Snapchat Story Ideas to Elevate your Marketing Efforts

Since its launch in 2011, Snapchat has solidified its spot at the top for 11 consecutive years. Its popularity among younger audiences makes it the perfect place for brands to run marketing strategies. 

A reason for its popularity with Gen Z and Millennials can be attributed to the fact that the app essentially leaves it up to you to figure out its features. Younger people are more tech savvy and are happy to naturally figure things out, whereas older generations prefer to know exactly what they’re doing.

Brands can fall anywhere in between. 

If your team isn’t too familiar with how to maximise the opportunities Snapchat can offer, we’re here to alleviate the stress and do the work for you. This blog will offer up the best Snapchat Story ideas alongside other creative snap ideas to get you ahead of the game in time for Valentine’s Day. 

Snapchat Marketing 101

It may not be immediately obvious, but running promotional ads on Snapchat can be an incredibly effective way to reach new audiences and drive sales.

Let’s take a look at a recent Valentine’s Day campaign from Papa John’s:

By making use of Snapchat’s custom lens feature, paired with a strong call-to-action, Papa John’s was able to convert 25% of the swipe ups into pizza orders. The campaign also led to a 6% increase in ad awareness among existing Papa John’s customers. 

This is proof that Snapchat’s features do work…once you have found them, that is.

Benefits

Whether you’re looking to run ads to boost conversion rates or simply looking to increase brand awareness through multiple Snapchat story ideas, there are some undeniable benefits that come with choosing Snapchat as your marketing platform. These are:

1. Connect with a younger audience: Data from Snapchat reveals that the platform reaches 75% of Millennials and Gen Z and 23% – outpacing both Twitter and TikTok.
2. Stand out and show your brand’s playful side: The Snapchat app was designed to be casual and fun. It’s about being authentic, not picture-perfect.
3. Gets users to interact with your brand: While Snapchat connects users with friends via the Chat button to the left of the home screen, it connects users with brands via the Discover button on the right. 

How to use Snapchat for business

1. Cross promote your snapchat username: tell your other loyal audiences about the new audience you’re looking to build over on Snapchat. If they love the content you post elsewhere, there’s no reason why they won’t love it on here.

2. Create a custom snapcode: This is a badge that people can scan using their phone or tablet. This helps snapchatters find you easily and gives you an extra layer of brand recognition. Make sure you are including this snapcode or its URL to all your marketing materials.

Rally the realm.
Celebrate #GameofThrones premiere weekend with the official #GoTS7 @Snapchat lens. Unlock it today: https://t.co/zOckNOKElw pic.twitter.com/LKZTruAVO5

— Game of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) July 15, 2017

3. Track snapchat metrics: Snapchat metrics is a built in analytics tool which helps you view important metrics such as views, reach and demographic information.

4. Use Snapchat’s features to create engaging content: keep reading to find out how to do this!

How to make use of Snapchat’s features

We’re sure you’re bursting at the seams with Snapchat story ideas and other content plans, so knowing how to execute them using Snapchat’s features is key. 

Snapchat stories disappear after 24 hours, just as they do on any other platform, so you should be aiming to create something memorable and engaging. Let’s take a look at what you make use of to elevate your Snapchat story ideas:

1) Buy on-demand geofilters:

Geofilters are fairly inexpensive and are priced according to time frame, location and square footage you want to rent.

Geofilters are perfect to use for events, but can also be used to market to a location where you know your target audience will be pulling out their phones. 

You could incorporate geofilters into your Snapchat story ideas by posting a mini tutorial on how your followers can interact with your geofilter and post it to their own story. 

2) Add music over your snaps:

This adds another layer of creativity to your content. 

Tap the music note symbol in your Snapchat menu to access music clips.

Possible Snapchat story ideas that incorporate music clips are:

1. Lip Syncing
2. Telling a story
3. Staged performances
4. Freestyle dancing/rap

3) Create title cards for longer stories:

Oftentimes, uploading multiple Snapchat story ideas in one day can become overwhelming for your audience, as they struggle to decipher what is meant to go where. 

Uploading a larger number of shorter snaps intercut with title cards to signal to your viewers what they are looking at, not only eliminates any confusion, but also keeps them invested, as the shorter clips cater more to their attention spans. 

Ensure the words on your title cards pop by covering your camera with your hand to create a blank canvas and placing brightly-coloured fonts on top. 

4) Diversify your content mix:

Snapchat, like everything else, can become stale if you regularly share the same things every day. That’s why it’s important to diversify your snaps; to maximise engagement and interest. 

Luckily there is no shortage of snap ideas that you can push out:

1. ‘How it’s made’ videos
2. ‘A day in the life’ videos
3. Using Snapchat art to relay quotes
4. DIY tutorials
5. Interviews
6. Takeovers by partners/celebrities → this is a good way to grow your following

5) Create immersive experiences with AR/VR lenses:

Over 200 million Snapchat users interact with augmented reality (AR) lenses, daily, so your Snapchat story ideas aren’t complete without them. 

Put simply, these filters superimpose digital effects, animations or graphics on top of a real-life image. These elements then move whenever the image does.

Creating your own lenses isn’t only great for boosting brand recognition, but will also attract snapchatters looking for new, fun lenses to play with. 

Top Tip: beauty brands looking to elevate their Snapchat story ideas, can create an AR lens that allows users to virtually try on their makeup products. This is likely to convert passersby into purchasing customers. 

Snapchat story ideas: round up

On the surface, Snapchat might just seem like a way to temporarily capture and share moments. However, delve a little deeper and you’ll notice that it is a social media marketing powerhouse. 

Whatever your goal – to build a following or to sell your product – we strongly recommend setting aside some time to just play with the app’s features to learn what works best for you and how you can use each feature to your advantage. 

The Snapchat story ideas really are endless, so get creative and begin exploring and experimenting! 

FAQ’s

What should I put on my Snapchat story?

Your Snapchat story should showcase a diverse range of content in order to keep your audience interested. If using it for marketing purposes, make sure your content quality is high to boost your brand image. 

What should I snap?

For brands, the following make for entertaining and interesting snaps:

1. Behind-the-scenes at work
2. A day in the life of ____
3. DIY tutorials
4. Interviews 
5. Takeovers from influencers/celebrities

How do I make my snaps more interesting?

Experiment with:

1. Emojis
2. Fonts
3. Drawings
4. Stickers
5. Filters
6. Lenses
7. Colours 

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