Guide to Powerful WhatsApp Marketing for E-commerce

Guide to Powerful WhatsApp Marketing for E-commerce

It is no secret that WhatsApp has become the most popular messaging app in India and worldwide.

With more than 1 billion monthly active users, it has also been an excellent way for businesses to market their products and services on a wide scale. E-commerce brands have found WhatsApp marketing an effective way of building customer loyalty and increasing brand awareness at low costs compared to other advertising mediums like television or print ads – even other digital marketing channels like YouTube, Google PPC, etc.

No wonder WhatsApp is coming off as a ‘wonder’ customer engagement channel for businesses of all sizes.

This guide will tell you all about WhatsApp marketing and how you can make the best use of it. 

Let us get going!

The Rationale for Using WhatsApp for Your Business

WhatsApp marketing or WhatsApp advertising effectively keeps in touch with customers, and having a 98% open rate on text messages makes this even better.

Moreover, the primary benefit of using a chat app like WhatsApp to communicate with your customers is that they trust you more. For example, 53% of the customers claim they would buy from you if either text or a chat app were the only way for them to contact you.WhatsApp provides a seamless and high-speed channel to bridge this gap.

In addition to this, the following reasons make WhatsApp a bull’s eye arrow in the quiver of successful marketers.

Build Stronger Customer Relationships with WhatsApp

Recent research has shown that most people (about 55%) feel more connected to brands that communicate via instant chat/messenger apps. Consequently, WhatsApp marketing can be a highly successful strategy for building long-lasting relationships with customers.

Building such connections is significantly cheaper than acquiring new clients as customer retention rates average 5-25 times less expensive than new acquisitions.

Advertising on WhatsApp is a powerful asset for e-commerce businesses, with many options and features to interact with their customers and provide personalized messages. Among the many approaches an entrepreneur can take, personalization over WhatsApp has proven highly effective.

“70% of consumers believe that they respond more positively to personalized marketing than to messaging from companies without a personal touch.”

Fast Track Customer Sales Cycle with Instant Messaging

E-commerce entrepreneurs have several options for connecting with potential customers and generating sales leads.

Utilizing WhatsApp Messenger for marketing purposes has proven to be one of the most effective strategies e-commerce businesses can take, especially because personalization over this instant messaging app is a potent tool that yields promising results.

WhatsApp comes in handy to nudge your prospects towards the final purchase. Businesses say that as many as 40% of their customers instantly respond to their WhatsApp messages.

Drive Superior Sales

Approximately 60% of the buyers say that they will use more and more messenger apps like WhatsApp for their future purchases.

With WhatsApp, you can quickly incentivize your customers to purchase more. You can also monitor customer feedback and requests for assistance in real-time via the app’s chat function.

The instant messaging platform enables businesses to personally engage with their customers, resulting in happier prospects who are more likely to buy from you again than from other competitor brands.

“Adding a WhatsApp support phone number on your website may result in 27% more sales leads than any other marketing method.”

How to create a killer WhatsApp Marketing Strategy?

A good strategy is an essential part of achieving results when it comes to marketing. Read these tips on WhatsApp marketing strategy to plan and make adjustments if something doesn’t go well.

1. Set Your Measure for Success

Before using WhatsApp as a marketing strategy, it’s essential to set objectives and focus on what works. Start by defining the KPIs you will need to monitor and control for a higher ROI via WhatsApp marketing.

Marketers looking to use WhatsApp for e-commerce businesses should first assess the company’s marketing funnel and find ways to improve on weaknesses. From there, pinpoint business goals that will help you understand whether you have met these goals with your strategy and look at specific metrics that can demonstrate success.

E.g., common KPIs for WhatsApp campaigns include open-rate, engagement & retention rate.

2. Setup WhatsApp Business

Haven’t set up WhatsApp Business yet?

It is worthwhile to invest in a WhatsApp business account with an identifiable phone number. This will allow users to reply if they have any questions or problems, and it may also entice more customers due to the customer service component.

WhatsApp Business will give you features like;

  • Business Accounts get an address, business description, email address, and website link for their brand over this channel.
  • Catalog – a virtual showcase of your products.
  • Labels to organize your chats with customers. For instance, you can label conversations according to the sales funnel stage.
  • Quick and automated replies 
  • Statistics to track sent, delivered, received, and read messages.

3. Decide on the Type of WhatsApp Campaign and Communication

WhatsApp Business can do it all for you, from recovering abandoned carts to welcoming and nudging your e-commerce customers. So, decide on the type of campaign you want to launch for your customer list.

You may also decide which communication mode will be best suited for it; text messages or voice notes. Text messaging can arguably reach out to more people than voice notes because it’s possible that some might not have access to WhatsApp at all times, while others prefer reading over listening. On the other hand, voice notes are great if you’re targeting specific groups of people with audio-based content like podcasts, tutorials, etc.

Moreover, you can leverage powerful automation to maximize your ROI specific to each campaign over WhatsApp.

E.g., you can use Wigzo to automate your abandoned cart recovery – and recover up to 60% of the otherwise lost sales!

4. Think Better CX via Instant WhatsApp Support

What’s the best way to contact your customer service department?

Most people would agree that it’s either by email or a phone call. But what if you could do both via WhatsApp, too? And how can this benefit e-commerce stores in general and yours specifically? For example, it used to be true that one had to wait until they got home from work or school before contacting customer service about an issue with their order – but not anymore. Thanks to instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp!

The idea is simple: provide live chat support for customers through WhatsApp and other channels, so they don’t have any reason to go elsewhere. This way, you will power up your CX bottom line too.

Many companies now offer 24/hour customer care through text messages (usually referred to as SMS). Currently, WhatsApp is replacing the traditional SMS support for e-tailers and service businesses.

Conclusion

Whether you are a startup trying to save on customer service costs or an established business with big-ticket items for sale and customers who need clarification from time to time – WhatsApp is something that needs to be in your arsenal.

Make your WhatsApp outreach even more powerful with Wigzo’s incredible automation capabilities, and watch your conversion rate optimization go up like crazy.

Take advantage of it today!

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Saad Mohammad

Saad Mohammad

Full-time marketer, part-time guitar player, and a football fanatic. Saad is a Digital Marketer with 6+ years of experience in the industry.

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