Matthew Woodwardmatthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/snapchat-marketing-strategy/

What if I told you that you could have direct access to your audience’s pocket no matter where they are in theworld?

You’d probably call me a snake oil salesman, tell all your friends I’m a heathen and send me on my way.

But, the truth is, there is a way you can do it. And it’s through an app that you might have heard of, it’s calledSnapchat.

Okay I know you’ve heard of it. But do you know just how powerful it can be?

As you sit here reading this, 150 million people are sending, receiving and creating Snapchat Stories. That’s9,000 snaps a second!

They’re sharing lives with their friends, reporting the news and connecting with their favourite brands andmarketers. They’re intertwining their lives with others right through the camera lens on their mobile phone ortablet.

And, if you play your cards right – as I’ll show you how to do in this article – you can leverage this platform togenerate some incredible returns in: money, traffic and branding.

So, if you’re ready to bring your Affiliate Marketing strategy into the here and now, read on.

What You Will Learn

In this article I’m going to show you why you (yes, you) as an Affiliate Marketer need to get onto this platformwhile you still can.

What Is Snapchat (And Should You Use It)?

How To Set Up And Use Snapchat Right Now

How To Use Snapchat To Boost Your Affiliate Sales

How to create your own Snapchat marketing strategy to drive traffic & sales

ALERT: Increase Social Media Traffic & Engagement Instantly With My Case Studys!

What Is Snapchat (And Should You Use It)?

Snapchat is currently the world’s fastest growing Social Media platform. It’s already overtaken Twitter and, as oflast September it gets four billion views a day. That’s exactly the same as Facebook.

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It focuses on mobile-only, disposable content. That sounds a bit jargon-y so let me delve a little bit deeper…

You can take images and send them to your friends (or fans) from the app on your mobile device (phone ortablet) and they’re gone in 24 hours.

You can also turn these images into ‘Stories’ where, for one day you can add to the story, and people can checkin on it whenever they want.

To give you a brief insight into the projected power of this tool, Mark Zuckerberg tried to purchase Snapchat for$3 billion dollars back in 2013. And, it’s currently valued at over $20 billion dollars:

Okay, that’s the hard sell. Snapchat is clearly doing something right. But, now for the important question –should you be using it? Well, let’s take a look…

Does Your Audience Use Snapchat?

According to the latest statistics, here’s how the Snapchat Demographic looks now in comparison to all the otherplatforms:

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That suggests that if you focus on a younger audience, then Snapchat is definitely somewhere where they’respending their time. That’s not to say that you won’t get penetration here, especially if you’re an early adopter foryour generation.

But if your focus is on the 50+ age range you’d be better suited to Facebook or Pinterest.

The information about gender is fewer and further between. But, in 2013, Snapchat CEO Even Spiegal statedthat 70% of it’s users are Female.

And, while the split of 18-34 year olds specifically had always been pretty even – around the 30% mark for each– women in this generation seem to be flocking to the app:

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So you need to take a look at your audience and ask if it’s worthwhile spending time and effort to try and sellhere knowing all of this data. But, if you’re focused on a younger generation of 18-34 year olds with a relativelygender neutral product, you’ll be fine.

Can You Use Snapchat?

If you’re confident in picking up a camera, documenting your daily life and can make people listen to what youhave to say, you have an amazing platform right here.

Now don’t get me wrong, you don’t need to be a YouTube Sensation to use Snapchat. But, you need to beconfident enough to talk into a camera and make people listen to you. If you feel that talking isn’t one of yourstrengths it may not be for you.

A big part of selling on Snapchat, as you’ll see later, is being imperfect too. Showing a true behind the scenes ofyour life, unpolished and in all it’s glory. If you’re okay with that, then you’ve found your home.

If you have a personal account – or want to set one up – maybe try making Snapchats for the next few days andseeing if you gel well with it before you invest time and effort into it.

Can You Make Your Topic or Product Interesting?

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that all products and topics are a good fit for Snapchat. If your audience ishere, and you can handle yourself on camera, your chances or getting at least some success here are high.

But the final obstacle is making your topics and products interesting, day in and day out.

