You’ve probably heard plenty of reasons to market on Facebook and start Google ad campaigns. These are excellent places to target your marketing, but you might be missing out on potential customers and sales if you haven’t yet introduced yourself to Snapchat marketing.
While Snapchat may not seem like the most business-forward platform, it does offer some specific business-friendly features that are unlike anything else offered in social media. Once you know how to take advantage of them, a whole new world of marketing falls into your hands.
Why Snapchat?
Screenshot via Snapchat
According to Backlinko data, 65% of internet users in the United States between the ages of 15 and 29 use Snapchat. The number falls to just 24% of users aged 30-49.
Snapchat reaches a more specific audience than other social media networks. While Facebook captures people of all ages, Snapchat caters toward the younger crowd who enjoy connecting with each other in fun, engaging ways. Therefore, brands that appeal to younger audiences might find a lot of success by marketing on Snapchat.
Those who use Snapchat often do so regularly — many, daily — to check out stories, connect with people and brands, and shop online.
Best Practices for Snapchat Marketing
Ready to jump into Snapchat marketing? The following best practices can get you started.
Set Up Your Profile Like a Pro
Like many of today’s social media platforms, Snapchat has both personal and business accounts. For marketing, setting up a business profile is the way to go. A business profile gives you access to Ads Manager to set up marketing campaigns. You’ll also be able to create Snapcodes, sponsored AR lenses, sponsored geofilters, and other things that allow your fans to interact with your business.
Setting up a business account is simple. First, create a Snapchat account. Then, go to Snapchat’s Ads Manager and log in with those same details. Fill in your business’s information, and you’re all set.
Use Stories Consistently
Screenshot via Snapchat
Snapchat Stories are the places to be on Snapchat. Really, they’re the bread and butter of the platform. Just like individual users can create their own Stories, so can brands, giving users a unique way to learn more about your brand and engage with it.
Stories on Snapchat keep you front-and-center on people’s accounts. They can view your Story by clicking on your name in their friends and follower list or by navigating to their Stories page, where it will appear right at the top if they follow you.
Brands can get creative when creating Stories on Snapchat. Sometimes, adding a few random pictures of your business behind the scenes can help your followers learn more about your company and make it feel relatable. Right before a product launch, you might add a few sneak peeks of the upcoming product.
Other times, you might want to add a full Story with a beginning, middle, and end. You can post both photos and videos to your Story and embellish them with doodles, stickers, polls, and more.
Whatever kind of Stories you add to Snapchat, make sure you’re using the feature consistently. Stories expire after 24 hours, so to stay on top of your followers’ radars, you’ll need to post something at least once a day.
Get Help from Others
Snapchat is more of a collaborative type of social media platform than others. Your account isn’t so much about your business as it is about giving your followers fun and unique ways to interact with your business.
So, think outside the box on ways to get your followers involved. For instance, you can add user-generated content to your Stories. If a follower tags your brand in their Story, repost their Story to your page with a tag to them. Fans will see that they could have a chance to end up in your Stories, encouraging them to keep tagging you and engaging with your business.
You can also enlist the help of influencers to draw in more people to your Snapchat page. Celebrities and influencers do Snapchat “takeovers,” where they’ll take over your account temporarily to post exclusive Stories and interact with your followers. Find top influencers in your niche that your ideal fans also find interesting. You could also take over someone else’s account to cross-promote each other.
Promote, Promote, Promote — But in Non-Promotional Ways
The great thing about Snapchat is that promoting doesn’t need to feel like promoting on Snapchat. You can show your brand name on Filters and Lenses that people use every day as they share Snaps with their friends. Or, add exclusive promo codes to your Stories for your loyal followers to use.
Businesses also create Stories showcasing one or several products, provide tutorials for products or services, and release Story countdowns to a new product launch. The options are virtually endless on this platform, so get creative!
Ready to get started with marketing on Snapchat? The marketing techniques above will help to boost engagement and build your following, but there’s another easy way to start growing your Snapchat audience: Install the Snapchat share button on your blog or website to give your visitors a simple, one-click method to share your content on the platform. It’s easy to install, and it’s totally free to use!
