hen marketers think of social media marketing or B2B marketing, WhatsApp for Business is not the first name that comes to their mind.
With a 60 million+ user base, LinkedIn is the first choice for B2B marketers. On the contrary, B2C marketers rely on Instagram and Facebook to build a strong social media presence. This decision of marketers is justified since these social platforms have many innovative and effective marketing solutions to offer as compared to WhatsApp.
But WhatsApp Marketing has a lot of possibilities. WhatsApp has a 2 billion+ user base and that is more than the user bases of Instagram and LinkedIn combined. WhatsApp marketing becomes easier if you know how to set-up WhatsApp for Business.
It’s high time you start using WhatsApp as a marketing tool. Not sure how to do that? We’re here to help. Let’s start from scratch.
What is WhatsApp and Who is Using It?
WhatsApp is an online messaging platform that is available for free on different play stores. People generally use this app for messaging, audio/video calling, group chats, and media sharing. With WhatsApp, cross-border communication has become simpler. This app lets you connect with international residents without any charges.
WhatsApp was launched in 2009 by two ex-Yahoo employees, Brian Acton and Jan Koum. Later in 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion. Facebook is currently leading the online messaging market with 79% shares of Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp combined.
WhatsApp’s user base is huge and diverse. The instant access WhatsApp offers to the users, irrespective of their location, particularly works in its favour. To connect via WhatsApp, all a user needs is proper data connectivity. This flexibility of WhatsApp has become its critical success factor.
What is WhatsApp for Business?
WhatsApp for Business is another app coming from the house of WhatsApp and it is available in both Android and iOS versions. This application primarily focuses on small business owners. You cannot have both WhatsApp and WhatsApp for Business on the same phone and from the same contact number. But that’s okay because most people prefer separating their personal and professional contact numbers.
There’s another version of this app known as WhatsApp for Business API. Let’s discuss some more on this. And will be our prime focus of this article.
What is WhatsApp for Business API?
Facebook had introduced the WhatsApp for Business API in 2018 with the hope to offer scalable marketing solutions to the enterprises. By using this API, businesses can communicate with their customers through unlimited messages. To be more specific, WhatsApp for Business API doesn’t come with its own front-end UI. An organization needs to integrate this API with its customer communication software like Konverse.
The WhatsApp API integration with an existing CRM, AI, or analytics tool holds a lot of potential for your business. Expect to automate at least 70% common queries with this integration. Do you realize how it will benefit your business? For starters, you need to spend less on customer support resources. If a complex query comes into the picture, it can always be assigned to a live agent.
Hence, the limited numbers of customer support representatives you’ve hired can now engage with high-value prospects. Also, as the communication software and WhatsApp for Business API takes over the regular customer support activities, the representatives can focus on customer satisfaction only. Isn’t that what their job is?
How to onboard WhatsApp Business API?
To build a strong presence of your business within WhatsApp without compromising on affordability, you’ll need the WhatsApp Business API. There are several steps to follow in the process of onboarding a WhatsApp Business API. These steps include creating a WhatsApp business account, verifying your account and getting a green tick and accessing API providers. Once these steps are completed successfully, you can enjoy unlimited integration between your WhatsApp Business API and communication software.
5 Effective WhatsApp Marketing Strategies
Find out how you can convert WhatsApp for Business into a significant marketing channel. Here are some useful tips to start with.
1. Provide 1:1 Customer Support
For small businesses, affording an entire team of customer support executives can be challenging. Startups have a limited budget and forming an entire customer support desk at once is difficult. For these organizations, providing 1:1 customer support through WhatsApp is a more feasible option.
By integrating WhatsApp for Business API with your CRM, you can respond to customers’ complaints using all sorts of media. For small businesses, this is an excellent way to satisfy customers.
2. Collect Feedback, Reviews, and Ratings
Collecting customers’ feedback is the very first phase of conducting market research. Most of the market research tools are expensive and difficult for startups to afford. Starting with a free tool like WhatsApp for Business can help with rapid market research and deeper insights into customers’ opinions.
It is not always possible for SMEs to call or email every individual customer and ask for feedback. What they can do instead is create questionnaires highlighting different segments and send them to customers for relevant responses. The feedback can later be used to modify products/services aligned with customers’ needs. To strengthen your engagement with customers, you can pick out the most loyal customers and offer them special offers and discounts. Asking for customers’ reviews and ratings is also easier through WhatsApp and very fruitful for businesses given that WhatsApp gets the highest read rate amongst any other communication channel.
