As a business owner, using WhatsApp to promote your products or services is essential in reaching a larger audience. If you go through our blog, you will notice that we have talked about how to increase sales on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram but not on WhatsApp.
Note that Whatsapp has over two billion monthly active users and it’s one of the most popular mobile messaging apps in Nigeria and worldwide.
Although it is very important for you to know where your potential customers are, WhatsApp is a widely-used communication channel for you not to take advantage of.
This morning I am going to show you how you can use Whatapp to promote your products and services .
What is WhatsApp Marketing Services
Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 and since then it has always been upgraded to help businesses interact with their customers
In 2018, WhatsApp also launched a business application for small businesses on iOS. The following year, the platform also launched the android version. Before then, the WhatsApp business app enabled users to customize their business profiles and configure business hours.
Whatsapp later upgraded their platform to include broadcast functionality that enabled businesses to send content to list of contacts that have subscribed to the updates. .
In 2019, the click to Whatsapp marketing option for businesses was added to Facebook. It enables you to show ads on Facebook that prompt viewers to start a chat with your WA business account.
By February 2021, Whatsapp has included a feature that tracks information on how customers interact with businesses and share it with Facebook.
This introduced new options for better ad campaign targeting and remarketing of your Whatsapp customers on Facebook.
Why Should You Use WhatsApp for Marketing Your Business?
With over two billion active users monthly, the popularity of WhatsApp is increasing daily. Unlike other social media platforms, Whatsapp has no scope for ads or spam messages. Therefore, when businesses use Whatsapp for marketing, they get more engagement as they are interacting with customers who trust their brand.
One of the major reasons why people use WhatsApp to promote their business and services is its cost-efficiency. Whatsapp marketing is one of the most low budget marketing platforms available to marketers. Sending and broadcasting marketing messages cost little or nothing.
Another good reason is that Whatapp allows for one one one marketing, thereby eliminating security risks by connecting with your customers with a single contact number.
Whatsapp allows targeted communication with customers. Marketers can use personalised messaging to boost engagements with customers.
The platform also encourages customers to provide instant feedback about your product and services. This will encourage businesses to improve the quality of their business and services.
Using Whatsapp for business encourage direct and seamless communication across all the stages of the customer journey. This improves conversion and engagement rates.
How To Use WhatsApp To Increase Your Sales
To start using WhatsApp to promote your products and services, you will need a smartphone connected to the internet and the WhatsApp application which can be downloaded from your ios or Google play store.
You can use Whatsapp to do the following:
● Send event updates and exclusive offers.
● Share multimedia content.
● Use it to survey and get customer data.
● Back up your data and messages to Google drive
Whataspp is no different from other marketing platforms like Facebook and Instagram where you post messages and statuses. In the same vein, you can use WhatsApp to:
1. Broadcast Messages
This feature allows you to send a single message to multiple people on your contact list. It functions like an SMS/email marketing campaign. The only limitation is that it only allows you to send to 265 people per message.
2. WhatsApp Status
The Whatsapp status is no different from that of Instagram and Facebook. WhatsApp even allows you to share your status with your Facebook audience. You can post videos and images to engage your audience with your brand for 24 hours. After that your stories disappear.
3. Text Status
This allows you to put up a text status to broadcast discount codes, invite your audience to have conversations with you and any other call to action you want to make.
5 Strategies To Effectively use WhatsApp to reach your target audience.
1. Create Broadcast Lists
One way you can leverage WhatsApp to promote your products and services is by creating lists that are related to specific topics or audience segments. Once you have compiled this list, you can begin to send can send one-way communications that are specifically tailored to increase engagement.
This type of message is used to provide value in your industry. You can decide to pick a topic that will resonate with your audience and talk about it.
To catch the attention of people, you can include offers, links, or invitations in your messages. For example, if you are having a webinar that will interest your audience, broadcast lists are the way to go.
Let’s assume you are a digital marketer. Then your audience will be interested in Facebook ads, Google ads, Twitter ads, Facebook pixel etc. So you can use those opportunities to send them broadcast messages.
2. Make use of Group Chat
Group messages on WhatsApp involve sharing values with members of a group, and also include responses from group participants. This can be beneficial when you need to conduct a survey before launching a service or product.
You can also use this feature for questions and answer about important topics in your industry, about your product and services. Most business also uses this medium to teach about important topics in their industry and allows the participants to ask questions. The group feature is also the best way for you to grant exclusive features like discounts and giveaways to group members.
WhatsApp group chat can benefit both you and your customer. Your customers can easily interact with you and your business and you can easily connect to a larger and engaging audience.
3. Offer Customer Service on WhatsApp
One of the benefits of WhatsApp is that it is easy for customers to access. Meaning that customers can reach out to you if they encounter problems with your products and services. This gives you and your team an opportunity to provides solutions very quickly.
You can do this by providing personalized customer service by using text, audio, or video. Providing solutions in form of live-video help or tutorials can go a long way in improving your business.
4. Get Feedback
You can easily get feedback on WhatsApp by sending questions to your customer list via WhatsApp. This can also be done by posting on your status so that your customers can see and respond.
When you receive the feedback, you can directly respond to their requests within the app and improve on the products or services that you offer.
And don’t just stick to traditional questionnaires. Develop entertaining and creative ones that are both a reflection of your brand and also enable you to interact with your customers in a non-intrusive way.
Since their feedback is of great value to you, you can reward them with coupons to encourage brand loyalty, and as part of a customer retention strategy.
5. Create Quality Content
Content is King. Creating quality content to share with your audience will get you more engagement and ultimately sales. The content you can post on WhatsApp include videos, images, infographics, text, testimonial giveaways etc.
In WhatsApp, your messages need to be short, engaging and entertaining. Make sure you create value and post content that solves people problems and also make sure it resonates with your audiences.