How Brands are Using Snapchat to Get Business

The appeal of Snapchat is obvious. With Snapchat, you can take and send photos instantly. These photos last for only a few seconds after they have been accessed. This means that you take a picture and send it. The person you’ve sent the picture to has only a handful of seconds to look at the picture after opening it. After these few second have passed, the picture is destroyed forever.

It’s an addictive concept that has proven to be significantly popular with kids between the ages of 13 and 25. 18% of all iPhone users are using Snapchat. What does this mean for brands wishing to go after the younger crowd?

Snapchat Marketing

400 million snaps are being sent every single day. There is somewhere in the neighborhood of 26 million active Snapchat users right now. The growth of this app is expected to continue its dramatic rise. Given the fact that the photos and videos shared on Snapchat can only last for a few seconds, is there any way for brands to take advantage of this from a marketing point of view?

Top Brands Using Snapchat

Let’s take a look at the brands currently utilizing Snapchat:

Taco Bell: The popularity of Taco Bell with the 13-25 crowd is significant. Taco Bell recently alerted their Snapchat followers of the re-release of the Beefy Crunch Burrito. The response was huge.
Acura: It was smart marketing on the part of Acura, rewarding its first 100 Snapchat followers with access to a special video of its NSX prototype.
Wet Seal: Handing over control of its Snapchat account to a 16-year-old blogger proved to be a very big, very smart move for the teen retailer. The blogger used Snapchat’s “My Story” feature (this allows all of a Snapchat user’s followers to see a post) to pick up six thousand views and nine thousand new followers.

Uses for SnapChat

The great thing about Snapchat is that it can be used in a variety of ways:

• A contest.
• A sneak-peek of a new product.
• A coupon.
• Some behind-the-scenes footage.
• Meeting a new member of the brand’s team.
• A targeted video.

Using Snapchat as a marketing tool is not impossible by any means. Create the account, share it on other social media sites, reward new followers, and share content. The best part is that the marketing possibilities within Snapchat have not yet been fully explored. New brands can easily get on board.