5 ways your business can use Snapchat for marketing

Snapchat is the fastest growing social media platform on the planet. In its early days, it was viewed as a basic picture messaging application but recently it has developed into a powerful marketing tool. Ireland is the world’s leading user of Snapchat and with 84% of 15-18-year olds in the country owning an account, it is not a platform that marketers can ignore. More and more businesses are beginning to use Snapchat for marketing purposes. Because Snapchat is different from the platforms we’re used to, businesses must adapt their strategies and tactics to the platform and its audience. We’ve put together a list of 5 ways that businesses can utilize Snapchat as an effective marketing tool.  

Behind The Scenes

Unlike Facebook or Twitter, content on Snapchat is unpolished. With no way of easily cultivating pretty images in Photoshop before uploading, users of the platform are forced to use the integrated text and drawing tools. These basic tools give snaps a genuine or unpolished look that would rarely be seen on Facebook posts. This authentic look opens the opportunity for Businesses to use their Snapchat account as a window give a ‘behind the scenes’ look to users. The ‘behind the scenes’ approach offers businesses another aspect of reaching out to customers.

Add Personality To Your Brand

Snapchat is a casual platform, it needs to be treated that way. By having people speak directly to the audience, you can associate a personality and identity with your brand. Soon, users will view your Snapchat account as a personality and not just another company seeking to market their products and services to the masses. Use the platform and your snaps as a way to speak more casually and use humor with your audience. American soccer website, KICK has done a fantastic job of creating relationships with their audience by having likeable and funny personalities engage with the audience.   

Use Influencers

By featuring Social influencers on your Snapchat, you can attract new potential customers. Recently, Audi successfully partnered with the TV show ‘Pretty Little Liars’ in order to connect with young, female, millennial, first time car buyers. The Audi Snapchat account was posting snaps that evoked anticipation and encouraged engagement before episodes were aired. The campaign was deemed a huge success with Audi increasing their brand exposure with millennials.

 

Get Creative

Colourful and creative snaps are eye-catching.[/caption] Snapchat offers users a range of features that enable you to get creative. Users can take advantage of drawing tools, live filters, text tools, image enhancing filters, emojis and stickers to make their snaps stand out from the crowd. By using these resources, you can attract attention towards your brand. Remember, Snapchat isn’t about looking professional or polished, it’s for engaging with your audience and associating personality with your brand, so get creative!    

Reward Your Snapchat followers

Reward your followers for their loyalty by posting coupons or exclusive discount codes. Giving your Snapchat followers value will create and maintain a good relationship. Not only will it make your audience happy, but it will also encourage them to view your snaps on a regular basis. In the US, fast food chain Smashburger frequently posts coupons for free food. Similarly, competitions are also a great way of engaging your audience and encourages more people to follow your Snapchat account.

If you would like to discuss how Arekibo can help you with your social media strategy, feel free to get in touch!

Written by David Downey, a summer intern at Arekibo.