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15 Effective Ways to Use SnapChat for Business Marketing

Updated on by in Social Media

If you are over the age of 34 years old, you may not know what SnapChat is. It is an app that allows you to send short videos or images. The biggest benefit was that the messages used to disappear 24 hours after they were viewed, but people are now able to save the messages if they wish.

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Nevertheless, in principle, the message you send should disappear after 24 hours. If you are truly unaware of SnapChat, the independent news group produced a fine article on the many things you can do with SnapChat. It may be worth a skim read to get an idea of what SnapChat is all about.

Is SnapChat the Right Platform for Your Business?

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SnapChat reaches 41% of all 18-34yr olds in the US according to their “Advertise with us” adverts. Ergo, if your target audience doesn’t fall into that range, then SnapChat may not produce convertible results. In addition, there are some companies that do not offer products or services that may be marketed via SnapChat.

1. Allow Your Sales Agents to Instantly Illustrate Their Current Situation

A picture says a thousand words. Maybe a sales agent is having a great day at an exhibition and wishes to show you the crowds around your stall. The sales agent may also send pictures of customers crowding around a competitors’ stall.

2. Allow People to See Your Product in Action

A short video of your product in action may have a bigger effect if it arrives through SnapChat. The SnapChat messenger is more personal. The client may feel you are giving a demonstration directly to him/her. Go the extra mile by showing your product doing something amazing. For example, when the Smart Car was invented, people said it was so small that it was a deathtrap, so Mercedes showed videos of their head director in the car as it was hit by a wrecking ball. With a short video, they proved their car was safer than any other small car on the market.

3. Sales Agents May Quickly Illustrate a Problem that Requires Managerial Input

Let’s say that the product they are selling keeps producing errors. There may be a piece missing, or there may be a fundamental error in the way the product is set up. The sales agent may send a picture or a video that highlights the problem, and you could quickly identify the problem and send a solution.

4. See Other People Using Your Product

The term “Social Proof” seems to be a rather popular buzzword these days. It states that people follow the herd. If people see others using your product, they may be more inclined to use it themselves.

5. Get a Snapshot of People Struggling with Your Product

There may be a fundamental error with the way you market your product. It may cause problems or misunderstandings within your target audience. Your sales agents may directly express and highlight these problems with a quick video. For example, Scalextric used to be a big thing in the 90s, but the adverts showed kids pressing the controller and the cars running around the track like F1 cars. This led to kids pushing down the button all the way and seeing their car fly off the track, hit the wall and smash. A sales agent may see such a problem and highlight it to you with a SnapChat video so that you may alter the way you market your product.

6. Allow People to See What is so Great About Your Product

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A ten-second message is not very long, so use it to its full advantage by filling it with all the USPs that your product has. It may seem like a cluttered mess of one thing after another, but it can make an impact if it is done correctly.

7. Add a Personal Touch to Your B2B Marketing

SnapChat is a little more personal than many of the other social media platforms, and you can use this fact to create personal relationships with your biggest clients. You are not simply sending spam adverts, you are sending personal messages.

8. Personally Motivate Your Sales Agents Individually

Maybe a phone call is not enough to motivate your team, maybe they need to see your face. Maybe they need to see the pile of cash they will earn if they hit the sales targets.

9. Give Your Clients a Personal Update on Their Orders

If you have big clients that have large orders, it may help reassure them if they see the progress of their orders, especially if their order has to be built or produced over a series of days and weeks. For example, if you have just ordered a new car, wouldn’t it be great to see it being built and finished while you wait?

10. Allow Clients to See How Far Your New Project is Coming

A candid look at what is happening in your research and development department may go a long way. This is especially true if customers are eagerly awaiting the next version of your product. Smartphone creators are always “leaking” photos and information about their products for the same reason. You can do something similar with SnapChat.

11. Set a Time Limit on Your Discount Codes that Expires with the Message

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Send discount codes via SnapChat exclusively. It will encourage people to take notice when they receive a SnapChat message from you. In addition, you may set time limits on your SnapChat exclusive offers, and you may even use the auto-deleting function to your benefit because after 24 hours the customer will not be able to get the discount code back and will not be able to find the code anywhere else on the Internet.

12. Train Your Customers to Respond to Your Flash Sales

Time limits and such are okay if people believe them. What is better is where a customer is trained to respond to them because they know something similar is both rare and valuable. SnapChat deletes messages after a while, which may work towards training your customers to act now rather than wait.

13. Show Your Customers behind the Scenes in a Candid Manner

Some companies are showing life behind the scenes. Such a marketing method may not work on TV because people on mass are probably not interested in how your high-tech machines can make an intricate product in less than ten seconds, but such candid behind-the-scenes videos may work well with SnapChat.

14. Literally Run Your Adverts on SnapChat

It is cheap and nasty, but some companies do it and it seems to work for them. If your adverts are very specifically targeted, it may be worth it. For example, if you are a Marvel fan and there was a new movie in the works, you may be willing to suffer through an advert just to see what the new movie is all about.

15. Sign up for SnapCash and Send People Money

Giving your customers money may seem like a terrible idea, but what about your closest B2B clients that you have built a personal relationship with? For example, if you were to write a book on secret ways to use your product, you may sell it on your website for all your clients to see. You could select ten of your best clients and direct them to the book while also giving them the money to buy the book. It is like giving a free gift, except that it has more impact because you are giving away money too, so it doesn’t seem like you are giving away a disposable and worthless e-book. Plus, it shows you are so excited for the client to read the book that you are literally willing to pay for it for them. Even if they do not buy it, they may still feel indebted and/or grateful to you.

Conclusion

Remember to use the unique selling points that SnapChat offers. One important USP of the service is that it appeals to people between the age of 18 and 34. Another is that it is a very personal way of communicating with your target audience. Instead of trying to convert people into buyers with your SnapChat messages, consider using SnapChat to titillate your target audience, to build suspense and/or excitement about your upcoming products.

Author: Eva Wislow

Eva Wislow is a writer and career coach from Pittsburgh. Find more information at her website – CareersBooster.com

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