If you are considering messaging marketing for your business, you should consider WhatsApp. You must be wondering why we suggest marketing on WhatsApp. Well, when a platform has more users than LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram put together, what do you expect?
In this post, we will share a few creative ideas for marketing on WhatsApp. Before doing that, let’s see why you should consider using WhatsApp in the first place.
Why use WhatsApp for your marketing?
Whatsapp is a text messaging platform that allows users to send and receive messages at no cost. This means that you can send messages to anyone, anywhere in the world without the cost. When you consider this, one begins to wonder why marketers are underutilizing marketing over WhatsApp.
This platform has taken messaging marketing to another level over the last few years to a point that has even created WhatsApp for Business. Let’s look at a few reasons why marketers should start marketing on WhatsApp.
Free of charge
Every other channel of marketing requires some form of cost. This includes physical marketing, B2Cemail marketing, and social media marketing. However, with WhatsApp, you aren’t spending a dime. This means that small businesses that are on a tight budget can seize this opportunity to market their products or services.
Versatility
This is one of the top reasons why marketers are switching to WhatsApp for marketing. You can send all kinds of content via this platform. From images to videos, ebooks, to audio files, and just about every other kind of file. This factor makes it better than other digital marketing platforms.
One-on-one communication
With WhatsApp, you have access to individuals that are on your contact list. As such, you can exchange messages directly with your customer or prospects. One-on-one communication makes it easier to get conversions.
High open rate
Unlike emails that have an open rate of about 40%, WhatsApp messages have an open rate of about 98%. What this means is that it is almost impossible for message recipients not to read your messages. This is a major contributor to conversions and redirects to your website.
📚Recommended reading: Using WhatsApp for Business
Helpful tips for successful marketing on WhatsApp
Great, we talked about why you should use WhatsApp for your messaging marketing campaigns. The question on your mind right now is, “how can you run successful marketing campaigns on WhatsApp?” We will answer this question in this section with a few helpful tips you can try out.
Create groups
This is one of the major advantages of using WhatsApp, it allows you to create groups. Members of the group can communicate in the group. As the admin, you can decide who sends messages to the group. This way, you can control the traffic on the group so that just your marketing messages show.
However, groups help you to draw data from a specific audience. All you need to do is create a group having your target audience as participants. Send a message carrying the information of the survey you want to carry out. Members will send in their input and you can draw your conclusion.
📚Recommended reading: How to create a group in WhatsApp
Improve customer support
You must have noticed that more companies are creating platforms on WhatsApp for customer support. This way, customers can reach them 24 hours, 7 days a week. Don’t forget that customers these days aren’t as patient as they used to be. They want prompt responses to their queries.
With WhatsApp, you can respond almost instantly to requests and questions from prospects and customers. Solving problems quickly improves the customer’s trust in your business and keeps them returning.
Worried that you can’t always have a phone to use? Not a problem. You can install WhatsApp on your desktop. This way, you don’t have to pass a phone around to all your customer support staff. They can all take turns on the office computer on their shift.
Leverage the cross-platform advantage
WhatsApp is a cross-platform app. What this means is that from this app, you can connect to other platforms. It also means that you can connect with other individuals that aren’t part of your social media followers.
While it is difficult to measure analytics on WhatsApp directly, you can measure such analytics via third-party apps. With these analytics, you can improve your messaging marketing campaigns to get better results. The analytics will also help you tweak social media strategies as well as adjust campaign priorities.
Run promotions and offers
WhatsApp is a great avenue to run promotions and inform your customers of your latest offers. One unique feature of this platform is that you must have the contact of anyone to have them on your list. This means that anyone you are marketing to on WhatsApp is already interested in your brand.
As such, you can spread information about your latest promotions on WhatsApp. You can make use of groups or send broadcasts. This way, only those that you want to inform are aware of your promotions and latest offers. By the way, you don’t have to spend extra to run promotions since sending messages on WhatsApp is free.
👉 Not a lot of email clients offer instant messaging integration, but according to this eMclient review, Whatsapp works with Mailbird. Check your emails and messages simultaneously, saving you lots of time in your inbox.
Create different broadcast lists
In the previous tip, we talked about sending broadcast messages. Let’s explain it further. WhatsApp allows you to send broadcasts to all the contacts on your list. You also have the option of deciding which numbers will receive your broadcasts.
This is where creating broadcast lists comes in. To make your messaging marketing more efficient, you should create lists for specific subjects. Here’s a clue. You can have a list of male contacts for male-related products.
After creating your contact lists, you can always send relevant messages to your broadcast lists. Add links to your website or store and a call-to-action to your messages.
Make sales calls
Do you know that you can make both voice and video calls on WhatsApp? Yes, this platform comes with a patent VOIP built-in. Many times, customers don’t want to just read messages, they want to speak to a sales rep or customer support officer.
You don’t have to spend extra on making these calls using cellular network providers. Simply make the call via WhatsApp. It saves money and delivers just as much quality. Moreover, a video call will be perfect to show a customer how a product works. You can also use it to teach a customer how to set up one of your products.
Set up WhatsApp Business
WhatsApp Business is a product that allows businesses to improve their interaction with their customers. This app was designed to support small businesses and it comes with several advantages.
One advantage that stands out is that you can automate your messages. As such, you can set up messages that your customers will receive when they contact you before you respond. Another advantage is that you can set up a profile for your business. Finally, WhatsApp business provides you analytics.
💬To learn more about the benefits of WhatsApp Business, check out this article.
Create a WhatsApp Store
To get even deeper into the marketing on WhatsApp, WhatsApp has launched a new button that works with WhatsApp Business accounts. This shopping button makes it possible for customers to visit your business catalog.
What this implies is that you can set up a store on WhatsApp. Customers can visit the store, add items to their carts, and pay.
Conclusion
By now, the idea of messaging marketing with WhatsApp must be quite appealing to you. We have shown you a few reasons why you should adopt this method of marketing. In the final section, we provided a few tips for successful marketing on WhatsApp. Share your thoughts in the comments section.