DJ Khaled, one of Snapchat’s biggest stars, rarely talks about anything exciting, contrary to what you may thinkrap star life is like. Check out this Snapchat Story of him putting on deodorant, watering the plants and eatingfood:

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(Note: Imagine he was a Dove affiliate? Think of all the exposure he just got).

One of the most boring topics you could possible have on Social Media is a day in the life of a dog yethundreds of thousands of people watch videos from Marnie and Jiff the Dog.

Look at this video below.

This is just a dog, being a dog, and people love it:

They could easily push people towards a brand or their own website.

No matter what you’re trying to sell, if you find a way to make it interesting, they’ll flock to your channel.

Okay, if you’ve ticked the boxes above, you’re ready to start using Snapchat to sell your products.

In this next section I’m going to look at how to get set up on Snapchat if you’re completely new to the platform.

This Section In Short

Snapchat is the fastest growing social network on earth. And, as it stands, it’s still free formarketers to use.

It’s disposable content of up to 24 hours makes your content more valuable and builds in peoplewatching for a second, third and fourth time if your content is good.

If you have a younger demographic – 18 to 35 or somewhere in between – there is a lot ofattention here for you to capitalise on.

Before you get started, you need to answer for yourself:

Are you good on camera? The camera shy need not apply.

Are you prepared to be imperfect? This is your life warts and all.

Is your audience on Snapchat? See above.

Can you make your topic interesting? Topics aren’t boring, instead it’s your job to makethem exciting and engaging.

Know your strengths. There is no shame in knowing that you’re better at Podcasting and Bloggingthan Snapping. But, if you’re happy with all of the above, get ready for the next step.

Quick Start: How To Set Up Snapchat For Business

If you’ve never used Snapchat before I want to give you a brief run through of how to set up snapchat forbusiness so you can get started right away.

These are the no fluff essentials you need to know , and links to other relevant topics on something that youcan learn in the future.

Snapchat is so easy to get started with. To set it up only takes a few minutes, and if you already have friends onother social media platforms, you can be sending out Snaps in no time.

Step #1: Download And Get Set Up

Click the right link below that matches up with the mobile device you’re using, and go ahead and download it.

Apple

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Android (Google Play)

Snapchat Official Site

The app is free and there are no usage costs – unless your mobile service provider has them on your package,but that is independent from the app itself – so you can download and start getting ready in a heart beat.

Once you download the app and open it you’ll be taken to a screen where you’ll be asked to log in or sign up.Choose sign up and you’ll be asked to verify some information and choose your username.

I’d highly recommend creating a username that fits your branding and is consistent with your other social mediausernames. For example, I’ve created this snapchat feed under the same name as my Travel Blog andFacebook Page:

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If you’re going to be using multiple Snapchat accounts for different affiliate sites, I’d suggest you sign up with anemail address, because it’s easier to create a second email account than get a new phone number for each one.

Bingo, you’re on Snapchat…

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Understanding What You See

I am running the latest version of Snapchat and I have taken a sample snap to walk you through what you cansee on the screen.

Here’s a shot of my favourite coffee cup (yeah, it’s a tin cup, because I’m so hipster it hurts):

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This button is the action button and allows to take photographs and record videos. If you hold it down it takes avideo, if you tap it you’ll take a photo. Simple.

After that you have this little circle at the bottom right with three smaller circles in it. This is where you can accessthe Snapchat Stories of people who you are friends with.

As an affiliate this wont be too much to worry about – you’ll probably be focused on creating and not consumingcontent – but it’s there for you if you do have friends and people you follow on there.

This next button is the chat button. This is where you can see all of the contact people have directly with you.

Be that Snapchat text messages, direct snapchats or videos that they want to share with you.

I’d recommend checking in on this and checking it at least twice a day, because these are also disposable, andit’s good to see them (and reply) before they float off into the ether.

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This third button is subtle and at the top of the page. This can be considered your dashboard and allows you tomanage your friends and settings.

Here you can click to manage your friends, your profile picture and any of the settings for Snapchat you mightwant to change. You can survive pretty well without ever touching this, so I wont dwell here.

Finally, back on the camera screen, you have two more buttons outstanding. The one on the left toggles the flashon and off. While the one on the right changes the camera around to face you:

What’s The Difference Between A Snap And A Story?

