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With over 120 million daily active users, WhatsApp is a thriving space for both established companies and budding startups. Today, companies are gradually moving from the traditional modes of marketing and embracing digital technology to reach out to their target base. WhatsApp can be utilised by brands to send marketing campaigns and offer a delightful marketing experience.

In this blog, we will explore what is WhatsApp marketing, and shed light on its various aspects, including its benefits, best practices and how to use the platform for your marketing activities. As a bonus, we will also share quick and easy tips on how to improve customer engagement on the application.

What is WhatsApp Marketing?

WhatsApp marketing involves the online promotion of a company's products and services by using the popular communication platform called WhatsApp. A widely used app that has recently launched another exciting feature called 'Channels', WhatsApp is the ideal place where brands can market their products and reach their audience in the best way.

For businesses, the platform provides WhatsApp Business API. It is a separate user interface with a dedicated range of features that brands can use to build engagement with their audience. From easy sharing of marketing campaigns to real-time conversations with customers—WhatsApp provides a number of ways to secure the attention of the target audience.

On WhatsApp business, companies can create an online version of their store, featuring product catalogues and prices along with valuable information such as location, opening hours, contact details, etc.

Making it easier to connect with customers, WhatsApp Business also lets its users broadcast messages and set up quick responses to the frequently asked questions of their audience. While the world has moved away from SMS, businesses have also been quick enough to adapt to and adopt new changes, opening new ways of sharing content in multiple formats and keeping users' private information intact.

What are its benefits?

The best marketing automation agency in the US can help you automate your marketing efforts so that you can enjoy complete peace of mind while your marketing campaigns generate revenue and draw leads for you.

But how can WhatsApp marketing help you? Here are some of its advantages:

• If you are a budding entrepreneur starting to build your business, a free platform like WhatsApp Business can help you develop a strong marketing strategy with little investment. All it needs is to set up your WhatsApp Business account, give your business information, choose your suitable settings and let your customers know that you are just a message away on WhatsApp
• Online payments, at times, can become quite a hassle. But with WhatsApp having integrated the payment option, you can seamlessly receive payments for your products and services from your customers. Safe, secure and reliable, WhatsApp can help you streamline your payments as well
• Running a business is not easy. You need to be aware of the conversations going on surrounding your brand as well as be ready to respond to user queries, grievances, complaints, etc. By using the auto-reply option on WhatsApp, you can share predetermined replies with your customers and engage in conversations
• The WhatsApp Business app has a wide range of useful features helping you to create a business profile in just a few minutes. With the end-to-end encryption feature, you will be able to share and receive messages on your app and create a full-fledged profile adding your business information, a profile picture, links to your website and other company details
• Not everyone is comfortable setting up a new communication channel. But since WhatsApp Business works in the same way as the regular app, you will be able to set it up easily with just a little bit of customisation for your business

How to use WhatsApp for your business?

While automated marketing can give you relief from the stress of manually tracking your marketing activities, what you need to do before that is to integrate your marketing strategy with WhatsApp Business.



Here is how to get started:

Define your goals and metrics
Draw up your WhatsApp marketing goals and set up a benchmark that you want to achieve. Revise your marketing funnel and choose the KPIs that would help you find out if your WhatsApp marketing campaigns have been successful.

Sign up on the app
After you download the app, the next step is to build your official WhatsApp Business profile by sharing detailed information about your company and your products. From product catalogues to quick and automated replies—use the plethora of tools that the app provides to set up your business online.

Create a brand persona
Work on your brand's personality and find out the values that you would like to convey through your communication. What kind of a persona would you like to build - formal or easy-going? Creative or a follower of traditional ideas? Create your tone of voice accordingly.

Build your database
Export your existing contacts on the WhatsApp Business app and grab new contacts through your social media channels, newsletter subscriptions, etc. Try offering a valuable incentive for your users' contact details and then you can share promotional messages with them directly.

Craft your communication
Design your messages in such a way that you do not sound too salesy. Have a healthy blend of promotional messages and value-driven content so that you can entertain, educate and inspire your audience. Play around with multiple content formats like images, videos, gifs, emojis, etc., and stay away from spamming your customers.

WhatsApp Marketing Examples Across the Globe

World Health Organization
It was during the first wave of COVID-19 in March 2020 when the World Health Organization launched its hotline numbers in 7 different languages. Users only needed to send a location-specific number and choose a particular prompt to know more about the disease, vaccination, etc.

Lidl
After launching the "Quiet Time" chatbot in the market during the pandemic, Lidl brand has now launched a WhatsApp business account where it provides instant support to its customers before escalating the issue to a live customer support agent.

KLM
Using WhatsApp marketing to offer a happy user experience, KLM, the Royal Dutch Airlines, shares valuable travel information with its travellers through WhatsApp. From sending booking confirmations to letting the passengers know about delayed flights, if any, KLM uses the app to keep the passengers informed.

