22Feb 23 How To Incorporate WhatsApp into Your Marketing Strategy

There are 2.24 billion active Whatsapp users, Worldwide. Learn What Whatsapp marketing is, its Benefits, Features that can boost Your Sales, and much more.

• A staggering 2.24 billion internet users use WhatsApp monthly
• WhatsApp is the 8th most downloaded messenger app in the world
• This messenger android application offers a 98 per cent message open rate
• And 45-60 per cent CTR (Click Through Rate)

The above-mentioned statistics are interesting to look at while planning your marketing strategy. While SMS and emails have seen a decrease in open rates, WhatsApp Click Through rates are increasing each day.

If you are not incorporating WhatsApp in your Marketing Strategy, you are missing out on a lot more than you think.

In this article, let us look at how Whatsapp promotion can prove to be an extremely valuable tool in your marketing strategy –

What is meant by Whatsapp Marketing

WhatsApp marketing means propagating products or services. It involves sending promotional messages and the latest updates via the messenger medium “WhatsApp”. It is a vital tool to communicate and engage with your audience. In addition to this, Whatsapp is one of the most used apps which internet users use to communicate with family, friends, and coworkers.

As of 2023, approximately 500 million small and large businesses use Whatsapp marketing tools to either promote their brand or provide customer support.

Reputed brands like Estee Lauder, Skullcandy, Flipkart, etc., use special WhatsApp techniques to engross their audience.

Benefits of Using WhatsApp Marketing

There are 6 major benefits of using WhatsApp as one of your marketing channels –

Reported Improvement in sales – With wider viewership, your marketing copies advertisements are seen by the majority of your customers. Enhanced visibility piques your customer’s interest and hence boosts the chances of sales as well.

Enhanced customer experience and connectivity – Since WhatsApp is solely a messenger application with the least distractions from posts or advertisements, people tend to look at it with undivided attention. This app offers each customer a personal space where the interactions are more interpersonal and serious. This approach of seriousness is also vested in your marketing messages subconsciously. Therefore, even when a user deliberately skips a marketing email, they tend to open one when it comes to WhatsApp.

Businesses can design their own customized conversations and aid in assisting a customer in creating a one-on-one customer experience.

Build Brand Reputation – Building your brand reputation is essential for your business. There are several businesses springing up each day. With the ease of technology, scammers are also finding methods to dupe people off of their money. In the current scenario, when there is an increase in online and cashless transactions, it is difficult to build trust, especially if you are a small business.

With WhatsApp’s Green tick, you can convince your audience of your authenticity. The business accounts that are officially verified by WhatsApp earn the Green tick as a badge of trustworthiness and credibility.

Greatest Customer Support App – Many brands, including banks, use WhatsApp as an effective means of communication with their customers. The chat allows personalized identification of its customers. All chats are systematically stored in a single thread which can be referred to at any time in the future.

WhatsApp interface is designed such that even kids can use it without any issues. It gives you the advantage of connecting with all sorts of customers. You can even connect to all those customers that are not so tech-savvy. It is often noted that several customers struggle with technology, and it takes a lot of time for them to reach the customer support teams via calls, chats, or other mediums. This gravely affects the customer’s repurchase rate. Whatsapp allows a safe place where customers can interact without any hassles or complex technical difficulties.

Inexpensive Channel – WhatsApp sets no limits or boundaries when it comes to advertising. The audience funnel is huge, and the potential is immense. Contrary to other advertisement channels, it offers a negligible cost structure.

Reduced Efforts – With WhatsApp, you can automate responses with its Chatbot, and it saves your client some money. Also, the task of handling complex chats is delegated to an associate or an employee. The company can save some additional cost of training the agent on the technical operation on a new medium altogether.

7 Advanced Features of WhatsApp Business that Boosts Business Growth

Personalized and Fast Replies

Quick replies are a wonderful way to engage your audience without being too vigilant. Customers may ask questions like “ Is this available?” “Are you open?” etc.

In order to set up, Please follow the mentioned steps –

• Open Amazon Business Account.
• Click on the three vertical dots, aka the menu.
• Select the Business Tools option
• Choose Quick Replies.
• Custom add the prompts and responses.

