Seth Godin, the entrepreneur, best-selling author, and speaker, writes on his blog, "If you need to persuade someone to take action, you're doing marketing." (source)
But to make your marketing effective, he suggests, "The other kind of marketing, the effective kind, is about understanding our customer's world view and desires so we can connect with them" ~ Seth Godin.
If you are nodding your head right now, agreeing that you need to understand customer's world view to do effective marketing, you should be investing time & effort to learn & implement WhatsApp marketing for your business — because your customers are present on WhatsApp and they want to be contacted there instead of on emails or calls where they hate getting interrupted.
DelightChat is a WhatsApp Business Marketing Solution and has helped multiple ecommerce businesses scale using WhatsApp marketing which makes us qualified enough to give you a quick crash course on it.
Learn about types of WhatsApp marketing, get inspired by super successful campaigns we've listed below, swipe some templates for promotions and learn how to build your WhatsApp marketing strategy — all in this post.
Dive in!
What is WhatsApp Marketing?
WhatsApp marketing is persuading someone to take action towards your business— following
your brand on social media, giving testimonials, making a purchase, referring friends — through WhatsApp messages.
Examples of WhatsApp marketing by an ecommerce brand:
WhatsApp marketing is most effective with B2C businesses, especially in countries such as India, where a significant part of the population is yet not proficient in using emails, websites, or complex ordering systems.
4 Key Benefits of WhatsApp Marketing
WhatsApp was launched as a tool for personal communication, but the growing popularity of the tool, its ease of use, and the responsiveness of customers make it useful for marketing purposes. And that's why WhatsApp launched special tools like API, WhatsApp Business App, and WhatsApp Business API to make it easy for a business to send, manage & track their communication with prospects or customers.
No Spam Folder, No ignored messages
Email inbox is heavily guarded by spam filters that sometimes block genuine messages from reaching your audience.
SMS comes along in-built with any mobile phone you buy, but When was the last time you sent an SMS or acted on one from a brand? While SMS is cheap, it's not the top choice to communicate unless you are in a no-internet-data zone.
That's why WhatsApp marketing is an efficient channel for reaching your customers. Your messages won't be stopped from getting delivered.
Increase conversions & thus higher revenue
There are over 487 million WhatsApp users in India alone, making it the leading country in terms of WhatsApp audience size. That's because it's simple, nice, and user-friendly. Everyone from a young kid to an old homemaker can use it without any hand-holding. Try asking a commoner to use email; you will be scoffed.
While email largely superseded postal communications, businesses know that today, large numbers of emails never get opened; by contrast, 80% of messages sent via WhatsApp are seen within five minutes. (source)
When your message reaches your audience and gets opened, it increases the chances of them taking action. And thus, you get more engagement & revenue.
Increased trust & loyalty from customers
Customers feel that WhatsApp is a secure and credible channel. They want a quick and easy way to communicate with businesses but not by putting private information on unsecured channels.
WhatsApp has discussed its end-to-end encryption feature to great lengths, promoting it as a channel that can be trusted to share information. This builds confidence in customers that no one is snooping on their conversation with you.
WhatsApp also validates the authenticity of your business account. Customers are shown a message that they are interacting with the official business account of your brand.
Flexibility to choose from multiple message formats (Text, Image, Voice, Video, and more!)
WhatsApp allows you to send text, images, videos, or PDFs. That covers all major formats of communication.
- Want to send your restaurant's menu or a catalog of your designs? Use PDF.
- Want to give an update about delivery? Go for a text message.
- Have an upcoming event? Announce the launch with a short video.
- Need to explain a complex process? Send screenshots and images.
- Add a human touch to your conversations by adding emojis 😉
For an even richer & interactive experience for your customers, use live video, voice note, or call functionality. It will help resolve the customers' queries more understandably.
2 Types of WhatsApp Marketing Messages You Can Send
With Whatsapp, you can send two broad types of marketing messages — Broadcast messages & Automated messages.
Broadcast messages:
A WhatsApp message that is sent to multiple people in your subscriber list at once, with just one click, is called a broadcast message. Recipients will see the message in their private chat with you and will be able to reply back to start a 1:1 conversation with your brand.
