Snapchat can be part of your marketing mix if you’re focusing on the most relevant tactics for your target audience. Here are eight tips to consider.

Who said that Snapchat is irrelevant for marketers in 2019? With more than 3 billion snaps being shared on a daily basis, Snapchat can still remain in your marketing strategy.

We are exploring over the last months an interesting shift in Snapchat marketing. It’s not enough anymore to try out the platform “because it seems cool for the younger audience.” We are currently moving to the stage that you need to become more strategic if you’re searching for a return on investment. Your Snapchat marketing strategy needs to be well-considered to justify the time and the budget that you’re spending on it.

Luckily, it is a channel that can still be beneficial if you’re able to make the most of it.

Eight tips to help you find new ideas for your Snapchat marketing strategy.

1. Use it to reach young adults (in a relevant way)

Snapchat can be a useful channel for your marketing mix if you want to reach a younger audience. Millennials seem to be its core user group. More specifically, it is estimated that 94% of young Americans aged 18-24 use Snapchat and also 92% of those aged 12-17.

Despite the channel’s changes, it is still an engaging platform for young adults, which makes it appealing for brands that want to reach them.

However, it is important to remember that you need to have a Snapchat marketing strategy before using the channel as a brand. It’s not enough to add it to your marketing tactics if you’re not strategic about it.

The best way to make the most of it is to decide on your objectives and how you can achieve it through this channel.

2. Spend time to actually understand it

After setting your objectives in your Snapchat marketing strategy, it’s time to validate your assumptions about your target audience. Not all young adults use Snapchat in the same way and brands need to understand the channel before jumping on it.

As with every channel, unique and authentic content has more chances to stand out. It is also useful to remember that Snapchat started as a fun way to interact with your friends. Brands need to be aware of the way people use the channel and how they can highlight their message without ruining their audience’s ‘Snapchat experience’.

Thus, your content should reflect the feel of the channel in a way that it seems natural in it.

3. Don’t just post the same content from other platforms 

Another challenge with Snapchat is finding what to post. It’s tempting to think that you’ll create vertical content that you can use both on Instagram Stories and Snapchat. It’s not the best idea though if you consider the differences between these two channels.

Instagram has become way more popular and it currently addresses a vaster audience. Instagram users may not necessarily be the same people who use Snapchat.

It’s better to reduce your posting frequency than to post the same content from other channels. This takes out your brand’s authentic and creative presence that can stand out on Snapchat.

Think of how the competition is reducing on Snapchat and use it on your benefit to experimenting with different types of content.

Be more creative while trying to understand your audience and use your learnings in your next campaigns.

4. Be fun and engaging

Your Snapchat presence can be both fun and engaging. You can use the channel to promote content that you’re not showcasing in your other marketing channels. Use Snapchat to make your followers feel important by sharing:

• Behind the scenes content
• Fun contests
• Exclusive images and videos
• Interactive content
• Special announcements

It is easier to build your Snapchat marketing strategy if you take the channel seriously trying to offer an authentic and fun experience that your followers will appreciate.

5. Experiment with Snap ads and different formats

Snapchat has tried over the last year to improve its advertising formats. It is currently offering many different ad formats that you can try out and it’s certainly nowhere close to its saturation point. In contrast to all the big social media channels, Snapchat is still new to self-serve ads and this can be challenging but also exciting.

Not many marketers are yet convinced to spend more time and money on Snapchat ads. In fact, it’s interesting to consider that just 8% of marketers are reportedly using Snapchat. The figures may be discouraging but it doesn’t mean that you still can’t experiment with it.

Snapchat is all about mastering the vertical content, which means that you can test your creative skills in a wider audience to understand if your ad and your messaging resonate with them.

Even if you start small, it is still a useful experiment to try out.

6. Big AR opportunity — the right channel to try it out

One of the biggest opportunities that you can explore on Snapchat is the focus on the AR technologies. What makes Snapchat stand out from the rest is the use of augmented reality in a fun and engaging way. There are more than 250 million AR snaps shared each day and it’s interesting to consider that 70% of users play with AR each month.

When it comes to engagement, 30% of users play with AR more than three minutes every day. Thus, there is great potential for your brand to explore how AR can be part of your own messaging in a way that your followers will appreciate.

AR will undoubtedly be part of our lives even more year over year so this is probably one of the biggest reasons to invest more time on Snapchat. Whether it’s about creating your own filter or trying out a shoppable AR experience, the learnings can be valuable when you’re ready to future-proof your marketing strategy.

7. Promote your Snapchat presence

A good way to get started on Snapchat is to cross-promote your presence to other channels. A good way to find new followers is to give them a reason to follow you on Snapchat. Start by providing exclusive and engaging content so that people will have a good reason to follow your brand on a new channel.

Cross-promotion can be different on every channel. For example, you can share your Snap code on Facebook or Instagram, while you can even include it in your email newsletter or even in an offline promotion.

The idea is to ensure that you promote it to the right people at the right channels. If you’re having different target audiences on each channel, then you might want to adapt your tactics to ensure that they are still effective.

8. Explore Snapchat for ecommerce

Snapchat has rolled out shoppable ads a few months ago and despite the initial inhibitions from marketers who haven’t used Snapchat yet, it still seems to be an interesting experiment. According to Snapchat, Wish.com saw a 17% increase in their engagement through shoppable Snap ads compared to the usual Snap ads.

Shoppable Snap ads allow brands and retailers to import their own product catalogs to the ads so that they make it easier for consumers to purchase the products. This can be a big opportunity to increase sales in a younger audience that is already used to spending a lot of time on their phones. Mobile transactions can be increased and your brand can even stand out in a platform that doesn’t see big competition in ad buys yet.

Whether it’s about showcasing a specific product or your collection of products, it can still be an interesting experiment for your brand.

Takeaways

Do these tips mean that I should simply join Snapchat right now? Not necessarily. We believe that Snapchat is not dead and there can still be a great potential for a brand targeting younger adults. However, if you feel that your target audience is not using Snapchat, then you don’t necessarily need to spend more time on it.

What you need to remember is:

• Snapchat can be powerful when trying to reach a younger audience
• AR and interactive content can start from Snap and expand to other channels in your strategy
• Spend the time to understand the channel before setting up your strategy
• Showcase your products through shoppable ads to increase sales
• Experiment with interactive and engaging content

Article written by: Tereza Litza