Today marketers are concentrating more on messenger apps. When we think of a social media site, we come up with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter probably. But WhatsApp is the worldwide leader now with more than 1.5 active monthly users. I will discuss WhatsApp Marketing, its benefits and how it can benefit your business. Let’s first discuss what WhatsApp is? Two Yahoo employees Jan Koum and Brian Acton created WhatsApp in 2009. Since then it’s increasing its popularity day by day. WhatsApp is a free cross-platform instant smartphone messaging service that relies on the internet for message transmission. WhatsApp app enables people to share text, files, images, videos, and GIFs. It allows you to video call, voice call and chat with other WhatsApp users without any SMS or calling charges. Based on low cost and fantastic service, WhatsApp for marketing is gaining its popularity in mobile marketing. WhatsApp is the most popular alternative to SMS in 109 countries which is around 60% of the world. WhatsApp as a marketing tool has grown its popularity because of its massive reach and engagement. Let’s look into why a business should include WhatsApp marketing in their marketing strategies.

Why Should You Include WhatsApp Marketing in Your Marketing Strategies?

“People are Already into WhatsApp. Why not Using it for Business.” It was about 18.8 million users as WhatsApp audience in 2016 in the United States, and the number is going to be 25.6 million users till 2021. Facebook acquired WhatsApp in Feb 2014 for 19 billion US Dollars. WhatsApp is popular outside the United States but now is hitting strong competition from Asian-based social messenger apps such as KakaoTalk, WeChat, or Link.

The above graph shows how the number of active WhatsApp users are increasing day by day. According to the announcement by the mobile messaging app, “there were more than 1.5 billion monthly active users on WhatsApp.” which has proved that WhatsApp service is the most popular mobile apps worldwide. Marketing is about considering people. WhatsApp marketing platform can give more audience engagement than any other platform. It’s high time now to consider WhatsApp for marketing in your business strategies. Let’s look into the below reasons to include WhatsApp in your marketing strategies:

• WhatsApp is free, available in 53 languages, currently used by 109 countries and more than 70% WhatsApp users use it on a daily basis.
• Your target audiences, whom you want to convert via WhatsApp Marketing, are already there in WhatsApp.
• More than 90% of the WhatsApp messages are opened and read, so it ensures great engagement.
• According to Neilsen’s Facebook Messaging Survey, more than 67% of the mobile users prefer to chat to communicate in business and prefer shopping with a company whom they can message directly.
• WhatsApp allows creating WhatsApp groups with more than 256 members. So it's a great opportunity for any business. It’s great for organizing events too.
• WhatsApp for marketing allows you to share your proposals, business news, and promotions in few seconds. It supports multimedia content so you can share brochures, videos, links, audios, catalogs, and any sort of business related information through WhatsApp.
• WhatsApp for business marketing allows real-time direct communications with your audience, employees or clients. It’s a great way to know your audience’s interests and concerns.
• WhatsApp marketing platform is the most preferred platform for marketing by marketers as its a mean of a private channel for content and message share.

The Ways WhatsApp Marketing Can Benefit Your Business

Real-Time Service

Real-time customer service here means chat, voice calls, location tracking and video calls. Whatsapp marketing app allows you to get in touch with your user or audience through chat, call, and video and can solve any of their queries easily in few seconds. This allows a loyal relationship with you and your audience.

I believe you know what is “WhatsApp Web.” It’s a desktop version of WhatsApp application.

• Open your mobile WhatsApp app.
• Navigate to settings -> WhatsApp Web
• Choose Scan QR Code
• Open a browser on your laptop or desktop and type web.whatsapp.com.
• Hold your phone on to your computer screen to scan the QR Code
• The WhatsApp Clent will get open automatically, and you can see Everything from your WhatsApp app on your computer screen.

You can optimize your communications using WhatsApp web. It an easy way to use your keyboard, microphone, and Laptop or PC camera for your business purpose to be productive.

Take the Power of Groups

The primary step of a WhatsApp marketing plan is communication with your employees, clients or audience. WhatsApp group allows you to include up to 256 members. So you can create a group chat where all your colleagues or clients can interact. WhatsApp Groups are useful if you want to organize an official event or sale. Take advantage of groups as much as you can.

Take Advantage of Cross-Platform

Marketing is all about reaching people and communication. WhatsApp is a cross-platform messaging service, so it can reach to even the people who are not there on any social media platform. WhatsApp traffic analytics are available on many third-party resources. WhatsApp Analytics gives you the insights of the networks that are popular in your target audience. So WhatsApp marketing gives you the priority to adjust your social media strategy for your ideal target audience.

