Snapchat Marketing: Tips, Strategies, and Best Practices

Snapchat is a messaging application for sending and receiving text, photos, and video messages that disappear in seconds. 

It offers multiple features including : 

• Stories: Photos/Videos visible only for 24 hours 
• Memories:  Saved pictures to further view and share 
• Lenses: Adding a funny layer to change your looks in the camera
• Filters: Added effects on your image/video
• Geofilter: Add a famous monument or brand of the city

What is Snapchat Marketing?

Snapchat marketing refers to using the Snapchat platform to promote your business, products, or services.

This can include creating and sharing content, running ads, and engaging with your audience through various features such as stories and lenses.

Why Should You Use Snapchat For Marketing? 

Well, let’s start with some statistics which speak for the potential of doing business on Snapchat : 

• 191 million daily active users are there on Snapchat
• 18% of social media users also use Snapchat 
• Snapchat has more users than Twitter
• Snapchat reaches 11% of the entire digital population of the United States
• A daily user spends an average of 30 minutes a day on a Snapchat app. 
• 78% of the age group of 18-24 years old use Snapchat avidly. 
• 76% of Snapchat users are also online buyers. 
• Snapchat has more than 10 billion video views.

Advantages Of Snapchat For Small Businesses 

Connecting Your Brand To Younger Demographic 

If you have a specific kind of business where your primary target is the younger demographic, Snapchat business is the right place to begin. 

Even when you want to expand to the general younger audience, say any less than the age of 35, Snapchat caters to that particular range in the majority. 

You might be oversaturated or having a hard time for such a broader range on platforms like Instagram or Facebook. 

Snapchat becomes much easier to penetrate, and that’s also what the data shows. 

Also it is amongst the most engaging platforms as well, where on average, a user spends more than 30 minutes per day. 

Reflecting The Playful Side Of Your Brand 

Snapchat is an application created to have fun, be playful, and casual The idea is to be yourself and show your authentic, imperfect, and fun side. 

So when you extend your brand on Snapchat Business, you are actually opening your brand to be playful and casual. 

This will make your brand more relatable and stand out from the competition. 

Also, since you will make fun and casual engaging content, it will pander a larger audience giving you more exposure. 

You will have chances to be lighthearted, out-of-the-box, humorous, and a bit tongue and cheek.  

Many brands express themselves through features like cameos and 3D snaps. 

Lesser Competition For Market Penetration 

As mentioned earlier, Snapchat is still quite uncharted territory for market penetration through social media as compared to others. 

Every brand has social media accounts on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. 

Even platforms like Pinterest are rapidly gaining business accounts. 

So amidst all this competition, if you want to stand out and cut through, you need to find different avenues to reach the audience. 

And Snapchat seems to be a bandwagon that is growing its popularity but still not so common with businesses. 

Not to mention, the nature of social media makes it cater to a specific kind of audience, mostly young and fun-oriented. 

So, there is less competition on Snapchat and easy penetration due to the unique content it demands. 

Most Authentic Social Media Platform Probably 

Since Snapchat is so unique, raw, and playful in nature, it truly resonates with the idea of being authentic on social media. 

Whereat one side, you see professionally photographed Instagram pictures with saturated post-processing, and so on other media, Snapchat maintains to be raw. 

It is the best for building rapport with the audience. Also, it is a great platform to show some behind-the-scenes of your brand. 

It can be unique content and helpful insight to look at the making of a product or inside information of your office. 

Snapchat focuses on what’s happening right now and tells the story in the most authentic way yet with all filters, stickers, and fun. 

So at least for one social media platform, you can show the authentic side of the brand and focus on engagement. 

Well, It’s Free Marketing! 

That might sound quite obvious but think about it. You are getting free marketing for your brand where you can reach millions of different younger audiences. 

It doesn’t hurt to try, at least for that reason only. No brand will like to leave that opportunity on the table. 

Who’s The Audience On Snapchat? 

You’ve already known that Snapchat has a younger demographic, but let’s see more closely who’s your audience actually. 

The thumb-rule for the success of social media for small businesses is to know the demographics of the particular platform in and out. 

In general, you can say Snapchat is the home for millennials, so if your business targets them, then you are good to go. 