There’s a subtle difference between the two.

But, you need to know the difference, to make sure you’re communicating to the right people. Below I’ve outlinedwhat each of them are and when you should use them.

A Snap…

A Snap is a one to 10 second piece of content that can be sent directly to a user, or up to 200 users, at any onetime. This can be a single picture or video, as well as a text message. Once it’s been viewed, it’s gone.

You should use this when someone speaks to you and you want to respond to them directly. For example, ifyou’ve run a competition and want to speak directly to a winner. Or if you want to answer a question that you’vebeen asked.

Take a look at General Electric. On Tumblr they started a Snapchat interaction where, if you send them an Emoji,they’ll send you a Snap back about science related to that emoji.

They’ve discontinued this, but it was an excellent way of making a brand more accessible:

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A Story…

A story is a stack of Snaps. They’re not targeted at anyone specific, more at your audience as a whole. You canmix and match both videos and photographs with captions to create a strong piece of content.

Here’s a great example of a story from the clothing brand, Everlane. They show users their tee factory and give araw, transparent, look into their brand:

Think of a story like a Snapchat Blog Post. You’ll use a story to engage and provide value to your audience, andyou will use Snap’s to respond to their comments.

Creating Your First Snap (Or Story)

If you’re following along at home let’s take a second to talk about how to create your first Snapchat.

It’s really, really, simple. Just click the button and away you go.

In fact, I’m not even going to show you how to do it myself. I’m going to hand you over to the New York TimesSnapchat Story that gives you (entertaining) pro-tips on how to create a Snapchat story (it’s almost a paradox,right?):

This Section In Short

If you decided that Snapchat is a good fit for your marketing moving forward, here’s how to getyourself set up:

1. Download the app: From the App Store, Google Play or Snapchat themselves.

2. Create your account: By following the instructions on screen.

3. Get to know the app: Scroll back up and see the breakdown of what’s on your screen.

Once you’re in and comfortable, Snapchat is divided into two parts: Snaps and Stories.

Snaps are small, targeted pieces of content sent directly to someone (or up to 200 people). Theycan’t be viewed by the outside world and are much more specific. Once you’ve viewed them,they’re gone.

Stories are like Snapchat blog posts. They’re longer, can be viewed by your entire audience andare less targeted, yet still completely relevant.

Go ahead and make your first snap then move on to the next section.

How To Create Your Own Snapchat Marketing Strategy

This is why you’re here, right?

You want to know how to sell your products (and affiliate products), generate income and drive traffic back to yoursite.

Good news. You’ve come to the right article. In this section I’m going to show you:

How to create content that sells your affiliate products

What content is most effective at engaging your audience

The steps you need to take to grow your Snapchat following

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How you can use Snapchat to create daily sales

So what are we waiting for, let’s get stuck in…

First Things First, Links…

A worry that comes to mind when I think of Snapchat and Affiliate Marketing is, “Can I use my affiliate linksthere?”

The short answer is, yes, you can now send links through Snapchat.

The long answer is a little more complex though.

Snapchat will divide your followers into two groups of people, friends and non-friends. As you can see in theimage below links show up differently depending on which group they’re in:

And, direct chat’s are done on a one-to-one basis because you can’t broadcast to people in the same way thatyou would with your snapchat images. But all is not lost.

Let’s say you’ve run a product review on your Snapchat Story, you could create a snap at the end that sayssomething like, “Chat me to find out how to get your hands on this!”, and then you can reply to all of these peoplebased on their demand.

Or, if you really feel like it, you can write the message one by one to all of these people. Your choice.

Create Daily Relevant, Valuable, Content

Okay, just because Snapchat is about being real, it doesn’t exactly mean you have to document every moment ofyour life.

Instead make sure it’s all relevant to your audience and why they follow you on different platforms, or what’sgoing to draw them back to your blog.

