If you’re a D2C or e-commerce business owner/marketer, we’re sure you have stumbled upon all the hype around using the WhatsApp messaging app, for marketing purposes. While the use cases of the channel continue to evolve, WhatsApp marketing is slowly becoming an integral part of growth strategies for most online businesses.
In this preliminary post, we’re going to briefly touch upon what WhatsApp marketing is and why you need to get started with the same. Our goal is to help you catch up with brands that are already using the messaging app to grow their business by laying the right foundation.
What is WhatsApp marketing?
WhatsApp marketing refers to using the messaging platform for running business promotions, in a similar fashion as that on emails and SMS. It includes leveraging the WhatsApp for Business features to reach consumers with broadcasts around deals and discounts, product launches, upcoming sales or engagement driven campaigns like order updates, feedback requests and so on.
Why should you use WhatsApp Marketing for business?
Now WhatsApp has been commonly used as a personal channel of communication. But here’s why we think businesses should also consider using the messaging app as a powerful marketing tool:
1. Wide user base
As per Statista, there are approximately two billion WhatsApp users across the globe. This makes WhatsApp one of the most popular mobile messenger apps worldwide, across all demographics. That’s exactly why we believe businesses across all industries can benefit from promotions on the messaging app.
2. Actively used
Surveys and studies have found that more than half of all WhatsApp users make use of the app at least once a day. Out of these users, more than 60% use the messaging app several times a day for both personal and professional purposes. The active use of the messaging app is what makes it more suitable to get promotional messages noticed.
3. Higher open and conversion rates
Owing to the noise on channels like social media and even the traditional email, businesses tend to see a much lower open and conversion rate on campaigns. But when it comes to WhatsApp and how actively it is used, businesses see a much higher open, click-through and conversion rate. As per our WhatsApp statistics, businesses are able to see an average of 98% open rate and 45% click-through rates on campaigns.
4. More conversation and human
As per Forbes, in times when a typical consumer has more than ten brands to choose from on average, promotional marketing is no longer effective. They seek conversations and human interaction from brands they’re interested in. WhatsApp offers an opportunity for businesses to communicate with consumers in a more intuitive and natural way.
5. Low cost of marketing
Studies have found that even leading brands have seen their cost of customer acquisition increase from anywhere between 70-75%. As compared to popular marketing and advertising channels, WhatsApp is still very affordable owing to its active users across all user demographics. In fact, D2C brands are experiencing almost 80% drop in their marketing costs using WhatsApp and a much higher ROI.
What do you need to get started with WhatsApp marketing?
Just like any other marketing channel or platform, WhatsApp too requires some setup. This includes creating a WhatsApp Business profile, understanding WhatsApp Business features, learning about the WhatsApp Business API, and making use of a solution provider.
Learn how Interakt can help your brand grow with WhatsApp marketing.
