The Psychology of Persuasion: Utilizing WhatsApp in Enterprise Sales and Negotiations

In an ideal world, all sales and marketing campaigns should be a success.

But, unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world and marketing is getting trickier by the day. 

To make a marketing campaign a success for an enterprise, marketers need to go beyond the basics of understanding targeting. They need to deep dive into understanding consumer behavior and the psychology of WhatsApp to influence how their audience engages with the brand campaigns.  

For instance, enterprise marketers cannot simply rely on deals and discounts. They need to show the benefits of the products in a way that can create the maximum impact on the life of the consumer.  

By showcasing social proof, creating a scarcity of the product, sending personalized communication, building trust, and tapping the emotions of the customers, brands now need to create campaigns that ‘speak’ to their audience. 

In this blogpost, we talk about the ways of persuasion psychology that can help drive higher conversions from WhatsApp. 

Ways Persuasion Psychology of WhatsApp Helps Conversions 

While there are different ways to persuade a customer, we have seen successful enterprise businesses leverage these: 

1. Reciprocity

Research has proved that reciprocity always works. This means when you offer assistance to someone, it increases the likelihood of receiving help in return. 

How can you translate this in an enterprise setup where offering free samples/access to your product to every customer is not feasible? 

You can accomplish this by offering discount coupons and promotional offers on the first purchase. 

Leverage WhatsApp marketing to send timely and relevant discount coupons, promotion codes, BOGO offers and improve sales. 

Lead magnets also follow the principle of reciprocity— when you offer useful resources and articles in exchange for the customer’s email address. With WhatsApp, you can share PDF files or short videos providing more information to nurture a prospect’s interest. 

2. Consistency

It’s human nature to follow their established routines and behavior patterns. This principle is based on the fact that past behavior leads to future actions. 

If someone shows an act of kindness, they will likely extend a larger act of kindness in the future. 

So, instead of pitching your product to a first-time customer, you can share useful resources (think blog posts, articles, whitepapers, templates, limited-time access to your product) with the customers through WhatsApp business to help them make the most of their purchase. 

You can also send follow-up messages to seek feedback on their experiences, giving you more opportunities to build positive customer-business relationships. 

Remember, consistently engaging and building relationships can help you remain top of the mind, leading to higher brand recall.  

3. Social proof

Social proof plays a crucial role in today’s hyper-competitive market. 

As social beings, we tend to develop a bias towards things already approved by others. In fact, a study by Spiegel Research Center suggests that displaying social proof can increase conversion rates by as much as 270%.

Use WhatsApp marketing to display how others like your product and create a positive impact in their lives. This can be through broadcast campaigns focused on sharing customer stories, influencer mentions or user generated content. 

This can cause a significant psychological trigger for others, positively impacting their buying behavior. 

4. Scarcity 

The concept of scarcity marketing revolves around the fear of missing out. 

Scarcity marketing motivates consumers to take action in order to not miss out on a deal. According to statistics, almost 60% of consumers make reactive purchases because of FOMO.  

However, declaring a scarcity is not enough to drive sales. 

For scarcity to work, you must establish your enterprise as an authority in the industry. 

Regularly demonstrate social proof and liking on WhatsApp business, and then create a clear path for the consumer to take action. 

For example, if you have recently run a social proof campaign showcasing celebrity features of your product, you can follow it up with a ‘selling out fast’ WhatsApp broadcast to build more momentum. 

5. Authority

Authority figures are often relied upon to make informed decisions. But, you need to gain customers’ trust to become an authoritative figure. 

For that, you must establish your credibility as an enterprise. 

But how can brands establish their credibility? 

To persuade your audience effectively, you need to demonstrate your abilities by showcasing your achievements, wins, awards and accolades, collaborating with big names that people 

already trust, and partnering with influencers. 

This will help you establish your brand name and instill trust and confidence in the customers. 

Alternatively, you can also use WhatsApp to offer proactive customer support and assistance. This could include answering queries around your products/ services or simply addressing FAQs.  

6. Liking

How many times have you asked your friends or peers for product recommendations before making a purchase? 

That’s because people tend to rely on personal recommendations more than strangers advertising and recommending a product. 

This is why brands should focus on building likable personalities for the brand. 

Brands can run WhatsApp marketing campaigns that are focused on showing the human side of the business. This can include behind-the-scenes, making of the product/ service or the work in process or updates that make the brand instantly relatable. 

Alternatively, brands can also run referral marketing campaigns on WhatsApp. By segmenting their list of existing and repeat customers, brands can reach out to customers seeking referrals in lieu of rewards. 

Because sometimes, it takes a little nudge to share what you like! 

7. Emotions

Customers feel more confident to purchase from brands with which they feel emotionally connected. 

You can leverage WhatsApp marketing to build emotional contact with your customers.

Create visually engaging and appealing marketing campaigns, share product benefits, use storytelling while talking about the product features, etc.

Above all, always highlight the emotional benefit of using the product. 

8. Personalization

Customers tend to engage more with brands and prefer to purchase from them when they receive personalized content. 

Statistics state that 89% of marketers see positive ROI when they personalize campaigns. 

WhatsApp marketing offers a great channel for brands to offer personalized recommendations and promotions by analyzing the customer’s browsing and past purchase behavior. 

With the help of WhatsApp Business API solutions like Interakt, brands can personalize campaigns better – right from the first name, past behavior, engagement and more.

Ready to persuade your customers?

Understanding your customers’ psychology of WhatsApp, purchase behavior, and how they engage with you is crucial for persuading the customer. 

This is where the importance of getting insight into your marketing campaigns comes in.

And WhatsApp is the perfect channel as it gives you a one-on-one channel for engaging with your customers. 

You can personalize your communications, gather data, understand patterns, and analyze their behavior to personalize your communication further. 

However, to release WhatsApp’s full potential and get started with WhatsApp analytics, you need WhatsApp business API solutions like Interakt.

For example, using WhatsApp business API on Interakt, House of Mangalam, a household name that has popularized the use of camphor, was able to witness a 99% delivery rate on WhatsApp and achieved an 88% open rate on WhatsApp. 

For instance, Eureka Forbes was able to save 200K man-hours by partnering with Interakt. They were able to automate the entire customer support operation and offer a better customer experience. 

Conclusion

Ready to explore how you can use Interakt to drive higher engagement on WhatsApp?