3. Make the Most of Automation
Do you know why enterprises are adopting the WhatsApp for Business API at a rapid rate? It’s because of the automation it offers. Every business requires a successful conversational strategy and WhatsApp for Business API can provide you with that. Right after entering a communication channel, organizations face a tough time in handling the huge responses they receive.
On the contrary, not replying to those messages would be a huge marketing mistake as you’ll lose on important leads. By making the most of WhatsApp Business API, you can ignore these challenges. All you have to do is integrate the WhatsApp Business API with your automation software. Once that’s done, you are covered. Up to 70% of common customer queries can now be resolved without any human involvement.
Every enterprise is always looking forward to interacting with prospects and customers at scale. The best way to do so is by using automation. The integration between WhatsApp for Business API and automation software can help you with quick responding, automated chats, and a great overall experience.
4. Get more Organized with the WhatsApp-CRM integration
Startups should definitely know how to organize their customer support activities. WhatsApp’s integration with communication software like Konverse can help in importing all necessary contacts from the software to WhatsApp. Therefore managing chats can become simpler.
WhatsApp for Business provide by businesses like us, allow a strong labelling system and segregating contacts can become easier that way. With CRM integration, manual activities can be cut down to zero. In that case, both WhatsApp and your CRM tool will be synced and will work together on your dashboard.
5. Spice-up your Conversations with Customers
Want to keep the prospects/customers engaged? Start adding sparks to a conversation. If you prefer continuing a boring conversation for hours, your prospects can give up on you. Use WhatsApp Business API and automation software to design your replies in an enticing manner.
Start using photos, videos, GIFs etc. to keep the customers occupied. Also, don’t forget to use lots of stickers. Where you’re automating your response on WhatsApp Business API, make sure you’re adding sufficient emojis and stickers. These will help to keep a customer conversation going. Frame your responses intuitively using conversational AI.
3 Case Studies to refer before Kickstarting WhatsApp Marketing Journey
#Case Study 1: Hellmann’s
Hellmann’s, Brazil is known for offering Mayonnaise, various dressings, and spreads. Hellmann wanted to explain to their customers that Mayonnaise is far more than a condiment and can be used as a cooking essential as well. To run this campaign, Hellmann’s invited all users to register on their official website. After successfully completing the registration process, each user was connected with chefs via WhatsApp who shared insightful food recipes with customers using Hellmann’s Mayonnaise and dressings.
The chefs made the best use of WhatsApp and taught cool recipes using pictures, video clips, and all other exciting WhatsApp features. The result of this campaign was overwhelming. As many as 13000 candidates participated and they spent 65 minutes on average to interact with Hellmann’s marketers and chefs. The success of the Brazilian campaign led Hellmann to launch similar campaigns in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and Paraguay.
#Case Study 2: Fenesta (A DCM Shriram Group Company)
Fenesta is a leading manufacturer of windows and doors in India with a large number of B2B customers. This brand is actively ruling over 327 cities of India. As a part of Fenesta’s priority customer support process, this brand has integrated WhatsApp for Business API with their conversational AI from Konverse.
Fenesta automated some common responses against customers’ queries with the help of Konverse’s Bot applications. Customers had ample options to select their concern and to specify their requirements. This automation also made sure that live agents are assigned to each customer in the context of difficult queries.
This modern approach of Fenesta towards customer support clicked instantly. In fact, customer complaints reduced by 30%.
#Case Study 3: Clarks
Clarks, the popular shoe brand, was one of the first-ever companies that adopted WhatsApp Marketing. In 2015, Clarks used the power of storytelling and integrated it with WhatsApp marketing to promote it’s then launched product Desert Boots. In this campaign, the marketers of Clarks used live chatting to provide insightful information regarding the origin of Desert boots and it’s a journey. The youths enjoyed this campaign and Clarks converted many leads with this innovative WhatsApp marketing idea.
Let's Wrap-up!
Before wrapping up, we want to reassure you that WhatsApp marketing through WhatsApp for Business is not rocket science. With patience, in-depth understanding and empathy, you can master this skill. Also to opt for WhatsApp Business API and to enjoy seamless integration with your core systems, visit Konverse.
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