Just five years after its launch, Snapchat had become the third-largest social media platform with over 10 billion video views every day, and it continues to grow in 2021.

Surprisingly, brand adoption of this popular social media app has been slow, with many marketers not knowing how to approach the unique platform. Snapchat is different than other popular social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Snapchat Stories expire and disappear forever after only 24 hours, a feature that should scream “sense of urgency” and “exclusivity” to those who are familiar with effective digital marketing practices.

Creating a social media content strategy with content that’s made for a 24-hour cycle will give your brand the opportunity to generate a significant response to your announcements, releases, promotions, and events and build a strong following with top notch Snapchat marketing.

Research and prepare.

Snapchat might be a unique platform, but you still have to lay the groundwork like you would with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok. Do some research to discover what kind of content your audience is responding well to. What engages them the most? It can be more difficult to tell what content is popular on Snapchat than on other channels, but starting in 2020, Snapchat started posting subscriber counts publicly, so you can see what accounts are getting attention and what they’re posting. And, of course, it goes without saying that any big celeb video will rack up some views:

Because content only lasts 24 hours, you can’t do much investigation into your own past content for insights, so a lot of your strategizing will be done on the fly. The bulk of your preparation will be in creating a content style for your brand and establishing goals for what you want your content and your Snapchat account to accomplish.

What’s the goal?

Before you jump in, define some goals for your content. Be specific. Each goal should have at least one key performance indicator (KPI) that will allow you to track your progress. KPIs are metrics that indicate how a strategy is performing, hence the name.

Again, Snapchat can be more difficult to track and research than other platforms, but there are some valuable metrics you should be following. When you first get started with your content strategy, you should be paying attention to your unique snap views and completion rates versus taps (skips). Check out the most popular Snapchat video on YT:

As you start building a following, monitor your screenshots and your market share, which you can get from a research firm that works with Snapchat. Remember to watch your audience insights to make sure you’re staying on track with your target audience.

Awareness or Consideration?

There are three stages to the buyer’s journey that you should know about. The first is awareness. That’s when a consumer realizes there’s a problem. Next is consideration. That’s when the consumer starts to look at the viable solutions to the problem. The final stage is the purchase decision.

The first two stages are the ones that will influence the direction of your content. If your viewers are engaging your Snapchat channel in the awareness stage, you should be providing information, building brand awareness, and establishing a relationship. If your viewers are engaging your channel in the consideration stage, you should be proving your credibility, developing the relationship, and proposing a solution to their problem.

Get in where you fit in.

There are a lot of channels on Snapchat offering the same cookie-cutter content. You’ll see a handful of those channels performing well while the rest don’t get much of a return on their investment. The trick is to compare the content that’s out there already to what your audience wants and needs.

If there’s something they want or need that’s not out there yet, that’s all you, but that’s usually not the case. What you want to do is look for a weak point, a niche where there’s content, but you can improve on it, make it unique, make it more valuable. Then settle in a start digging out your Snapchat market share.

Create a Snapchat content calendar.

Calendar your content with plenty of detail and specifics on each topic. It should be refined to the point that you’re ready to start creating content. Your content should be exclusive to Snapchat if you want to maintain the exclusivity and urgency.

Be genuine, informative, and relatable; millennials don’t like marketing, so you’ll have to offer entertainment, retail, or another type of obvious value to keep them interested. If you can’t think of content ideas, start by filling in the well-known holidays. Then fill in some lesser-known holidays that are relevant to your brand. You can find lists of lesser-known holidays online. Run contests and giveaways regularly and fill in the blanks with behind-the-scenes, news and updates, customer testimonials, tutorials, user-generated content, and weekday hashtags like “#throwbackthursday.

Create content exclusive for Snapchat

Once your calendar is refined and ready to go, schedule time to create your content in bulk. You might want to throw in some fresh content when new filters come out or depending on current events, but having a store of content to draw from will keep your account active and interesting.

Content schedulers like Mish Guru allow you to upload your content and schedule it for release according to your calendar. Track your performance with Snapchat Insights and adjust your strategy according to patterns of performance.