How to maximize Snapchat videos to promote your brand
Snapchat isn’t all about fun effects and swapping faces. It has substantial marketing potential. This is particularly true if the brand is targeting young adult viewers. As reported by Business Insider, about 77% of college students use Snapchat every day. Also, 58% of young adults would likely purchase a company’s product if they received a discount coupon or a promo code on Snapchat.
More than the usual audience engagement, product teasers, and exclusive discounts, Snapchat videos have a ton more benefits for businesses. Marketers just need to maximize the app’s features to promote their campaigns effectively.
Here are tips, tricks, and practices marketers can use to give their Snapchat videos an additional creative boost.
Personalization
• Follow the Snapchat Culture
Snapchat is all about authenticity and real-time moments. The very best Snapchat posts are natural, raw, and brief. They certainly are not long, cookie-cutter posts with photoshopped visuals – much like what consumers often see on their Facebook or Twitter feed. Snapchat users, particularly the millennials, prefer clicking on Snapchat’s story to see something different, compelling, and fun.
• Humanize the Brand
Snapchat videos must always be relatable and entertaining. Make the viewers laugh, giggle or even cry. Aim for an emotional response. Be humorous, witty, and crazy in a variety of ways. Marketers should give their story a personality. They just need to make sure the content lines up with the brand’s image.
• Optimize “My Story”
Utilize “My Story” frequently, but not continuously. The aim of marketers should only be to post high-quality content. They shouldn’t post never-ending material for the benefit of fulfilling a quota. Be thoughtful with the usage, too. If there are plenty of boring snaps, the brand’s engagement rate will suffer. My Story is the primary outlet for Snapchat advertising. Be at ease with it. Marketers must look at the nature of the 24-hour expiration as a chance for relentless creativity. It’s not an inhibitor to viewer engagement.
• Build Personal Connections
Send customized snaps to select followers. Someone just added the brand? Send the person a personalized welcoming snap. A follower shared an amusing clip? Respond with a funnier video. Surprise a loyal customer/follower with a live video call from the company owners or product endorsers. The goal is to answer every snap the brand gets.
Endorsements
• On the Brand’s Story
Get an influencer to promote the company on the company’s Snapchat account. Make sure the person’s niche and reputation are aligned with the brand image and marketing strategy. Give the influencer sufficient speaking time. If s/he isn’t available for a personal meet-up to do the endorsement, give them access to the brand’s login information so they can post visuals at their own time.
• On the Influencer’s Story
Working with the same influencer with substantial followers, ask him/her to recommend the brand on his/her own account. Let the influencer publish the company’s Snapcode on their Snapchat story. When they do, followers who see the snap will instantly be given the option to add the company’s profile.
Cross-Promotion
• Go Beyond the Snaps
Advertise the best snaps outside of Snapchat. This helps in expanding the brand’s following. It also further encourages users to check their app more often so as not to miss the brand’s topnotch snaps.
• Different Social Media Platforms
Post the best-saved snaps, best followers’ screenshot snaps, and highly recommended stories on the brand’s other social media accounts. Marketers can save the entire story of an event as a single file. They can then upload the video to Facebook, Google+, Twitter, or Instagram. Tweet a hilarious snap from a follower – and make sure to credit the sender.
The same principles apply to cross-promoting the snaps on the company site and blog. But this time around, marketers have broader options. The snaps can be a part of the site’s landing page. They can be visuals for a blog post. The options are many, and the least that can be done is to add the brand’s Snapchat URL onto the site and blog’s homepage. .
Maximize Snapchat videos by making a story worth following first, and then a label worth watching next.