Is Snapchat right for your business?  Snapchat is a visual photo sharing app that is available on mobile devices only. You may be clear on how to use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to promote your business. However, it may be a little less clear with Snapchat. Businesses aren’t used to applications that build engagement without building a portfolio of content.

Share Milestones

When your business is about to create something big—finishing a major project, achieving a new milestone, or preparing for a big event—the last thing you have time for is marketing. However, these are definitive moments of your business that reveal personalities and culture—the unique elements that make your business stand out.

Snapchat Stories aren’t meant to be perfect, so they are a great way to fit some quick and easy marketing without spending hours finding the perfect photo to post. This will let you stay connected with your audience without missing a beat in your bigger event. Give your audience direct access to the full experience of important events, not just the outcome. They will connect more deeply with you, appreciate your work even more, and feel included.

Offer Exclusive Deals

If you have a small but select following on Snapchat, use it as a channel for special deals. Create Stories around coupons, promotions, and discounts that you only want a select few to have access to. This is a popular social media campaign strategy that encourages existing followers to keep tabs on your account, and will also be an incentive for new users to follow you.

Reward Loyalty

Use Snapchat in a similar way to Instagram Direct Messages for business: reward loyalty. You could reward your loyal Snapchat followers by offering a discount or promotional code at the end of your Snapchat Story. Only those who watch until the end will have the information and instruction they need to get the prize.

Another way to use Snapchat in this manner is to craft a message in your Story that tells those who respond directly to you that they will get a reward. For example, if they send you a snap of themselves using your product or service, they will get a coupon. In addition to increasing brand loyalty, this tactic will increase your Snapchat engagement overall.

Promote Your Other Social Media Platforms

Another way to use Snapchat for your business is to provide instructions in your Story for action on a different social media platform. For example:

  • Have them send you an Instagram Direct Message with a promotional code that you provide only on Snapchat.
  • Instruct them to post to Instagram with a specific hashtag or to your Facebook business page with certain specifications, in order to get a discount or prize.
  • Tell them to comment on a particular post and in a particular way and you will send them a savings coupon.

This is a great way to accumulate quality user generated content for your entire audience to see, and to give your loyal followers exclusive treatment.

If you have a small but loyal following on Snapchat, offer this information on Snapchat without announcing it on other channels. If you are looking to gain more followers on Snapchat, you might want to announce on other channels to check your Snapchat Story for some special instructions.

Drive Traffic to Your Website

You can use Snapchat to drive traffic to your business website, but keep in mind that it is not a lucrative acquisition channel. Just like with Instagram Direct Messaging, stories, and posts, Snapchat doesn’t allow you to include clickable links. You can instruct users to go to specific URLS, but they should be easy to remember, or easy to copy and paste into their browser.

If you do want to experiment with Snapchat and website traffic, use your Story to create a brief preview of a particular blog post, product, or customer testimonial. Include the URL at the end of the Story, for users to go to if they want to learn more. Or, ask them to share their thoughts on a blog post in the comments section.

 

There several ways to use Snapchat for your business, to inform, educate, engage, appeal or all of the above. Use Snapchat to provide content that users look forward to seeing, and are afraid to miss!

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