WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world with 1 billion active users. With such market dominance, it’s no surprise that marketers have turned their attention to WhatsApp as a channel for marketing. However, Whatsapp as a marketing channel is still pretty new & most marketers are testing and learning their way around.
While email largely superseded postal communications, businesses know that today, large numbers of emails never get opened; by contrast, 80% of messages sent view WhatsApp are seen within five minutes. Forbes, 2021
Founded by ex-Yahoo! employees in 2009, Brian Acton and Jan Koum, WhatsApp is among the most popular apps for voice and text communication. In 169 countries, WhatsApp is the widely used messenger with users crossing over the 2 billion mark. But in terms of the number of users, India is by far WhatsApp’s largest market. That means the majority of your customers are present on the platform.
With Meta’s new feature for WhatsApp Business, it gives more leeway for marketers to reach their customers on their favorite messaging app. But it isn’t that easy, let us tell you why.
In the present world where retention is the new acquisition, we can directly interact with our customers and know their preferences through CRM! But if customers find your communication irrelevant, they have the option to file a report right there on the platform, marking your message as spam. A number of spam reports, and you can potentially be blocked on the platform. So text-bombing your customers is definitely not the go-to strategy for this platform.
Salesforce report from 15,000 plus consumers and business buyers, 80% of consumers say that their experience with a brand is as crucial as their products.
Other data shows that 89% of consumers expect a response when they contact a brand within 24 hours, and 52% have switched brands due to poor customer service. In fact, 75% of adults want to message with businesses the same way they do with friends and family, and 57% say messaging with a business feels more personal than calling customer support.
In a digitally-native world, traditional communication platforms are no longer enough to maintain engagement. People around the globe use messaging apps to talk with friends and family. They want the same easy experience when they need to connect with a business and WhatsApp provides us with the opportunity to start a conversation with the customer. There are a few ways through which you can send meaningful and personalized messages to your customers that they would love to receive:
Send Order Details or eReceipts
Brands fight tooth and nail to collate accurate information of their customers. Even customers hesitate to share their information to avoid spam or privacy fiasco. So sending eReceipts or Order Details through the platform can help you generate your customer’s accurate data.
This can be done very easily by positioning a ‘Green Initiative Campaign’ for your brand to get rid of physical bills in store. You can send eReceipts instantly while the customer is in the store and ensure customer satisfaction. For online brands, sharing regular order updates like order confirmation, dispatch, or order tracking can be done. When customers receive accurate shipping information and tracking updates, they will know that the brand is both dependable and trustworthy, both of which are vital for customer retention. Online order tracking helps to minimize customer anxiety and buyer remorse.
Send Customer Feedback Survey
Customer satisfaction and loyalty is a crucial factor that determines one brand’s retention. Surveys and Customer Feedback forms are the best way to collect transactional as well as behavioral data. To find out what your customer’s experience was in the store or surfing through your website is valuable data. Were they able to find what they were looking for? Was the staff assistant helpful? Send feedback forms a couple of days after the order to collect data.
Automated Journeys
You can bring relevancy to your communications by customizing and personalizing every WhatsApp message with customer details, preferences, and user behavior. By including WhatsApp as a channel in your automated journeys, you can onboard new customers, keep subscribers engaged, and keep people coming back to your outlets at key moments. And what’s better than reaching your customers in one place where they’re all present.
Running welcome / sign-up journey, abandoned cart journey, dormant reactivation journey, or recurring nudges from time to time on WhatsApp will help you bring your customer back to the store! To prevent spam from automated journeys, you can add one CTA with ‘STOP’ or ‘UNSUBSCRIBE’, where customer choose their communication preference.
Upsell & Cross-sell
Sending blanket communication about an upcoming sale is promotional spam. A very sane reason to mark a brand’s message as spam. Instead of sending promotional messages to your customers, your brand can upsell or cross-sell products that fall in the customer’s favorite product category or next best recommendation category. Let them know when their wishlist-ed item went on sale or the product they have been eyeing is getting out of stock.
In-App Booking & Scheduling or Reminders
Sending your customer time-sensitive information and reminders is also an amazing way to ensure your brand stays relevant to the customer. WhatsApp provides a convenient way to remind your customer about their upcoming bookings or appointments. But making it more interesting, you can run automated journeys on WhatsApp to send a purchase reminder of the products that run out like hair oil, face cream, etc. A simple nudge to repurchase beauty & cosmetic products goes a long way to ensure repeat orders.
Promotion Booklets
Stocking all the products in the store is simply not possible. How to ensure the potential customers that walk in the store purchase from you? In-store Promotional Booklets are an amazing way to go paperless and open a communication bridge between the brand and a potential customer of the brand.
With Whatsapp, brands need to think Conversational. Marry Promotional Marketing with Conversational & Xeno doesn’t mind helping you with the vows!
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