If social platforms like Twitter and Facebook have already been placed in your social media strategy, this is the time to think a bit out of the box and give equal importance to WhatsApp for your marketing strategies.
Yes, you read that right. WhatsApp is no longer just a texting application among friends, family members, relatives, and co-workers, but it’s working wonders for businesses too.
WhatsApp Business is specifically created with business owners in mind. And many businesses have already started connecting with their customers and potential clients through this instant and personalized communication method.
If, till now, you have never considered having a WhatsApp Business account in your social media marketing strategy, we will tell you why that might be a good idea.
Read more about How Broadcasts Differ From Group Chat On WhatsApp
What Is WhatsApp Business?
A WhatsApp Business account is used mainly by small business owners to keep their personal and professional messages separate. The WhatsApp Business account is entirely free to use, like a personal WhatsApp account. But the only difference is that unlike a personal account WhatsApp Business account can be leveraged to engage with customers and potential clients.
WhatsApp Business account lets you set up a business profile with a list of your products or services, your business hours, greeting message, and a cover photo and also allows you to label conversations. Furthermore, you can also set up quick replies and away messages.
Another feature of WhatsApp for businesses is an official WhatsApp Business platform. Suppose you have a fast-growing medium or large-sized business. In that case, this advanced feature of WhatsApp enables you to set up automation and support multiple devices and users to help your business leverage this instant messaging app to reach many customers.
Read more about 150+ Images And Quotes You Can Use
The Features Of The WhatsApp Business Platform Are:
- A verified WhatsApp Business profile
- Incorporation of tools like CRM, analytics, marketing, and other 3rd party apps for your channel distribution and more.
- WhatsApp broadcast messaging
- Personalized messaging
- Interactive message support and WhatsApp chatbot
- Multi-user access for better customer service
To use the latter one, you might need to make use of the WhatsApp Business API solution. With this type of account, you can access all the features of the WhatsApp Business account alongside setting up intelligent automation like order status alerts, abandoned cart recovery notifications, broadcasts, product review requests, and more.
Read more about 77+ Whatsapp Dp Images
What Type Of WhatsApp Account Is The Best To Use?
If you own a small-scale business, getting started with a WhatsApp Business account is the best idea. But once your customer base starts growing, we encourage switching to the WhatsApp Business platform as this helps you set up and use automation for sales, marketing customer support, and more.
To create your WhatsApp Business account, you need to follow these simple steps:
- Download the WhatsApp Business app on your phone
- Select a dedicated phone number that you want to use for business purposes only
- Fill in all the details such as your business name, logo, category of business, and whatever necessary
- Click on the menu button and edit your profile settings. Fill in details that you want your customers to see
- Once you create a WhatsApp Business account, we recommend you get a Facebook business verification.
Why Are Businesses Using WhatsApp Business?
WhatsApp Business is like any other messaging app such as Facebook, Telegram, etc. Your mobile needs an active internet connection to communicate with your customers, and there is no other investment to create a WhatsApp Business profile. Alongside, you can also consider WhatsApp Business an affordable alternative to international calling. Businesses are using WhatsApp business because:
- It’s free of cost: The only cost you pay while using WhatsApp Business is to recharge your internet pack.
- It’s prevalent: WhatsApp is readily available in more than 180 countries, and therefore if you are serving our global clientele, WhatsApp can be an efficient solution.
- It’s safe: All the messages you send through WhatsApp are encrypted, which means there is an extra layer of protection to all your communications with your customers and potential clients.
Some WhatsApp Statistics That Will Blow Your Mind
Apart from being a free-to-use, dominant and safe communication app, there are many other reasons why renowned businesses are using WhatsApp Business. And if you also believe that numbers speak for themselves, here are a few statistics about WhatsApp that you probably did not know.
- WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app worldwide: There are more than 2 billion people worldwide using WhatsApp at least once per month. And with this number, WhatsApp has already outranked Facebook Messenger and other messaging apps.
- WhatsApp is the 3rd most used social media platform: After Facebook and YouTube, WhatsApp is the most used social media network globally, making it the number 3rd.
