The newest marketing tool for Snapchat users is the introduction of geofilters, which are highly underutilized for how incredibly versatile and useful they could be for businesses.
Geofilters can be used to market your real estate business. If you’re not familiar with the term, let’s break it down into its parts for an easy explanation, before we examine how you can use geofilters for your real estate business.
What is a Snapchat Geofilter?
A Snapchat filter is a skin that can be placed over any Snapchat photograph. Users can add backgrounds to their photos, add funny hats to their selfies, or, in a popular new filter recently, give themselves a feminine makeover with a flower wreath for their hair.
Snapchat Geofilters are filters that are only available when a Snapchat user is in a specified location. For example, if a local pub wants to advertise their game day sale, they can upload a custom geofilter to Snapchat. Then, any time a group of patrons Snaps a photo while at the pub and adds the filter, all of their viewers get a small nudge to come join the fun.
Who Uses Geofilters?
Snapchat geofilters are a very simple way to use social media for advertising, relying on the farther, more diverse, and wider reach of clients rather than your own.
Snapchat’s archives of geofilters show that the feature has been used by sports teams on game day; by airports; by universities during rush week; and by scores of towns and cities all across the world. It’s an easy way to simply let the world know that your location, or event, exists, all through a personal tour guided by their friends and favorite Snapchat users.
How can Geofilters be Used in Real Estate?
There are many ways that Snapchat’s geofilters could be used for your real estate business. Here are two ideas:
During an Open House
One of the most obvious and advantageous is during an open house event. As guests and potential buyers show up for a tour and snap photos of the view or a unique house feature, encourage them to add your Snapchat geofilter to their pictures.
Their viewers may see the dream house they’ve been looking for, and know exactly where to come to make an offer.
To Farm a Neighborhood
But there are other ways a Snapchat geofilter can be used when it comes to home listings. For example, if your real estate business has a high volume of listings in a particular area, why not upload a geofilter for the area?
If a potential buyer takes a photo of a house they, or someone they know, might be interested in, and shares it via Snapchat, they’ll be presented with an option to add your geofilter, which gives them yet another way to find your company and get in touch.
And what about house hunters who are scoping out a potential neighborhood? Your geofilter could give them some ideas about the area and who to contact to live there, making them feel right at home.
Use your geofilter to show local team pride to advertise a tight-knit community or brand the neighborhood as the home of the best apple pie at the local diner.
All of these are ways to show a potential homebuyer the kind of community they want to see.
Real estate advertising is often expensive, sometimes prohibitively so. Geofilters are inexpensive compared to the total number of views they receive, and reach out to millennial home buyers, who you may have previously had trouble targeting.
How do I Upload a Geofilter?
Uploading a custom Snapchat geofilter is easy, but it does take a little foresight. Here’s a checklist that you can use to get your geofilter ready for clients.
- Go to https://www.snapchat.com/on-demand to create your on-demand geofilter. Sign in with your account to get started.
- Upload your geofilter art assets. Use Snapchat’s uploader to submit your geofilter. If the geofilter is rejected, Snapchat will let you know why so that you can fix it and try again.
- Follow Snapchat’s guidelines. Geofilters can’t include phone numbers, email addresses, URLs, or any kind of social media handle. Instead, add a physical address for your open house or home listing. Even just your real estate business name would work, as its easy for users to Google.
- Filters also need to be under 300KB in size, saved as a .PNG file, and have a transparent background. They should be 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels. Try to ensure that you won’t cover more than 33% or so of a user’s photo; fewer users will want to apply your geofilter if it covers up their image.
- Important: Be sure to check your geofilter design for errors. Once your geofilter is uploaded and approved, you can’t make any changes. You’ll have to delete the geofilter, and start all over with the approval process.
- Choose the dates your geofilter will be available. The maximum is 30 days, and once again: the shorter the clock, the less you’ll pay.
- Determine where you want your geofilter to apply. Snapchat calls this “drawing a fence”. User the Snapchat map powered by Google Maps to draw a fence around the area you want your geofilter to be available. Remember, Snapchat does not allow filters to exceed five million square feet, and the smaller your range, the more affordable the price will be.
- Check out and pay for your geofilter. Plan for at least two days, but possibly a few extra, for your geofilter to be approved. Snapchat requires at least 24 to 48 hours to accept geofilters, but you may want to give yourself some wiggle room.
Now You’re Ready
You can change the length and reach of the approved geofilter up to one full day before it goes live. Watch the metrics tab of your business account to see how often the geofilter is used, and how many views it generated.
Snapchat geofilters allow you to reach out directly to the consumers where they already are, enabling you to open your real estate business up to an entirely new crowd of potential customers.