If you don't use WhatsApp business API, you will be able to send a broadcast message only to those contacts who've saved your numbers. Not just that, you can't send it to more than 256 people at a time. If you have a list of 10,000 people, that would be about 40 lists! There's no analytics or contact export functionality.
So basically, it doesn't look scalable unless…
…you use WhatsApp business API & WhatsApp templates. With those, you can send a broadcast to anyone who has opted-in to receive a WhatsApp message from you, send it to 10,000 customers at a time and even know how many people opened and acted on your message.
Use a WhatsApp broadcast message when you are:
- Running site-wide offers
- Launching a new product
- Sharing tips, or content valuable for your audience
- Send update regarding any technical issues
Examples of broadcast messages
Example 1
"Hi, there! Next week, we have a 15% discount on all types of bags. Let me know if you'd like to get early access 24 hours before the sale opens to the public by replying 'Yes' to this message.
Example 2
"Hi. We are currently experiencing technical issues with the payment system. Please use 'Pay later' or 'Cash on delivery' to make any immediate purchase. We will let you know when the issue is fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience!"
Automated messages:
Messages that are sent to people based on a certain event or action taken by them on the website or on WhatsApp chat with you are called automated messages. They are sent automatically, without you having to press 'send' each time a message is to be sent.
A welcome message — a message sent immediately after someone signs to receive messages from you on WhatsApp — is a great starting point for implementing automated messages. It makes a good first impression and warms the recipient to receive WhatsApp communication from your brand.
Example of a welcome message sent by an ecommerce brand:
You don't have to scratch your head thinking about how to write a welcome message that would enhance your brand image; we've created a collection of the best WhatsApp Greeting Message Templates for you.
Types of WhatsApp automated messages you can send:
- Automatically reply to customer's WhatsApp messages
- Automated COD Order verification messages
- Automated Abandoned Cart Recovery via WhatsApp
How to Send WhatsApp Broadcast to 100,000 Customers a Day
WhatsApp launched the WhatsApp Business API in 2018 to help businesses communicate with customers at scale.
Businesses need to get their number verified through WhatsApp Business Solution Partners(BSP) & use a platform to access all the features that WhatsApp provides with its API.
DelightChat is one such partner & platform provider.
Here's how DelightChat helps you upload contacts, schedule/send a broadcast to them and track the campaign results in a few easy steps.
Step 1: Create broadcast
Login to DelightChat. Go to WhatsApp Marketing >Broadcast. In the top right corner, click on the 'Create New Broadcast' button.
Step 2: Upload contacts, select template, give it a name
Fill in the details one by one. Check the preview box to see how the message will look in the recipient's chat. Any variables will be resolved to corresponding data once it is sent out.
Step 3: Schedule or send your broadcast
Send the message immediately, or choose a time in the future when you would like the message to be sent.
Once you are done, hit 'Publish Broadcast.' Your message will be sent to the list of contacts you uploaded & at the time you selected while scheduling.
Step 4: Track your results
DelightChat automatically tracks 2 goals through our integration with Shopify:
- Orders placed
- Order value
This is done by matching a customer's phone number who successfully received a broadcast to the phone number in a new order placed in your store.
You can find a detailed, step-by-step guide here.
Examples of WhatsApp Marketing Campaigns
A WhatsApp marketing campaign is a set of strategic activities, all done for a single goal of promoting the services and products of your company or raising awareness.
If your campaign uses WhatsApp to spread the message, it's a WhatsApp marketing campaign. It's different from a promotional message. A promotional message is one single message, but a campaign is usually a set of messages or multiple conversations with the audience.
A creative marketing campaign can be helpful in attracting audiences' attention as well get some PR from publications writing about creative marketing ideas. A good WhatsApp marketing campaign takes advantage of the fact that WhatsApp is easy to use, it has a wide reach, and a brand can send conversational messages on WhatsApp.
Here are two WhatsApp campaign examples with the business results they were able to achieve:
Absolut Vodka "Doorman at The Party" Campaign
Absolut Vodka is a leading brand of premium vodka made by a company in Southern Sweden.
Goal: Absolut vodka wanted to launch their limited edition vodka in Argentina & the aim was to create brand awareness around it. They wanted to experiment with conversational marketing, closely interacting with the audience Absolut Vodka isn't known for being too conversational.
So they had to be creative.
