The nature of customer engagement has undergone tremendous change. Today, customers expect quick responses, personalization, and the opportunity to interact with brands they transact with.

 

Conversational marketing has become a key tool. WhatsApp has made it easy and possible for brands to incorporate conversational marketing. And customers are increasingly using it to communicate with brands.

 

In this blog, we look at the benefits of conversational marketing on WhatsApp Business API, how it helps increase sales, and the best practices you must follow.

What is conversational marketing on WhatsApp and how does it work?

Conversational marketing focuses on one-to-one interactions with customers, not one-to-all. Conversational marketing involves personal, one-on-one conversations that may include channels such as, phone calls, SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, among other channels. 

 

Conversational marketing is designed around the needs and convenience of customers. 

Conversations between customers and brands may happen in real-time, whenever the customers want to, with the help of automated chats. 

 

For conversational marketing, it is important that conversations are contextual. Brands using multiple channels must sync their various platforms so that customers can pick up conversations from where they left, no matter the channel they interact on.

 

Conversational marketing makes personalization possible, as brands can understand customers better through personal interactions. Conversational marketing makes this possible with the help of AI, WhatsApp chatbots, automation, and human support in facilitating conversations.

Benefits of conversational marketing on WhatsApp

One-on-one interactions are just the beginning of WhatsApp’s potential for conversational marketing. Here are the many other benefits of conversational marketing on WhatsApp for your business.

1. Real-time customer service and resolution

As conversational marketing can include AI-driven WhatsApp chatbots and automation, conversations can occur in real-time. This way, customers get instant responses and resolutions on various channels.

For example, a customer may browse products on the website, and choose to chat on WhatsApp via the click-to-WhatsApp button on the website. The automated WhatsApp chatbot can provide instant and relevant answers to customers’ questions. 

2. Stronger customer relationships

Conversational marketing on WhatsApp increases the value brands provide to customers in many ways. For instance, brands can meet customers where customers want them to — on WhatsApp, website, phone, or SMS. 

 

Additionally, customers get answers to queries via real-time customer service. Two-way conversations means they can have detailed interactions, where customers can share more information about their needs. Continuous communication leads to more opportunities for brands to serve customers better, leading to stronger long-term relationships.

3. Improves customer retention with timely follow-ups

Simple things such as quick responses and helpful information can make a difference to how customers perceive your brand. For example, when you send timely follow-ups to customers, they get a feeling that you care for them. This leads to more customer satisfaction and better customer experience, making customers stick with your brand for the long term. 

4. Gathering customer insights

Conversational marketing is one of the best ways for brands to gather customer feedback and insights. By having two-way interactions, brands can encourage customers to share more details and information about their likes, preferences, and more. This information can be used to create personalized experiences for customers.

How conversational marketing on WhatsApp drives sales and conversions

The average conversion rate for online businesses is still quite low. Which means there is still a lot of potential for marketers to try strategies to drive more sales and conversions. In this section, we look at how WhatsApp conversations can help brands increase sales: 

1. Guiding customers through the purchase journey

Conversational marketing is two-way; it allows customers and brands to interact through the purchase journey and beyond. Brands can offer real-time customer service while customers are browsing products and making purchase decisions. 

 

This interactive experience enables brands to entice customers to take desirable actions. For example, if a customer finds it difficult to purchase a product due to a high price, the brand can offer an instant discount to increase the sales potential.

2. Reduce cart abandonment

Once a brand has established contact with customers via two-way conversational channels, such as WhatsApp, it becomes easier for the brand to follow up with customers. With WhatsApp-based instant messaging for business, brands can show proactiveness to reduce cancellations or cart abandonments by offering incentives. 

3. Provide product recommendations

Another way conversational marketing on WhatsApp helps brands to increase sales is by increasing the opportunity for sharing product recommendations. At times, customers are not aware of the options brands have on their store. But with one-on-one personalized conversations, brands can introduce new products to customers, thus, increasing sales and conversions. 

4. Simplifying and helping with payments

Many customers drop transactions at the payment stage. There are many reasons for this, for example, customers can’t find their preferred payment method, the transaction failed due to poor connection, etc. During these times, if brands have access to customers via a chat box, they can offer alternative support to ensure the customers are able to make payments. This way, brands can reduce failed transactions and increase more conversions with a more effective WhatsApp messaging strategy.

5. Enhance post-purchase experience

Customer experience has moved beyond just the purchase journey and extends to post-purchase interactions, too. How you make customers feel after the product has been delivered can impact whether or not the customer will come back to your website in the future. This is where conversational marketing comes in. For example, send a WhatsApp message to customers telling them how they can use their products, or if they need your help. 

Best practices for implementing conversational marketing on WhatsApp

Here are some ground rules we recommend following: 

– Set up automated workflows for quick responses: Integrate instant messaging for business WhatsApp tools in your business system to automate repetitive tasks. For example, set up automated WhatsApp chatbots for quick responses.

– Use data to gather insights for personalization: Collect customer data, analyze for insights, and use the insights to create personalized messages to make conversations more meaningful for customers. This WhatsApp messaging strategy can be used effectively for data analysis.

– Use multimedia for richer conversations: Visuals are more impactful than text. WhatsApp allows you to share images, videos, voice notes, etc. with customers to create more engaging interactions. 

– WhatsApp CRM integration: With WhatsApp CRM integration, you can track interactions with customers, sync information from different channels, and improve the context of your conversations with customers. 

– Train your teams to combine automation with human touch: Make sure your AI-driven WhatsApp chat system is trained to hand over the conversation to human agents when it is necessary.

Challenges to overcome in conversational marketing on WhatsApp

As you start to set up conversational marketing on WhatsApp, here are some challenges you may face: 

-Avoiding over-automation: Ensure human support for complex queries when chatbots are not able to handle matters. You may need advanced AI capabilities to ensure this, such as, whatsApp business solutions.

-Managing message overload: As your business scales, you may have many customers communicating with your brand at the same time. Your AI tools must be intuitive to prioritize high-value conversations and tackle communication at scale.

-Ensuring privacy and compliance: Ensure your WhatsApp and AI tools are compliant with data protection laws to safeguard customer data.

-Measuring success: Consistently track engagement, response times, and conversions to ensure sustainable growth of your business.

Is conversational marketing on WhatsApp a must for your business?

The answer is a definite yes! Conversational marketing enhances instant customer support, personalization, and sales for businesses. It has many benefits for businesses. Get started with WhatsApp business solutions.

 

To get started and to ensure a robust foundation for conversational marketing on WhatsApp, you will need an efficient partner. This is where an official WhatsApp Business API provider like Interakt comes in. 

 

Get started with Interakt today.Â