You will spot over 60% of 13-34-year-old smartphone users in the United States on Snapchat. 

37% of users were also found to be in the category of 8-24 years old, where 71% are under 25. 

If you look at the men and women ratio on Snapchat, it is 70% women and 30% men. 

That gives you another reason to be on Snapchat if your small business targets young women. 

Further, 12% of their user base is 35-a 54-year-old category, and only 2% of them are over 55. 

Even though Snapchat has a predominantly younger audience, the platform is rapidly increasing its number of older audiences as well. 

So, even if your audience is not purely millennials or young teens, you will still get a quite large audience unless you target people over the 55 age group. 

Step-By-Step To Setup Your Snapchat Business Account 

Before setting up your Snapchat Business Account, you need to know that there is not much difference between a personal Snapchat account and a business Snapchat account. 

However, you still need a Snapchat Business Account because the one factor that differentiates between them is you can launch ads on the Snapchat business account. 

Apart from the ads, personal accounts offer all the services and features you will find in a business account. 

So, here we go step-by-step on setting up a Snapchat personal account. 

Step 1:  Download & Sign Up for The Snapchat App

You can find the Snapchat application in the App Store or the Google Play Store as well.

Install the app and click “Sign Up” The dialogue box will ask you to enter your first and last names. 

Enter the required information and Click on “Sign Up & Accept”. 

Step 2:  Enter Your Birthdate 

Once you enter your name, you must mention your birthday. Also, according to Snapchat terms and conditions, you must be 13 or older to use the Application. 

Step 3:  Pick A Username 

After entering your birthday, you must pick a username for the account. Since you will turn the account into a business account, you can pick the username as per your brand name. 

This username will be public to the people, letting others search and find you on the Snapchat app. 

Choosing your brand name as a username will make people discover you easily and recognize your business as well. 

Step 4:  Set A Password 

Once you have entered your username, you need to come to decide on a password for the account. 

Make sure the password is secure because this being your brand account, needs to be safe and secure. 

Step 5:  Verify Your Account

To activate your account completely and also get further notifications on your email address or text, you need to verify your account. 

You can verify your Snapchat account via email or text message. 

Step 6:  Set Your Profile Picture 

You can spot a Snapchat ghost icon at the top of the screen. That is the access to your Snapcode. Tap here to change your profile picture. 

When you tap on your Snapcode (it looks like a ghost icon with lots of dots around the icon), you can click five images.  

Complete the process when you click the required photos. And that will be your Snapchat profit picture. 

If you want to leave your profile photo space blank, you can. The application will show the default ghost logo in place of your profile picture. 

Well, in the case of starting a business or brand on Snapchat, it is important you choose your brand logo as a profile picture.

How To Create a Snapcode For Your Small Business? 

A Snapcode is a QR code that can be scannable and used to share your account information easily. 

Any Snapchat user can scan the Snapcode with their smartphone cameras to add you as a friend on the application. 

After the scan is completed, a user will also be able to see your Snapchat marketing activities as well. 

To create the Snapcode,  do the same as you did to set your profile picture. Click on the top ghost icon and tap on the setting icon at the top. 

After tapping the settings, you will see a tab titled “Snapcodes,” which you should select.  

Click on the “ Create Snapcode” option. Now, you have to enter the URL of your business website. 

This will help your users to reach at your business website, boosting lead generation as well as potential sales. 

After entering the URL, add an image, preferably your brand’s logo, from your website or gallery.  

And, voila, you have your Business Snapcode ready. 

Now, you can use this Snapcode printed on your marketing materials, T-shirts, seminar posters, banners, and other merchandising and advertising purposes. 

It will get people to know about your brand and engage with it just by using the Snapchat application and phone camera. 

Snapchat Marketing Tips For Small Business

Add the URL or the Snapcode To Your Marketing Materials

You can add the snap code or the Snapchat URL to various branding and advertising materials. 

Start by adding it on your official website, in your newsletters, email signatures, e-prospects, and others. 

Not just the digital; it also works on the physical plains as well. You can get it printed on your marketing merchandise and materials. 

Snapchat users can use their smartphones to find their brand profile by scanning the code on marketing material such as T-shirts, business cards, etc. 

