WhatsApp is a very personal platform since people make use of it to send messages to their friends and family. This gives brands the perfect opportunity to connect to their consumers on a deeper, more personal level, making those interactions more relevant.
A recent survey done by Instapage says that “
the lack of content relevancy generates 83% lower response rates in the average marketing campaign.”
That is why it is vital for brands to ensure that they personalise the content they send out, not only to catch their consumers’ attention but also to
maintain it — and to allow for brand loyalty to be built.
Here are three ways how using WhatsApp for business can benefit your marketing strategy:
1. WhatsApp lets you breach international borders
Sending messages or making phone calls to clients that are overseas will definitely hurt your pocket. Although you do receive deals from network providers that might make roaming data cheaper, it still uses a lot of money.
Downloading WhatsApp onto your mobile device is free — as is WhatsApp Web. It makes use of an Internet connection on your desktop and data provided by your mobile device. Making use of WhatsApp means that you will skip out on those pesky SMS rates and expensive phone calls.
When you call or video call a person on WhatsApp, and you are connected to free Wi-Fi either at the office or a restaurant, this is an affordable tool to reach clients in different countries. Although many companies think that their business only reaches local users, they might need to reconsider because you never know who is looking at your service or product in another country.
MyBroadband did a recent comparison between WhatsApp and SMS fees and the results show that making use of WhatsApp will be a lot cheaper. They listed the price of 1GB of data from each mobile network available within South Africa:
- Vodacom – R149
- MTN – R149
- Cell C – R149
- Telkom – R99
- Rain – R50
They then, based on these prices calculated how much one WhatsApp message will cost:
- Vodacom – R0.00005
- MTN – R0.00005
- Cell C – R0.00005
- Telkom – R0.00003
- Rain – R0.00002
They then look at the standard tariff from the services:
- Vodacom – R0.52
- MTN – R0.50
- Cell C – R0.50
- Telkom – R0.50
Clearly we can see that WhatsApp doesn’t take a lot of data and that making use of SMS will definitely put a hole in your pocket. Not only is it much cheaper, but it also allows you to communicate with people in other countries and the rates stay the same! This is in opposition to sending an SMS to consumers in America, which will cost both your brand and consumer an arm and a leg.
2. Use WhatsApp to build trust with your consumers
A person can only send messages to another person or brand if they have their mobile number, unlike Instagram where you can just direct message someone. This means that if you receive a message from a potential or current consumer on WhatsApp, you have a personal one-one-one chat with them, giving them your undivided attention.
This will make your interactions with different consumers personal, which makes them feel valued. For example, if you received a message from a company on Instagram asking if you are interested in one of their products, it already feels less personal, as they just want to make a sale. But, receiving a WhatsApp message with your name in the first line will make you feel as if the brand
actually cares about you.
Your consumers would also feel that they can send you a message anytime without having to be on hold on the phone. This will build a stronger and better relationship with your consumers. People want to feel that they are being valued and cared for because if they don’t, they will look for a brand that does make them feel like that.
WhatsApp is a great platform to build customer trust and brand loyalty with current and future consumers.
3. Use WhatsApp to keep an eye on your consumers’ interests
WhatsApp offers broadcast lists and groups, which can be extremely useful for brands because you can keep track of your consumers’ interests. This helps brands to be a lot more organised, because instead of just sending out a ton of messages to irrelevant people, they can use broadcast lists and groups to choose the content they send to the consumers very carefully.
Broadcast lists are useful because, when you create the list, you can add all the people you want to send the message to, as long as they have your number saved on their phone. You would then add recipients to your broadcast list and hit send — they will receive it as a normal WhatsApp message. And, once they respond, the message will be sent to you
privately. This allows you to send new products or specials to the consumers that you
know are loyal to your brand.
Creating groups is also a great way to keep in touch with different types of consumers. For example if your brand sells beauty products, you can create groups that are just for busy moms, gym bunnies or women working 9 to 5. This will allow you to send messages to those specific groups and it will also allow them to respond in the group by requesting certain products or cracking a joke here and there.
Since WhatsApp is such a personal platform, brands will need to be more conscious about the content they send to their consumers because people can very easily leave the group, ignore the message or even remove your brand’s phone number from their contacts list.
Has your brand ever used WhatsApp to communicate with your consumers? Let us know in the comments section below.
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*Image courtesy of Vecteezy