What can Snapchat do for my business when there are better social engagement platforms? This question is what most business owners ask, especially after seeing the low number of Snapchat followers compared to Instagram and other social media platforms.

However, looking at the stats, you’ll discover that most users of Snapchat are millennials. In 2018, 71 percent of Snapchat users were below 34 years, with nearly half of that percentage being between 18-34. And so, if you have decided to target the young generation for your business ventures, Snapchat is one tool you want to consider.

Snapchat has proven to be very useful in reaching the target audience, which is a big opportunity for marketers looking to expand its audience outreach. In this post, you’ll find out how you can open a Snapchat business account as well as how you can use it to drive engagement between your brand and the target audience.

Setting up a Snapchat business account

The first step is setting up an account that will allow you to gain access to Snapchat and its users. You’ll need to create a business account if you intend using Snapchat for advertising. After creating the account, you’ll get the prompt to develop a campaign to set off your marketing.

If you have a deadline to increase sales lead, you can click on it. But if you want organic followers and attention from the platform users, you can start by making an impact.

Using Snapchat for business

The key to improving your reach to a target audience is by regularly putting out quality contents. But aside that, there are other tactics you can apply on Snapchat to help grow your brand. These tactics will bring positive results.

Here are some to consider for your Snapchat business account if you want to build an audience to help with your marketing strategy:

Set SMART goals

These goals will help you know when you are achieving progress. They have to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. You need to know what you want to accomplish with Snapchat in specific terms.

It is not enough to say you want to increase your reach. You need to be specific on the number of people you are planning to reach so that when it happens, you know you’ve achieved your set goal.

Use Snapchat insights

Snapchat insights are one great analytics tools that tell you more about your target audience to help you create contents that specifically speaks to their interest and compels action. It gives you detailed information about your viewers, such as location, language, age, gender, and interest.

Snapchat insight also provides you with the viewer’s count, screenshot count, attention span, and fall-off rate. This way, you know how many people viewed your content, how long they were on it, and if they appreciated it. Knowing these statistics will help you condition your contents to your audience desires.

Study your competitors

Know what your competitors are doing by going through the activities on their account. But first, you need to know who are your competitors. Find out by observing similar brands that your audience followers. Get a list of all the competitors and choose the stronger brand to analyze.

Also, when analyzing them, you need to know if they are active in various social media networks, their number of followers, and the rate of followers’ growth. You also need to analyze their content engagement. How often do they post? What are the average likes, shares, reposts, retweets, and comments they get?

The next step involves making a SWOT analysis to determine their strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats. Learn where your competitor is performing better and where they are falling short and try and do things differently by borrowing their success strategies and avoiding their weakness.

Create great snap stories

Use filters, test, doodles, and stickers to your advantage. Learn how to create great snap stories that will leave your audience delighted and even surprised. Your videos should be spontaneous, humorous, and add a bit of suspense.

When using images, go for high quality, your audience will appreciate it. For your file size, use a maximum of 5MB for pictures and 32 MB for images. The file format for your image must be in .jpg or.png. For videos use .mp4, .mov, ad H.264 encoded. If you are going for full-screen canvas, use the spec: 1080*1920px. 9:16 aspect ratio.

Ensure your contents are authentic and straightforward. Ask questions, create polls, and do other activities to engage your audience. It doesn’t have to be the perfect content. Remember it’s Snapchat!

Promote your presence

To build your audience, you need to post at the right time. Figure out when your audience is online and active before posting.

Continuously promote your handle through your website, newsletters, email signature, digital and print ads, etc.

Also, when you attend shows or conferences, be sure to display your Snapchat code where everyone can see and have access to it.

Use Snapchat hacks

Learn how to use Snapchat hacks such as use voice filter for distorting videos, editing with a magic eraser, using an emoji on a video, using letters to frame your pictures, etc. Using various hacks will add humor to your content and make it more engaging.

Use Snapchat analytics

While you are out there putting up quality contents and trying to engage your audience to promote brand presence, remember to measure your results using the Snapchat analysis to ensure you are getting a return on your investments.

Snapchat analytics provides information on unique views, view time, completion rate, fall-off rate, demographics, etc. Through Snapchat analytics, you get to understand your audience better by knowing the types of content they appreciate.

Use Snapchat ads

You can also use Snapchat ads to reach your audience. There are different types to choose from according to your business needs and urgency. There is the sponsored lenses, sponsored Geofilters, on-demand Geofilters, and the Snap Ad, which lasts for only 10 seconds. Find out more about using Snapchat advertisements before making your choice.