WhatsApp for Business – The New Marketing Medium

What is WhatsApp?

WhatsApp is a free mobile app that allows you to chat with other WhatsApp users, without text message charges. The app not only lets you send text messages for free but also lets you share files and images, GIFS, videos, and supports free video and voice calls.

 

What is WhatsApp Marketing?

First let’s understand what is WhatsApp Marketing. The first thing you need to learn about what WhatsApp Marketing is, how it works and what its strengths are.

WhatsApp is the most used app to chat in 109 countries which is 60% of the world.

Over 50 billion messages are sent via WhatsApp on a daily basis.

Like every other Social Media Channel, WhatsApp has become a top-ranked messaging App. It is currently the best messaging app in the world which is why businesses need to run WhatsApp Marketing Campaigns.

The reason businesses need to include WhatsApp Marketing Campaign Strategies is because of the great number of their users are already using it. Around 67% of mobile users like to chat regarding businesses and over 53% of the users say that they prefer shopping with a company where they have a direct messaging platform.

WhatsApp is the best resort to target young prospects because a total of 42% of Smartphone users are between the ages of 18 and 29 years. Whereas the other 19% are people over the age of 50.

WhatsApp Marketing Campaigns gives great engagement rates, around 95% of mobile messages are opened and read and almost 90% of WhatsApp messages are read within three seconds of being received.

Since WhatsApp is a free app, there are a few limitations that come along with it. For example, WhatsApp doesn’t support ads. This means that brands will have to be more creative in the way they approach their customers.

WhatsApp’s group chat limitations also make it a poor choice for large scale campaigns, as you’re limited to 256 people at a time.

With 65% engagement daily, every marketer needs to learn the best WhatsApp marketing strategies that can help you increase your user base and sales.

Following are some tips on how to do WhatsApp Marketing:

  
• Real-time customer chat:

Through WhatsApp, you’ll be able to offer quick and easy customer service in no time. With features such as text, groups, voice calls and video calls, customer service is easier. This not only benefits your customer service but also lets you provide direct and personalized treatment to your users.

 

• Fully Utilize the Features:

The platform even has a status/story feature, which allows you to put up pictures or videos as status/story that disappears after 24 hours which will be helpful since it could be used to be less aggressive in marketing.

 

• Location:

WhatsApp even introduces the feature of location which allows you to send either a location of where you are and a live location if you’re travelling. The location feature can be very helpful for the customers who are not able to locate your business. The user will also be able to open it on their phones in Google Maps.

 

• Payments:

WhatsApp also enabled a payment feature, which allows you to transfer money through the use of UPIs.

 

• WhatsApp too needs a brand personality

WhatsApp is a personal and intimate messaging social media marketing platform where people talk to friends, relatives and colleagues.  Any product or brand that seeks to get invited into your WhatsApp phone list needs to impress like a friend. So, the first step is to make an engaging brand personality or character that represents your valuable brand with its WhatsApp number. Individual’s don’t like to chat with impersonal organization representatives.

The individual in charge of your WhatsApp channel can have an identity! The brand can have a WhatsApp number managed by its consumer service managers who are possible at all times to engage with customers. It’s easier for people who are busy to engage with this personality on WhatsApp, alternate images of products they are excited for, asking questions and even agreeing on payment and delivery terms.

The personality can also be an imaginary character designed to create interest and engagement. For example –

In 2013, the company Absolute Vodka launched ‘Absolut Unique’, which was a limited collection and for celebrating the launch, company hosted an exclusive party for which only 2 tickets were available to the general public

The company asked its customers and other interested individuals to send a WhatsApp message to a particular number and interact with ‘Sven’ (a virtual Doorman)

The company received a variety of creatives and stuff which included hilarious voice recordings and amazing videos.

Within a few days the company engaged with over 600 users and received 1000+ audio, video and image messages that were sent to convince ‘Sven’.

This WhatsApp Marketing Campaign is considered as one of the most intelligent and successful campaign.

 

• Build a phone database by offering the best values

WhatsApp will remain advertisement free and hence, in order to establish a base of users, you need to offer them something of value in exchange for their WhatsApp phone number. This can be a marketing/promotion, a freebie, a free service or valuable information.

A great example of this is Indian police. Realizing the widespread use of WhatsApp, they decided to make a WhatsApp number for anti-corruption, advertising it everywhere. All users had to do was to send in pictures or videos clip of policemen not doing their duty or taking bribes. On the launch day, WhatsApp messages came in, taking the police by surprise and lead to the booking of many policemen on charges. As a bonus, the police got a database of thousands of city people’s phones for free.

Alternatively, design an impressive promotion to get users to share their number with you. Once you add them on WhatsApp, send them the promo code/offer which they can then redeem and begin their relationship with you.

 

• Always offer only relevant content

In recent years, consumers are more willing than ever to interact with brands. This is the reason why there has been a rise in the use of messaging platforms such as chatbox, WhatsApp, and more.

WhatsApp is growing fast, and it is the right time to take advantage of the gap in the market to promote your products and services.

It’s an ideal platform to reach your audience, build a rapport, promote your product or services, and stay in touch with your customers in real-time and to top it all, it’s cost-effective.

WhatsApp is all about having quality interaction with your customers.

You should offer your users great content on relevant topics to make sure that your clients are engaged with your business.

Don’t spam them with objectionable content if you don’t want to get blocked.

 

• Top-notch customer service

Customer service is an integral part of any service offering. It doesn’t matter if you provide products or services. There has to be impeccable customer service. For all the digital marketing companies in Mumbai, customer care is very important. If you decide to do Digital Marketing on WhatsApp, make sure you do not disappoint your customer. Customer service should be your top priority as it the perfect platform for instant messaging. The manner in which you are able to create rapport with your customers will decide your brand’s reputation. You have to understand why people are connecting with you on this app.

One-on-one requests are going to be aplenty and make them feel that you’re available at just one tap of the button. For big businesses, it will be wiser to form a separate team for this work.

A Social Media Marketing case study on WhatsApp has found out a 65% opening rate, which means you are almost guaranteed publicity of your message if your customer is on WhatsApp with you.

Ensure you are appropriately resourced to handle customer queries. The worst thing one can do is get WhatsApp but not respond for hours. So make sure you ensure a committed person depending on the traffic and ensure his/her achievement is measured.