Early in the morning, the alarm goes off. That familiar ringtone on your smartphone starts to play. You move your hand to look for your phone and turn it off instantly. And now that you have your phone in your hand, you click on the small yellow box with a cute ghost in the centre.
Now, chances are you may not relate to this routine nor identify the small yellow box. However, 144.35 million people in India do recognise it, making it one of the top 15 most-used social media platforms in the world, popularly known as Snapchat.
And with India having the highest number of users active on Snapchat, it becomes a significant platform for marketers to invest in and consequently opens the gate for Snapchat marketing. So here’s a refresher for you all by marketing experts at Flora Fountain, a digital marketing company in Ahmedabad.
Before we dive into details let’s break the ice with Snapchat.
What is Snapchat?
Back in 2011, Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown, three students at Stanford university launched an app called Picaboo. The name was a riff on the childhood game Peek-a-boo and the symbol was a ghost on a yellow background. In 2012, the name was changed to SNAPCHAT.
It was an app which allowed people to send and receive any picture, video or message a.k.a. SNAP that would disappear in a period of short time. The app originally focused on private, one-to-one photo sharing. The features to send videos, live video chatting, messaging, creating caricature-like Bitmoji avatars, and sharing a chronological ‘story’ were added later.
Who is on Snapchat?
A distribution of global Snapchat users by gender (as of April 2022), showed that over 50% users of this instant picture and video sharing app are women. Here’s one more interesting fact for Indian brands: The country with the most number of Snapchat users is India, followed by the United States and France. Most of these users are aged between 18 to 24 years old, forming an interesting 39% of the total user base.
This, because Snapchat is a mobile-first social media application and more and more youngsters prefer spending their time online on their mobile devices like tablets and smartphones.
Which markets are most relevant to Snapchat?
Snapchat has many interesting features which were a first for social media users. Remember, stories were introduced by Snapchat before Meta (then Facebook) blew it up on all their platforms. Media outlets and food brands continue to leverage the power of Snapchat stories to target their audiences. For instance, every time you open the stories Discover section in Snapchat, you will see at least one Zomato Ad and one Cosmopolitan or E! article in the sponsored stories.
Fashion brands have heavily leveraged the Bitmoji outfit features, with prominent players like Ralph Lauren, Converse, Crocs regularly featuring their new products for users to digitally try using their Bitmoji Avatar and show it off among their followers and friends.
Why use Snapchat for Marketing?
Now that we have a general grasp of what Snapchat is, let’s look into how Snapchat can benefit a business by being a part of their digital marketing strategy.
Read more How to use Pinterest in a brand’s digital marketing strategy
A new way to engage!
Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube – these might be the usual social media platforms that you might have invested in for digital marketing. And your competitors are probably doing the same too. So, advancing your content and social media marketing strategy by investing in Snapchat marketing will not only set you apart from your competitors but will also bring engagement to your brand.
You can make your content stand out with features like drawing over Snaps and adding music and polls. For instance, National Geographic compiled snaps and promoted Snapchat users to visit the website by creating stories similar to what they share in their articles.
Connect with 360 Million Users!
Younger audiences, under 24, seem to have their phones glued to their hands and this is the demographic that most frequents Snapchat.
Search Engine Journal cites Snapchat as one of the most popular social media platforms, with 360 million monthly active users and 249 million daily active users. Additionally, the app ranks high among teenagers and users under 24 years old. Plus, Gen Z and millennial Snapchat audiences represent more than $1 trillion in direct spending power. Younger stakeholders are also more likely to act as brand advocates and influencers depending upon how your B2B or B2C business operates.
So if your target audience ranges in that age bracket then getting in touch with an effective social media marketing company to strategise and manage your brand’s Snapchat game can be the best way ahead to reach the right target audience at the right time.
Show your playful side
Advertisers on Snapchat are spread across sectors like FMCG, e-commerce, entertainment, video streaming, mobile wallets and others.
Snapchat allows users to showcase their raw selves. It was designed to be casual & fun and throughout time the platform has become more about being authentic than picture-perfect. It even presents itself as the app for #RealFriends. Its filters and lenses promote being cheeky and innovative while expressing oneself. Earlier this year, Snapchat launched novel ways for users and brands to express themselves:
1. Bitmoji
The app enables the user to try out billions of possible outfit combinations on cartoons, called Bitmoji. From brands like Ralph Lauren to Converse, this feature has been to let users engage and express with the brands:
2. Snap Map Layers
The feature lets users discover live events with their friends, in partnership with Ticketmaster.
Sharing stories!
Posts on Snapchat disappear after 24 hours, this keeps your brand fresh in the minds of your followers. Creating a Snapchat account wouldn’t be beneficial unless your brand is active, which means posting several times daily. The app also facilitates this by giving users ways to post interesting content often on stories and share it with as many users as possible.
However, since this does not mean posting 20 stories in a day will be effective. Each brand and user must find out their audience’s expectation.
Until you do, here are some tidbits to understand how and when to post on Snapchat. Studies show, user engagement drops by 36% once users reach the fourth snap of a story and approximately 80% of your followers will see your post about 4 or 5 hours after it’s been added to your story. Hence, adding 3 or 4 snaps in the span of 4 to 5 hours will have the highest chances of keeping your engagement high and preventing your followers from skipping over your content.
Read more Advertising on Social Media: Why you need a separate game plan
Advertise on the app!
Snapchat also features effective paid options to market your brand successfully.
Snapchat’s filters and lenses:
They are one of the most entertaining features. It is easy to engage your consumers with filters and lenses, and they can help to shine a positive light on your brand in a very quick and reasonably inexpensive way.
Discover page story ads:
It’s a page where you can view all the stories of your friends alongside many other popular brands. This page is witnessing increasing popularity among users and a few brands. So, if you are looking for driving engagement to your brand, it would be a great idea to host stories on Snapchat’s Discover page.
Use social influencers to engage!
Asking celebrities and other influencers who already have a steady following on snapchat is a great idea. You can expose your brand to a much wider audience by letting someone else take over your Snapchat account for a few hours. This will let other users know that your company exists and is in the market when they will see the influencer they follow talk about it. Always ensure that the influencers and their audience are relevant to your products and services.
How can we help in managing Snapchat?
We can help brands and individuals promote themselves on Snapchat by creating curated content for them and their audience in the form of customised stories, sponsored ads on Discover page, target snaps during special offers and launches and regularly engaging with consumers who would share and tag on snaps by them.
We also help our clients tap into the Snapchat audience by roping in platform-specific influencers to promote the products and services, targeted at a specific demographic.
Snapchat today allows a ton of inexpensive marketing opportunities so make sure your Snapchat marketing strategy makes your business better. The app might not be the right social media platform for every kind of brand but if the points mentioned in the blog above speak for your target audience, then it might be just the right fit for marketing your brand differently from competition! If you still think you need a helping hand, reach out to one of the best digital marketing companies in Ahmedabad, Flora Fountain by dropping us an email on hello@florafountain.com. Let’s explore this platform for your brand together.
Vasim Samadji is a partner at Flora Fountain, where he leads the Business and Marketing Strategy divisions. In a world where everyone is used to sugarcoating, his directness is often considered rude. But that shouldn't be a problem if you like the no-nonsense approach. Because he is a seasoned professional...