Campaign: Absolut Vodka launched a campaign called "Unique Access" on WhatsApp. They announced a big celebrity party and promised two tickets for the winners of the campaign.
Sven, a doorman at the party, was created. People had to contact Sven via WhatsApp and convince him to give them an invite to the party. But people discover that he isn't easy to convince. So they found creative methods to do that & sent photos, videos, songs, and even voice notes requesting the tickets.
Results:
After 3 days of chatting with the users, Absolut vodka received:
- Social media buzz
- More than 1,000 messages, videos, and images (user-generated content!) from fans
- 600 new contacts
And all this was done with just a phone & sim card!
ADAC "Don't Call Mom" campaign
ADAC is an automobile club in Germany that provides roadside assistance to its members.
Goal: ADAC had 20 million loyal customers, but the young audience didn't relate to them as much as older generations did. They wanted to stay relevant amongst that audience that didn't own a car (yet). So they launched their first digital campaign, of which WhatsApp was an integral part.
Campaign: ADAC launched the 'Don't call mom -- Call ADAC' campaign on WhatsApp. The idea was to open up a hotline for young people & welcome them to ask ANY questions from ADAC. Literally, any question, particularly the ones they can't ask their parents or shouldn't bother them. They received questions like how to deal with heartbreak or how to care for a pet cat.
They had 20 ADAC experts play 'mom' who replied to all the messages for 14 hours every day on WhatsApp. They invited influencers also to reply to WhatsApp these messages, which generated even more buzz about the campaign.
During the 6 week campaign, ADAC earned
- 20 million impressions on its campaign video
- 140,000 messages
That's how the biggest automobile club was able to get in touch with the under-30s population.
That's not all. We've collected the 8 best WhatsApp marketing campaign examples here to get your creative juices flowing and generate impressive results for your brand.
WhatsApp Promotional Messages Templates & Examples
From September 2021, WhatsApp allowed businesses across all countries to send promotional messages by using a combination of the WhatsApp Business App & WhatsApp Business API.
We've written about 14 WhatsApp promotional message examples & templates.
You will also find 3 hot tips to make your messages most effective. Before you check that out, here are two promotional messages that we find most effective to boost revenue & get new customers:
Monthly Sale
A month-end sale is perfect for you to make space for new inventory and new products. It's also perfect for gaining customers who are looking for lower rates because of the end-of-month money crunch.
Use this end-of-the-month campaign message to get new customers.
Template:
Hey {{1}} ! Is the end of the month making you feel broke, but you want to pamper yourself? Well, we have an offer. Get 20% off on all our services on the {{2}} of every month. To book, visit {{3}}.
Template:
Hey {{1}} ! Is the end of the month making you feel broke, but you still want to buy that pretty bag you like? Well, we have an offer. Get 20% off on all handbags till the end of the month. Place your order now to get it before you start a new month.
Here's an example from a real brand that sells fresh produce:
Abandoned Cart Recovery Message
If you sell anything on your website, you know that a lot of people add items to the cart and don't complete the purchase. But you can still recover this otherwise lost sale by sending them an abandon cart message.
Sometimes, they need a little extra nudge to be reminded if they left their cart because of some distraction.
Template:
Hey {{1}}. You left something in your cart. Grab those now, and we'll ship them for free.
Not able to decide? Do you have some questions? Drop us a note here or call us at {{2}}. Happy to help.
You can also add an incentive in the form of a discount or free shipping to motivate them to complete the purchase. Here's an example from a real brand that sells coffee (and is a happy customer of DelightChat):
Further reading: WhatsApp promotional message examples.
Strategy to Launch WhatsApp Marketing Campaigns
You can launch a WhatsApp marketing campaign in 6 steps:
- Build a list of subscribers (get opt-in & phone numbers): To let the world know that everyone can get updates from you on WhatsApp, you can do three things:
- Publish your WhatsApp number on your website
- Suggest to customers that they get notifications about orders and shipping via WhatsApp
- Include a click-to-chat link in your newsletters or promotional emails.
- Identify the campaign goals & actions you want from recipients.
- What do you hope to achieve with this campaign?
- What action do you want your contacts to take after seeing your message?
- Choose an official partner to get access to WhatsApp API: When you partner with DelightChat, we take care of getting you WhatsApp API access, provide you with approved templates in a few simple clicks and help you track your campaign's performance.
