Looking At Snapchat’s Blueprint For Success With Millennials

They say that imitation is highest form of flattery and in marketing we tend to flatter people a lot. Really there is no shame in studying success and attempting to learn from it or imitate it. Many businesses are built on that platform; taking an existing idea and trying to either make it better or emulating it for a different need. As an experienced web development company and mobile app designer, we have used that concept before and are again today as we will be looking at Snapchat’s blueprint for success with millennials

For those who aren’t aware, Snapchat has quickly grown into the upstart social media platform, primarily because of the connection they have fostered with millennials. As millennials are now the largest demographic, recently surpassing baby boomers, understanding why and how they have made this connection is a good idea for anyone in marketing so that you can adapt that knowledge for your own business needs.

The importance of the millennial connection

Now not all businesses need or crave the millennial group as a demographic, however many of us do. As a group they are large, are moving into prime earning years and are very tech savvy which makes them excellent targets for online products and services.

Millennials can be very important to a business because more so than any other group they can quickly and easily drive trends. With their buying power and connectivity to each other and social media, once a product or service becomes even slightly in demand or “cool” with this group it can easily catapult to a giant success.

What Snapchat is doing right

There are a few key areas in which Snapchat has excelled, either on accident or on purpose. Let’s look at those and how they relate to the millennial group:

• Mobile Ready – Mobile devices already have become a primary contact point for a majority of users for everything on the internet. This is a trend that is not going away anytime soon. That means having a mobile app or mobile site needs to be paramount in your business and marketing plans going forward. If mobile is your preferred contact point then you need to work twice as hard to make sure what you are offering is head and shoulders above the rest with unique features and design.
• User Information – Initially when Snapchat debuted, many people thought that it was strange that the photos you share would self destruct in 10 seconds. It was like a quirky spy message that was fun and cool but also odd because of the lack of history compared to what we all were used to with texting, IM and other social media platforms. However it turns out that this privacy function in regards to user’s chat’s is a key point. Unlike Facebook, where now you have HR Department’s sifting through when looking at job applicants, Snapchat is a safe environment because messages are deleted. Users are extremely sensitive about personal information and data right now and no matter what you are doing, ensuring privacy and protection needs to be paramount when asking someone to use an app, provide personal information for surveys or forms and the like.
• Not Standing Still – Much like Apple or Google, Snapchat has focused on a constant push forward looking to improve and grow. They are adding creative new features and functions that aren’t just cheap knock-offs, but are instead new ideas. Of course not every hit is a home run and one or two of the updates completely struck out, but the key point here is to recognize that they keep trying to improve. You simply can’t stand still and rest on your laurels when working with millennials because they have grown up expecting change and improvement on a regular basis. If you aren’t giving it to them they will get bored and find something else new and interesting. So just because you have something that works, don’t stop looking at new ideas and methods that you can roll out when that attention starts to wane.
• Easy to Use – No matter what you are doing; from designing an app to making a website to launching a marketing program designed to encourage sign-ups it all needs to be easy to use and get started with. From one touch sign-ons, forms that draw information from other profiles, apps that have a fast onboarding experience so people can jump right into it, you need to be easy to use so the millennials stay with you. Snapchat is very easy to get started on. While it does take longer to become an expert, virtually anyone can immediately use it. We continually preach the UX and UI experience because it is vital in today’s world and ease of use is a key component of that.

The bottom line is that looking at Snapchat’s blueprint for success with millennials is smart business. Regardless of if you want to make your own social media platform, app, or are looking to market to this demographic, we can certainly learn from their success and apply it to our own plans to be more successful

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