If you are thinking about running a successful marketing campaign, you must already know the power of communicating via WhatsApp. It's the easiest way to get in touch with not just friends but also customers and leads.
Apart from being easy, it drives excellent results too. An ecommerce brand that launched a WhatsApp campaign with the help of DelightChat generated revenue that was 26x of the cost of running the campaign. The best part? It happened within 24 hours of sending the message.
Let's diver deeper into how you can do the same. This post will discuss WhatsApp marketing, how it can benefit you, six steps to get you started, and some examples to give you ideas. In the end, there's a short guide on implementing what you learn.
What is WhatsApp Marketing?
WhatsApp Marketing is sending out messages on WhatsApp to people who've agreed to receive them from your brand and letting them know more about your brand to boost awareness or informing about a sale or new challenge that you are running to increase revenue. You can use
For marketing on WhatsApp, businesses use a combination of WhatsApp Business App, WhatsApp Business API & tools like DelightChat to send bulk promotional messages.
Here's an example of a marketing message received on WhatsApp as part of the marketing campaign by an ecommerce company:
Benefits of WhatsApp Marketing Campaign
No more worries about messages going to the spam folder
A spam folder is a place in email marketing where your carefully crafted message goes to die.
But WhatsApp is designed with simplicity in mind, and that's why there is nothing like a spam folder! That's amazing because it reduces one major worry from your mind. You can now focus on delivering your message the way you want without worrying about algorithm checks restricting what you say and how you say it.
However, you shouldn't mistaken it as a free pass to bombard anyone with your promotional message.
Higher conversions due to the popularity & ease-of-use of WhatsApp
We contacted some of the brands that are using DelightChat to run WhatsApp marketing & here's what we got to know:
- A home decor brand generated ~$15,000 (₹10 lakh) in revenue with a single broadcast to over 10,000 customers in less than 72 hours.
- An apparel brand A/B tested by sending sales emails to 1K contacts & sales messages via WhatsApp Broadcast to another 1K contacts. Revenue generated through WhatsApp was 7.1x higher compared to emails!
- Another ecommerce brand generated revenue that was 26x of the cost of running the campaign. The best part? It happened within 24 hours of sending the message.
We were not surprised to see these results as WhatsApp is a popular medium with high engagement compared to email or SMS. It's designed for simplicity and doesn't crowd itself with features. It's intuitive, easy to use, and can be used easily by any age group.
Increased interactions & higher trust from customers
Over 64% of people surveyed by Facebook say they are more like to connect with a business if messaging is available because they're "always messaging anyway." And over 61% feel that messaging is the most convenient way to contact a company, and they would prefer it over any traditional method (phone, email, SMS).
Not just that, WhatsApp as a channel helps increase trust as customers are more confident that they will get a faster response, better advice, and more truthful reply on WhatsApp. More than 50% of customers claim that to be true.
6 Steps to Launch WhatsApp Marketing Campaigns
1. Build a list of customer phone numbers
The most successful WhatsApp marketing campaigns begin with a list of contacts interested in getting messages from your brand and what you have to offer.
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, or include a click-to-chat link in your newsletters or promotional emails.
Offer an incentive to subscribe to your WhatsApp message. It can be a one-time offer or exclusive discounts for the WhatsApp audience.
2. Identify the campaign goals & actions you want from recipients
Before you launch a campaign, understand why you want to run this campaign. Ask two important questions:
- What do you hope to achieve with this campaign?
- What action do you want your contacts to take after seeing your message?
Examples of goals for a WhatsApp campaign are:
- Boosting the revenue at the end of the month to increase cash flow
- Increasing awareness about the new product that you launched that you may want to test out with your audience
- Re-engaging subscribers who've been inactive for a while
- Attracting people to your offline or online event to build trust in your brand
Make sure your WhatsApp campaign goals align with the business strategy and positively impact your bottom line.
3. Get WhatsApp API access from a reliable platform
Most brands give up on WhatsApp marketing because it's time-consuming & complicated. You need access to WhatsApp Business API to create broadcasts and overcome the limitations of the WhatsApp Business App. The templates need to be approved, and incoming queries must be managed. There's a lot to do!
Instead, a shortcut that successful brands adopt is partnering with an official WhatsApp Business API solution provider. DelightChat is one such platform.
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. We even help you get Green Tick Verification, for free!
You can also use DelightChat to manage all support channels & customer queries from one dashboard. You get shared inbox capabilities, a streamlined interface & canned responses that will help you resolve cases efficiently and accurately.
4. Create your WhatsApp marketing campaigns
Once you have your audience, goals, and tools ready, it's time to create the actual message that will go out. 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.
- Have an upcoming event? Announce the launch with a short video.
- Add a human touch to your conversations by adding emojis 😉
In WhatsApp, you can't send out a message directly without the approval of the template from WhatsApp. So once you've created your copy and any images that go with it, create a template using the dashboard provided by your WhatsApp Business Solution Partner. We've given step-by-step instructions on doing that later in this post.
5. Develop a customer service strategy
WhatsApp is a very conversational way of communication. It's easy to use, and billions of people from all age groups know how to send WhatsApp messages. So when you connect with people on WhatsApp, they would also connect back with their queries.
