There were times when marketing was only its traditional mode, newspapers, radio, billboards, and TV advertisements. Apart from word of mouth, these were the only ways for someone to know your product or service and what it has to offer.
Those days are now in the past. With all these modes still available to companies, newer modern marketing techniques and platforms have come up over the last few decades. It can all be said to stem from the Internet. That has allowed for a whole new world of digital marketing to be open as options.
Digital marketing has allowed the whole marketing experience to be personalized, one on one, and connected. The latest in the game is app-based marketing through those applications which are seen as modes of communication.
There are already as many as 2 billion people using WhatsApp across the globe and increasing (WhatsApp, 2020). With 1.5 billion in the year 2018 and 1 billion back in 2016, the number of users of WhatsApp has grown by half a billion every two years.
What is WhatsApp Marketing?
WhatsApp is globally the most used and downloaded messaging app today by a huge margin, yet less than 8% of the companies use it as a platform for marketing. This may be due to the traditional understanding that there are no ads possible on the app per se or the lack of knowledge of how this can work.
WhatsApp Marketing is the art and science of using this app to connect with your customers anywhere around the world instantly. Uses of apps such as WhatsApp Business go a long way in helping to achieve that. After a year alone since WhatsApp released its B2B project, WhatsApp Business, as many as 5 million small to big scale business users were registered.
How do I use it for marketing?
There are multiple features in WhatsApp that we use for our personal lives but may not yet have tapped into for business as we do not see them in that light. It is just about finding the right perspective.
From groups to communicate with customer teams to broadcast lists to share new offers and updates, you can use them all in your WhatsApp Marketing stints. Use these to send reminder messages and timed content to them.
WhatsApp Business App allows you to have an interactive platform for your clients. You can list your communication hours, share your website link, and have automated responses with AI-like features to engage your customers.
With the understanding that marketing to customers is much more than just ads, each of these has become relevant today.
How do I use it to promote my business?
Promotions on WhatsApp are not in the same vein as on other social media apps. This owes itself to two major factors;
- The platform has no concept of paid ads, unlike platforms such as LinkedIn or Instagram.
- The app is configured for messaging rather than mass content sharing with friends and acquaintances.
Rather than being a disadvantage, however, this can be used by you for promoting your business in novel ways that do not come across as ads or paid publicity to your customers and potential clients.
WhatsApp Stories allow for a certain level of visibility that helps the product or services you have to offer to be promoted to all your contacts on the app. They also allow you to showcase linked content in a streak all together.
The WhatsApp broadcast list and groups can also help you share targeted promotions and offers with your clients. Given how a major part of business promotion is a part of the customer memory, this helps greatly.
WhatsApp Campaign
A successful campaign on any platform is one where the planned audience is engaged and is likely to convert to clients. There are many metrics on which campaigns are measured. Let us take a look at how a campaign can be run on WhatsApp and what are the best tools to be used for it.
A WhatsApp marketing campaign would involve reaching out to a well-defined potential or past customer set, engaging them with the content, and potentially converting them into new or repeat customers. WhatsApp is a much more personal platform than the others. The segment will involve mostly people who have connected with the business in one form or the other before.
The best tools to use for a WhatsApp campaign would be
- Automatic reply feature to engage the persons.
- The lists and groups to better reach your wanted audience.
- The business link feature to send your inquisitive contacts just where you want them to head.
Is it effective?
Marketing on WhatsApp is relatively new, and thus the instances to judge it are fewer than other platforms. This, in no way, should mean that it is anything but effective. Even with the few instances, the success stories are there for all to see. Not only that, the increasing number of businesses that are realizing the worth of this and coming on-board may be slow due to skepticism but is a sure one.
Some success stories that can help you understand how effective it is can be seen.
- Hellmann in Brazil
“Hellmann’s, the mayonnaise brand owned by Unilever, has provided a demonstration of how marketers can effectively leverage mobile-messaging tools such as WhatsApp to engage consumers.”
All they did was invest an additional $900 in their original strategy, and they managed to engage millions who were on WhatsApp in Brazil. The idea was simple; they shared their business profile of WhatsApp with their clients. Here the clients can share the raw ingredients they have with them available, and the business suggested to them recipes for the same. From sharing tips and ideas over videos and pictures to reminding of timelines of cooking, the business account kept the client engaged throughout the cooking process. This allowed the campaign to be a massive hit as it got attention around the country.
- Absolute challenge
“It might not be so innovative now, but it will still be a super-exciting way to get people involved in your brand through the use of WhatsApp… I can’t wait to see more brands jump on board.”
Integrating WhatsApp with an instant reply feature app back in 2013, Absolut Vodka was able to run a successful campaign in Europe. They had a party planned, and the only way to get passes to this party was to message their WhatsApp number and convince the “host” through unique ways to allow you to win passes.
With this simple idea and some investment, they were able to generate a buzz around the continent with people clamoring to get passes. Imagine now with the features WhatsApp Business has to offer how much bigger it would have been.
There are many stories like these two, which show how WhatsApp marketing is the way to go now, so head over to the Play Store or App Store, get your app and get going for your business.
Started working as a digital marketing expert, Varun Sharma is now also a well-known digital marketing speaker – a speaker on performance development, and a trusted mentor to businesses in the digital world. His keynote expositions are based on the digital marketing theories, which provide a fascinating insight into the secrets of high performance.