Engaging With Snapchat Users 

When you are using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, the brand content posts get mixed with posts from friends and family. 

But on Snapchat, you see the content from family & friends differs from the brands. 

There is a split-screen design, so to maintain your presence for the targeted audiences, you have to engage on the platform constantly. 

Here are some ways to engage with other Snapchat users :  

• Find relevant snap chatters, and follow them. 
• Viewing Others’ Snaps and Stories 
• Watch and respond to the snaps sent to you 
• Respond to the messages sent to you
• Create regular content 
• Try different features of Snapchat to be relevant 
• Publish the post at the peak times 
• Learn to use the insights 

Create Engaging Content Using Snapchat Features 

It is essential to adapt the dynamics of the particular platform to excel in it. So, to create engaging content on Snapchat, you need to understand how Snapchat works.

Snaps are made to disappear, so it becomes even more important to make your snaps more attractive and engaging to hold attention.  

You must stand out from other brand content posts on Snapchat in the ‘Discover’ section. The idea is to be found out by your target users. 

Here are some following features which you must use to create content on Snapchat: 

• Make doodles and draw on your snaps.
• Add one or many Snapchat filters to elevate the look. 
• Add Snapchat lens 
• You must add background music to snaps
• Write interesting captions on your Snaps
• Use multiple snaps to narrate a story 
• Remember to add information like date, location, temperature, etc. 
• Engage with users by polling 

Create Your Brand Sponsored Lens 

Snapchat is a lot about filters and lenses. People crave to find new filters and lenses to try and make their snaps with. 

According to an estimation, 16 million users see sponsored filters each day. Now, that gives a huge brand exposure on a daily basis. 

People use sponsored filters to make their photos more creative and interesting.

These filters or lenses can change the photos completely, making the colors pop, disappear the nose, making the eyes large, and other funny gags. 

Many filters also allow people to change the pitch of their voices in video snaps. 

The point is these filters are fun, and people love to share these snaps with their friends and on social media. 

Creating the Story Through Editing & Camera Angles 

You cannot make all talking-head videos, as it does become boring over time. So you need to make things in fast-paced movement. 

The idea is to tell the story in these given 10 seconds. If you make 3 or 5 minutes videos by breaking them into multiple snaps, that’s not fair. 

Also, using the same angle makes the videos less captivating and engaging. 

Instead, make multiple snaps from different angles using photos, filters, back camera, front camera, and frames and edit them together to tell the story. 

The audience needs to be hooked by your stories and the sequences you make to convey your point. 

Small businesses on Snapchat are allowed to create sponsored filters 

For Example, Gatorade creates a sponsored filter while the super bowl was going on. It was related to this tradition for winning coaches where they have to get Gatorade dumped on their head by other players. 

The Snapchat filter was about stimulating the same but on the user’s head. This sponsored filter increased the purchase intent of the brand by 8%. 

The filter gained over 165 million views as it went popular amongst the game fans during the bowl. 

The only downside of using this strategy is that it is costly. During the holidays or events, a brand has to give out $100,000 to $750,000. 

This cost will keep your filter active for only 24 hours. However, that will be, indeed the peak hours to use the filter.

Let Social Media Influencers Take Over Your Snapchat

Social proof is one of the best ways to increase your brand’s reach and gain more followers. 

What can be better social proof than social media influencers? So, you let them take over your Snapchat account for a while. 

This means the influencer can entertain a particular account’s audience. 

The influencers promote your brand and also encourage their audience to check you out. 

It will get your brand a great deal of exposure to your targetted audience. Just make sure the social media influencer you choose has the audience you want to target. 

The social media influencer, their content, and the audience must be relevant to your product or services.

Tips & Tricks For Creating The Best Snaps For Your Small Business 

Using the Double & Triple Layout Filter Combinations

You can use the swipe left on your Snapchat to see what filter you want to choose for your snap. 

And most snaps go for any of the filters available on Snapchat, where the looks almost become quite recognizable. 

But you can achieve a totally unique look if you use different combinations of two or more filters in different intensities depending upon your snap. 

Choose the first filter you want by swiping left, then hold your screen and swipe left again to get another filter layer on your snap without removing the first one. 

