SNAPCHAT: FRIEND, NOT FOE FOR YOUR MARKETING PLAN

We get it: Snapchat is for kids, students, angsty teenage cashiers who refuse to acknowledge your presence for one last "selfie," not your clients or guests. Au contraire, mes frères: Snapchat is your next-best reach tool in accessing users on a 24/7 basis. Step outside the walls of "traditional" marketing and into the world of disappearing videos, quick-clip stories and geotagging at its finest, all within fingertips' reach. Read on and learn why your no Snapchat strategy ends today.

Snapchat's Daily Users Outnumbers Twitter.

For starters, Snapchat surpassed Twitters' number of daily users by about 10 million this year, putting Snapchat at about 150 million daily users. While many businesses have considered Snapchat "child's play," the application has rapidly accumulated more user's than what we consider to be one of the world's founding fathers of social media. Make no question; Twitter paved the way for real-time social media success with many news services, customer service departments and marketers. However, if your prospective and veteran clientele are of the mobile-loving variety, we highly recommending giving Snapchat a test drive.

Snapchat for One, Snapchat for All.

Snapchat has reflected a dramatic growth in users with the older bunch more so than the typical, younger crowd. Back in the age of 100 million followers, Snapchat claimed that of the 100 million:

• 26 million were 13 to 17 years old

• 37 million were 18 to 24 years old

• 23 million were 25 to 34 years old

• 12 million were 35 to 54 years old

Based on these stats, we can no longer assume that Snapchat is but for the common teenage smartphone user. One can only anticipate what results will be like amongst user demographic in the coming years.

But if you're Here for the Millennials…

Keep on the steady path. Millennials love a good Snapchat story; to ignore them is a risk not worth taking.  On a daily basis, Snapchat reaches on average 41% of all 18 to 34 year old's in the U.S. Overall, roughly 60% of America's 18 to 34-year old smart phone users have and use a Snapchat account.  Snapchat has a great market share with millennial buyers. If these guys are your target consumer, rest assured the amount of time spent on Snapchat will only climb higher and higher as we round out the summer and cruise right into holiday season.

Prime Time Mobile Real Estate

Here we have Snapchat's ad page example of an ad promoting the Netflix show Love:

Plain and simple: Snapchat provides what not many other platforms can: ultimate full-screen smartphone real estate for optimum user reach in a big, visual manner. Their usage of vertical video has changed mobile marketing in such a way that big guys like National Geographic are now filming for vertical AND horizontal screens.

Clever Ads for clever companies

Snapchat takes the cake when it comes to creative advertising. Tools such as Geofilters and sponsored Lenses pull normal ad ideas out and as far away from the box as possible. Curious as to what these tools are exactly? Snapchat graciously provided us a quick definition:

• Sponsored Geofilters: “When Snapchatters in the location(s) of your choice take a Snap, they’ll be able to see your Geofilter and use it to explain where, when, and why they took the Snap.” Essentially, you pay for an interactive branding overlay accessible only in specific locations assigned by YOU! Talk about ultimate location, location, location.

• Sponsored Lenses:“To activate Lenses, Snapchatters simply press and hold on their faces. Some Lenses include prompts like ‘raise your eyebrows’ to trigger an animation, adding a fun twist to the experience. And when you’re finished playing, it’s easy to send Lenses to a friend or post one to your Story. On average, Snapchatters play with a Sponsored Lens for 20 seconds.” Lenses allows your company to create a virtual animation that users enjoy interacting with. It's definitely a far cry from the traditional banner ad, and we love it.

No Strings Attached: Experiment without Permanence

Generally speaking, Snapchat stories and content disappears in one of two ways: 24 hours after posting, or instantly after a recipient views an individual snap. This provides an extremely unique environment to run a series of trials and errors or success without much online repercussions until your business is ready for the full market launch.

Still not convinced? Give these handy tricks a try before all hands are off the table:

• Create a low-profile, personal account Experiment and play around with Storytelling and local Geofilters before diving into your professional accounts.

• Follow a little bit of everyone. From coders to musicians to actors to friends; see what kind of snaps attract you the most and why.

• Keep your content unique. Snapchat is a new and semi-unchartered waters for the business world. Keep your content quick, attractive and humorous if possible.

• Simply put: Don't Knock it 'Till You've Tried it. Plain as day: This app is a huge window of opportunity to revolutionize your marketing campaigns and strategies. Don't miss out on a chance to change the way your consumer sees you.

Need help on how to get started? Contact Us and get started on your new social media campaign today!