Snapchat is one of the newest marketing frontiers for businesses, and the best part about it is that it’s inherently engaging.
With over 100 million active users, it’s one of the most unique platforms for developing a social presence, although not many small businesses have realized it yet.
Snapchat’s effectiveness is only heightened when it’s your target market’s communication tool of choice. Case in point: according to one survey, 78% of high school students actively use Snapchat every single day.
The social platform offers plenty of opportunity for businesses to create engaging content, and it’s important that you use it to your full potential. Here are four ways to do so:
Create a Custom Geofilter
A Snapchat geofilter is a location-based image overlay that appears when a user sorts through filters on their device. You’ll notice geofilters in many locations.
You can create a custom geofilter for as little as $5. Geofilters can be surprisingly effective, and have a far reach.
BellMedia conducted a study of their results after they published a geofilter campaign at the University of Alabama. Within five hours, they’d reached 19,000 people.
Your geofilter can be as creative as you’d like, even going as far as using bitmojis and digital stickers. Be sure to use geofilters if you’re having an event, or if you have a physical location.
You may even choose to capture new leads by creating geofilters for other areas—even if your business doesn’t necessarily exist in that area. Take a look at these cool geofilters from different brands for inspiration.
Partner With Influencers
Influencer marketing has tremendous potential in today’s business landscape. You should partner with someone who has a large social following, and is doing particularly well on the Snapchat platform.
Your influencer of choice should be someone that your target audience can relate to.
Different influencers accept various types of payment, so it’s important to consider this as you hunt for influencers. Mega influencers are great, but they might not be realistic in terms of your budget.
Micro-influencers are very effective, and often work for free product or services, or even just a small monetary fee.
You can start your influencer search by using a tool like BuzzSumo or Grin. These tools allow you to hone in on influencers across dozens of industries, and although they do emphasize platforms like YouTube and Instagram, it’s a great starting point for identifying the ideal Snapchat influencers for your business.
Once you’ve come up with a key list, you can start checking out each of their Snapchat profiles to see what they’re doing.
As a housekeeping tip, be sure that your website is fully equipped to handle an influx of website traffic.
Because influencer campaigns can do so well, it’s very possible to experience a spike in site visits, which can shut down your servers and crash your site if you aren’t well prepared.
Look into a virtual private server or a dedicated server before you launch your campaign.
Track Your Engagement Results
You’ll never know how well your content is doing if you don’t have some procedures in place for tracking it.
There are several metrics you should be tracking, including total unique views, total story completion (users who view your entire story), fall-off rate (how many people aren’t finishing your stories), screenshots taken (in the world of Snapchat, screenshots are akin to “liking” and commenting), and, of course, Geofilter metrics.
By analyzing your Snapchat metrics, you can identify some key patterns and engagement strategies. For example, you might learn more about what times are the best to post stories, or what type of content is performing particularly well.
You can pull key metrics directly from Snapchat, though it will take a bit of manual work. You can also use third-party software services like Snapalytics and Delmondo.
Use Interactive Elements
Interactive elements make it easy for your viewers to engage with your brand. And if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to turn that engagement into sales for your business.
When you create interactive components, your audience participates more and enables you to grow.
Fortunately, there are plenty of different software tools that make creating interactive content as easy as it is fun. Here are a few to consider:
Zembula: Scratch-It is Zembula’s digital scratch off that displays a hidden message and CTA.
Qzzr: For awesome and fun interactive quizzes, Qzzr is a great tool.
WIREWAX: This platform allows you to create clickable spots in any Snapchat video, which can help increase your clickthrough rate.
RooJoom: This is a tool that allows you to transform plain files, like PDFs or images, and make it more engaging by incorporating interactive elements.
For example, basic text would be clickable, and it would even allow users to create their own sticky content.
Take a look at these brands on Snapchat to learn more about how different companies across various industries are using Snapchat to leverage their audiences.