Automated marketing is the need of the hour in today's digital scheme of things. But before you automate your tasks using software and tools, make sure that your campaigns are relevant, relatable and appropriate for the target audience.

Nivea
On the occasion of Mother's Day, Nivea Switzerland came up with a very heartwarming video content, urging their customers to share the same with their mothers. Users just needed to type in Nivea on WhatsApp and follow the prompts shown on the app.

Netflix
In 2017, Netflix launched its marketing campaign where it used WhatsApp to stay in touch with its users. As an expert in recommending personalised content to watch based on users' watch histories, the OTT platform generated engagement with its audience, retained its existing customers and encouraged the unsubscribers to subscribe to the platform once again.

Best Practices of WhatsApp Marketing

When it comes to ideating for and executing marketing campaigns, following some best practices can work in favour of generating more revenues. Here are the four key areas:

• Your WhatsApp marketing campaigns should offer value and convenience to your customers, thereby, enhancing the user experience. Use WhatsApp Business to share important and time-specific details such as order confirmations, delivery updates, event reminders, etc.
• Avoid duplicating content created for other marketing channels. Dedicate specific time, effort and budget to create marketing copy, add images or include videos specifically for your WhatsApp audience. Repurposed content will create less value and only harm your brand reputation
• Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, has set out some template guidelines. Follow the format and create your campaigns so that they are shared and delivered properly to your audience base. The template has detailed instructions on how to set a language, link your website or format an image while creating campaigns for WhatsApp
• We understand how overwhelming it might be to track all your marketing activities. So, we make sure that you can monitor all your promotional activities on the same page. With Springwood marketing services, you can gain insights into your campaigns' performance as well as observe detailed reports on which areas need improvement

Tips on WhatsApp Engagement

The best marketing automation agency in the US can help you fine-tune your marketing endeavours. However, it is necessary to know how to engage with your audience.



Here are some easy tips to boost your WhatsApp engagement with the audience:

Automated greetings
Welcome your customers with automated greetings on WhatsApp Business. This sends the signal that your business is responsive and values the time and effort of the users. Use simple templates and have an uplifting and encouraging tone in your automated message.

Quick responses
People hate it when their grievances or complaints go unnoticed. Offer quick fixes in the form of prompt replies to your customers to save time. With WhatsApp Business, you can save frequently sent messages and reuse them to respond to customer queries in the minimum time.

Message personalisation
Personalisation is the key to staying at the top of your customer's preferences. Use customer names or order numbers and craft your message with a personal touch. Stay away from words that sound highly technical. Avoid jargon and keep your responses short, snappy and to the point.

Real-time feedback
Use the feature of advanced analytics to get real-time feedback on your WhatsApp marketing campaigns. Discover areas that need optimisation, track user sentiment or evaluate your metrics—all on the same app platform.

WhatsApp chat widget
The best place for customers to know more about your business and its products is your official website. Add a WhatsApp widget on your website and open up a communication channel through which customers can easily reach out to you. On clicking the widget, your customers will be redirected to WhatsApp and can then start a conversation with your company directly.

Bulk notifications
With WhatsApp Business API, you can schedule and send bulk messages to all your customers on a predetermined date and time. From product announcements to important follow-up information—you can send messages to your customers in a safe and secure messaging environment.

AI Chatbots
The superheroes (without capes!) of the business world, the AI chatbots can handle customer queries, offer product recommendations and also provide answers to frequently asked questions by the users. Integrate them into your customer engagement strategy or create your very own chatbots.

Product displays
Consider the WhatsApp interface as a condensed version of your website. Display your products and services on WhatsApp by creating a catalogue with detailed information. You can also keep some automated responses ready in case a customer enquires about specific products or prices.

Promotional messages
To spread the word about your business and the products, use the broadcast feature on WhatsApp. Let more people know about you and increase your brand visibility. Send product launch messages, discount news, festival promotions and other exciting news to opted-in customers.

CTA with buttons
Integrate CTA buttons smoothly to your messages and prompt your customers to take actions such as 'Buy now', 'Call business', etc. These predefined buttons make your messages more clickable and offer a highly interactive and engaging experience for your users.

Final Thoughts

With WhatsApp marketing, you can build strong marketing campaigns and reach today's audience who prefers buying products or making purchases online. However, it is always good to try out your hands on the app before launching your in-app store. That way, you will be able to handle the other tools and software that would really help you up your online game.

Wondering how to streamline your WhatsApp marketing campaigns and how to derive reports for further analysis? Avail Springwood marketing services today and get valuable insights into your customers' behaviours, the performance of the campaigns, the quality of leads generated, etc.

Keywords - Whatsapp marketing, marketing ROI, customer retention, customer engagement, marketing automation, automated marketing services in US

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