Four Ways WhatsApp Can Help Marketing Leaders Achieve Their Goals

It was originally thought that having a captive audience was the best situation for marketers. However, in the current context! It’s best to put that viewpoint in the past.

Consumers are no longer willing to remain passive recipients of your brand’s messaging; rather, they are becoming more demanding in terms of individualised service, prompt replies, and the ease of interacting with companies on the channels they are most familiar with.

WhatsApp Commerce in particular is starting to emerge as a “sweet spot” for business messaging, combining the dependability and security of enterprise-grade communications with the convenience of mobile messaging protocols.

The four main ways marketing executives should be using business messaging services like WebMaxy. WhatsApp Commerce to support their larger brand objectives are discussed below, along with some recent findings that include a Meta study examining marketers’ opinions about these platforms.

a. Increasing Reach and Brand Awareness

Optimizing the number of consumers that initially encounter your brand can greatly aid in enhancing the efficacy of your marketing initiatives. Fortunately, business message channels are among the most useful megaphones available.

Apps for messaging are becoming increasingly popular compared to other platforms as they have already surpassed the user base of social media by roughly 20%. With 2.9 billion users of Messenger and WhatsApp globally, almost half of the world’s population represents a potential market for specialized and customized marketing messages.

In fact, according to a recent survey, people under 50 most frequently communicate by text. This trend is particularly noteworthy for mobile app developers, who can leverage this massive user base to create innovative messaging solutions tailored to various needs and preferences.

Even with its enormous potential reach, WhatsApp’s startling open rates just serve to highlight it. Customers are more likely to read, interact with, and click on your messages when you approach them on their chosen channel, as direct messages have a 98% open rate (as opposed to a meagre 20% for emails).

b. Generating Leads and Increasing Conversion

Customers will almost always start conversations on WhatsApp, but one distinctive feature of commercial messaging services is that users must “opt-in,” or provide permission, before they can get any more marketing messages down the road.

While this might seem like a big challenge at first, it’s a very effective way to develop a following of people who have expressed a confirmed and explicit interest in your brand. This is very different from more passive channels like social media or television, where the audience’s interest in your product or brand is rarely guaranteed. Additionally, since third-party data will soon be disappearing, companies must start coming up with innovative ways to learn about the interests of their customers.

However, it seems that brands are still benefiting from the opt-in strategy in WhatsApp Commerce today.

“As an illustration: According to a recent Meta survey, WhatsApp business platform users reported 58% more leads. Comparing this rising trend of business communications to other traditional media, such as television (37%) and out-of-home advertising (45%), is especially significant.“

Keep in mind that you can increase read and clickthrough rates by meeting clients where they’re comfortable, i.e., where they spend the majority of their daily online time interacting with friends, family, and coworkers. Businesses can improve customer relations and communicate more successfully by leveraging the channels that consumers currently use on a regular basis.

c. Increasing Client Retention and Satisfaction

Customer retention and satisfaction are undergoing a transformation thanks to business messaging services like WhatsApp Commerce.

Think about this: 55% of companies texted their clients in 2022, up 27% over the previous year. According to the same survey, 70% of customers signed up for at least one brand using the WhatsApp business platform at that time, a 12% rise over the year before.

According to 81% of marketers, these channels assist businesses in strengthening relationships with customers at both pre-and post-purchase stages of the customer journey. These figures indicate that the increasing popularity of apps like WhatsApp is a significant (and expanding) influence in the marketing industry rather than merely a fad.

It’s important to note that this surge in popularity is directly related to a message channel’s capacity to provide more direct and individualised customer communication, i.e., features that are now essential in today’s market, not just desirable. As a matter of fact, in 2021, 76% of consumers expressed frustration with organisations that do not offer individualised experiences in their marketing.

An additional special advantage!

• Even though we haven’t heard the name used, we’re all familiar with the idea of asynchronous messaging.
• It describes a type of communication in which messages can be sent and received regardless of whether both participants are present to talk.
• This offers a great deal of flexibility and convenience, allowing both users to talk at their own pace.
• You can now stop sitting on hold or dropping everything to give a customer support request your whole attention.
• Clients can even message you after hours and know they will get a response from one of your agents when they return to work the following morning.
• If you use automated chatbots, you can even respond to messages from customers around the clock (more on that below).

d. Developing Credibility and Trust

• One of the most crucial things for any marketing team to think about is developing credibility and trust with their clients in an unpredictable and occasionally confusing digital world.
• Fortunately, responding to consumer inquiries in a timely and relevant manner is one of the best ways to achieve so, and commercial messaging services like WhatsApp Commerce excel at this.

Consumers appear to have noticed, as evidenced by research that indicated 73% of consumers felt more at ease interacting with customer care through live chat than through email (61%) or traditional phone assistance (44%). According to another study, 61% of respondents said that their “top grievance” with phone customer service was being put on hold.

The additional capability of automated tools within your chat experience can go a long way in solving common consumer complaints, beyond eliminating excessive response times and holding music. Although it may seem paradoxical, when used properly, chatbots can increase users’ perceptions of trustworthiness and reliability.

Think about the typical queries that your clients pose daily: concerns about product selections, working hours, stock availability, etc. Most of these commonly asked questions can probably be answered on their own, saving customers from ever having to contact customer support.

Customers will not feel ignored by an automated FAQ; instead, they will see that the brand values their inquiries and concerns and will respond to them quickly, even if no one is in charge at the moment.

Stay Ahead of the Curve with WhatsApp Business Platform 

Consumers demand two-way dialogue, interaction, and personalisation with the businesses they trust; they no longer wish to be passive recipients of marketing messages.

And if you fail to supply it?

They might well choose to patronize a rival brand that does.

Are you curious about how marketing executives use WhatsApp to promote engagement at every stage of the customer journey?

For a deeper look at this potent toolkit, see our Ultimate Guide to WhatsApp eCommerce Store. If you need further assistance with your marketing efforts and revenue growth, Contact WebMaxy Anytime.