Do you want to reach out to your audience faster and spend less time curating content?

Snapchat for business helps you exactly do this. Thanks to its out-of-the-box features and updates, you will never run short of content and reach. Your audience will get to see something exciting each time, be it a new filter or a snap, for interacting with you.

Here comes a surprising fact, though. Snapchat has 238 million daily active users and is still counting. Yet only one percent of marketers and business owners use Snapchat for business actively.

Why so?

Because many think of it as an app solely for personal use. Plus, the short-living content might not work for all the businesses.

So before we dig deep into how to use Snapchat for business, let’s first understand if you actually need it.

Read : 7 Ways to Optimize Your Social Media Marketing

Table of Content

Why should you use Snapchat for business?

1. Reach the youth

Millennials are the emerging shoppers having a direct spending power of $1 Trillion. If your brand is targeting Gen Z, then Snapchat is your best buddy.

Snapchat has dedicated millennials in the age bracket of 18-34.
Each user spends an average of 30 minutes on the app daily.
60% of the active Snapchat users make impulsive purchases.

These are some serious figures you would not like to miss to skyrocket your sales with millennials onboard.

2. User-generated content

Snapchat user-generated content is the best of all.

It eliminates content creation hassles. It makes them an inclusive part of your brand, initiating emotional connections with the users.

It is a great way to strengthen the credibility of a brand.

Have a look at this Daniel Wellington campaign. It consisted of a story series with guidelines on clicking selfies with their branded watch stickers. Their followers reposted them, creating a ripple of magnificent brand awareness.

3. Easy Snapchat ad

Bid farewell to boring ad pitches with Snapchat. You can choose from multiple ad formats. You can also have snap ads, story ads, filters, and AR lenses.

Introduce features and announce giveaways with story ads. Go for snap ads giving a sneak peek of all the cool activities associated with your business.

Keep your ads short and crisp with loads of exciting elements that will invoke curiosity and interest.

This fantastic collaboration of Adidas with Snapchat to launch an all-new series of Falcon shoes had a 100% sales potential. Followers needed to swipe up to buy the latest shoe collection completing the app purchase. The campaign witnessed a phenomenal six-hour sold out.

TipsUse deep linking so your audience can hop from the Snapchat app to your brand app. Make them land on the Call To Action(CTA) section.

4. Snapchat insights

You can’t rely solely on the views and number of screenshots taken for building a Snapchat marketing strategy. That’s when Snapchat insights come into the picture.

Snapchat insights are essential game-changers for Snapchat marketing. You can find out more about your potential leads’ location and demographic data for better planning.

The key performance indicators, like view counts, daily reach, etc., will let you evaluate interest and engagements.

There are hundreds of categories for grouping users based on their interests, like music, movie buffs, travelling, etc.

But sadly, Snapchat users with a large following count can only access advanced Snapchat Insights as the new rollout is limited.

TipsCustomize campaigns based on interest categorizations for better lead generation.

5. Pioneer advantage

As mentioned earlier, a handful of marketers are using Snapchat for business.

While most are still firming their grip on Facebook and Instagram, you can beat your competitors by reaching out to a newer audience with Snapchat.

Leverage the pioneer advantage. Choose the less crowded path and be an emerging brand name on Snapchat.

Have a look at the H&M campaign in Poland. There were several hidden tickets to the “Boiler Room” exclusive party. The campaign was introduced to 3.8 million users, helping H&M gain around a thousand new followers with positive media coverage.

Brilliant, isn’t it?

Now you seem all excited to start. Let us quickly go through 6 ways on how to use Snapchat for business.

Before discussing how to use Snapchat for business, let’s first understand how to create a business account on Snapchat.

How to use Snapchat for business

1. Setting up a Snapchat business account

Download Snapchat from the App Store or the Google Play Store for iPhone or Android, respectively.
Click on the Sign-Up button.
Tap on the Signup and Accept button after filling in your details in the respective fields.
After verifying your age, enter a username that represents your business, followed by a strong password.
Enter your phone number to get the verification code. You can also sign in with your email address.
Once you feed in the verification code, tap on the Continue button, and you are done.
Use the username and password mentioned above to login to Ads Manager.
Enter the legal business name and tap on the Next button.
Select the country and currency and click on Next.
Your Snapchat business account will be all set to launch your first ad campaign along with payment input methods.

Add members from your business and create your first-ever ad campaign. The Ads Manager dashboard reflects your billing details.