In this way, you can use two or three layers of filters but cannot overlap two standard colored filters. 

Along with other features, your story or snap can stand out from others. Using multiple layer filters helps you achieve distinct looks and more customization. 

Adding New Flair By Using Doodles With Stylus 

A stylus might seem to be quite an outdated thing now, but it works like a charm on Snapchat. 

You can create extraordinary doodles using the stylus or pen on the snaps. It makes your stories stand out and something flavorful to look at. 

Now, doing that without a stylus makes drawings look like stick figures and even ugly most of the time. 

Having fun with doodling by intricating your photos and stories is quite an art and the epitome of creativity on Snapchat. 

Stylus helps you make sharp and precise curves and outlines. It helps you create Snapchat masterpieces, if you may like to call them. 

The strategic use of stick emojis 

Well, there are many things you can do with Snaps if you be creative enough. 

And stick emojis can help you do wonders with it only if they can be used strategically as a video element. 

Over time, stick emojis often show feelings or emotions in the context.  

But again, to stand out on Snapchat, you have to think differently. 

Think of it as making a movie where you are the director, Snapchat is the camera, special effects and editing platform, and emojis are your characters or special effects to use. 

You can tell a whole lot of stories by using emojis creatively. You can use images or videos as background and then emojis as characters to tell the story. 

For example,  Click an image of a bus stand and place emoji faces on the seats, looking as if they are waiting for the bus. And now, add more elements to tell more about the story. 

Using Text To Tell Stories  

It doesn’t have to be the video stories or the music all the time to make your snaps interesting enough to look at. 

In fact, the combination of picture and text is better because it caters to the people who prefer watching the stories without the sound on. 

Also, it prevents you from over-using the video feature and ending up preferring quantity over quality. 

Adding the right text to the image will communicate; it will also be less exhausting and easy to consume. 

Design A Customized Geofilter 

It depends upon what kind of brand you are, but designing your own geo filter is a great step to increase brand exposure. 

Especially if your business is related to travel or lifestyle, having your own customized geofilter helps you gain momentum in engagement. 

You can get more information about creating one on the Snapchat geofilters website. 

Usually, filters are meant to tag the user’s location, mostly the city or famous places. 

However, you can even make geofilters of small neighborhoods or even your events and seminars as well. 

Turn Around The Camera Mid-Video 

The whole idea of creating snap videos is to have fun at it. And the more creative and new stuff you will try, the people are more likely to get attracted. 

While shooting the videos,  you can switch the camera’s perspective to show the story the other way around. 

It can be to react to something or show behind-the-scenes of your usual video or working setup. 

Just try to play with camera effects and keep people’s attention intact. Your brand should publish videos that must be relevant but repetitive. 

Brands that are more  experimental, unique, and fun with their content, especially on platforms like Snapchat, grow faster. 

Using External Lenses To Stand Out 

External lenses are a great investment in uplifting the quality of your snap videos and pictures. 

It reduces the effort and doubles up the quality and sharpness of your pictures and videos. 

Most of such lenses can be used as a small clamp attached to your camera lens. Some of them also come with additional support, like metal rings and magnets, to secure the grip. 

Coming from a brand, you are more responsible for delivering extraordinary quality and utmost conviction. 

And that’s how you can lead on Snapchat content marketing. 

Switching Between Presenters 

If you want to boost engagement on your Snapchat business profile, introducing interesting people to your audience is one of the best approaches. 

For small businesses, the audience will love to see people working behind their quality products or services interact on camera. 

Snapchat is the best place to show the fun side of your team or crew members. And this gives people more reasons to watch your content. 

And the best you can do with multiple interesting people is to record a short intro of your team members and put it together. 

Switching between different presenters will be an engaging story to watch from a brand. 

This is just one idea; you can create many videos like this by switching the cameraperson from one to another. 

You can also make behind-the-scenes fun videos regarding your business meetings, events, and celebrations as well. 

Publish User-generated Content 

You can ask your followers on Snapchat to send their pictures and videos involving your brand or products. 

These videos act as testimonials, but still better and far more interesting. Now, you can publish these videos or images on your brand account. 

Posting user-generated content helps you boost engagement rapidly. 

It also encourages your viewers to interact and even promote your products in the most effective way possible.  