So, once you've added value to the customer by informing them about new products, discounts, events, etc., over WhatsApp, the next step is to build a successful customer service strategy.
Recommended reading: How To Deliver Great Customer Support Using WhatsApp
6. Follow WhatsApp's rules
WhatsApp is strict with what can and can't be sent in your messages. It even prohibits specific industries from sending WhatsApp messages to its audience. You can find a list of such industries on WhatsApp's official page here.
The most important rule is to not spam your customers. Treat them the same way you would want to be treated when receiving marketing messages:
- relevant to you
- written in a tone and language that you resonate with
- not too salesy or pushy
- sent at the right times
To learn more, find detailed guidelines by WhatsApp here.
4 WhatsApp Marketing Campaign Examples
Seasonal & Holiday Offers
Around popular days or holidays, and during change of season, people are looking to send gifts, update their wardrobe or buy something new. That's when they are looking out for discounts, offers, and coupons. Even a free shipping offer can nudge them to make a purchase.
Games & Challenges Marketing Campaign
Games & fun challenges are a good way to increase engagement, stay on top of your audience's mind & boost sales by giving out discounts to winners or participants.
Event Promotion Campaign
Unless you are Coldplay, touring the country, you'll need to spread the word about your upcoming event. Get the correct information to people so that they can free up their schedule and ask them to register before tickets sell out.
Recommended read: 14 Promotional WhatsApp Messages & Templates That Help You Increase Sales.
If you want to see a more creative idea, let's read about S-Bahn Munich Selfie Competition.
S-Bahn Munich Selfie Campaign
S-Bahn (Schnellbahn, or city rapid rail) is the urban-suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries.
When they wanted to make everyone aware of the modernized version of their trains, instead of choosing the traditional route of putting banners across the stations, they used the modern digital channel, i.e., WhatsApp.
Commuters had to take a selfie in one of the modernized S-Bahn trains & send them via WhatsApp with the keyword “selfie” to a number displayed on many trains & stations.
This added the person in a lucky draw with a chance to win a handsome prize. The winning selfies were also displayed in an S-Bahn Munich online magazine gallery.
Results:
In 3.5 weeks, they collected:
- 250+ selfies
- Numerous mentions on social media about the revamp
- Mentions of the campaign on various websites & in magazines drove more awareness
According to Mario Schmid, DB Regio AG – S-Bahn Munich, the intuitive user interface, image feature & ability to create a chatbot on WhatsApp played a vital role in the success of the selfie campaign.
Check out a few more examples of creative & successful WhatsApp Campaigns from brands like Absolute Vodka, Hellmann, and Maggi Germany.
Send WhatsApp Marketing Campaigns With DelightChat (in 2 easy steps)
You can run a WhatsApp campaign by using the two key features of Delightchat:
- Message Templates: A WhatsApp Message Template is a message format that is pre-approved by WhatsApp & you can use it repeatedly to message subscribers.
- Broadcast: WhatsApp Broadcast is a feature that allows you to send a message to several contacts at once. Unlike WhatsApp groups, a broadcast message will appear as a private message in your chat with them.
First, let's see how you can create a message template in 2 simple steps.
Step 1: Create the WhatsApp Message Template
Login to your DelightChat account and navigate to WhatsApp Marketing > Message Templates. If you don't have an account already, signup here.
Select the account for which you want to create the templates. Once inside the correct account, click on the 'Create Message Template' button.
Now, fill in the details of your template. Check the preview to see if it looks good.
Once you are ready, click on the 'Apply for Template' button.
That's it. Now your template is created & submitted for approval. You can see the status under Message Templates.
If you need a swipe file for different types of templates that are ready to use, here it is: 25 Best WhatsApp Business Message Templates (Copy these!)
Step 2: Create your WhatsApp Broadcast Marketing Campaign
Once you have the templates approved (usually in 5-10 minutes), you can schedule your broadcast campaign & track results via DelightChat.
Go to WhatsApp Marketing > Broadcast. Click on the 'Create New Broadcast' button in the top right corner.
Now, you can fill in the details of the broadcast.
- Give the campaign a name.
- Upload a CSV file of your customer contacts to whom you want to send the broadcast.
- Select the message template that you want to send (created in Step 1).
In the final step before publishing the broadcast, you can choose whether to start sending the campaign immediately or schedule it for a future date & time.
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.
DelightChat automatically tracks two goals through 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.
DelightChat: Best WhatsApp Marketing Software to Grow Your Business
Customers today demand superior experiences throughout their journey with your brand. With that in mind, a bulk WhatsApp sender app like DelightChat can help you reach out to a large customer base at once and engage them with interactive messages on their favorite communication channel.
DelightChat’s WhatsApp Business API platform is loaded with solutions to power your communication strategy.
- Manage your customer support tickets with a shared WhatsApp inbox
- Send WhatsApp Promotional Messages using the official API
- WhatsApp Green Tick verification for your brand
- Automated abandoned cart recovery, COD order verification, and more via Shopify integration
If you’re on the lookout for a platform with all the features to help your business scale by the day, sign up today and schedule a personalized demo with our team.
