Social Media For Business – Marketing With Snapchat

Social media marketing is an ever evolving landscape, but staying on top of the latest trends is a solid way to make sure that your products are being marketed to the right audience at the right time. If you are, have, or know a teenager the odds are that you’ve heard of Snapchat – the video messaging mobile app that allows users to send image and videos as ‘snaps’ to their customers that disappear after a pre-determined amount of time.

Who’s Using Snapchat?

Snapchat is extremely popular in the desirable teen and young adult demographic, but according to ComScore, it has added more users in the 25-to-34-year-old age group than in the 18-to-24-year-old group in the past year, so it’s gaining popularity among adults. It was also named by senior ad buyers as the top place they intend to start advertising in 2016, ahead of Facebook, Instagram and Pintrest.

As of May 2015, Snapchat had 100 million daily active users  who were sending 8,796 photos per second and viewing 6 billion videos every day. In other words, Snapchat is serious business.

4 Ways to Market Your Small Business with Snapchat

As with other social media platforms, you can get a huge benefit from Snapchat without having to spend on advertising. Here are some ways you can promote your business for free.

1. Launch New Products Provide exclusive content to premier clients only. If want to reach a group of A-list clients, or clients rather than prospects, you can create a snap story just for them. Maybe it’s a sneak peak at a new product or service, or a special offer for your best customers. For example, say you are a real estate agent and a new property has just hit the map. You can show it off to your most techy savvy clients first with a virtual walk-through via Snapchat.

2. Build Your Personal Brand: Invite all your customers to live events. If you’re at a trade show, having a grand opening or launching a new product, you can create a snap story that all your customers can see. Compared to other social media platforms, Snapchat offers a more immediate, more realistic view of live events.  Say you’re a hair stylist that’s doing a demonstration at a trade show. Why not show off your amazing blow drying technique via Snapchat? You’ll build your personal brand while also enticing your customers to come check you out.

3. Engage Clients with a Contest. Host a contest to increase awareness of your brand. Snapchat lends itself well to special promotions and contests. Some companies use Snapchat for scavenger hunts – followers snap themselves at various locations or with certain products and win prizes. If you’re a local wedding photographer, you could host a Snapchat scavenger hunt and include your favorite engagement photo shoot locations.

4. Give Your Customers a Behind The Scene Perspective. It’s easier for customers to appreciate your products when they understand the hard work that goes into preparing them If you’re a graphic designer working on a logo, why not show off all the different draft versions that you go through before you come up with your final product? Retail professionals can also create virtual tours of your company or to share company events like anniversaries or the in-house celebrate for a production milestone.

How To Find Followers

In order to send snaps and snap stories, you need to add your customers as friends on Snapchat. There are a number of ways to do this. You can add contacts from your phone’s contact list, or you can ask for someone’s code, which is their unique Snapchat identifier.

Two other ways you can add friends are by scanning their code, and by using the Add Nearby function. These two ways make it easy to add customers who are in your store or office. You can scan their code with your phone, or Snapchat will search for nearby users and allow you to add them.

Get Paid Via Snapcash

Snapcash is a feature of Snapchat that lets users send money to one another. You register a debit card, and you can send cash to friends on Snapchat and they can send it to you. This feature was created in partnership with Square, and uses Square to securely store payment data. Snapchat limits the use of Snapcash to users who are 18 or older.

Snapcash is a great way to collect secure payment if you are at a remote location like a trade show, festival or craft fair. You could also offer it as another payment option on your website. Snapchat has come a long way since it first gained popularity among teenagers, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Adding it to your business’ social media mix could pay off in a big way.