In this article we’ll show you how your brand can exploit the full potential of an instant messaging channel like WhatsApp, how you can structure a marketing campaign and tell you about some success stories
It is no longer news that WhatsApp is today the most popular communication channel in the world, with more than 2 billion active users, the famous Facebook-owned platform has totally revolutionized the world of instant messaging.
In recent years, in particular, WhatsApp has turned into a powerful marketing tool, introducing first WhatsApp Business, the corporate version of WhatsApp, and then the WhatsApp Business APIs, which allow large companies to manage significant volumes of chats through external platforms, such as Callbell, specifically designed for their management.
Many brands have understood the enormous potential of this medium, and have begun to define marketing strategies aimed at communicating via WhatsApp, to offer their products or services in an innovative way.
If your brand has not yet started a marketing strategy on WhatsApp, we recommend that you read this article carefully.
The advantages of using WhatsApp are many, below we illustrate the most important ones, that could help your company improve communication with its target audience:
1) Users are easy to reach: the spread of smartphones has allowed apps such as WhatsApp to expand like wildfire, and to be present in the pockets of users at anytime and anywhere
2) Faster communications:the WhatsApp notification system allows users to receive an instant alert every time they get a message, which is thus displayed much faster than an SMS or e-mail;
3) Informal relationship with users: having been born as a communication channel between individuals, WhatsApp has that informality trait that allows companies to engage in conversations with users in a friendly way, establishing a more stable and lasting relationship;
4) Wide target audience: although WhatsApp is mainly used by young people, the functionality and intuitiveness of the app makes it accessible to a wide age group;
5) Safe and reliable platform: WhatsApp is one of the first platforms to adopt end-to-end encryption, which allows you to decrypt conversations so that they are only viewed by users in the chat. However, this may change following the new terms and conditions;
6) High message conversion rate: WhatsApp has a very high message opening rate, which stands at around 98%, greatly increasing the chance that a message from your brand will be seen;
7) Reduced marketing costs: it is a marketing channel that has very low marketing costs, which makes it very accessible to small companies, which can initially install WhatsApp Business to manage their activities on the platform;
8) Higher user engagement: with WhatsApp your brand has the ability to share photos, videos, audio messages and / or documents, and the users who interact can do the same, making communication much more satisfying and engaging;
9) Stimulates creativity:the use of WhatsApp can be adapted to a multitude of activities, from sales to customer support. You can also use it to collect reviews for your brand, or create surveys to ask users what they think of your business.
Given the advantages for your brand of adopting WhatsApp in its marketing strategy, below we show you a step-by-step guide that will help you create an effective strategy, which will allow you to make the most of the brand:
1) Define the purpose of your brand on WhatsApp
WhatsApp can be used in many ways, it is therefore essential for your brand to establish precisely what activities will be carried out through the platform and what are the objectives of your marketing campaign on WhatsApp.
For example, through WhatsApp you may want to increase the sales of your brand, offer quick and effective customer support, increase your brand awareness, or collect reviews.
2) Define the KPIs
You need to find the indicators you need to monitor the results you will get from WhatsApp. These indicators will allow you to check the performance of your marketing strategy.
If your brand wants to provide assistance via WhatsApp, the indicators could be the number of assistance requests, number of tickets resolved, general satisfaction rate of the assistance service on WhatsApp.
3) Set goals
On the basis of the KPIs defined in the previous step, it is important to set objectives to be achieved in a given period of time. Set achievable and realistic goals, considering all the obstacles that you may encounter in this type of business.
For example, a goal that your brand could set is an increase in the number of tickets resolved by the end of the following month, or an increase in customer care satisfaction or a target number of positive reviews.
4) Create an account on WhatsApp Business
Depending on the size of your brand, you can decide whether to download WhatsApp Business, designed for small businesses that want to include a product catalog, company information and other features within WhatsApp. In this case, simply download the app and enter the company phone number to immediately start interacting with users.
Alternatively, if yours is a well-known brand and you want to manage significant volumes of chats, you can use the WhatsApp Business API, through which it is possible to configure a WhatsApp account based on a virtual line (and which is therefore not bound to the use of the app starting from a single device) and that can be connected to external platforms that allow a structured and professional chat management.
5) Define the buyer persona
Here it will be necessary to investigate the characteristics of your ideal user, to build a faithful representation of him/her. It is a very important step to understand who you are addressing your communication to and the products/services you are offering.
Your buyer persona may have different characteristics in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, religion or geographical location. Otherwise, it could be classified by some of its specific behavioral traits, for example, they can play sports, love cooking or be animal lovers.
