Why Snapchat Is Essential For Your 2017 Marketing Campaigns - Social Media Explorer
Why Snapchat Is Essential For Your 2017 Marketing Campaigns
Why Snapchat Is Essential For Your 2017 Marketing Campaigns
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Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and most recently Instagram have become essential tools in the marketing strategies of many top brands such as Netflix, Airbnb, Lexus and Nike. Snapchat is now starting to stake its claim in the world of social media marketing, and it has the potential to improve sales, retention rates and engagement for many brands.

With 150 million active users around the world, we can anticipate that Snapchat will become crucial for online marketing campaigns of 2017 and beyond. These are some of the many ways Snapchat can help give your brand awareness efforts a big boost

Reach Those Notorious Millenials


Snapchat is currently the social network of choice for millennials, as it reaches over 41 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds in the United States on any given day. This demographic represents a quarter of the entire American population and has $200 billion in annual buying power. It is an incredibly valuable market to tap into, and Snapchat presents an effective method of doing so.

Snapchat has only been around for five years and it is already beginning to rival Facebook’s engagement rates. Every day, American adults spend 22 minutes per day on Facebook, whereas Snapchat users spent 18 minutes per day. Users spend up to 30 minutes per day on Snapchat, which is not far behind the average of 50 minutes that users spend on Facebook and exceeds Instagram’s 21 minutes. With plenty of new and exclusive content available daily, Snapchat’s engagement rates are expecting to grow quickly as more people and brands get involved.

Give Your Brand a Personable Online Presence

One of the major ways in which social media benefits brands is by allowing them to reach out to their existing customers and potential consumers in a more personal way. More than any other social network, Snapchat gives brands a way to use exclusive content to make followers feel valued. Much of the branded content on Snapchat consists of live video streams, which give brands the ability to appear more human and personable via online communications. This is an important step in encouraging users to trust your brand, remain loyal and feel good about sharing your content to spread the word about your services and products.

There are three main types of live streams that brands are using to make followers feel more involved:

  • Tutorials: Various companies often provide followers with exclusive tutorials. This is especially common with beauty brands. Companies like Sephora, Anastasia Beverly Hills and Maybelline use tutorials to show followers how to use new or popular products in various looks. This showcases the quality of the items, acting as a virtual tester product that has the potential to inspire followers to go out and purchase them.
  • Behind the Scenes: This allows users to form a more personal connection with their favorite companies. By showing users around your office, granting them digital access to exclusive events and introducing them to your team, you involve your customers in a way that builds trust and gives your company the character necessary to increase brand awareness.
  • Product Launches: This is another means of giving users an exclusive look at various brands. Snapchat users are given the scoop on new products before any other fans, which makes followers feel included and valued. In 2013, makeup brand NARS used Snapchat to launch its new Guy Bourdin line. Only followers who added them on the network before a certain deadline could see the collection, which helped to increase the brand’s digital reach. The campaign was well-received and it has inspired other beauty brands to launch products on Snapchat.

As long as you put out interesting and exclusive content, you can keep your followers engaged to drive brand loyalty. Make Snapchat a source of information, videos and pictures that users wouldn’t normally be able to access using traditional marketing methods such as television or magazine ads.

This engagement is crucial for the spread of word-of-mouth about your brand. Millennials, the main demographic of Snapchat users, are the most loyal consumers, and it is a well-known fact that 80 percent of your future business will come from 20 percent of your existing customers. About 43.5 percent of millennials use social media to spread the word about their favorite brands, so Snapchat can be a crucial tool in driving business.

Offer Exclusive Discounts


There are plenty of brands that provide Snapchat followers with exclusive offers. Since stories and snaps expire after 24 hours, there is an immediacy attached to any discounts. This is an effective way of driving sales, and many brands have adopted this method.

GrubHub was one of the first brands to introduce the social media marketing world to the huge engagement potential offered by Snapchat. In 2014, the company started posting daily coupon codes that allowed users to get great discounts from various restaurants. Eventually, GrubHub experimented with other forms of engagement, including scavenger hunts that offer generous vouchers as prizes. Asos is another retailer that has made great use of Snapchat, as the brand regularly sends out snaps of its discounts codes for online purchases.

The use of Snapchat in distributing vouchers can be beneficial for your brand, as the majority of Snapchat users are likely to make use of discounts that they discover on the network. Nearly 67 percent of college students would like to receive discounts or promotions from brands on Snapchat, while 58 percent would be likely to purchase a brand’s product if they received a coupon on the app.

Promote Products


Snapchat offers brands the ability to promote products directly to followers using stories and snaps. It provides yet another way to showcase new items on offer, encouraging followers to visit their websites or brick-and-mortar stores to find out more and get a better look.

Big name brands like Amazon, Adidas, and General Electric make great use of this marketing method. On any given day, you’ll be able to take a look at new products that you might miss on your Facebook or Twitter feed. This is the brand providing consumers with recommendations for products and a reason why they should check them out in person. Taco Bell experiences an 80 percent open rate with its snaps, which is much higher than any other form of online marketing. As such, brands can almost guarantee that their Snapchat followers will catch wind of the products they promote on the platform, whereas items promoted on Twitter and in email newsletters may go unnoticed.

Use Snapchat’s Exclusive Features to Promote Your Brands


Snapchat has introduced some exciting new tools to the social media world that we’ve never before seen from other networks. Geofilters and lenses allow users to share visual content in a unique new way, and marketers can use them to promote their brands. Snapchat makes it easy to create them:

Geofilters are a brand new tool that we’ve never before seen in the social media market. They detect your location and allow you to place a creative stamp on your photo to let your followers know where you are and what you’re doing there. Your brand can create Snapchat filters to commemorate special events and holidays and celebrate product launches. You can also exercise some creativity and artistry by making eye-catching borders that give users the chance to dress up their photos in a unique way.

If your campaign isn’t location-based, then you can use geofilters in other ways. You can create filters for just about anything, and many brands use them to promote special events. For example, RED created its own Snapchat geofilter to spread awareness about World AIDS Day. Every time a user sent a photo with the custom filter, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated $3 to RED. According to Hootsuite, over 30 percent of Snapchat users saw the filter and, as a result, stated that they were 90 percent more likely to donate to the RED campaign.

Lenses are another Snapchat-exclusive feature, which apply unique animations to your selfies. Standard lenses include funny faces and creative makeup. Many brands have used Snapchat filters to highlight promotions and events. Taco Bell’s Snapchat lens for Cinco De Mayo was viewed 224 million times, demonstrating that the social network’s unique features can have a hugely positive impact on brand awareness.

Snapchat really brings something new to the world of social media marketing, allowing brands to reach out and engage potential customers in unique ways. It brings a new perspective that better engages younger consumers. By offering your followers exclusive content and discounts as well as taking advantage of Snapchat’s distinctive functions, you can tap into a market of some of the most loyal consumers out there.

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About the Author

Cassie Phillips
Cassie is a technology blogger and marketing specialist for Secure Thoughts who loves social media and the opportunities it allows for people and companies to communicate more transparently and complexly with one another. She hopes that you will look towards the future in your marketing efforts and consider the data at hand.

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