The maximum limit is up to 50 replies which are easily accessed through keyboard shortcuts.

Starting with 5 to 10 quick replies will make it easy to keep a track of the keyboard shortcuts and keep things handy. Also, as you proceed, you may find some frequently asked customer questions typical to your business, and you can add those as and when required.

Automatic Away Messages

For a small-scale company, it is not possible to monitor platforms all the time. However, customers look forward to a speedy response. With the help of this feature, you can set the right expectations with your customers.

You can trigger away messages in multiple scenarios, including:

• When a Customer makes contact during non-operational hours.
• Periodic offs like special occasions, state-specific holidays, weekends
• When you experience a high inflow of contact

It is important to set the right expectations about when they can hear back from you regarding their query. It is always helpful to keep the chat clear and concise.

Message and Contact Labels

Isn’t it always convenient to color code and put labels on things in order to organize them? Great management requires great organizational skills. With WhatsApp business, you can put labels on contacts and certain issues to prioritize them. This will be easy to navigate and also share with your coworkers.

Catalog to Display Your Product Collection

You can now use your Whatsapp Business account to create a digital catalogue for commercial sales. It also allows valuable additions such as –

• Product Title
• Cost of the item
• Product Description
• Link to your Website
• Product code
• Product Images.

In this way, you can offer your customer everything in one place without having them experience the pain of reaching you for any questions related to your product.

Collections are a great way to introduce season-specific products to your customers. You can exhibit collections on the basis of season, material, type, and category. This helps your customers to easily sail through your products and even services. For example, if you are offering Math and English online classes, you can create two collection tags, one as Mathematics and the other as English. Then you can add each subject to your catalog. Your customers will easily select which subjects they wish to pursue and contact you accordingly.

Catalog links

One of the greatest benefits of having a catalog on WhatsApp is that it is shareable. You can easily share the catalog with your customers via chat. You can do it in two effortless steps –

• Select the item you wish to share
• Click on Send Link Via Whatsapp Business

This comes in handy when a customer is enquiring about a specific item or sharing alternatives for an out-of-stock item. One most effective marketing strategies that most brands use this feature is to introduce their latest collection or announce a sale with lowered prices.

Cart

WhatsApp business’s Catalog features enable you to drive more audience to your account. However, checkout is the most vital process in a conversion funnel. It might be the last stage, but certainly, it’s the most critical one. A seamless and smooth checkout will not only help attain new buyers but also generate a loyal customer base. Years of Online buying have made customers psychologically dependent on following the mentioned process. The flow chart is simple, Choose product – Add to cart – Buy Now. It becomes a hassle when someone has to hop from one app to another.

You can encourage your buyers to complete the purchase process using the in-app cart tool feature. This will make the process easy and suitable.

You can enable the Add to Cart feature in your catalog itself. This simple step will be sufficient to create a simple checkout process.

Broadcast lists

Creating a Broadcast List will help you send promotional messages and make big announcements regarding store openings, discounts, coupons, special giveaways, and much more. The people in this group are already either your customers or are interested in your business. With the right marketing strategies, you can create a wonderful conversion rate and skyrocket your sales.

The people who add you to their address book are the ones who have their trust in you and are interested in your products or services. With the use of this feature, you can stay relevant and eliminate the risk of alienating your customers.

Final Thoughts

Whatsapp business marketing campaigns will help your business grow like never before.

Despite having all e-commerce facilities in itself, Whatsapp poses as a personal space instead of a store. As per statistical reports, an individual spends a total of 19.4 hours per month on the app. Therefore, in order to maintain your global position and be recognized as a distinguished brand, advertising on WhatsApp is a must.

It creates new avenues for prospective customers to explore. As discussed previously, Whatsapp promotion performs much better than traditional methods of promotion via emails or SMS. By using Whatsapp, you can secure a more trusting spot for yourself.

It gives your business a more modern edge in handling the current market scenario. This is absolutely free and highly effective.

If you want to know how to boost your marketing strategy or ramp up the advertising department for your business, contact UPW today to reach your target audience in no time.