Modern customers demand convenience and familiarity when communicating with businesses. Since they’re exposed to hundreds of digital messaging channels every day, cutting through the noise is tricky—but not impossible.
If you can stay connected with the customer throughout their lifecycle, half the battle is won. A personalized WhatsApp engagement strategy can assist in:
In this guide, we will explore how you can maximize interactions on WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging app.
Currently, one billion people message a business each week collectively on WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram Direct.
Customers want to chat 1:1 with brands, just as they chat with their friends and family. They want to DM brands, browse through product catalogs or new offers in one click, interact with brand stories, and ask for assistance in real-time. WhatsApp empowers you to do all this and more.
On the business side, WhatsApp doubles up as a powerful marketing tool that allows brands to:
Around 25% of the world’s population is currently active on WhatsApp. You can create WhatsApp campaigns from within the app; you don’t need to redirect customers to another platform. This means no extra installations, downloads, or added efforts for your customers.
With WhatsApp, customers can enter your brand’s ecosystem without stepping into your offline outlet or entering the online store. You can build personalized WhatsApp messages and create meaningful relationships by:
Providing unique and valuable content that is only accessible to your WhatsApp subscribers, creating a sense of exclusivity.
WhatsApp campaigns can be driven throughout the customer lifecycle. You can drive repeat purchases, promote ongoing customer engagement, upsell, reach out to potential customers, and gather more leads.
Every industry can benefit from WhatsApp business in one way or another. Here are some examples worth considering:
Pro tip: To get started on the right note, select a specific use-case and test it for efficacy before you build a full-fledged campaign. |
Here are a few use-cases of WhatsApp campaigns that met with great success:
Objective: To boost customer engagement by helping them use a solution “that is already in their hands”.
The Challenge: Inspire people to use a common cooking ingredient like mayonnaise in new and interesting ways, and build brand awareness.
The Solution: The WhatsCook campaign was built on the central idea of forging a ‘connection.’ People could connect with real chefs to learn how to cook right with the ingredients at hand.
The Results:
Objective: To increase insurance sales to potential customers.
The Challenge: Traditional engagement channels were not helping the brand upsell effectively. The brand realized that customers who were interested in loans were also interested in buying insurance policies. However, the traditional channels did not allow the brand to cater to customers at scale. Plus, the brand was seeking a communication channel that would protect sensitive customer information and remove multiple steps of selling by reaching out to customers instantly.
The Solution: The brand leveraged WhatsApp as a new-age marketing channel through MoEngage. The MoEngage and WhatsApp Business integration created a unique segment of customers who were engaged and interested in what Navi had to offer. Consequently, Navi saw an increase in insurance upsells.
The Results:
Here are a few more inspirational, ready-to-use campaign ideas on WhatsApp marketing that you may want to check out. |
Objective: To tailor customer engagement by capitalizing on every customer who opts in to receive follow-up communications.
The Challenge: The brand realized that conventional methods (think: email and SMS) were receiving lower open rates. Plus, these channels did not allow for flexible, creative messaging. The need for a targeted, dynamic, reliable, and dedicated communication channel was born.
The Solution: The brand leveraged WhatsApp to:
The Results:
Long-winded conversations will hardly help you convert on WhatsApp.
If you want to make the most of WhatsApp marketing for conversational commerce, consider these expert-approved strategies:
Conversations are the bedrock of customer engagement, and your WhatsApp Business account allows you to be available for customers 24×7, interacting and addressing customer queries.
Using WhatsApp Business API, you can showcase product brochures, encourage customers to book a test drive, or have your team contact them at their convenience. Use personalized conversation starters to convert customer connections into ROI-driven conversations. For instance, Clarks leveraged WhatsApp to improve sales for its ‘Desert Boots’ collection.
In the campaign titled “Rats to Rudeboys,” WhatsApp customers could live-chat with various characters that related to the origins of the boot. They could also get images, music, videos, etc., and experience a more ‘hands-on’ documentary experience, all at their fingertips.
Think of your WhatsApp Business profile as your virtual storefront that allows you to grow revenue and engagement.
To make the most of your WhatsApp business number, add useful information for your customers, such as your business logo, address, brand description, email address, hours of operation, and website details, as Adya Organics demonstrates below.
Here are a few things the brand gets right:
Pro tips:
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Read more: Learn how WhatsApp is different from Messenger from a marketer’s perspective. |
Want customers to reach out to you easily? Highlight the WhatsApp contact option everywhere possible. For starters, you can showcase it on your website as the brand, just like how Two Brothers Organic Farms does it.
The always-on customer of today likes to message brands at their convenience—whether it’s 4 a.m. or a Sunday.
To cater to customers outside of business hours, you want to capitalize on every lead with automated messages and quick replies.
Note that WhatsApp Business allows you to send greeting messages to customers after 14 days of inactivity.
Pro tip: Add icons, emoticons, etc., to make the greeting message come alive and drive customer engagement. Once the customer has read the welcome message, offer them a menu with prepopulated options. |
Once the customer selects an option, they are provided with more relevant automated messages to keep the conversation going forward.
The beauty of automated messages is customers don’t need to type long messages to get what they want. Plus, you can save time and energy and focus on what really matters—engaging with your customers and boosting growth as well as revenues.
Pro tips:
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Include a product catalog to showcase your products/services and empower customers to browse through the offerings effortlessly. Allow customers to also share the product/service details with their friends and family.
Another strategy to stay on top of your business conversations and important chats is to use labels and color code them.
You can filter customers on various parameters, such as new customers, pending payments, and so on. This way, no customer goes unnoticed, and your brand benefits from streamlined communication.
Effective WhatsApp marketing is about providing value, fostering engagement, and building strong relationships with your customers.
To achieve this, you need to understand the various market dynamics at play and analyze how your brand fits into the overall business landscape to create meaningful interactions through the platform. Some specific examples include:
Customers are required to choose the relevant option at every step of the way.
The best part? If an agent is not available to assist, the brand lets the customer know and encourages them to share more information to help reserve the product.
Businesses must leverage WhatsApp messaging not simply to interact but drive meaningful conversations with customers. However, orchestrating personalized WhatsApp campaigns requires you to look at your organization’s marketing from a more holistic lens, along with an in-depth understanding of your customer’s evolving needs and wants.
This is possible by building a strong omnichannel plan with email, SMS, and mobile app customer engagement strategies. If you want to curate a successful and integrative WhatsApp campaign, a channel-agnostic customer engagement platform, such as MoEngage, can help you launch a killer omnichannel marketing strategy.
Learn more about how you can leverage WhatsApp for your business and boost customer engagement, retention, and revenue with MoEngage’s new WhatsApp Business Integration. Connect with the team to know more.
To drive WhatsApp engagement:
Utilize WhatsApp features: Take advantage of features like WhatsApp Status, broadcast lists, or groups to engage with your audience effectively.
WhatsApp marketing can be highly effective, allowing businesses to engage with customers personally, fostering a more intimate and immediate connection. Other benefits include:
Enhanced trust and loyalty: Building a direct relationship with customers on WhatsApp can strengthen trust and foster loyalty.
No, the WhatsApp Business API is not free. It allows businesses to integrate their systems with the WhatsApp platform for various use cases such as customer support, notifications, and more. The costs involved with WhatsApp API typically include a setup fee, a monthly subscription fee, and message fees based on usage.