust with your current audience and attract new users looking for this type of personality from businesses like yours. In addition, it will be beneficial if you try posting some behind-the-scenes content that shows off some employees working hard or even looking inside the office with everyone having fun together.
Summary
The snapchat marketing tips shared in this blog post are a great starting point for your Snapchat marketing strategy. If you need help with the implementation of these strategies, get in touch.
We have an experienced team of marketing experts ready to work on your project and create successful campaigns to promote your brand using social media platforms like Snapchat. Contact us today to learn more about our services or how we can put together a custom plan just for you.
