Digital Marketing Agency | Manchester & London | Impact

Brilliant Digital Marketing, in Manchester, Cheshire, and London

10 Quick Tips for Snapchat Marketing That You Can Do Now

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1. Create a dedicated business account

So, you’ve already got a personal Snapchat account.

And what you use this for is entirely up to you. We’re not asking. 😉

But you should also set up a new account specifically for your business. Not only does this look more professional, it also avoids the possibility of you accidentally sending a naughty photo out to all your business contacts.

Impact Business Advisors Snapcode - Add us on Snapchat
This is our business account. Look at my lovely face.

 

2. Join Ghostcodes

Snapchat, as a platform, is crap. It has zero discoverability, and makes it really hard for people to find you – and for you to find them.

That’s where Ghostcodes steps in.

Ghostcodes is a third-party app, that lets you discover other Snapchat users by interests.

Get your business account registered on there now. It’s everything Snapchat *should* be, but isn’t.

3. Start interacting on Ghostcodes

Once you’ve created your Ghostcodes account, you should populate the “interests” section of your profile. This is the main way people will find your account, so use it wisely.

Think of it in terms of exact keyword searches – what interests are people going to be searching for, exactly?

The “exact” is important – there are no “close match” searches on Ghostcodes, so go for the obvious phrasing (“digital marketing” rather than “marketing using digital tools”) that people are likely to search for.

In other words, don’t put “MAN UTD LOOOOOOOOL!!!” as an interest, because (a) no one will find you, and (b) you sound like an idiot.

4. Put your Snapcode EVERYWHERE

Another pretty obvious one – download your Snapcode, and post it in as many places as you can. Add it to your email signature. Put it as your profile picture on Twitter / Facebook. Add it to blog graphics (like the blog pic on this article). Put it on your website.

And don’t forget – you’re not restricted to just the snapcode. You also get a direct URL, like this one:

https://snapchat.com/add/impactbiz

Just replace “impactbiz” with your Snapchat username, and you’re good to go.

5. Create a weekly schedule of content to post

OK, so you’re up and running with the account, and you’re growing followers. Now what?

Well, now you need to get posting.

And, please, please, please, try and avoid insipid snaps of your dinner. Save that for Instagram Stories, yeah?

Some of the most successful Snapchatters run to a schedule – this helps keep your content relevant and interesting, and avoids the trap of “just posting whatever you can think of whenever it comes to you.”

For example – we might run a #TechTrends theme every Tuesday.

On this day, we snap about the latest tech trends in digital marketing. (No, honestly, it’s BRILLIANT! Honestly.)

So our week might look something like:

  • Monday – #MondayMotivation (Stuff to get you up and running)
  • Tuesday – #TechTrends (The latest trends in digital marketing tech)
  • Wednesday – #PaidSocial (Everything paid social. And a day entirely without alliteration).
  • Thursday – #MarketingTrends (What to look out for, and what trends to jump on)
  • Friday – #WindDownFriday (Closing the week with a bang).

I mean, it doesn’t look like this, because I’m not as organised as I like to think I am, but still. Do this, and you’ll be better than me instantly.

6.  Use Snapchat Stories

Snapchat became such a MASSIVE platform because it offered something the public wanted – the ability to send pictures that self-destructed after no more than 10 seconds.

Now, obviously, this was always going to be used for sharing pics without clothes. We’re quite simple creatures, really.

But a 10-second only image is pretty low-impact when it comes to marketing. This is where Stories come in.

Stories are a collection of your snaps that are gathered together, and stay “live” for 24 hours. Think of them as a showreel of your snaps from the last day – they can be viewed more than once, and you can save them to your phone camera (using Snapchat Memories) for repurposing elsewhere.

7. Plan for interaction

There are some people absolutely storming Snapchat at the moment. I’m a massive fan of Suzanne Nguyen, or Stringstory.

Go and follow her, and learn. She’s awesome.

One thing Suzanne does *really* well is interaction – not only does she deliver an astonishing amount of new info, but she also asks for feedback, questions, and answers from viewers.

People get bored of broadcasts pretty quickly when they’re simply a viewer. Ask them to participate, and interact.

People get bored pretty quickly when they’re simply a viewer. Ask them to participate. Click To Tweet

8. Request screenshots

Screenshots, used properly, can be a really powerful marketing tool on Snapchat.

If you’re about to share a pic with loads of information, then tell your viewers to “get ready to screenshot” in the snapchat beforehand.

You also get stats on the number of times people have screenshotted (screenshot??) your snaps – which will give you an idea of how much value people are getting from your content. The more screenshots, the better.

Plus – and this is a biggie – every time someone takes a screenshot of your snaps, the pic gets saved to their camera roll. And this means they see it every time they scroll through their photos on their phone. Because, let’s face it, no one really deletes photos from their phone anymore, do they?

This is a really powerful way to stay “front of mind” with your target audience.

9. Monitor and log statistics

Snapchat Marketing - My Story - Where to find viewer stats
My Story – Where to find viewer stats

Remember when I said Snapchat was a bit crap?

Well, here’s another example. Stats and analytics for organic posts (snaps and stories you post) are a bit shit.

Navigate to your story, and click the three dots to see your stats.

Now here’s the ballache – copy these stats into a spreadsheet so you can track your performance over time. Keep track of your total views and total screenshots.

And remember to do this every day (or at least, every day when you’ve posted something). Over time, you’ll be able to track your growth.

10. Learn to use filters, emoji, stickers, Spotify, and get arty

Take a pic, and swipe your screen to get access to loads of different filters and overlays.

Or, point the camera at your face, and hold a finger down on the screen. Then swipe through the different effects you can add to your images and video. Kinda addictive.

Play about with adding emoji and stickers from the top of the screen – resize them, stack them, and be creative.

Click the pen icon and you can draw all over your images / videos.

Use Spotify, and add a soundtrack to your videos.

In short, be as creative as you like.

Get started

The best way to get used to Snapchat is just to get started.

So, go and give it a go.

Get help

You don’t have to do this alone – we can do the hard work for you, and get your business up and running at full steam online.

Plus – and this is the good bit – we’re GIVING AWAY free 30 minute one-on-one workshops to get you started.

Limited spaces are available, so request your session NOW. Just click above to get started.

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David Trott

David has worked with countless UK charities, businesses, and schools - with a brilliant track record of helping them with their biggest challenges. David is the founder of the Impact group - including Impact Charity Advisors, Impact Business Advisors, and Impact Education Support.