- More than half of WhatsApp users use the app daily: As huge as 58% of WhatsApp users open the app more than once every day. An individual uses WhatsApp 143 times a month.
- Billions of messages are exchanged daily: Can you imagine over 100 billion messages are exchanged through WhatsApp daily? Well, it’s true.
- It’s the second most downloaded application: In 2021, 600 million people downloaded WhatsApp, making it the second most downloaded application after Facebook.
- The app has a legit access time: An average user uses WhatsApp on an android device forex approximately 38 minutes every day.
- The highest number of language support: On android devices, WhatsApp supports up to 60 languages, whereas on iPhone devices, 40 languages are supported. Therefore, language is no more a barrier for global businesses.
- The business version has over 100 million downloads: In 2021, WhatsApp Business had over 100 million downloads on android. And in January 2022, there were approximately 80,000,000 downloads, majorly coming from android devices.
- Millions of customers interact through WhatsApp Business: Over 175 million customers worldwide interact with a business account on WhatsApp.
5 Renowned Brands That Use WhatsApp For Their Marketing
WhatsApp is a growing app that is here to stay for a long while as businesses of all sizes are continuously experimenting with WhatsApp Business for better engagement, branding opportunities, and more. Alongside, many brands have resulted in better ROI by using WhatsApp Business.
If you aim to include WhatsApp in your marketing strategy and are on the fence if it is worth considering now or in the future, you might need some inspiration. And to help you make a decision, we will talk about five brands you know about. But the only thing you did not know is that they’ve been using WhatsApp for a long time now for their businesses.
ADIDAS
Adidas is probably the favorite sports brand of many. Though you have kept an eye on what’s new in their collection, you probably have missed noticing that Adidas has been using WhatsApp for more than half a decade now to promote their new items to prospects and to answer questions.
In 2019, the brand made their “100% Unfair Predator” campaign, and the strategy was to open up a hotline for people who need a footballer to cover for their unreliable teammate. Adidas sponsored the players and asked their fans to share basic information through the hotline, such as what game they needed players for, what is their next game, and why they thought they needed a professional athlete on rent to win the game.
WhatsApp knew that athletic teams use WhatsApp to send team-wide communications or announcements. And since it was a smooth communication procedure, people readily participated and shared their private information with the brand before getting a predator player. And the company’s marketers notified the fans on the morning of their games once the request was successful. And the predator or the professional athlete showed up dressed in Adidas sportswear.
The managing editor of Adidas said that WhatsApp was a perfect element for their campaign as it allowed their consumers to share private information with the brand for review before being allocated a professional athlete.
ABSOLUT VODKA
If we talk about the brands that brought success using WhatsApp at the initial stage of the idea of using WhatsApp for business, we cannot do it out the Swedish liquor company Absolut Vodka. In 2013 when Absolut struggled to drive a global audience and was competing with other liquor companies, WhatsApp helped boost brand awareness and sales in many parts of the world.
But it is strange how an alcoholic beverage company that does not have a long success story to share competed with hundreds of liquor companies that were established long before Absolut came to existence. Well, we will tell you the secret. While other renowned liquor beverage brands like Jim Beam were sharing nostalgic content stating their successful history and trying to connect with their audience emotionally, Absolut decided to leverage WhatsApp messaging system to earn credibility and awareness from the younger global audiences instead of inventing a story to speak to an audience of all ages.
Now absolute vodka is a well-known brand worldwide, and the brand has set an example of how leveraging WhatsApp can help build better brand recognition.
NETFLIX
Till now, we had talked about how brands had used WhatsApp for business when the usage of the messaging app for business purposes was not so popular. And now, we will talk about a brand that makes all of us use WhatsApp to make its business more established.
We all know about Netflix, one of the most popular OTT platforms. Now see how we, the consumers of Netflix, are helping the brand grow using WhatsApp. We all ask our friends and colleagues to recommend some movie or Tv series whenever we are bored. Now, to suggest you, they will check on Netflix and show you recommendations based on the content they have already watched and enjoyed. If you ask for specific suggestions based on your preferred genre, length, etc., Netflix makes it easier for your friends to find movies and give you suggestions.
This seems quite an indirect form of marketing, but Netflix is still making much money by promoting its new shows just like that.
