In times when conversations and human to human marketing is everything, if you are not marketing on WhatsApp, you’re losing out.
According to a report, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app with over two billion users worldwide, creating an opportunity for businesses to meet their customers where they are the most active.
Infact, since the launch of WhatsApp Business, it has over 50 million businesses registered on the platform already.
But when it comes to using WhatsApp marketing, most businesses are not paying enough attention to the best practices they otherwise would on other channels.
This has led to an increase in bulk promotional messages being sent to consumers, who in turn, block every number they are being sent from.
So how do you make sure you’re not becoming a part of the recipient’s hate list? By following some of these WhatsApp business messaging best practices.
Best practices for WhatsApp business messaging
1. Build a brand identity
First things first, create a WhatsApp Business account with a profile picture that you use across all social media platforms, making it easy for the customers to remember and recognize you.
Make sure you’ve added all the details of your company like business name, address, category, description, email, and website link on your WhatsApp Business account to create a consistent brand voice.
You don’t want to be ignored or marked spam simply because a recipient did not know who the message was from.
2. Connect with existing customers
WhatsApp is a platform used by individuals to connect with their family and friends aka their known ones.
WhatsApp is more like a closed community of people and keeping that in mind, it is best if you market your products to existing customers rather than targeting new audiences who haven’t engaged with your business in any way before.
Brands like Home Canvas are using WhatsApp to improve their customer engagement rate. The conversational marketing enabled by WhatsApp Business API has enabled them to assist buyers before, during and after a purchase in a much more proactive way.
3. Message wisely
The goal is to keep your consumers hooked on your brand and turn them into your loyal buyers by providing promotional, educational, and entertaining content like vouchers, new arrival alerts, discounted sales, offers, behind the scenes, quizzes, etc over WhatsApp to strike conversations.
But it is also important that your messages are strategically planned to avoid seeming too pushy. We have found that sending about 5-6 messages throughout a week is a good frequency to maintain; anything more than that results in recipients either blocking your number or unsubscribing from your list.
Remember, quality over quantity.
4. Use a business casual tone to communicate
WhatsApp is a platform helping individuals connect with family and friends. This has brought on an informal touch to how we typically message on the platform and businesses that use an overly formal tone of voice, are going to stick out like a sore thumb.
But at the same time, it’s also important that your business does not lose touch with its brand identity and ethos while trying to add a casual touch to their messages.
Instead, it is recommended that businesses on WhatsApp use business casual as their tone of voice and add in 2-3 emojis, to come across as friendly and also maintain a professional outlook.
5. Keep your messages short and sweet
Sending long paragraphs to consumers in reply to their inquiry on WhatsApp is an absolute no-no.
Keep your messaging straight to the point without any fluff. Individuals do not have the time, or attention span enough to read your long texts.
The consumers might be checking WhatsApp on the go or intermittently looking at their phones with other tasks at hand. So, it’s best to keep WhatsApp messages short and to the point of taking no more than 8-10 seconds of your consumer’s time.
It’s great if the messages are short enough to read at a glance and well-formatted.
6. Creative and contextual messaging
WhatsApp has a proven open rate of 98%, a click-through and conversion rate of about 45-60%. When you compare the numbers with other channels like email and social media, the numbers prove the potential WhatsApp offers to get you in front of your customers.
But it’s not just about sending messages on WhatsApp that will get you these results. Your messages need to be creative and contextual as well.
WhatsApp has plenty of features like stickers, emojis, gifs, options to send images, documents, location, etc. With the help of WhatsApp Business API, businesses can leverage each of these features to make their messages more visually appealing.
To make sure your messages don’t lose context, leverage WhatsApp Business API solution partners like Interakt that enable personalization at scale. This will ensure your messages address the recipient, resulting in better responses from them.
7. Engage your customers
WhatsApp Business is generally a platform to send out confirmation alerts, delivery notifications, promotional messages, etc.
But it is also an ideal channel for two-way communication. Although you can send across promotional, educational and entertaining content, it is widely used by individuals to seek customer support before, during and after a purchase.
Be sure to have a balance of automated responses and have them backed by a human to be able to solve the queries quickly and encourage more sales.
Are you using WhatsApp marketing yet?
The chances of driving more conversions through WhatsApp business messaging are extremely high, owing to the number of times a user tends to check the messaging app. Surveys have found that a typical user checks WhatsApp at least 23 times a day on average.
More than 50 million businesses have incorporated WhatsApp marketing to connect with their existing customers, build strong relationships and drive more sales. But not everyone is winning at it!
So make sure that you start to put the WhatsApp Business API to work, you’re also keeping in mind these best practices to create a marketing strategy that is focused on quality conversations with your customers.
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