Note that, unlike traditional social media, you can only use Snapchat on your smartphones. There are ways to run them in your system with emulators’ help, but they lack usability. It is best to use the app on your mobiles.

2. Marketing the Snapchat account

Every social media is unique, and Snapchat has its nuances too.

You need to promote your account before you can start with Snapchat marketing. Mention your Snapchat account username on your website, newsletters, promotional emails, Facebook account, Instagram account, Twitter handle, LinkedIn Profile, etc.

You can also make use of Snapcodes by clicking on the Settings. Create Snapcodes and add an image to feature in the ghost logo.

Snapcodes are the QR codes of your Snapchat account. Followers, including your physical store customers, are then a scan away from your business account.

TipsUse snapcodes to drive traffic to your account, website, customized brand filters, and exclusive content.

3. Featuring user-generated content

As mentioned earlier, user-generated content directly boosts the authenticity of your service.

Your followers’ followers will find your business trustworthy as somebody in their immediate circle has direct dealings. Their honest feedback and experiences are big-time assurances working in your favor.

Without breaking your head now and then to create content, repost your follower’s content featuring them.

Now you can rise beyond the ad noise without spending a ridiculous amount of money.

Starbucks started its first campaign of “Buy one, Get one” offer for its US branches. A follower had to take a snap with the “Snap it Forward” filter redeeming this offer. After its epic success, Starbucks rolled out more such campaigns.

4. Influencer’s aid

Imagine a viral moment exposing your business to thousands of followers in a few seconds.

Sounds crazy, but is it even possible?

Obviously, it is! All you need to do is to get some catalytic Influencers’ aid. They are the superstars of the social media world, and their endorsements have remarkable reach.

But it would be best if you were vigilant. Don’t be fooled by an Influencer’s followers count alone—research about their previous collaboration and recent activity.

Before you spend a dime on this, here are a few things to keep in mind when getting started with influencer collaborations.

Decide on the goal of the campaign and choose your key performance indicators.
Start making a list of relevant influencers in your business domain.
Check which ones are active and spontaneous.
Use the Snapchat categories to zero down the niche of your ideal influencer.
Check with them one on one with a proposal for collaboration.

TipsYou can use Ghostcodes to find influencers of a particular industry.

Let’s have a look at Dunkin’ Donuts’ National Donut Day campaign.

In this case, eight influencers took over the Dunkin’ Donuts Snapchat account for a bizarre promotion. This campaign helped them gain ten times more followers than usual. 40k+ users engaged with this campaign on various platforms.

Read : How To Save Snapchat Memories forever

5. Exclusive offers

Lucrative offers are tough to ignore. It would be best if you do that next precisely. Attract more followers with amazing discounts or giveaways.

Let’s say you own a line of beauty products. You can ask your followers to scan your Snapchat account and send a screenshot of theirs using your product. The best ones can avail of a discount on their next purchase.

You can also make use of AR lenses and Snapchat filters of your products for virtual trial outs. Build up an air of excitement and hype with these.

Look at Grubhub having daily challenges for college students making an excellent example of Snapchat marketing strategy. This week-long #snaphunt encouraged their followers to be creative to win a giveaway worth $50. More than 30% of the followers participated, and another 20% raised the followers’ count.

6. Promotion and exciting announcements

Promoting cross platforms is a must. It will make sure that your existing base follows you on every platform.

Make your followers curious by giving them enough teasers and behind the scenes snaps.
Announce flash sales and give away alerts for the winners of creative contests.
Make use of geofilters and location-specific trends to set this exclusive content.

Let’s assume you have an ice cream parlor. You can host a contest for your followers to guess the new flavor you will be introducing in a couple of weeks. The top three winners will get to have any flavor of ice cream for free until then.

Here is a viral example. Taco Bell launched its new Ar lens filter, and it became an instant hit. 224 million people witnessed it. Every person spent an average of 24 seconds before sending out the snap. It became a record-breaking Snapchat marketing campaign.

Phew, those are some wrecking numbers!

Conclusion

Snapchat isn’t overcrowded yet. It is the perfect time to experiment on this platform to make the most out of it.

And now you know how to use Snapchat for business. Gear up to implement all of these for real.

Start influencing your followers with a few snaps or a 5-15 seconds video. Continue exploring other features like AR lenses, filters, and stickers for a foolproof brand engagement strategy.

Have an actionable plan, and you will be on a roll.

Happy Snapping!