Grow your online store with WhatsApp Marketing

Why businesses are leaning on WhatsApp marketing

WhatsApp open rates are 98%, and with 3X increase in customer response rate. The channel allows brands to reach out directly to consumers without getting lost in their inboxes or, worse, their spam folders.

Examples of businesses using WhatsApp for marketing 

Brands are using WhatsApp for various marketing activities. Here are some WhatsApp marketing campaigns in action:

1. Omay Foods

Snack manufacturer Omay Foods wanted to start using WhatsApp marketing to create a personal shopping experience for its customers. They wanted to turn common customer questions into repeat business, which they did through features like a catalog, business profile, and quick replies to help set customer expectations. 

WhatsApp quickly became the brand’s go-to communication channel for driving repeat sales. It found that customers actively chose to message the brand via WhatsApp when they wanted to place a new order or had a question about an existing order.

Adding WhatsApp to its marketing arsenal led to 5x more customer inquiries via WhatsApp compared to previous email channels and a 3x increase in repeat customers via WhatsApp.

2. LensKart

Glasses and sunglasses merchant LensKart uses WhatsApp to drive its marketing campaigns. They promoted their ‘Buy One Get One Free’ offer on WhatsApp as a part of their Valentine’s Day sale campaign in February 2022.

LensKart also uses WhatsApp to answer customer questions and send order updates. Customers can message the brand and receive automated responses about their orders, including delivery status and estimated shipping times.

3. Northern Trail Outfitters

Outdoor clothing brand Northern Trail Outfitters uses WhatsApp to encourage customers to sign up for its loyalty and rewards programs. When a customer has made a purchase, the brand sends an automated message with a one-click response. The sky-high open rate of WhatsApp messages means it will reach more shoppers this way and get more customers signing up for the rewards program.

4. Flipkart

E-commerce platform, Flipkart, used WhatsApp Interactive Message Template (WhatsApp Buttons) during its Big Saving Days campaign in December 2021. This is a brilliant example of using WhatsApp as a platform to promote a campaign, improve sales, and strengthen referral programs at the same time.

5. Hellmann’s Mayonnaise

Hellmann’s in Brazil wanted to inspire people to think of mayonnaise as a cooking ingredient, not just a condiment. So they invited visitors to their website to submit their phone numbers along with a picture of the contents of their refrigerator.

They were then connected through WhatsApp with real chefs, who came up with a recipe using Hellmann’s and the other ingredients in their fridge. The chefs even taught the users how to cook the meal through pictures, videos, and other WhatsApp features.

As a result, 13,000 participants spent an average of 65 minutes interacting with the brand, and 99.5 % approved the service. The brand was so happy with the results from the Brazilian campaign that they rolled it out to Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

7. Persil

Persil Kufua Expert launched a campaign in Kenya that asked Persil users around the country to send in 15-second videos of their best washing tips via Whatsapp.

They ultimately went with this brilliant WhatsApp campaign that was interactive and collaborative. Participants with the best tips were rewarded with gift vouchers and Persil hampers.

8. Titan Encircle

Here's an example of how Titan Encircle used WhatsApp to promote its loyalty program and reward customers. This is a great example of how you can use WhatsApp to build out a rewards and loyalty program to keep your customers engaged and interested in your brand,

10. Adore

Adore is a jewelry company based out of India. It leaves no room to miss engaging with customers. They use every opportunity to engage with customers on WhatsApp, whether it is a transactional or promotional message. This is a great way to hold on to your customers' interest post-purchase and encourage them to buy from you again.

4 effective ways to build a WhatsApp marketing strategy

WhatsApp is a great addition to your marketing toolkit, but, as with any marketing platform, it helps build a strategy to make the best out of it. Here’s what you need to build a WhatsApp marketing strategy:

1.  Gather relevant data

Collecting first-party data straight from your customers is critical against a backdrop of increasingly stricter privacy measures. You can use this information to hyper-segment shoppers and deliver relevant promotions at the right tie.

Think about how you can get customer details and build a contact list so that you can WhatsApp them. Many brands add a field to their sign-up forms where shoppers can enter their mobile numbers for WhatsApp updates. You can also offer a freebie in exchange for a phone number, run a giveaway to collect mobile numbers or provide an incentive (like free shipping) to customers who opt-in to WhatsApp messages.

 

Framebridge has implemented a popup on its website, encouraging shoppers to share their phone numbers. The brand can then send timely WhatsApp messages to confirm orders, share deals, and update delivery information. 