Broadcast Lists

Anyone who has your number saved can see the message that you sent to a broadcast list. If your users reply then, it will appear as one-to-one interaction, not to anyone else in the broadcast list. Creating specific lists and then blasting them as one-way communication is useful in increasing engagement. Like including links or invitations in messages. The process is much like people do on Twitter.

Make Interactive and Creative Offers and Promotions

Every marketing aspect is digital now. Marketing is called as digital marketing now. Go through our ebook on “Top 13 reasons why you should learn digital marketing” to understand the importance of Digital Marketing. There is nothing without the help of internet. But the way of marketing would be unique if you are doing it with your creative and interactive ideas to stand out of the fierce competition out there. You can look below the Popular WhatsApp marketing campaigns which show how marketers design campaigns based on their creative ideas to engage more and more people.

Successful WhatsApp Marketing Campaigns

1. Cafe TC Liquor Ticker - The World’s First Ad Ticker on WhatsApp

The Liquor Ticker is a perfect example of a creative and genius WhatsApp campaign. It was implemented by Dentsu Webchutney, India’s leading ad agency, in a Delhi restaurant. The campaign showcased a running ticker instead of WhatsApp status and GIF instead of profile picture. The ticker kept on displaying new logos, promotions, offers, menus, and gigs to contacts who have saved the restaurant's number. The restaurant created blinking status which was quite enough to attract anyone’s attention. An individual just needs to save the restaurant’s number and update their WhatsApp contact list. Everybody can see the status blinking and go for the offer. The restaurant has increased their sales and marketing by 28% during the campaign and enquired by 117%. Here is the campaign video by Dentsu Webchutney.

2. WhatsCook - The First Live Recipe Service Via WhatsApp

Offering one-to-one help to anyone can inspire many people and new uses of a product. The concept was marketing through Whatsapp and their WhatsApp campaign was around mayonnaise. They wanted people of Brazil to think mayonnaise as a cooking agent along with a condiment. Hellmann's in Brazil invited people to submit their phone numbers along with their refrigerators status. They were then connected through WhatsApp and can chat with real chefs for new recipes and ideas of the ingredients present in the refrigerator. The chef even taught and helped the people with pictures, videos to cook the meal through their cooking process. A total of 13,000 participants as a result of the campaign, spent 65 minutes on an average on brand interactions and 99.5% of them approved their service. The brand was happy with the results, so they rolled out to Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile for their service to an extension. Here is the WhatsApp campaign video by Hellmann’s Brasil that is alternative recipe storytelling through WhatsApp which connects real people to real chefs.

3. Heineken - Road to Final WhatsApp Marketing Campaign

Heineken was looking for an innovative and interactive way to get more customers and engagement. People watching the game can send the word “Champion” to the Heineken WhatsApp number. Heineken would be asked them for five random football trivia questions once they confirmed their age above 18. On correct answers, they would get into the next question and would be added to a draw where they can win the chance to win a lifetime trip. Their WhatsApp marketing strategy and innovative thinking had a significant impact and had engaged lots of people all around. Here is the video of the campaign by CB Australia, showing the final part of Heineken’s ‘Road to the Final’ WhatsApp campaign. Here is what you need to know when making a WhatsApp Campaign:

• Be Creative - Make your WhatsApp marketing campaign unique, interactive, fun and exciting.
• Allow Simple and Clear Instructions - Make your WhatsApp campaign with an easy and transparent flow of instruction to make people understand it.
• Be Engaging and Interactive - Be interactive to your audience. Answer them whenever they have any query.
• Make Your WhatsApp Campaign User Opt-in - Make sure your audience save your number or contact you first because the numbers can be blocked easily. It’s important for you to encourage user opt-in.

Conclusion

So I believe you can run a WhatsApp campaign of your own with your creativity and interactivity. You can go through our blog on “Top 10 Digital Marketing Campaigns from India” to get better marketing ideas and plans and to see how marketers used their creativity and ideas to get them successfully running. WhatsApp marketing can be used in small organizations and companies. Make use of WhatsApp’s unique characteristics to get the most out of it. Digital marketing field is dynamic. Digital Marketing Strategies are changing day by day, so you too should change with the pace. Social media moves fast, so you need to be on track with the shifting best practices and strategies. Learn social media and digital marketing skills to stay ahead of the competition and improve your marketing strategies. Join Digital Ready and step ahead to get your dreams come true.