- Create your WhatsApp marketing campaigns: Use text, images, videos, or PDFs to send messages to your audience.
- Reply to all of the responses you'll receive: Use a shared inbox so all your team members can reply to messages, without losing the context of the conversations with your prospects. Here's a detailed guide on how to deliver great Customer Support Using WhatsApp
- Follow the rules set by WhatsApp: Send messages only when people have consented to be contacted on WhatsApp & allow them to opt out without any difficulty.
This was just a TL; DR. If you want to master launching WhatsApp Marketing Campaigns, read our detailed 6-minute guide.
WhatsApp Business API: How Much Does It Cost?
When you use WhatsApp Business API, you are charged per conversation, including all messages delivered in a 24-hour session.
Conversations on the WhatsApp Business API can be of two types, and both are priced differently: user-initiated (e.g., customer care and general support inquiries) and business initiated (e.g., post-purchase notifications).
A conversation starts the moment the first message in a conversation is delivered. Businesses and users can exchange any number of messages within a 24-hour conversation session without incurring additional charges. Each 24-hour conversation session results in a single charge.
There are different charges for different countries. Charges for conversations are based on the recipient's country & don't depend on the country in which your business is located.
You can find the rate card for sending messages to users from other countries here.
Good news — Starting Feb 2022, WhatsApp made the first 1,000 conversations each month free, so your business can build experiences your customers will love before having to pay.
The first message in some conversations will not be charged. What are those?
When users message businesses using call-to-action buttons on Ads that Click to WhatsApp or a Facebook Page call-to-action buttons, those conversations are not charged. They are called free entry point conversations. The first conversation that starts from the entry point is free of charge, then subsequent conversations with the user are charged.
Apart from paying for messages, you will pay a one-time setup fee & monthly costs for tools that you are using to manage WhatsApp marketing. Learn more about WhatsApp Business API Pricing in our detailed guide.
WhatsApp Marketing Resources
To execute your WhatsApp Marketing strategy, here's a list of tools you'll need.
Essential tools:
- A phone number to apply for WhatsApp API
- A WhatsApp API integrated solution — DelightChat is one such tool.
You can check out a list of alternative WhatsApp Marketing Software here.
Good to haves:
A shared inbox for replying to customer messages: A collaborative team inbox that lets your entire team respond to customers over WhatsApp, live chat, and multiple social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Emails) from a single dashboard. Here's how you can get started with a shared inbox for WhatsApp.
A set of message templates: A template is a pre-defined message that you can use multiple times to connect with your audience once they've opted-in to receive a message from you. With templates, you can also overcome the 24-hour rule by WhatsApp, where if a person initiates a chat with you, you may continue that conversation via WhatsApp for up to 24 hours after the last message sent to you by that person. If you don't reply within 24-hours, you end up paying whenever you send the first message.
We have prepared 15 best transactional & promotional WhatsApp message templates you can use. Copy + Paste away!
Team: (depending on the scale of your audience)
- A marketer who can handle strategy, & day-to-day operations of WhatsApp marketing
- A customer support member to respond to customer messages
Next Steps
As we have learnt through this post, WhatsApp marketing
- doesn't require as much investment as email marketing,
- is easy to test without requiring any specialized skills, and
- gives you the required ROI, especially if you run an ecommerce company.
The problem happens when small & medium size companies try to execute WhatsApp marketing without any tools. Getting WhatsApp API, approvals from WhatsApp for templates, and keeping track of replies are tedious and exhausting tasks even with a small list of 100-200 people!
Now imagine if you want to scale your business and grow your list and engagement. The activity on WhatsApp will go beyond a level that human teams can deal with personally.
And that's why the next step should be investing in WhatsApp Business solutions to stay on top of customers' minds and be there when they are ready to buy.
One such tool is DelightChat — a WhatsApp Business solution loaded used by successful ecommerce brands to generate more revenue. With DelightChat, you can:
- Manage your customer support tickets with a shared WhatsApp inbox
- Send WhatsApp Broadcasts using official API, with no worries of getting blocked
- Get WhatsApp Green Tick verification for your brand to build authority
- Send automated abandoned cart recovery, COD order verification, and more via Shopify integration
If you're on the lookout for a platform that has all the features to help your business scale by the day, then sign up today and book a demo with our team!