The best way to get more user-generated content is to run contests, giveaways, and other promotional campaigns. 

Make sure you put out some attractive rewards to bring more participation. 

How To Build A Successful Snapchat Marketing Strategy For Your Brand? 

If you are counting on Snapchat to be one of the torch bearers of your brand marketing, it is critical to develop a sustainable marketing strategy. 

You need to plan your Snapchat marketing strategy in relation to an elaborate content plan for the platform. 

Having a steady plan on how you will market or position yourself on Snapchat makes your daily task easy. 

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to build a winning marketing strategy for Snapchat. 

Pre-Planning For Content 

Creating a content plan must be your utmost priority, especially if you count Snapchat among your top marketing channels. 

Pre-planning your content doesn’t only help you to publish content frequently and regularly but also leads you towards the style of content you want to publish. 

It tells you about your content preferences and determines the quality over time as well.  You get to know what kind of content you will publish in the upcoming weeks. 

Merely pre-planning your content gets you into momentum to create more. 

Also, you might be hiring people to manage content, so having a content calendar helps you communicate your content strategy to the hired talents. 

Planning ahead also includes incorporating the feedback you are getting from your users and results from the analysis as well. 

This further furnishes your content to shape it better and continuously adapt and improve it from time to time. 

Creating The System For Regular Publishing 

Developing a system is more than just pre-planning your content. 

It is about creating automated machinery that takes consistent brainstorming ideas to develop it towards publishing the content on given dates. 

Everything needs to fall in a place where your involvement must be very limited and yet with utmost creative control. 

The point of asserting a system is to publish regularly. It involves various automation tools, skilled talents, high-quality content, research, and scheduling as well. 

Best Marketing Strategies On Snapchat 

Connecting With Influencers 

One of the powerful marketing strategies is already known to be influencer marketing; the same goes for Snapchat marketing as well. 

It can bring a huge impact on your brand exposure and engagement rate.  

One of the most effective examples of influencer marketing strategies must be by the brand Audi. 

The luxurious car brand wanted to connect to the young audience, especially the female millennials, the people who will buy the cars for the first time. 

Audi teamed up with ABC’s popular TV show “ Pretty Little Liars” where the show has greatly influenced the young generation. 

The brand set out to publish exclusive updates and content about the TV show. 

In this way, the show is get exposed to an additional social media platform, and Audi gets to the young followers of the show. 

Toward the end of the campaign, Audi gained more than 115,000 followers on Snapchat. 

Offering Coupon Codes

Besides the most obvious marketing strategy, influencer marketing, another tried-and-tested Snapchat marketing tactic is offering coupon codes. 

Many brands offer their users coupon codes under different contests and advertising ideas. 

For Example, Sixteen candles ran an ultimately successful marketing campaign on Snapchat. They offered coupon codes to their users in exchange for the snaps with the frozen yogurt. 

The brand suggested its users visit the location and take a snap of themselves or their friends tasting any of their flavors. 

And then send it to them to get the coupon code where they can get the coupon code redeemed back at the location. 

This will get the discount they won; it can be anything between 16% off to 100% off as well on their yogurt items.

You can also utilize this method to attract new users because people are more likely to tell such things to their family and friends. 

Creating a Sense of Urgency 

This has always been a powerful advertising and marketing tool to motivate your prospective customers or users to take a specific action. 

And this goes the same for Snapchat as well. Since there is an already ticking time on the Snaps, you have to push it further. 

You must create content that gives out a sense of urgency, encouraging the audience to act right there. 

For Example, GrubHub publishes snaps/stories that say “ 10 random snaps by 12am will win”. Now it gives a strong call-to-action to the users with a good enough incentive as well. 

You have to capitalize on the effect of time scarcity and fear of missing out on people’s emotions. This method has also quite proven to bring out the higher engagement 

Tailoring Your Content As Per The Platform 

Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are about sharing your life with people. It is about transparency on social grounds. 

However, too much filtering out, posing, and professionalism is going on platforms like Instagram. 

But Snapchat takes it to another level as it ditches the idea of all glossy, well-edited, stunning imagery. 

In a sense, you are free to quickly get the phone camera and shoot, try new things, be yourself, edit in the most fun way possible, and share in the moment. 