Take a look at this guy, George Bryant. He’s a blogger and foodie who runs the website, Civilized CavemanCooking. He creates his own products, but from a look around his site he’s also an affiliate and an advertiser:

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The way he gathered his fame and endorsements is through creating daily, valuable content to people in hisniche. One of the most innovative ways he does it is through his Snapchat Cooking Show, wich you can seehere:

He’s just going about his daily life doing what he normally would – cooking and creating Paleo recipes – but allhe’s done is record it and share it with people. And, it’s a big sales tool for his products as well. How?

Well if you want to go back and find the recipe again – remember, Snapchat disappears – you can find it on hissite. Where, not only does it show you the complete recipe:

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But it also takes you to a section where you can download his $3.00 app and get more of his recipes:

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One of the best ways to do this for yourself, especially if you’re stuck for a talking point, is to talk about what’sgoing on in your niche right now. Take a look for:

News stories

Newly released products

Controversial blog posts or podcast episodes

What you’re working on right now

And start to talk about them. I’m always thinking about Travel – how to do it cheaply, more effectively and thecurrent affairs in it – so I might create a story like:

Find a new travel app I’m using

Record a video about it

Share the cheapest deals I’ve found

Ask if people have used this app, or anything similar, for themselves

For example, look at this mornings Snapchat I made while trying to find ways to get to Lake Bled in Slovenia(beautiful place, by the way).

I saw I was using one of my favourite apps, Rome2Rio, and decided to add it to my story:

Now, all of my followers know about a tool that I use personally and am using right now. If I was to add an affiliatelink or site in there, I’d have created solid social proof for them go ahead and use that tool.

The important point here is that your Snapchat’s have to add value. Whether you’re on here to:

Distract

Entertain

Teach

Coach

Generate discussions

Tell stupid jokes

You need to be sure that you hit that mark every time you snap.

You wouldn’t put out an irrelevant Facebook update or tweet – at least one that didn’t grow your brand – so don’tput it here, either.

Focus On The Reality Of Your Products

The real selling point of Snapchat is that it’s a behind the scenes look into the lives of people. It’s the day to daylives that are so attractive. Which is where the willingness to be imperfect comes in.

For example, Chris Pratt is one of my favourite actors (and people) of all time and with the power of Snapchat Ican see exactly what he gets up to. Every. Single. Day. Without that pesky lawsuit…

But, in a more relevant and less fan boy based approach, here’s Branden Harvey.

He’s a travel photographer from Tennessee. And, instead of just showing the perfectly polished travel images ofold, he shows travel photography through a real-world lens, as if you were travelling with him.

Here he is making the first snapchat story from inside The White House:

In the first 20 seconds it’s instantly relatable and real life. If you’ve ever been running late, tried to go through the18/26

wrong entrance or been made to wait outside (I’ve got all three), you feel an instant connection to him.

The reality of being a travel photographer is that you go to places and get a different look at them. You travel,take pictures and find new angles. All of these are touched upon in this snapchat.

How does this apply to you?

Take a look at the product you sell and the day-to-day impact of it. Let’s say you run an Affiliate Store in theCoffee Niche. What are the realities of Coffee?

Why they drink coffee in the first place

What they drink it from

Where they go to drink it

The styles of coffee they like to drink

How you feel after drinking coffee

What you talk about while drinking coffee

And for each of these steps there’s a way to promote and sell a product, too. Got a coffee cup you’re trying tosell? Use it in your video. Got a specific style of bean? Use it and show how it makes some guys day better.

Heck, why not even go a step further and show the fact that cleaning your coffee machine is the most annoyingthing on the planet.

Make Your Snapchat Users Feel Special

Your users are following you on Snapchat because they want to see more of you. They want something differentto what they see on Facebook, Twitter and all the other places you hang out.

So give it to them.

Cassey Ho, the owner of YouTube Fitness Channel, Blogilates, does this perfectly. She often runs Snapchat onlyproduct reviews for her fans, like in this story below:

They can’t get access to her insider knowledge on this food anywhere else on the internet. And because it’s onlyavailable for 24 hours you know it’s hot off the press and you’ve got the most up to date information from herpossible. This is news, breaking, in front of your eyes.

Let me show you this from another angle. Harmonix, the creators of video games like Rock Band used Snapchatto show their audiences behind the scenes footage of the E3 Conference.

