Why You Need A Snapchat Marketing Strategy

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Let’s run through some stats:

• Snapchat is now being used by 280 million people everyday, representing more daily active users than Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Pinterest
• Snapchat reaches 90% of all 13–24 year olds in the U.S, U.K, France, and Australia
• Users spend over 30 minutes on the app everyday
• The average Snapchat user opens the app 30 times per day

Snapchat is the often counted-out social media app. It was hot in 2013; Facebook tried to buy it for $3 billion, was rejected, started copying all of its features, and then everyone assumed that it was done. However, Snap has continued to innovate and if you’re marketing to 13–24 year olds, it should absolutely be part of your marketing mix. A couple weeks ago Snap held their 2021 Partner Summit. Here’s what they’ve been up to…

What Snap Has Been Up To

Snapchat isn’t just the app to send photos and videos to close friends anymore. It’s become a hub of entertainment for teenagers and is significantly different from Instagram.

Shopping

Snapchat has been making a massive push into eCommerce. They now integrate with Shopify so that users can shop directly in the app. At the Snap Partner Summit they introduced a new feature called Screenshop, which serves shopping recommendations from hundreds of brands when users scan something from the app’s camera. (Soon, this will also include recipe recommendations powered by AllRecipes). They’ve also been testing using augmented reality (AR) for a different shopping experience. For example, users can now “try on” and buy MAC makeup products through a filter on the app. Users can also virtually “try on” a select number of clothes. Snapchatters can not only see products on themselves, but send a picture or video to friends to ask for advice, and tap to purchase all within Snapchat. On average more than 200 million people engage with AR technology on Snapchat everyday. These are mostly non-shopping filters but as more shopping features come to the app, I’d expect more users to start shopping within the app.

Original Content

Snapchat has also become a place for teens to watch content. It partners with networks to provide syndicated shows but also produces original content. Over 20 million people have viewed Snap’s new original series, “Ryan Doesn’t Know,” starring Ryan Reynolds.

Gaming

Over the past few years Snapchat has delved deeper into gaming. In 2018 it launched “Snappables” — AR-based games within the app — and Bitmoji games in 2020. Snapchat games have now reached more than 200 million players in the past two years and about 30 million Snapchat users play Snap Games every month. Five years ago Snap bought Bitstrips, the tech company behind Bitmoji avatars. Today, more than 200 million people use Bitmoji everyday and players with Bitmoji spend twice as much time playing than those without it. Snap has now partnered with one of the major game-developing companies, Unity, bringing Bitmoji avatars into mobile, PC, and console games.

And More…

There’s so much more to Snapchat — from Snap Tokens (the app’s currency that users can buy to tip Snap Stars, the app’s name for verified creators), to Spotlight (spotlighting top creators on the app), Snap Map (which features over 30 million businesses) Creator Marketplace (where marketers can discover and contact verified Snapchat creators) to Spectacles. They’re even creating Lenses which bring in real-time content into the lens — the MLB will be one of the first companies to leverage this technology, bringing in real-time stats from games. You may be thinking that this has nothing to do with your marketing strategy. Let’s dive into that now…

How To Implement Snapchat Into Your Marketing Strategy

Snapchat is an app where it’ll do more harm to overthink it as a marketer. To get started, simply create an account and start posting. Here are some types of content to try out:

1. Day-to-day life
2. Behind the scenes
3. How-To Videos
4. Guest Takeovers
5. Interviews
6. Games (e.g., ask users to draw over something or fill in the blanks)
7. Commentary on news, music, culture, etc.
8. Interactive Stories (e.g., keep users clicking through to reveal something)
9. Leverage the ephemeral nature of the platform: giveaways and contests, flash sales, discounts, etc.

If you’re using Instagram Stories, the easiest way is to just cross-post to Snapchat. Once you get used to the app, start creating original content for it and cross-post that to Instagram Stories, encouraging your users to follow you on the platform. Snap also announced a brand new app called Story Studio (available later this year on iOS), which will provide creators and businesses with more powerful editing tools, allow them to see what’s trending on Snapchat and use top sounds and lenses. Here are some more best practices for posting…

Story Posting Best Practices

• Post as consistently as possible (that may be daily for some people and 5x/week for someone else, just be consistent)
• When posting, try to post a few Stories at a time (5+)
• Post videos more than photos
• Captivate viewers in the first couple of snaps so they continue to watch
• Use captions when possible

Advertising

Don’t want to take the time to use the platform on a consistent basis? You can experiment with advertising on the platform. There are various advertising types on the platform from general Snap Ads and Story Ads to Lenses, Product Ads and Filters. In contrast to Instagram or Facebook feed ads, Snapchat displays full-screen video ads. If you’re trying to reach a younger demographic, Snapchat could prove to be a cost efficient and less saturated way to do so.

How To Grow Your Audience

One of Snapchat’s biggest negatives is discoverability for creators. It’s much harder to grow an audience compared to Instagram or TikTok. That being said, there are three main methods that you can leverage to grow your audience:

1. SnapCode: Every account has a Snapcode — an image that can be scanned by phone cameras to allow people to quickly subscribe. You can tweet out your Snapcode or add it onto emails if you have an email list.
2. Snap URL: Every account has a Snap URL (e.g., Snapchat.com/add/username) which is another easy way for users to add you directly. Similar to your Snapcode, you can tweet out your Snap URL, add it to your emails, or if you have 10K+ Instagram followers, add it as a link to your Instagram Story.
3. Crosspost: Crosspost your Snaps to other platforms, whether it’s Instagram Stories, TikTok, or Twitter, and encourage people to follow you on Snapchat.

Looking Ahead

Snapchat shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s like the new-age mall for teenagers. It’s a place for them to get together to play games, shop, create, talk, share photos and videos, and more. With AR becoming more mainstream over the next few years, Snapchat is sure to become an even bigger player in the social space. If you’re trying to market to a younger demographic, Snapchat is the place to be. Create, experiment, learn and have fun with it.

Originally published at https://joshdviner.com on June 2, 2021.