Snapchat for B2B Marketing - Does it work?
Contents
What comes to your mind when I say "social media marketing"?
Facebook?
Twitter?
Instagram?
Pinterest?
Those are the most popular among inbound marketers. But how about Snapchat?
Just to let you know, Snapchat is no longer a dwarf in the world of social media, in fact; they are now bigger (in terms of the number of users) than Twitter /Pinterest/Linkedin.
100 million daily active users, and over 8 billion daily video is a mouthwatering stat for every inbound marketer.
The question is. Can we use Snapchat for B2B marketing? Let's dig in.
About SnapChat
How big is SnapChat?
That has always been the answer, right? How large a marketing channel is that makes it profitable for me to pay attention to?
Snapchat is undeniably MASSIVE! How massive?
According to Jay Baer, their 1-year growth is the same as Twitter's growth in 4 years. Yes, that's right, they only took 1 year to reached what Twitter did in 4 years.
The demography
Any marketing plan or strategy always starts with research and demography is always one of the variables.
If LinkedIn is mostly for business people, SnapChat is the opposite, according to Statista, they have a whopping 37% of people from 18-24 years old. They are mostly high school, college, and university students.
Below is the complete Snapchat demography data
If you have a business that targets these students, then SnapChat alongside Instagram should be your #1 marketing channel.
But will a B2B company be able to utilise it? Of course. About 26% of the citizens are 25-34 years old, and 12% are 35-54 years old. I believe these portion of people might be your B2B company targets.
What Makes SnapChat Different?
First, let me remind you that this article is made NOT to recommend you only to focus on SnapChat marketing. Each social media site offers their own pros and cons that no other can provide.
So, we now agree that SnapChat does provide the gold mine for even a B2B company to mine.
Back to the fundamental question, other than the massive number of users and crazy growth/year, what does Snapchat offer than no other social network can provide
The 24-hour Rule
When you scroll down through your Facebook or Twitter homepage, you will see posts are being ordered according to their age; the newest are always listed above, and the older ones are miles of scrolls away.
Snapchat adopts a different methodology. Once a person snaps, the snap itself only lasts for 24-hour. What happens after 24 hours? It's gone.
Why is that even important? This type of methodology triggers the users' fear of missing out. They are always forced to check their account regularly, and that is why Snapchat's user engagement is excitingly high.
Relationship-Driven
Unlike any other social media platforms. Snapchat is focused on relationship building.
A Snapchat user has to get engaged to be able to see the chat, video, or photo. This kind of practice will absolutely boost your brand awareness.
Marketing
Now let's dig into the marketing.
Marketo has come up with a list of content types: contests, new product sneak peaks, coupons, behind the scenes, new team member introduction, targeted videos.
Of course not every type works for every business. In this article, I compiled 3 strategies best for your B2B companies.
Portfolio Showcase
Every business should have their own portfolio showcase that they can show to their prospects, and your business should have one too.
Snapchat is a good and fast channel to distribute this portfolio collection to your prospects.
A plumbing company can create short documentations of their clients' success stories, starting with the problem preview and the steps done to fix them.
A software company can promote short videos to explain how specific features of the software they have developed can solve their prospects' problems.
A restaurant can showcase a quick tutorial how to cook amazing foods. A good example would be Gordon Ramsay via his Youtube channel. Ever watched it? Cool, do the exact same thing, but on Snapchat.
Discounts and Deals
Who doesn't love discount and deals? No one I guess...
Snapchat is a perfect media channel to spread the words about this discount and deals package you offer.
Snapchat can provide the infrastructure to promote your discounts to millions of prospects in a matter of minutes or even seconds.
A domain name registrar business, for example, can promote a contest among Snapchat users whom can be their leads.
A business consultant can offer FREE 1-hour consultation for whoever sees the promo on Snapchat. Be sure to provide a discount code so you can track your Snapchat marketing ROI.
Restaurants can offer discounts for the customer who posts a snap about the restaurant.
Simple enough? If you have the ideas that no one has ever come up with, then yeah it's that simple.
Exclusive Access
Everyone loves to be treated specially.
If your business provides an application that isn't launch-ready but you are looking for ways to promote it, then giving Exclusive access is an answer for you.
Polymail has done a great job in promoting their revolutionary email client.
They provide an exclusive access for invited users only, and a person who has the invite code can send invitations to 2 other users. This pattern goes on and on unlimitedly. They did it via mostly Twitter and Facebook, you can do the same on Snapchat.
Tying it Together
Just like any other social media channels, Snapchat offers the platform for every individual to promote their business.
But the share of opportunity isn't even... at least for now. With 37% of users are 18-24 years old, companies who are targeting this group of age has the biggest opportunity. But this doesn't close the opportunity for other businesses whom targets are different age groups.
Snapchat is a unique platform. Not all types of contents work, portfolio showcase, discount and deals, and exclusive access are three starting examples that I've come up for your B2B business.
Final answer:
We can utilise Snapchat for B2B marketing.
If you have more ideas of how we can use Snapchat to promote B2B products or services, please leave them as comments below. I'll be glad to include them into this article with an attribute to your name.