snapchat in marketing
Earlier this month Snapchat told the Financial Times that its users open videos 6 billion times a day. It may only be a few years old, but you wouldn't know it from the app's rumoured 200 million registered users. Growing from a simple curiosity, Snapchat has developed into a social media platform that provides a fun, speedy and more private alternative to Twitter’s 140 character ramblings, or Facebook’s lengthy rants. By allowing users to send effortless and disposable snaps of their dinner, families, friends, and selfies, Snapchat has really captured people’s imaginations.
Engagement
Let’s face it - social media is ALL about engagement. What Snapchat provides an ideal way for your demographic to interact with you that is both fun and memorable! You can get your potential clients to send you a snap of them using your products or services and maybe use it as a competition or giveaway.
Live
Snapchat is the perfect social platform to use for real-time marketing because it can give the audience direct access to live events. You can use it for occasions such as product launches and trade shows. Snapchat can really help with audience engagement – it will get your audience excited by providing an authentic view of what’s going on at the event.
Exclusive
Everyone loves social media giveaways and promotions, and they love them even more if they think they are part of an elusive pack receiving them! You can use Snapchat to provide special content to your audience that they might not receive on other digital platforms. If you have an email marketing campaign, providing your customers with promotional codes or special offers, you’re probably competing for attention with a number of other companies. Sending a Snapchat to your customers can be a much better position to grab their attention. The time dependant nature of Snapchat means your customers may naturally be more likely act on a promotional code or offer they’ve received through Snapchat.
As you can see how many people screenshot your snaps, you can in turn compare how many screenshots you received, say of a promo code, with how many times the promotional code was used. This provides you with a simple method for assessing how successful your promotion has been!
Another great way of using Snapchat exclusively is providing your customers or followers with ‘sneak peaks’ or teasers of new products. Say you are planning to release a new product line and you are preparing your marketing campaign for it - what better way to kick it all off than with a quick ten second tease? Giving a quick flash of the new product can create lots of initial curiosity.
Take people behind the scenes
The best thing about using Snapchat to promote your business is that it is fun and it’s personal. You can create bags of trust and interest in your company by taking your customers behind the curtain. By sending snaps of you and your team having fun at work, and the day to day running of your company, you can show potential customers that you are more than a disembodied voice on the end of a telephone or behind a computer screen, but a real person, just like them!
Demographic
It probably won’t come as a surprise that the largest demographic that use Snapchat are 18-24 year olds - with 45% of its users falling within this range. This share is far more off-centre than other social media outlets, which generally speaking have a more evenly spread demographic.
A quick 10 second snap can be a really successful way of reaching this demographic, so if that's who your company is targeting, Snapchat is something you should seriously consider.
To conclude
Not all social media platforms are suited to all companies, so it may be that Snapchat is not suitable for your business or audience. However, if you think that it is a good fit for your customers, your brand and your message, then it is definitely worth considering.
If nothing else, Snapchat can be great way to increase community engagement and brand awareness. If you’re interested in ways you can use Snapchat to strengthen your brand, give @ISD_Marketing a call.
Are you using Snapchat in your digital marketing campaign? It is working for you? I’d love to hear your experiences with Snapchat marketing so please drop me a tweet at @ISD_Eimile.
But what about using Snapchat for business? Anyone checking their Snapchat story feed in recent months will have noticed an increase in the amount of commercial posts - but why is this? Some people make the assumption that the disposable nature of Snapchat would mean it doesn’t really lend itself well to marketing.
However, the authentic platform Snapchat provides can have a real impact with your followers, strengthening your brand’s voice with real-time marketing.
Are you thinking about adding Snapchat into your social media marketing mix? Well here are a few ways we think it could help your digital marketing campaign...