Snapchat might bring to mind teenagers who rarely look up from their phones, and while there are quite a lot of users of this app who fit that age range, there’s many young adults using this as well, and older users are quickly jumping on board.

Just last year in the USA alone, Snapchat had a growth of 103% for users between the ages of 25-34, and an 84% growth of users over the age of 35, both of which were faster growth numbers than the range of 18-24 year olds who capped at a growth rate of 56%, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Snap stats

Rather amazingly, the older age groups are increasing the amount of time spent on their cell phones every year, and according to Nielsen, they’re spending more than 43 hours a month on phones alone within the 35-44 bracket. The apps that get the most time are the ones which take the least of it, in a day when time is at a premium and nobody has enough of it. Snapchat easily fills that gap due to beautiful imagery, the ability to be spontaneous and genuine, as well as instant.

Snapchat itself has recognized this too, offering a Snapchat Discover Channel dedicated to the Wall Street Journal, hoping not to alienate the older crowd coming in. It gives users the ability to make short posts, photos and videos no longer than 15 seconds, giving rise to the viral vines that everyone has heard of. 90% of a user’s followers actually watch the content a user posts. Compare this to an average email opening ratio of only 25 percent and you’ll quickly see why this app’s active users are such a prime target audience.

Advertise cross platform with ease

The catch? The content disappears after 24 hours – but you can save that content to your camera and use it cross-platform using social media programs like Magi.Social to share it to every social media platform you’re using with ease and very little time. It is being endorsed by celebrities and popular television networks like MTV, which is further growing this once small app into a mogul that a business can use to uniquely engage with an audience in a way that is instant and clever, where they’ll actually watch what you post.

While rumors circulate about Snapchat creating an API platform at the moment, it’s not overrun with marketers and ads, and the only way to actually post ads instead of content is to work with their sales team.  This is the best time to jump on board before it gets crowded with others who are thinking the same thing, where you can ensure your content is absorbed free of competing distractions, and in a place you can make a real connection.

More Snapchat stats…

Here’s more stats that are driving the logic behind getting on Snapchat: It has about 26 million users in the USA alone. 77% of college students use it daily. 58% would purchase a product or service if they got a coupon through Snapchat. Consider that Snapchat sees 6 BILLION video views every single day, and just think about what that could mean to your marketing strategy. With the influx of older people joining coupled with the newest generation using this app, you stand the greatest chance of being heard by consumers both young and old.

Gaining traction and numbers

Some advertisers have already jumped into Snapchat using things like Sponsored Lenses to take over the internet during this year’s Super Bowl. Gatorade gave people a filter allowing them to get a gatorade keg bath, which would then be shared all over social media channels. 100 million views were gained using this clever strategy over just ONE weekend. Amazon used Snapchat’s Live Story to tie hand in hand with their TV commercial spot to give the ending that people were teased to and missed, and couldn’t get without using Snapchat to see. This “stay tuned” to Snapchat gave them an edge others didn’t have, and keyed into people’s natural curiosity.

Film company 20th Century Fox used two major things to create an epic ad collision of note. They took the Super Bowl and their upcoming (at the time) Deadpool movie and mashed them together to create a photo filter using Sponsored Geofilters and managed to captivate not only football fans, but fans who love comics and comic based movies as well.

5 Tips to get started

1.Incentivize

Offer people an incentive like a coupon through Snapchat, it acts much like the giveaways and sweepstakes offered to like or share a post to win something, but the coupon is an instant discount and only available to your Snapchat followers. People love the word “limited” or “exclusively” so push it!

2.Promote events

Highlight events that relate to your business or ones you plan to attend or take part in. You can tell them they’ll have (there’s that word again) exclusive Snapchat only content delivered instantly from the show or event you’re attending, or that they’ll be given special information during that time only.

3.Become a storyteller

Because video time length is “vine-short” you must get very creative with what you post. This is a good rule of thumb for any marketing strategy however, as most people’s attention span is not that long and they’ll become disinterested rather quickly. Snapchat however, is very different particularly thanks to the medium with which the content is delivered. Snapchat exists to provide that quick and snappy content, so they’ll definitely be consuming it because it fits within the time they’ve allowed themselves, on an app they’re already using. Try to make a series of 10 second videos that tell a story in a clever way, and your followers can watch them in a series.

4.Be a tease A TEASE!

New product launch coming? Tease them about what’s coming in tiny bursts and quick sneak peeks, or even an epic bit of music and a logo to keep them curious. Snapchat is perfect for this since time length is so limited, and it will make people ravenous to find out what it is.

5.G-ratings ONLY

Keep in mind that because Snapchat still has some rather young users that content should be general-audience friendly and have no content that could be considered inappropriate or offensive for children. By remembering to keep it G rated, you can also remember that people are on Snapchat for a bright, action-packed and fun place to be from moment to moment, so capitalize on that and don’t go with DULL.