How to Launch a Successful Snapchat Campaign

Many young social media users wouldn’t be caught dead on Facebook, or even its subsidiary of Instagram. For a growing number of millennials, Snapchat is the way to communicate and share moments with friends. Lucky for us, Snapchat offers an expanding number of ways to reach these 16-34-year-old customers. Here are the best ways that you can create a successful Snapchat campaign.

Tell Stories

The great thing about Snapchat is that its content expires. Use this to your advantage! With the Stories function, you can make quick videos that expire in 24 hours. These videos can include exclusive links, promos, and discounts only for viewers who see them that day! Snapchat boasts a 14% swipe up rate (swiping up customer interaction with an ad similar to a clickthrough on, say, a Facebook ad). This is much higher than the average clickthrough rate on conventional social media ads.

Build Up to an Event

You can also use Snapchat Stories to show a series of short promotions building up to an event, like a product launch or a grand opening. Snapchat harnesses the power of sequential storytelling in a way that other social media platforms can’t, making it perfect for generating momentum and building up customer engagement. When the moment arrives, you can be ready to celebrate the event with sponsored lenses and on-demand geofilters.

Design a Sponsored Lens

The name of the game on Snapchat is “playful!” With a sponsored lens, you can create a playful way for users to interact with your brand. For example, Kraft Foods made a lens featuring their trademark mac and cheese to invoke consumer nostalgia and reaffirm a positive perception of the veteran brand.

Make an On-Demand Geofilter

In the past, Snapchat only allowed you to make public geofilters, but now you can tailor them to your brand or event. That means you can have custom filters available only at the location of your grand opening. These filters let your customers and attendees creatively share the moment with their friends.

Contests and Giveaways

Although it has grown considerably in recent years, Snapchat still maintains a feeling of intimacy between its users. Any special contests, discount codes, or giveaways that you extend to your Snapchat followers feel special and unique to them. So make the most of this! Reward your customers for being Snapchat users, and they will be more likely to use that promo code or coupon.

Takeovers

Find some influencers or micro-influencers who have a following in your demographic and let them take over your Snapchat account for a day. You’ll be amazed at what they can do to create customer engagement and create a sense of fun around your brand. Often, micro-influencers understand the customer base better than anyone. They speak the language, and that’s more valuable than diamonds! Snapchat empowers your company to tell stories and connect closely with your customers. It gives your customers ways to express themselves and interact with your brand creatively. Plus, it has powerful tools for measuring success metrics and customer engagement. By bringing together a few of these elements, your Snapchat campaign is sure to be a hit.

Author Bio

Brian Oaster writes content for translation services company Day Translations from Central America. He has worked worldwide as an arts educator, English teacher, basket exporter, rare book dealer, fortune teller, and as the first mate of a private sailing yacht. Educated in the visual arts and an avid reader of news and literature, his focus is on international arts and culture, world religions, and global politics.