4 Ways You Can Use Snapchat to Boost Business Sales

Snapchat may feel difficult to get the hang of, but it remains a valuable platform to reach today’s generation of buyers. How can you get involved in a way that benefits your business?

By learning how to leverage the powers of Snapchat, you can build an interactive and engaged following of people who feel connected with your business on a personal level. In other words, you’ll build an audience that’s eager to buy what you’re selling.

In this post, we’ll teach you several ways you can take advantage of relationship marketing on Snapchat. For the sake of examples throughout this article, let’s say your business is Acme Roofing.

1. Offer Exclusive Promos and Giveaways

People love free things and discounts more than anything else. Okay, maybe not more than anything else, but you get the idea.

Because of this, Acme Roofing joins Snapchat and decides to launch with a special coupon called “Snap My Roof” for 10% off the customer’s next order of shingles.

They send out the word announcing the coupon like so: “Tell your contractor to ‘Snap My Roof’ for 10% off your next order of shingles!”

[Tweet “Use Snapchat to promote incentive based coupons.”]

You can also make it more interactive, getting customers to do the promotion for you. Instead of simply sending out coupons at random, offer coupons (or a freebie) in exchange for ‘snaps’ of their own. For example, let them know that if they send out a snap of their recent purchase—perhaps their brand new roof job—they’ll get a free coffee mug, t-shirt, or yet another discount on their next order.

Whatever you do, make sure to follow the Snapchat Rules for promotions.

2. Build Hype for Special Events

Special events require hype to get as many people in the door as possible.

A Snapchat Story is a set of snaps shown altogether, made available for 24 hours per snap. You’ll want to use this in conjunction with your regular snaps to build the right kind of attention for your events.

Acme Roofing is putting on a homeowner’s seminar to educate people on how to increase home value.

Before the Event

Plan out a Snapchat Story to educate people about what to look out for at your upcoming event.

For example, you’ve got one week leading up to the event to maximize turnout, while ensuring people walk away feeling that they attended something worthwhile.

Follow a repeating schedule like this (varying the actual data per day) to ensure your Story always has something relevant, useful, and interesting about the event:

• Day one, morning snap: A relatable fact about a featured speaker.
• Day one, evening snap: One specific thing the attendee will know afterwards (e.g. “how to boost your home value by 25% in two months”).
• Day two, morning snap: Mention what exciting names in the industry attendees can rub elbows with by showing up.
• Day two, evening snap: Give a tip for having a better time once at the event (e.g. Finding better parking, accommodations, seats, etc).

Get creative and build on this! This is not set in stone, but serves as an inspirational base.

[Tweet “Your Snapchat account is always out on its third date, trying to stay interesting.”]

To make sure your content stays on point, think of your Snapchat account like it’s always on a third date. You know they are already interested, but you’re still trying to convince them keep dating you. Stay relevant to what they’re looking for right now.

During the Event

Keep the relationship going during the event!

Use one-off snaps to send immediate advice for those already attending. Let them know whats up. Which bathrooms are open without a line? Which parking lot still has room? Which speakers’ rooms are filling up fast?

Don’t forget the people who stayed at home, either. Track highlights from the event, show off how much fun everyone is having, and generally capture the magic of the smaller moments using your Story.

Once attendees realize what’s going on, they’ll be delighted to watch it after the event to see if they (or anyone they know) made it into any of your clips.

3. Share Engaging Product Demonstrations

Show creative, interesting, or funny ways to use your products. Blatant pitches won’t work, but showing people how it can make their life easier will.

Your company, Acme Roofing, offers some of the strongest, yet most lightweight material around. It’s your major selling point.

Run a series of Snaps based on loading up a traditional balance scale and see how many durable, lightweight shingles match any number of (optionally heavy) things. This visually demonstrates how light the shingles are, while opening up the doors for entertainment. Who doesn’t want to see how many shingles a kitten or bulldog weighs?

Kittens actually power the internet.

Now, for a real world example we didn’t make up:

Febreze ran a series of commercials where they walked blindfolded customers into rooms filled with garbage sprayed with Febreze, asking them to guess what they smelled.

Hint: Their victims never guessed garbage.

4. Answer Customer Questions (Personably!)

Publicly ask for customer questions, or wait until they inevitably find their way to you. Once questions come in, send out timely and personable answers.

After handling a specific customer’s request, you can double down by covering their question as a public snap to make sure the rest of your customers are up to dateon how to use that certain feature of your product or service.

You don’t need to put the original user on the spot, but “Someone recently asked us…and we wanted to make sure you all knew!” will ensure everyone knows your Snapchat is open for future questions they may have.

Bonus: Create Business Transparency

There’s a lot that goes on in your business! Find the more fun aspects to let your customers see a bit more about what it means to work at your company.

Here are a few specific ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

1. Ask employees to share funny work-related stories.
2. Send off snaps showing your employees having a good time on the job. Tip: Stick to unique circumstances. Desk work isn’t interesting, no matter how big they are smiling.
3. Highlight the customers engaging with the company! Keep the content fun and easy. Even a high five will do.

Let’s say an Acme Roofing contractor sends a Snap of themselves with the customer.

Here’s the content: They stand together somewhere the new roof can be seen in the background. The contractor asks “We just got your roof finished. Are you pumped to not need buckets for the rain anymore?” and the customer goes, “Heck yeah!” Cue high five.

Keep it simple and honest.

Conclusion

Putting Snapchat to work for your business is as easy as implementing normal marketing campaigns on the platform.

By offering Snapchat exclusive coupons, building hype for events, sharing creative product demonstrations, answering customer questions one-on-one, and telling the story behind your business, you can shape a whole new audience around your business and brand.

We’re curious: What’s made Snapchat such a difficult platform for your business to use? Tell us about your fears and frustrations in the comments section below!

Image credit: Found Animals Foundation, Kat Vielux