6 Ways to Make a Snapchat Marketing Strategy Work

Look – all the cool kids are using Snapchat, and this includes marketers. If you’re scratching your head about the right Snapchat marketing strategy, read on.

Snapchat has been steadily growing the past few years. It currently has over 150 million daily users, surpassing Twitter to become the second most popular social networking application.

According to a recent survey, Snapchat is the number one used social app for teenagers, not Facebook. Teenagers are the future, aren’t they?

If your business doesn’t have a Snapchat marketing strategy, then you are are setting yourself up to be the last one to the party. The food will be gone and you will have to hear about the big event you missed instead of experiencing it.

Luckily, we’ve got you covered with six methods to not only make your Snapchat effective, but to stand out and rake in some serious business.

1. Be Social in your Snapchat Marketing Strategy

Snapchat is a social network, the key word being social. Every snap isn’t just a picture or video to be viewed, but a post with the intent for replies and interaction.

You don’t want to be that guy at the party who is sitting quietly in the corner and enjoys spouting out random facts instead of conversing.

Don’t just post, but be social with other users in your Snapchat marketing strategy.

When it comes to businesses, many users will probably expect them to be too busy to reply. So when you direct a snap towards someone, it makes them feel special. The interaction creates an instant and personal relationship with your established or potential customer.

Others will see this interaction or hear about it from the user, and a chain reaction of snaps will occur.

Since your Snapchat account is willing to engage in active conversations, users will post and share their positive experiences with your business in hopes of a reply. Potential customers may direct a snap towards you with a question.

2. Follow Up Via Snapchat

Customers (and those watching the interaction) also tend to respect a business who takes a negative post head-on in an attempt to correct any issues. Even if a resolution cannot be found, an apology will go a long way.

Consider having Q&A sessions over Snapchat for users who may have questions about your business.

With Snapchat, you can do a follow-up after the business with a customer has concluded. Ask them for feedback about the product or service.

When you engage with users, your account is no longer the only one snapping about your business. You have other users giving you free promotion and mentioning your business. All of these snaps are potential posts for new customers to see and become interested in your product or service.

3. Snap on a Daily Basis

Getting an individual to follow your Snapchat is just the beginning. The quickest way to lose their interest and fall off their radar again is by posting infrequently.

Quality is always essential, but like we mentioned above, Snapchat is a social app. Individuals are constantly snapping on a daily basis.

When you become followed by a user, you have been invited into someone’s daily conversation circle. Frequentness is just as important in your Snapchat marketing strategy. Don’t be quiet and forgettable.

Every post is another opportunity for people to interact with your business.  Every post is also another reminder to your followers and a thought in their head about your business.

Not every post has to be a promotion or reminder about your products or service. Have a little fun, celebrate your business, and give your business a human connection.

Show off the process to your product or service. Ask an employee to do the snap for you, to give your users a fun glimpse from “behind the curtain.” Do a birthday or celebration shoutout to a worker.

A human connection goes a long way. It shows established or potential customers that there is a smiling and caring face behind the service, not just a cold computer.

You want to be approachable at the party, so be a friend, not a parent or authority figure.

4. Have Exclusive Discounts and Giveaways

Discounts and giveaways are always effective in any form of business promotion, so apply them to your Snapchat marketing strategy.

Users will flock to your Snapchat profile and follow your business to receive the free coupon codes and enter for a chance to win free stuff.

Frequent discounts and giveaways inspire users to check your account daily. That’s more exposure to your business or product, more participation, more followers, and more customers.

Contests involving users submitting pictures or videos is a fun promotion. It’s a great way to get users to talk about your product or service. They get to share their creativity and encourage others to enter the contest, and you get free promotion.

You want to pull in your established customers who follow your business on your website, by e-mail, or by another application, like Facebook.

Make sure you offer discounts and do giveaways that are only exclusive to your Snapchat account. This gives them a reason to follow you in another application.

Your followers from other applications also need to be aware of these Snapchat exclusives. So promote the offers on your website and by e-mail.

After all, when you bring beer to the party for everyone (or soda for those under 21), everyone will love you or want to get to know you better.

5. Use the Medium for What it Was Designed

While your business can use Youtube for videos, that usually requires a script, production, a budget, and hours of work.

Snapchat allows you to create short videos that last only a few seconds and take just as long to create, something you can’t really do anywhere else.

Posting pictures is fine, but use a video in your Snapchat marketing strategy whenever you can. Videos have energy and can show your product or service in action.

Show off your product doing what it was designed to do. Show a before and after video for any services you offer. Tone can sometimes be hard to determine in a picture, but easier in a video.

Short videos are also an amazing tool to answer questions on Snapchat. As the saying goes: “Show, don’t tell.”

Snapchat videos are short, straight and to the point. But this isn’t a super formal party, so loosen up a little. Make your videos all about fun.

Plus, what brings more comfort and irrefutable proof to the mind and eyes? A written answer, a static picture, or a video showing all the details?

6. Get an Influencer

What can really make anyone popular at a party is if they hang out with the cool kid or a celebrity. For our Snapchat marketing strategy, we need an influencer.

An influencer is simply a popular Snapchat user or celebrity. They take over your Snapchat account for a day. They use your product or service and utilize it with their personality and stories they tell with Snapchat.

It’s essentially the same concept as celebrity endorsements and commercials, except they are also interacting with the users on your behalf.

This benefits both your business and your influencer. You get the attention of their followers (soon to be yours), and vice versa. It also feels like a more authentic view and opinion of your product or service.

Your business needs to generate as many leads as it can. You also need to go where the leads are hanging out. That would be Snapchat, and the party has already started.

Snapchat is a popular channel of communication for you to reach a giant audience of potential customers. Utilize these tips in your Snapchat marketing strategy, and I can guarantee it will give you the boost you are looking for when it comes to your business.