Snapchat for business: how to capture Snapchat users’ attention

If your business sells goods or services to millennials then Snapchat should be on your marketing radar.

Every day 158 million Snapchat users open the app on their smartphones to check out what their friends are up to in momentary shots and 24-hour sequences of picture and video posts known as Stories.

And despite the rise of its competitor, Instagram, Snapchat say their user numbers are on the up making it a viable marketing platform and one to be added to your social media plans in 2019.

How to capture the attention of Snapchat users

Due to its immediate nature, you are only ever as good as your last snap or current Snapchat Story, so it’s important for businesses to have an ongoing strategy if they want to take this millennial social platform seriously.

Here are some Snapchat tips for businesses to help you reach your target audience:

1. Populate your Snapchat Story

You need to be ever-present on Snapchat to remind your followers of your brand. Post regular images and videos, and respond to messages from your audience. You can see who and how many people have viewed your Snapchat Story by clicking onto it yourself. Measuring the success of your posts is also possible by offering followers discount codes or challenging them to send you a certain picture to tie in with your product or a campaign.

2. Use Live Stories

Creating a Live Story is a great way to interact with your followers during national events, product launches and brand campaigns. Give them behind the scenes access, previews and exclusive offers. These are also good tactics for your Snapchat Story but there’s extra-authenticity when you create a Live Story while sharing an experience with your followers.

3. Use Snap Ads

Snap Ads are 10-second long sponsored posts that are shown to your followers or an audience you pick. You can refine your audience by interests, gender, age, income and parental status.

Be prepared to pay large sums for Snap Ads, especially if you want them to appear in the apps’ Discover feature which is usually reserved for media-based profiles like Huffington Post, Cosmopolitan UK and The New York Times. Ad costs can stretch into the £100,000s.

4. Sponsor a geofilter

Snapchat users can overlay their image posts with geofilter graphics when they are in a specific location. They could be in one of your shops or venues and the fun graphic could incorporate your branding or a marketing campaign message.

5. Sponsor a lens

Lenses allow Snapchat users to interact with an augmented reality feature designed by you. They have special facial recognition technology and are really popular with the social media platform’s young audience as they help create fun posts to share with their friends. If that lens includes your branding or message then it’s a brilliant opportunity to use word-of-mouth marketing.

6. Partner with an influencer

It can take a long time to build up an engaged following on Snapchat. A good way to give your brand a high profile without waiting for your own following to grow is to team up with a Snapchat Influencer. Approach someone who has a similar audience to you and offer them a deal for featuring your brand. Check out our tips for working with social influencers. 

7. Keep an eye on the Snap Store

Snapchat has a digital shop in its Discover feature where users can buy its merchandise. This isn’t something brands can use at the moment but there’s potential that it could be opened up in the future. However, as with Snapchat Ads, be prepared to pay high prices to put your products in front of Snapchat’s millennial audience.

If you’d like help to reach Snapchat users or put together your own social media strategy then we can help. Amplify PR is a Southampton-based Hampshire PR agnecy offering a range of social media services. Get in touch for more information.