Must have strategies for your WhatsApp marketing campaigns

Authored by Chirag Parmar, Lead - Customer Growth and Strategy, WebEngage

In the current digital age, WhatsApp has emerged as a powerful platform for brands to engage with their audience. With over 2 billion monthly active users, a 98%+ open and read rate, the ROI for businesses using WhatsApp to engage their customers is no doubt high.

That being said, WhatsApp is (especially in India) considered a ‘personal’ space for people to keep in touch with family and friends, so businesses that do intend to incorporate the platform into their campaigns must bear some things in mind.

Ideal Timing for WhatsApp Messages

Given that it is a personal messaging tool for most, brands need to be wary of encroaching into their customers’ personal time or time with family. Sending messages at the right time can make all the difference.

Avoid ‘me time’ and ‘family time’: Avoid sending messages first thing in the morning or late at night. Instead, target late morning hours, say 10 or 11 am, or early evenings (not later than 8 pm) when people are more relaxed and likely to engage with their messages. This is typically the time when people are getting home from work, unwinding, and more amenable to ‘scrolling’ on their phones.
Use Geotargeting: If your audience is spread across different time zones, use geotargeting to send messages at the optimal time for each region.
Leverage Event Triggers: Send messages based on user actions or events, such as abandoned carts or completed purchases. Timing these messages right after a relevant action can boost conversion rates.

Know your Audience - Understanding Demographic Nuances in WhatsApp usage

WhatsApp campaigns have proven to be most effective when tailored to specific demographics. Here's what you need to know:

Age and Location: It helps to know the age group and geographical contexts of your audiences to make the vehicle most effective for your campaigns. Younger users in the age group of 18-34 have been found to be most active on WhatsApp. Additionally, WhatsApp as a medium of communication has geographical specificities wherein some regions have a higher usage volume than others. Countries like India, Brazil, and Indonesia fall under the former category - known as ‘WhatsApp first Markets’
Language Preferences: Language plays a crucial role. If you're targeting a region where English is not the primary language, ensure your messages are in the local language. Personalization in language can significantly boost engagement.
Personal vs. Business: WhatsApp is highly personal. Users are more likely to engage with messages from friends and family. Therefore, your campaign should be designed to mimic a personal conversation rather than a promotional message.

Tailoring Communications for Indian Audiences

India is a WhatsApp-first market, but it's also a market where users receive a plethora of messages daily. To ensure your messages don't get immediately deleted, there are some best practices that can be followed:

Keep it Short and Sweet: Keep your messages concise and to the point. Indians prefer short and impactful messages that provide clear value.
Visual Appeal: Incorporate rich media like images and videos to make your messages visually appealing. This can capture the user's attention and encourage them to engage.
Personalization: Use the recipient's name and customize messages based on their past interactions or preferences. Personalized messages are more likely to resonate with Indian users.

Things not to do!

As consumers, we have often found brands finding their way into our WhatsApp inboxes out of nowhere, and have even gone so far as to block messages from these senders. Brands that experience this have a strike rate, and once the limit is reached, they can get banned from using WhatsApp. Somethings to bear in mind to prevent this from happening are:

Consent is non-negotiable: There are mechanisms to ensure that your customers are given the option (opt-in) to receive messages from you on WhatsApp. Be clear and transparent in your communication while obtaining this consent!
Be relevant: Avoid using WhatsApp to push out blast promotions to your customers. This way, you sidestep the risks that come with sending constant and irrelevant messages to them.
Two-way communication: When brands send messages, without giving space for consumers to respond and actually ‘engage’, such campaigns often fail. Consumers don’t want to be passive spectators at the end of the day, and this can easily result in loss of interest in the brand.

AI at the core of everything

When attempting to personalize your messages, and open doors for two way communications, the volume of queries would also increase. The role of AI in this is crucial, for brands to enable meaningful conversations with customers. How can brands strengthen their AI deployment for WhatsApp campaigns?

Avoid rule based bots: A lot of brand conversations over WhatsApp tend to be with ‘bots’. The challenge with rule based bots is that their responses are limited to what has already been fed to it by way of pre-set questions and answers, and this can result in some very frustrating conversations that lead nowhere. Having AI at the backend giving real time responses can result in more intuitive and nuanced conversations.
Train your AI to become brand consultants: With the volume of queries increasing, it is next to impossible for brands to anticipate what kind of queries may come, and to ensure that the responses address the specific needs of the customers. Brands that have successfully managed this have even been able to leverage WhatsApp to serve as ‘brand consultants’. In our experience, brands that successfully infuse AI at the back-end with two way communications have been able to grow their message volume by 6x.

In conclusion, WhatsApp has emerged as a valuable marketing channel with immense potential and a great return on investment. This is a highly effective channel for ‘high-touch’ sectors - i.e., sectors which have a direct call to action or require customers to take concrete action. For instance, e-commerce brands can use WhatsApp to send order updates, promote products, and provide customer support. Healthcare providers can send appointment reminders, prescription updates, and health tips via WhatsApp, and BFSI brands can send transaction alerts, account balance updates, and financial tips through WhatsApp.

Given that it is a cost-heavy channel, brands that use it prudently, and exclusively for personalized campaigns stand to gain more from it. Brands should also bear in mind that pushing out promotional messages on WhatsApp costs more than personalized campaigns, which also results in greater engagement. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to connect with your customers on a platform they use every day.

Here are some innovative and out-of the box WhatsApp campaigns that are noteworthy:

H&M's Virtual Personal Stylist: H&M used WhatsApp to create a virtual personal stylist chatbot. Users could chat with the bot, receive fashion recommendations, and even make purchases through WhatsApp.
Burger King's "The Traffic Jam Whopper": In Brazil, Burger King allowed drivers stuck in traffic to order food through WhatsApp. The food was delivered directly to their cars, turning an inconvenience into an opportunity.
Beco’s brand Ambassador sends personalized messages: Beco, a sustainable personal, home and kitchen care brand, created a digital IP of Dia Mirza, and devised real-time campaigns to reduce cart abandonment.
Unicef's Vaccine Reminders: Unicef utilized WhatsApp to send vaccine reminders and health tips to parents in countries with low vaccination rates. This simple yet impactful campaign helped save lives.