6) Build your community on WhatsApp
At this point you will have to start making yourself known on WhatsApp and invite your audience to contact you. In this way your brand will collect valuable user contacts that can be used to achieve your goals.
To build a community on WhatsApp, you can create sponsored social media ads that link to WhatsApp, or insert a chat widget within your website so that your website traffic can contact you on WhatsApp in just a few clicks.
7) Create your communication style
In this case you will have to set up a distinctive communication style, based on your objectives, on the buyer persona and on the type of image you want to communicate as a company. Communication must best represent the history, values and mission of your brand.
You can adopt an informal and friendly communication if the user persona is young, or a little more formal if you interact with older people and who are less familiar with WhatsApp.
8) Reach your goals
Once all the above points have been defined, start engaging in conversations with your audience right away. Remember that modern users expect more and more to communicate quickly with brands, so don’t waste time!
We suggest, however, not to be too intrusive with messages and not to spam with repeated promotions that could only annoy users, instead try to create a dialogue and a long-term relationship with them.
We recently released a new feature that allows our customers using the WhatsApp Business API to send bulk messages.
With broadcast messages, it will also be possible to send a predefined message to all senders who have not saved the company’s number in the address book. This will make it possible to communicate with a large number of users, thus effectively promoting the company’s products or services.
To submit a broadcast, you will need to fill out this short form. Once received, a member of our team will contact you quickly to share the cost of the service and schedule the broadcast.
You can find more info on our dedicated knowledge base.
Below we show you 3 brands that take full advantage of the potential of WhatsApp for different purposes.
Speedd
Speedd is an Italian e-commerce of shoes for men and women of various brands, that integrates WhatsApp in its sales strategy. In the product page of each of their models there is in fact the “Buy via WhatsApp” button.
This is an effective way to entice the customer to contact the company directly in a few clicks. Here the conversation is started with a pre-filled message that recalls the shoe model the client is interested in.
In this way you can speed up communication, letting the operator know which model the potential customer is interested in, and also to track the most requested products.
Centro Técnico de Estudios Superiores
The Centro Técnico de Estudios Superiores deals with offering several university training courses in Panama and integrates WhatsApp to offer support to potential students. It is a valuable service for students who want to request information and courses provided by the center.
On each page of their site there is a chat widget with WhatsApp integrated, so that students can click on the WhatsApp icon at any time and start chatting with one of the available operators.
Students will thus always have the WhatsApp number of the center as a point of reference for any doubt or question, and obtain quick solutions to their problems: this will transmit trust in the organization and create value for the student.
The Healthy Home
The last brand we want to talk to you about is The Healthy Home and deals with cleaning services for homes, offices, hospitals and schools, which uses WhatsApp to schedule appointments in the cities in which the company operates: Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
On their website there is a sidebar from which you can start a WhatsApp conversation. The user simply has to click on the “WhatsApp us” button to instantly start a chat.
With this system, the brand can easily be contacted by users interested in booking an appointment for the cleaning of their environments. This is an innovative method of using WhatsApp, which makes the interaction between brand and user more very efficient.
If you found this article interesting to create a marketing strategy for your brand remember to share or leave a comment! Thanks for reading, see you next time!
Frequent Questions
Can you do marketing with WhatsApp?
WhatsApp can be used to generate new leads, increase the number of conversations with new potential customers and, last but not least, retain existing customers.
However, it is important to start by saying that there are rules that restrict the use of WhatsApp for promotional and prospecting purposes.
It’s not possible to proactively reach new contacts via WhatsApp; only users can contact the company of their choice through the app.
The rules that define the use of WhatsApp by companies are, in fact, very similar to those of Facebook Messenger: once a new chat is started, the company can communicate freely with the customer during the first 24 hours from the beginning of the chat.
How to generate new chats on WhatsApp via your website?
The easiest way to generate new chats is to make sure that users browsing your company’s website can easily start chatting in just one click. WhatsApp provides links on its website which, via API, allow you to integrate the so-called click-to-chat anywhere on the website. Alternatively, you can use a chat widget like Callbell which, in a few minutes, will allow you to install a chat button directly for WhatsApp on each page of the site.
This strategy is perfect for providing assistance to all those customers who, once they arrive on your website, can request assistance if necessary. As soon as you start the chat on WhatsApp, you will immediately have the customer’s phone number available, and you can choose whether to answer via the application or, why not, call him on the phone.
About the author: Hello! I am Alan and I am the marketing manager at Callbell, the first communication platform designed to help sales and support teams to collaborate and communicate with customers through direct messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram and Instagram Direct
