Strategies for Effective WhatsApp Marketing

Authored By Mr Gautam Rajesh Shelley, CEO & Founder of AiSensy

WhatsApp, the global instant messaging tool has outperformed as a commendable marketing platform in the current digital era. Its extensive user base worldwide and high engagement rates, have led it to rise as the go-to platform for businesses to uplift their marketing strategies. As per recent analytics, WhatsApp sees a whopping 2.3 bn+ active users monthly, of which a good share of users is engaging with business accounts frequently. Also, enjoying a high open rate, approximately 98% as compared to other traditional marketing platforms, WhatsApp turns out to be the foremost tool for marketers currently.

In the current times, WhatsApp marketing is gaining traction among businesses as it offers several advantages including commendable engagement rates, a plethora of customization options, and direct communication with customers.

The introduction of WhatsApp Business API in 2018 paved the way for businesses to drive the complete potential of WhatsApp Marketing to boost their revenues. Since WhatsApp provided only the API and not a platform, WhatsApp decided to delegate the responsibility of providing WhatsApp Business API to businesses via WhatsApp Business Solution Partners (WhatsApp BSPs). It is through these WhatsApp BSPs that businesses are able to drive WhatsApp Marketing officially for their businesses with powerful features like Broadcasting to unlimited users, automating notifications and so many more use cases.

Let’s deep dive into the 10 strategies that make WhatsApp marketing truly effective to help businesses maximize their Revenue!

1. Exclusive Flash Sales Announcements:Broadcast messages for Exclusive offers through flash sales on WhatsApp. Consumers are always on the lookout for attractive offers and reaching out to them with an enticing offer is highly likely to drive conversions compared to other traditional promotions. Use WhatsApp Carousel Messages, featuring up to 10 carousel cards along with CTA or Quick Reply buttons, to see twice the click rate as recorded by traditional Broadcast messages.

2. Retarget Users Who Clicked on Your WhatsApp Broadcast Messages: Strategically reaching out again to the audience who have gone through your product/ services via the WhatsApp promotion message but didn’t act on it, can elevate your chances of conversion. You can send retargeting message based on who read your message, clicked on the message’s CTA button or replied to your message. This focused approach ensures your efforts are concentrated on audiences that have the potential to convert into customers.

3. Send WhatsApp Catalogues for Your Products & Services: As everybody is on the move constantly and needs information at their fingertips in real-time, what better than providing bite-sized information and all the important materials including product/service catalogues to your target audience via WhatsApp? This approach can help boost sales 3x as it allows customers to browse the products and services without leaving the app.

4. Collect Payments Directly through WhatsApp: Enable your customers to have a complete shopping experience directly on WhatsApp by allowing them to make payments directly through WhatsApp by availing the in-app payment services using UPI, Netbanking, and credit cards. This integration drives out the challenges faced in third-party payment gateway processes, leading to increased conversion rates.

5. Community Building: Establishing frequent communication with like-minded audiences by curating a WhatsApp Newsletter helps build a community around the brand. With a growing community, brand loyalty keeps rising. It is hence suggested to keep your audience engaged frequently with regular updates, insights, and exclusive content via WhatsApp.

6. Run Click to WhatsApp Ads: Businesses can easily strengthen their lead generation strategy with the help of Click to WhatsApp ads. These ads can drive up to 5x more leads using the same budget as other social media ads, as they direct users straight to a WhatsApp conversation with your business. From thereon, you can engage them in a 1:1 direct conversation with your WhatsApp Chatbot or your Live Chat agent.

7. Build a Drag & Drop WhatsApp Chatbot: You can automate up to 80% of the manual queries by building a responsive drag-and-drop WhatsApp chatbot. This addition helps better response time and provides the customers with real-time assistance, helps in elevated user satisfaction and keeps your business running 24x7.

8. Add a WhatsApp Button to your Website: As customers are keen on conversing with company representatives directly via chat to get answers for their queries related to products/ services in real-time, adding a WhatsApp button to the website makes sense to engage existing and potential customers. Interestingly, lead generation becomes simpler as this tool provides instant access to your WhatsApp Business API account for visitors, capturing their name and number on platforms like AiSensy.

9. Gamification: Engaging the consumers in interactive games or challenges within WhatsApp with a rewarding approach to achievements helps garner more footfall to the brand’s services/ products compellingly. It also works amazingly well to enhance user engagement and build brand loyalty.

10. WhatsApp Forms: Through WhatsApp forms, you can run surveys to collect user information regarding your brand and products seamlessly. Not only surveys, WhatsApp forms offers multiple unique use cases such as hotel & bus bookings, webinar booking, appointment bookin & so much more. This method helps simplify data collection processes for targeted marketing campaigns.

WhatsApp marketing hence is a crucial marketing approach to be considered by businesses to help enhance their engagement with consumers and drive sales even on tight marketing budgets. By adopting the ten strategies, businesses can use WhatsApp for an effective marketing approach.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and Adgully.com does not necessarily subscribe to it.