BOOK MY SHOW
Book My Show is an Indian company that makes buying movie tickets, event tickets, etc., online easier for people. Every month more than 10,000,000 bookings are happening on this platform, and the company has been participating in WhatsApp Business for a long time.
Do you remember what happens when you book a ticket from BookMyShow? You receive your tickets via WhatsApp and a QR code that you need to show instead of the ticket itself. That way, you are not wasting paper, and the company is saving on printing.
The company recognizes that many customers want to connect with businesses via WhatsApp. Hence, the brand has also been working on developing a customer service team on WhatsApp. They are also planning to implement a feature that makes it easier for friends or family to plan a movie night and get tickets without leaving the chat box.
GOIBIBO
Goibibo is probably one of the most popular travel apps for many Indians. And we will tell you how efficiently the company has been using WhatsApp for their business. Whenever someone books a hotel, railway, or flight ticket, the company sends a booking confirmation, boarding pass, check-in notification, and other updates through its verified WhatsApp account.
That is how the company is making it easy for its customers to find all the information in a single chat thread and making everything accessible for them whenever they need it at the hotel or the airport.
The company also has 24/7 customer service on WhatsApp, and you can interact with the customer service team by sending them a message. So with Goibibo, your travel experience is less stressful and more convenient.
OYO ROOMS
This Indian hospitality company is connected with thousands of hotels, and they are using WhatsApp to make their post-booking experience as hassle-free as possible. The or team connects with travelers via WhatsApp messaging, making it easier for them to manage their bookings with the app. That means if you want to cancel your booking or navigate the details of your hotels, you can do that through your WhatsApp chat window.
So now the customers can follow directions, show booking confirmation, and all on the same screen.
Some Unconventional Ways To Use WhatsApp For Your Business
WhatsApp For Marketing
WhatsApp has many features like creating stories, groups, broadcasts, etc. And everything can be used to promote your business. If you want to engage with your customers in a low-key way, you can feature your offers on WhatsApp stories. You can also create a small video of your office and give your customers a glimpse of your company’s culture. You can even promote flash sales and discounts that will expire after 24 hours. The broadcast feature of WhatsApp works just like a newsletter. When you want to send a message to all your customers, instead of choosing their contact numbers, you can create a broadcast list adding up to 256 contacts and send them a single message in one click. If you have more than 256 people to add to your list, worry not; you can create as many WhatsApp broadcast lists as you want.
WhatsApp For Sales
WhatsApp is best for building customer relationships. And when you connect with your customers with a channel primarily used for personal communication, you can achieve desired results in no time. Since WhatsApp does not allow businesses to be a conversation initiated with non-customers, businesses can encourage customers to start a conversation by displaying the WhatsApp icon on their website or their social media ads.
Furthermore, you can create your catalog on WhatsApp business and help your potential clients know about your services and products. Apart from catalogs, product demonstration can also be a great idea to excite your customers about your product. Hellman’s launched its live cooking demonstration on WhatsApp for its customers in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay to inspire the usage of their mayonnaise.
WhatsApp For Customer Support
WhatsApp makes an ideal application for customer service. It has features like a chatbot, and when you deploy the feature, you can handle common and repetitive questions your potential customers and audiences ask, so your team doesn’t need to spend time on those things. You can also send order and delivery updates to your customers, so they don’t miss any critical order confirmation and status updates.
You can also use WhatsApp for post-sales support without making your customers feel like they are waiting in line.
WhatsApp For Hiring
Nowadays, the internet is widely used for open recruitment, and if you are thinking about how using WhatsApp for hire will make sense, we will tell you that too. Through WhatsApp, you can help job seekers know more about job opportunities. WhatsApp is also a great platform to keep shortlisted candidates in the loop at every stage of the hiring process.
Conclusion
You have a great market to sell your goods and services where your potential customers are. Hence WhatsApp is the right social media platform for business owners as they can massively grow their business worldwide using WhatsApp. So if you are convinced about the potential of WhatsApp for businesses, the first step is to install the app on your smartphone, create your business profile, write a description about your business, and start reaching out to your potential customers.