2. Get WhatsApp Business API

Create a dedicated WhatsApp business account. The WhatsApp Business app is available on iOS and Android phones for free but has certain limitations:

• WhatsApp Business app limits the number of agents to only one, which acts as a major roadblock even for small businesses
• It provides basic features like away messages and quick replies but doesn't support chatbots, message templates
• It doesn't integrate with other tools, which are extremely important to get the most out of WhatsApp

That’s why it is recommended that businesses of all sizes use WhatsApp Business API over the WhatsApp Business app, which comes with all the features required to help businesses as they scale. 

3. Relevant and personalized messaging

Communicating with customers via WhatsApp is different from communicating via email. You have stricter word limits (1024 characters for message templates) and are competing with friends and family in their inboxes. But the good thing is that every WhatsApp message feels like a personal piece of communication delivered in a private, one-to-one space, but it's important to plan how and when you'll communicate for the best results.

Consider the types of messages you want to send via WhatsApp. These messages could range from welcome messages to order updates, cart abandonment reminders, and promotions. It could also include regular, non-promotional messages that keep your brand top of mind.

You can then map out where you want WhatsApp messages to fit into the customer journey. For example, you might have a workflow that looks like this:

• Welcome message: For a new customer, you can use this opportunity to send a greeting message and share a discount code to encourage their next purchase
• Abandoned cart reminder: Send when a customer adds an item to their cart and doesn’t purchase: This improves customer retention and reduces the abandoned cart rate
• Order confirmation message: These messages provide reassurance and boost customer confidence, but you can also use them as an opportunity to link to other similar products
• Delivery notification when their purchase is shipped: Again, these messages instill confidence and provide a good chance to promote relevant products to encourage future purchases
• Customer review request: It helps you gain a better insight into what your customers want 
• Promotional message sharing personalized product recommendation: Boost customer lifetime value (CLTV) and retention rates by creating a personal experience for each shopper

4. Integration and automation

It’s impossible to hand-deliver every single WhatsApp message. Leveraging an automation tool that integrates with your other marketing platforms will ensure you send the right message at the right time.

Using an automation tool will help you:

• Send and manage marketing messages in one central place
• Schedule automated messages to go out at just the right time
• Create audience segments for easy personalization 
• Build a list of automated responses to FAQs
• Keep customers engaged and stay on top of their minds
• Learn more about your customers through detailed analytics

Power your business with the right WhatsApp marketing tool

WhatsApp for marketing can be a powerful addition to your marketing efforts, but if it's not done right, it can be time-consuming and detrimental to brand perception. Since your message will show up in your customers' private inboxes alongside messages from their loved ones, it's important that your communication is thoughtful and, most importantly, helpful.

To do this, you need a powerful WhatsApp marketing tool that lets you personalize and automate customer engagement, fostering sales and loyalty.

Here’s how the right WhatsApp marketing tool can make all the difference.

1. Segment customers based on their behavior:

Personalization can help you connect with customers and boost engagement and conversions by creating unique customer journeys. In fact, 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that provides a tailored experience, while 72% of shoppers will only engage with personalized messaging.

The easiest way to do this is to segment your audience based on their interests, online shopping behavior, and past purchases. This means you can deliver WhatsApp messages that are highly personalized and based on unique experiences to increase conversions and deepen customer connections.

Freshmarketer has powerful segmentation capabilities that let you hyper-target your WhatsApp communications and send rich multimedia messages to the right people at the right time. For example, if a shopper has shown interest in your line of women’s woolly jumpers, you can send them personalized WhatsApp messages about new products added to that line.

2. Automate personalized engagement

Personalization is crucial, but it’s impossible to do it manually, especially when you want to scale rapidly. Marketing automation makes it easy to deliver highly-targeted messages at scale to secure more customers and increase customer retention rates. With Freshmarketer, you can create and launch WhatsApp campaigns in just a few clicks, send automated, personalized messages to customers, and trigger well-timed WhatsApp messages that remind customers to complete their purchases. You can also set up a WhatsApp chatbot to automate real-time engagement.

What’s more, you can seamlessly tie WhatsApp into your existing customer journeys for a more personal, real-time approach. In your exclusive dashboard, you can create meaningful workflows for your audience to drive engagement throughout their lifecycle. Include WhatsApp in these workflows to deliver in-the-moment communication, order updates, and timely information to increase customer satisfaction.

3. Measure campaign performances

Gain insights into the performance of your WhatsApp campaigns so you can see what worked best and areas that need improvement. Freshmarketer provides you with detailed analytics that help you understand key metrics such as sent, delivered, read, and error messages. It also gives you an overview of when your customers have opened and read your WhatsApp messages. This allows you to deduce when your customers are most active and what kind of messages they resonate with.

On top of this, you can create, export, and schedule custom reports and send them directly to your inbox to stay on top of your campaigns.