To give you some idea of how awesome that is, a ticket for the 2016 conference could run you up to $995 dollars.

So by creating videos like this:

They created real value to you, the consumer, because they aren’t getting this footage anywhere else on theplanet. And that, in turn, helps them sell their own products off the back of it.

Think of the next time you:

Try a new product in your niche

Attend an event

Meet an influencer

Have an idea for a piece of content

Share all of it on Snapchat and plug your products as you go. Even link to them like I mentioned before. By

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giving this exclusivity to your followers you’ll be able to drive more attention to your feed, and sell more productsas a result.

Run Snapchat Only Competitions

Competitions on Snapchat are a great way to take what you just learned in the last section and generate evenmore hype about your products.

Someone who does this daily to promote his new book is Gary Vaynerchuck. For example, this Snapchat camethrough while I was typing this section of the article:

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And, I went straight through to his Twitter to see if people were entering and, guess what? Some of them were!

What’s really brilliant here is that all of the followers of the person who enters can see the tweet, and on theenlarged image people can see exactly who sent it and add him too, especially if they recognise his face.

Think of how you can run a competition and get people involved. Screenshots, giveaways and shoutouts alwaysgenerate interest.

Revive The Long Dead Flash Sale

Flash Sales are where, out of nowhere, you decide to offer discounts on all (or some) of your products for adefined length of time. It could be an hour, a day or even just the next ten minutes.

Snapchat has the capability to drive sales like this in a way that nobody else can. My favourite example of thiscomes from Brazil and the fashion brand, Hering.

In 2015 and they ran a new campaign called #snapblackfriday where they ran different discounts on theirproducts, every Friday, with different promo codes. Just check out this short video to see what I mean:

These events were so popular that they grew the companies yearly sales by 15%.

You can do this with almost any product, physical or digital. You could run a Flash Sale with any marketmanipulation, too:

Discounts: Offer a promo code or give a rebate if someone buys from you

Added extras: Give away a copy of an eBook or coaching sessions with every purchase

Prizes: Similar to competitions, but they have to make a transaction first

Let’s say you you’re in the Blogging Niche and you make a lot of money from selling hosting packages. You can’treally offer a discount on hosting because you don’t control the price. But, you could create a Snapchat like:

“The next 5 people to send me a snapchat of them signing up to BlueHost get a free 30 minutescoaching call with me!”

You can toy around with whatever you can afford to turn into a package, or where you can give discounts(especially if you have your own products). And because these are such a small, time bound sales, they can onlypositively impact your bottom line.

Or, you can take a slice (see what I did there?) from GubHub’s Snapchat and create a hidden Snapchat Codethat all users can access:

Connect With Influencers To Promote Your Products

Influencer Marketing is becoming more and more important as platforms start to get their own native celebrities.And – no matter how big or small – it always pays to cash in on them.

Think of this like a Guest Blogging strategy for your Snapchat feed. That’s exactly what toy company, Sphero, didwhen they handed their toy over to Snapchat Influencer Shaun McBride:

According to the Wall Street Journal, thanks to this snapchat influencing, the toy sold out in just a matter ofhours.

Now this story may not be completely relatable to you as an affiliate. But, this shows the impact of gettingyourself on these influencers channels.

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You don’t even need a 2 million viewer channel like Shaun’s. Instead just try this simple strategy:

Find people in your niche with bigger accounts than yours

Ask if they want to run your feed for a day

Offer to run their feed for a day

Not only can you get your knowledge and expertise in front of people you want to be exposed to you, you canpromote products in a more targeted way to people more likely to buy, because you’ve just been endorsed.

Of course, there are steps before these ones – getting to know them, building a relationship and so on – butwhen you’re friends with them, jumping on their feed is a good way to get featured.

Or, if you feel this is a little out of your depth, try this…

1. Head to MeetUp.com

2. Find relevant events to your niche

3. Snapchat about them

4. Ask the people to shout you out on their Snapchat to get you followers

Run Q&A Sessions In The Run Up To A Big Launch (Or Just To Promote)

Taking the last section and intertwining it with this one, check out this video from English Nutritionist, BenCoomber.

