Marketers and brands are putting effort into capturing the enormous audience on WhatsApp. Being the most popular cross-platform messaging app, it offers business opportunities to tap the users there and convert them into paying buyers.
However, it isn’t easy to use WhatsApp to send blatant marketing pitches for two reasons. One, the platform doesn’t serve ads, and two, its end-to-end encryption limits any random targeting for bulk promotion and marketing.
Companies are now exploring ways to use WhatsApp for customer engagement by establishing one-on-one communications with them. It turns out to be effective in offering customer support.
Why use WhatsApp for your business?
WhatsApp’s massive user base is the reason why marketers are focusing on several countries including India and the US where a huge population is using WhatsApp.
Besides its popularity, there are several other reasons why businesses should consider using WhatsApp for marketing and promotion purposes.
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- A useful customer service channel
WhatsApp helps businesses connect with their customers instantly and resolve their queries immediately. It helps to improve engagement and build trust.
- An Efficient Communication channel
Having over 500 million daily active users, WhatsApp turns out to be the most effective digital communication channel. Brands can reach their potential customers using 1:1 communication.
- A Great marketing platform
WhatsApp for business app offers several marketing-centric features to brands and marketers. Features like paid notifications help to directly engage existing and potential buyers.
What is WhatsApp for Business?
WhatsApp prohibits users from using their WhatsApp accounts for business and promotion purposes. The app is designed for private one-to-one communication. If you keep sending unsolicited business messages using your personal WhatsApp account, you might be at risk of losing access to the account.
WhatsApp has an exclusive solution to this problem. The Meta-owned cross-messaging app has an app called WhatsApp for business available for both Android and iOS mobiles. If you already have a business account, you can access this app online via WhatsApp Web.
As stated already, WhatsApp Business is meant to offer small businesses an opportunity to connect with their customers on WhatsApp within the purview of WhatsApp’s terms and conditions. The app is free to use, though quite limited in capabilities as compared to WhatsApp business API.
Key features of WhatsApp Business
The app offers several business benefits to small businesses. It includes a range of features that make business communication an easy affair. See the list of the features:
1. Business Profile
With the WhatsApp business app, you can create a visible business profile comprising every important detail such as email address, business location, description, URL, hours, logo, and more.
2. Business Statistics
This feature lets you track account activities done around your business account such as the number of messages sent, delivered, read, and received.
3. Labels
To keep your communication with the clients organized, you can use custom color-coded labels. It helps to distinguish between open, closed, and pending chats easily.
4. Greetings
Greetings are the default messages that trigger when a customer initiates a chat in the absence of an agent who is supposed to handle the business query.
5. Away messages
By setting an away message, you can convey the same to your customers when you’re not online.
6. Quick replies
Quick replies are frequently used responses saved as templates. To send a quick reply, you have to type short commands starting with “/”.
WhatsApp business offers striking business benefits to small businesses and brands. With active chats and features to organize communications for quick access, the app makes it easier to serve a sizable customer base efficiently.
How to Get the Best Benefits of WhatsApp Marketing?
WhatsApp is now being used as a customer support and engagement platform for brands of almost all sizes and capacities. This is the ultimate platform for digital business communication that lets brands reach out to customers with answers to their questions or concerns.
Here are a few important takeaways on how to use WhatsApp for business to ensure maximum customer engagement our top tips for businesses that want to offer great WhatsApp customer care:
Respond Quickly
Instant replies are important to any business communication. Buyers who message brands to get answers to their queries expect quick responses. It’s a fact that the businesses that quickly respond to customer service requests get paying and returning customers.
Use Different Messaging Formats
The best part of WhatsApp is that it offers users different messaging formats to make communication easier for both businesses and customers. To spice up your messaging, you can send messages in the form of photos, videos, locations, GIFs, PDFs, and audio messages.
It’s something that gives you a way to respond to your customer’s inquiries using message formats other than text only. Brands can share product PDFs with customers for better understanding, and users can share audio notes or screenshots of the issues they’re dealing with.
Tarun Gupta, CEO of Brainpulse Technologies, is a prolific author and digital marketing specialist. His insightful writings span SEO, content marketing, social media strategy, and email campaigns, offering invaluable expertise to businesses worldwide. Tarun’s contributions continue to shape the digital marketing landscape, guiding success in multiple niches.