6 Effective Ways To Use Vine and Snapchat For More eCommerce Growth

As an ecommerce merchant you are probably spending countless hours trying to generate more leads and sales from the big three (or four): Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. We’ll be the first to say that those are definitely social media platforms that you want to work hard at, in order to create a special bond with fans.

However, there are two other social media platforms that you should start creating a presence on: Snapchat and Vine. Why? Snapchat is short and sweet. It’s a messaging version of Instagram focused on visuals as well, and Vine is the the place on the web for very short videos. The two platforms get the job done because both are simple solutions that enable brands to interact with consumers while they are on the go.

Use Snapchat For More eCommerce Growth

Urgency

Urgency needs to be timed properly and be used on products that people want. Using an expiration date or a certain date to announce something that few people care about won’t bring you excellent results. In email marketing it has been shown that an email subject line that creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity can lead to a  22% increase in open-rate. With Snapchat, urgency is no different: use it correctly and it can give you an ROI that’s tough to find elsewhere (because of the nature of the platform).

With Snapchat, all snaps have a temporary nature: they’re visible for 10 seconds. After that they’re gone. That feature makes Snapchat “urgent” by nature. However, just sending a snap of something in itself won’t create a sense of urgency to share or purchase what you are marketing. What do you need to do? Use the right image, with limited text on it, at the right time and regarding the right product. You know your fans. What do they want more of?

Build Relationships

Sometimes there is one thing stopping someone from buying your products: they don’t know you. It sounds so cliche, but even cliches are right sometimes. The rise of “micro social media” gives you all the opportunity that you need to introduce your brand to your current and future fans.

Snapchat is an ideal place to give fans a look into what happens at the company, because it is focused on visuals. Showing what employees do to get the product to the fans can create a connection between the sides and sometimes act as an emotional stimulator (emotion (as long as it’s not anger) is good for business). The only text is what you add on the image so the entire focus of the Snapchaterrs is on your image. This is what American Eagle whipped out when they got started on Snapchat.

Distribute Coupons

A recurring theme when it comes to driving more sales for your ecommerce store is to use discounts and freebies. It’s a recurring theme that does work, and there are dozens of tools available to make friendly offers (we offer the successful Coupon Pop and Refer a Friend). However, some of those techniques are dependent on people visiting your store. What happens if no one visits? You don’t make money and consumers don’t save. With Snapchat, you now have another platform on which to run a giveaway or offer discounts.

By now the “16 Handles” story is famous, but it is still worth noting and utilizing for your business. The New York based yoghurt shop invited users to share snap stories of themselves eating yoghurt with the brand account. After a fan sent in the snap, they would receive a snap with a discount ranging anywhere from 16% to a free yoghurt. Because Snapchat makes the snaps available for only 10 seconds, they could only open it at the register. For your ecommerce business, this means that you can simply ask your users to upload images or screenshots of their snaps or you can publish snaps with coupon codes.

Use Vine For More eCommerce Growth

How To Tips

I’m sure we’ve all, at one point or another, spent hours trying to understand how to use or build something. When we are done, we don’t even want it anymore. With the rise of social media and DIY (Do it Yourself), making yourself known as someone that looks out for fans is a move you should make if you want to grow your ecommerce business into a successful money-maker.

Almost every product can be used in more than one way, from foods, to building materials, and clothing – all of it can be used in more than one way. Create a massive and loyal following on Vine, that you can convert into sales at any time, by creating short videos that show people what can be done with your products.

Have Fun

Social media should be used to interact with your fans about relevant information, tips, and news. However, social media should also be used by your brand in order to help people smile. Smiling improves the strength of your immune system and lowers stress. If you can help fans with those two things, why not do that?

Even with Facebook’s immense popularity, many still use it to catch up on news or see what’s new with friends and family. Not everyone (although it is probably a minority of users) uses Facebook to catch up on viral, funny content. All Vine users share that one characteristic: they visit Vine to have a laugh. Vine users open the app to release some stress and get a good laugh. Are you going to be the brand that lifts people up?

Show New Products

Using images to show off new products on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter is a great idea. If you are not creating amazing graphics for your new products yet, then now is the time to start. On top of images, though, you should also be using video. 73% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase after seeing a branded product explanation video!

You can still use YouTube to promote a new product, but in today’s fast-paced, micro-blogging world, a shorter video can have a bigger effect on consumers than longer ones (that won’t be watched until the end). Some of the top brands continue using Vine because it gives them a way to let fans have a look into new products in a different way (it’d be difficult to find two identical videos from different brands promoting new products).

 

All in all, if you have got a few hours to spare here and there, creating a Vine or Snapchat account should be at the top of your to-do list. What you can do with both of these platforms is endless. Aside from what I already pointed out, you can also do all of the following:

• Create teasers for upcoming products with either a short Vine video or by snapping it with just a few words of text like, “coming very soon”.
• Bonus content or tips not available anywhere else is strategy that you can use to grow your presence on multiple social media platforms. If you’ve done a great job creating a brand-fan relationship, then using urgency and/or exclusivity to get more fans in more places should be a piece of cake.
• Real-time marketing for big events is something that can be done on any platform, but it might be wisest to first share the content on Snapchat and then reshare that image on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. The same goes for Vine.
• Competitions are always engaging when the brand is fun and there is something worth competing for. Obviously this is something you can do on more than just Vine and Snapchat, but it is probably one of the easiest and most efficient ways to start creating a presence on these platforms.
• Use user generated content is again something that can be done on any platform. However, if you are creative in your thinking, then these two platforms might be the best place to start. After all, Airbnb hit gold when they created a viral vine of user generated content. No reason this should not work for you too!

The most important detail about both of them (which we saved for the end): they’re both still growing and will continue growing as new people adapt to these newer platforms – you should arrive early, rather than late to this party.

Are you using Vine or Snapchat? How’s it going? Got any secret tips? Share your thoughts with us, because we want to hear all about it.

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