With 1.5 billion active users, WhatsApp is the largest standalone messaging platform in the world. Its user base expands from students to working professionals, as people use it for everything from friendly conversations to professional interactions.
But not many companies realize that WhatsApp can be an effective tool for marketing as well. Here’s a WhatsApp guide to enhancing your marketing efforts and growing your business.
What Is WhatsApp?
WhatsApp Messenger or Whatsapp is a cross-platform messaging application that allows users to send text, voice, and multimedia messages to their phone contacts. The platform also supports contact sharing, location sharing, and other file formats like PDF.
WhatsApp was initially launched as an independent messaging platform, but in Feb 2014, Facebook purchased it for approximately $16 billion.
WhatsApp Business: Why Should You Use it for Marketing?
In January 2018, WhatsApp released WhatsApp Business, a standalone business application. Though targeted at small business owners, the platform quickly gained popularity among large businesses and enterprises. As of today, brands like KLM, Adidas, Absolut Vodka, Netflix, and OYO.
What makes WhatsApp Business Unique? It comes with some extra features that aren’t available in the standard WhatsApp app. For example, you can send predefined replies to frequently asked questions with the “Quick Reply” feature. It allows you to send messages to customers’ devices professionally and free of cost.
WhatsApp also offers WhatsApp Business API, which mainly caters to larger businesses. The API enables companies to connect WhatsApp Business to other solutions like CRM and scale their marketing efforts.
Let’s look at some reasons why every business should use WhatsApp for marketing.
- Better Customer Engagement:
WhatsApp has become the primary communication app for about 1.5 billion users. They use the app for connecting with their family, friends, and colleagues. By using WhatsApp for marketing, you can reach a broader audience and achieve better customer engagement.
2. Advertising and Promotions:
WhatsApp provides excellent opportunities for endorsing new products. You can send short, exciting details with images and videos of your products, along with directions to buy. The rich media capabilities of WhatsApp helps to advertise similar to sharing engaging brochures and video advertisements.
3. Marketing Surveys:
A Zendesk study showed that 95% of customers share bad experiences with others. Why not encourage them to share it with you? With WhatsApp, you can facilitate survey campaigns and get insights into what your existing, past and potential customers think about your brand.
4. Brand Positioning:
You need to position yourself as a brand that cares for its customers and is always there for them. WhatsApp does a great job at helping you do that. With WhatsApp, you can be in your customers’ inboxes all time, interacting with them and sharing valuable information.
How to Use WhatsApp to Boost Your Marketing Efforts?
We’ve discussed you should incorporate WhatsApp into your marketing strategy. But what’s the right way to do it?
Let’s look at the WhatsApp guide to marketing and increasing customer engagement.
1. Direct Users to Your Website
Having a website for your business is like having a brick-and-mortar store for your retail business. When a potential customer searches for your business online, your website is one of the first places they’ll reach.
However, having a website for your business isn’t enough. You need to ensure that people find it, visit it, and take action. Here’s where search engine optimization comes into play. Companies need to invest in SEO to make their site rank higher on search engine results. But with SEO getting more competitive than ever, businesses are having a hard time driving traffic to their website.
You can use WhatsApp to resolve this hurdle. Let’s say you’ve published a new blog post or added a new product or offer on your website. You can send the page’s URL to your consumers on WhatsApp to get instant traffic and engagement.
2. Send Promotional Messages to Pique Interest
Are you coming up with a new product or offer? Buzz is an important element of any product launch. If people aren’t talking about the product, it won’t be a success. WhatsApp is an excellent tool when it comes to piquing interest and creating a buzz around a product.
You can send exciting images, videos, and polls to your customers to inform them about your product. You can also engage them by making them participate in some way and giving small rewards in return.
3. Offer One-One-Help to Customers
Providing stellar customer service is the key to success in this customer-oriented business landscape. In fact, 90% of Americans consider customer service as an important factor in deciding whether to do business with a company. They want to get their queries resolved promptly.
Another WhatsApp guide tip is to use the platform to provide superior quality customer service. Customers can send queries from their phones, and you can answer them almost immediately.
4. Provide Direct Communication to High-Value Customers
Companies can also use WhatsApp to establish direct communication with their loyal customers. For example, you can offer a premium membership, and those who join it can communicate with you directly and seek advice.
5. Leverage WhatsApp Groups
WhatsApp groups are one of the main attractions for businesses. Though you can only add 256 participants in a group, the ability to share a wide range and type of content makes it a crucial marketing asset.
You can create a WhatsApp group and add high-value customers to it. You can use the group for sharing future updates, taking suggestions, or providing demo products.
WhatsApp groups are also a good place to show your brand’s personality. You can use them to encourage casual conversations, share news, updates, jokes, etc., to add a human element to your brand.
Wrapping Up
When it comes to marketing, companies often concentrate all their focus on channels like social media, website, and paid advertising. WhatsApp is one of those less popular marketing platforms that can go a long way in increasing your reach, growing your business, and boosting customer experience. However, there are certain WhatsApp guide best practices that companies need to follow.
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