In the run up to one of his big talks at a sports performance conference in Scotland he took over the eventsSnapchat. He spent 30 minutes in a Q&A (Question and Answers) session with users and future attendees aboutnutrition and health.

Now, in just this small section, he manages to talk about his own talk a few times:

Think of this laterally, instead of as a direct sale. He’s getting people to buy tickets to an event (commission), sothat they will see his talk and then buy more products from him.

He’s got them in a sales funnel they don’t even know they’re a part of. But how could this work for you?

One of the big events in Online Marketing is Webinars right now. If you’re running one of those you could:

Take control of an influencers feed and run a Q&A

Run your own Q&A on your channel

Promote what people will learn on your Webinar

Point them to any other of your products that will help them between now and then

Create Content From Your Old Content

In the last update of Snapchat they added a brand new feature called Memories.

Where you used to only be able to updates based on what was happening around you, you can now createSnapchat Stories from content you already have on your phone.

I’ve used this for audience engagement over the last few days, sharing places I’ve been to, like this awesomeshot of The End of the World in Finisterre:

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But you can also use it to share previous experiences, or old content you have about your products that you’veused.

Maybe you have images or videos of:

Your last webinar

Events you attended

People using your products

That time you met your favourite guru

Or anything from the past that your audience are going to fall in love with.

This is brand new so I’m interested to see how marketers use this, and if you have any cool Snapchat marketingideas for this, please let me know in the comments…

This Section In Short

Snapchat is an audience engagement tool, but can also be used to generate big sales for yourproducts too. But, you need to be clever and look for ways to get people involved in your products.

Here are some of the most effective, tried and tested ways of getting people to buy from youthrough Snapchat:

Create Consistent Valuable Content

Like in the Caveman Cooking example, create content that adds value to your end user. Itshould be relevant to your niche, leave them with a powerful take away or show them somethingnew that they didn’t know about before they opened your Snap.

Get Stuck In With Reality

You can show all the glossy, well polished versions of your products when people are on yourblog. On Snapchat, you need to get stuck into the reality of your product.

How does it work when they are using it on the day to day? What’s your real world? Showcasethat and you’ll see more interest in your products.

Run Snapchat Competitions

Competitions are the way to engage people every day. And, you only have to give away a little toreceive a lot back.

Like Gary Vaynerchuck showed with his daily competition, it can be simple (like guessing anumber), but by getting your followers to organically share your competitions, you build afollowing and generate more interest.

Revive Flash Sales

Flash Sales have been proven to increase sales. By connecting with people right in their pocketand giving them the exclusive opportunity to get their hands on these offers, you can createquick sales opportunities without damaging your long term results.

Make Your Snapchat Followers Feel Special

Snapchat is a world within itself. Tap into it and show them that, for being part of this world, they25/26

get something special.

Whether thats a discount, exclusive content or otherwise is up to you. But by offering this youstand yourself in good stead for long term sales success.

Connect With Influencers

You may not have a Star Wars toy to sell. But there is no denying that Influencer Marketing onSnapchat works.

Attend meet up’s and events. Network like crazy with people in your niche on Snapchat. Offerincredible value and make the users feel special and you can start to generate sales not just onyours, but on other peoples platforms, too.

Run Q&A Sessions

Question and Answer sessions are incredible for plugging your product and providing value to theend user. Or, if you’re Ben Coomber, generating income for yourself as well.

Next time you – or an influencer – has a big event coming up, use this example to generate moretraction and discover new people who want to buy your products.

ALERT: Increase Social Media Traffic & Engagement Instantly With My Case Studys!

Wrapping It Up: Time To Start Snapping

Okay, that’s it! This is the end of your affiliate marketers guide to Snapchat.

In conclusion, the jury is out on what the most effective ways to use Snapchat are – in terms of there is noblack and white Snapchat marketing strategy for success.

Yet, all of the Snapchat marketing ideas here have been proven time and time again by those that are successfulto:

Drive traffic

Grow followings

Engage users

Generate income

So, all that’s left for you to do is to get yourself online and creating those snaps. What are you waiting for?

(By the way, don’t forget to add me on Snapchat and watch me put in the work! You can get me on@onedayguides, or scan any of my codes throughout the post on your phone.)

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