So it becomes very important for brands to understand not to treat it as Facebook or Instagram. 

You will only grow on Snapchat if you make content tailored for Snapchat.  So, focus more on making content that feels more fun, casual, and connecting. 

Building An Anticipation 

Whether you are going to launch a new product, set up a new office, or bring out anything new to your prospective customers and users, anticipation is a great marketing tool. 

And it works wonders on Snapchat because you have more freedom to play with the idea creatively. 

The idea is to create the hype of what you are set to do by building anticipation for it, and then capitalize on it. 

It doesn’t only make great content for Snapchat but also pushes the engagement rate on your account as well. 

It starts by baiting the audience with some information about the big reveal. You need to throw breadcrumbs and lead the audience about what will happen. 

You can start posting some initial images or videos about the event or product’s inception or preparation. 

There are many ways to do this and different durations to stretch it over. However, you must ensure it’s not too long or too short. 

You have to keep making stories and snaps to engage your audience and keep them hooked to the anticipation.

 

Promoting Your Products 

Snapchat users very well know that you are a small business or a brand, and you have products to sell. 

So, you can safely assume that if they are following you, they are not just interested in our content but also in your product to at least some extent. 

Also, they give you the space to promote your product since you are killing it with extraordinary content on the platform. 

In that case, be confident in product promotions. Creatively promote your product, and demonstrate how it can solve the user’s certain problems or benefit them. 

On the other hand, you can also alert your Snapchat followers about your latest product or any new improvement. 

Still, promotion should wear some educational foundation, so it connects to the target users. 

You also need to explore your brand personality and see what style of promotions fits your business. 

Targeting Your Existing Audience

It is essential to have an understanding of your current existing audience on Snapchat.  Because most of the time, you will be creating content for this particular set audience. 

You need to keep updating yourself with the audience, as it will increase and change at some level over time. 

You are doing well as long as your content is interesting and relevant to this target audience. 

It is about knowing the audience, their sensibilities, the demographics, language, and what they are interested in. 

And then, you can push the content a little bit further every time. Also, you have a focal point to create your content around. 

So keep entertaining and engaging with your existing audience. 

Testing Your Content As a Private Message 

Snapchat is totally unique as compared to other social media channels, sometimes even unpredictable results as well. 

You don’t know what will work and what won’t. It becomes necessary to test your ideas for the content beforehand to see its potential. 

But you still want to see how it will work under the sensibilities of Snapchat. 

Testing your content ideas very often also makes monitoring what works and what doesn’t easier. 

It also helps you see what kind of content is bringing more engagement. 

So how do you do it?  Well, the next best thing you can do is share the content with all or some of your followers as private snaps. 

You can see their response as well as get feedback from people as well. 

This is a highly effective content practice for small businesses to be sure about their content on Snapchat. 

Telling A Story 

Snaps are something that automatically plays one after another. It is like telling a story using different media. 

You can use images and videos to tell a story across multiple snaps. That’s what makes Snapchat different from other platforms. 

Whether you are talking about your product or making casual content, the idea is to incorporate it into a storytelling narrative. 

Don’t get too caught up in saying something right there in the first snap. Make it a sequence of snaps to deliver your message. 

The best way to do this is to follow the beats of a traditional story, such as the start, middle, and end. 

Set up your conflict and resolve it in another or multiple snaps. Or build anticipation only to reveal in the next snap. 

That’s quite the basics of Snapchat storytelling. Then, you have all these tet, graphics, filters, lenses, and other elements to elevate the story. 

Behind The Scenes 

One of the most successful content strategies that work for brands, not just on Snapchat but on any social media platform, is showing behind the scenes. 

Users, prospective customers, customers, or your targeted audience loves to see the inner workings of any company or product. 

It can show the insides of your workspace or maybe some footage of your team meetings.  

You can also publish the making of your product or stories of the people behind it. You can also create content covering your future projects amongst your core members. 

Even some light conversations you do with your team members on weekends, people are quite inclined to see that. 

It is also about showing your audience what projects you are working on, any new updates from your side, and also a peak inside your life to connect more closely. 

It really helps to build a good brand image when you connect to the audience more deeply. 

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