Reviewing WhatsApp Marketing in 2022

WhatsApp started as a personal messaging app in 2009 and literally took the world by storm. There was no messaging app that came even remotely closer to it, thanks to the superb functionality and user-friendliness of its interface and usage.

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And so, it didn’t come as a surprise when brands started leveraging it to reach out to their customers and market themselves. As a matter of fact, it has made life easy for customers, too. WhatsApp marketing has made brands more reachable for them.

WhatsApp’s Marketing Evolution

While we were busy enjoying the features of WhatsApp, the team announced its plans for 2022. It claimed to become more digitally inclusive and financially empowered by 2022.

Indeed, there weren’t many features available to play around with on the platform. You could create groups and broadcast lists, but that was all. To become more brand-friendly, so to speak, WhatsApp launched its API product that could help brands engage effectively with customers.

Of course, the first step was to open it for customer-service use. It was also essential to keep it free of spam messages. So the team started approving every single marketing message before dissemination. Finally, in June 2021, the platform permitted the usage of marketing templates for WhatsApp marketing messages.

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WhatsApp has continued to evolve and improve itself for better usage by brands and individuals alike. The fact is that this tool is more personal than emails and more impactful than SMS. It’s not too far from becoming the most cost-effective marketing platform that generates the best ROI.

If you have still not entered the world of WhatsApp marketing, now is the time. With the platform adding more and more features now and then, it might become necessary for customers—a factor that might soon decide whether the client chooses your brand over your competitor or not. If nothing else, the statistics show that WhatsApp is a significant social media platform.

In this piece, we will analyze and review WhatsApp as a marketing platform. We will also share tips and tricks for you, as a brand, to make it big in the world of WhatsApp. Keep an open mind while you read further. Remember that you must adapt quickly to such changes as a brand and a marketer.

WhatsApp Marketing Trends of 2022

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If you plan to make it big on the WhatsApp marketing front, take a quick scan through the trends in the WhatsApp world. It’ll prepare you well for what lies ahead.

● Multilingual WhatsApp chatbot to reach a bigger audience

Now that the platform is trying to help out businesses, multiple responsibilities come along with the job. The major one is reaching a larger group of audiences that may speak different dialects. It’s a given that if a brand with a target audience in tier-III, IV, and V cities uses the platform to reach out to them, language shouldn’t become a barrier. Thus, this multilingual chatbot will come in as a savior.

● Contributing toward good and smooth governance

In 2021, WhatsApp helped during the COVID-19 pandemic and came to the rescue as a convenient method of communication. It bridged the gap between the government’s tools and citizens when MyGov Corona Helpdesk was set up on its business platform. A spokesperson from WhatsApp said they expect to bring about more innovation and contribute to better and improved governance.

● Digitizing small and medium businesses

Small and medium businesses always face issues in reaching their potential customers effectively. WhatsApp Business has resolved this. Their free platform has helped small and medium businesses make an impact and carve their identity much more easily. It has helped companies develop a robust digital forefront.

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● Helping companies adopt a digital-first approach

Amid the COVID-19 chaos, companies reached a juncture where they had to go digital. Companies belonging to traditional sectors like education, finance, and the like, were forced to pivot to an online scenario.

But, this ended up becoming a boon for a lot of companies. The traditional sector brands experienced the digital world and saw that this change helped them move faster. As a result, these companies are now adopting automation tools to scale their functioning. This is where WhatsApp stepped in.

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● Adopting a conversation-based pricing model

It is speculated that in an attempt to become more thoughtful of its customers, WhatsApp is planning to shift from a notification-based pricing model to a conversation-based pricing model. This means that brands will be charged per conversation and not for every notification they send. This will invite more brands and help them conduct thoughtful conversations with their customers.

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Tips for Curating an Improved WhatsApp Marketing Strategy

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Now that it has been established that WhatsApp is indeed a great platform, you must create a full-proof and effective WhatsApp marketing plan for your brand. The following steps will guide the way.

1. The opt-in rules

WhatsApp has specific rules that you need to know before marketing your brand on the platform.

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● Your brand must get an active agreement from the customers. This can be an online form that they are asked to fill out if they wish to receive alerts from your brand on WhatsApp. Also, you can’t contact them yourself. They can only initiate conversations with you by either messaging first or sharing their contact numbers with you.

● The users must be informed first, when they sign up, about the kind of information that they will receive from you on WhatsApp. If you plan to share some other information, you must seek their permission first.

● If a user calls your brand on WhatsApp for customer support, that doesn’t qualify as opting-in. Therefore, you can’t follow up with some marketing messages.

● The customers’ form must include all details about your WhatsApp profile, including your WhatsApp name and logo.

2. Cross-promote your WhatsApp profile

Once you have created your business profile, it’s time to focus on WhatsApp marketing. One of the most basic tricks is to cross-market on other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Emails, etc. You can also run ads with a CTA that redirects your potential customers to your WhatsApp profile. Then, they can choose to opt in.

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3. Use quick replies

This feature can be used only once you’ve observed your WhatsApp queries and audience for a while. Observe the messages you generally receive and then draft some quick replies to help ease the process. Go to “Business Tools” from “More Options” to find this feature. Once you have created some quick replies, you need to create shortcuts for them and some keywords that’ll help you find them easily.

Here are a few pointers to keep in mind while drafting quick replies.

● The character limit of a quick reply shortcut is 25 characters, inclusive of spaces.

● You can store a maximum of 50 quick replies.

● All quick reply shortcuts must begin with a forward slash (/).

● You can have only 3 keywords for every quick reply.

● A keyword can be 15-character long.

● Keywords cannot contain any space or these characters: ‘!’, ‘#’, ‘$’, ‘%’, ‘&’, ‘(‘, ‘)’, ‘*’, ‘+’, ‘-‘, ‘.’, ‘/’, ”, ‘:’, ‘;’, ‘<‘, ‘=’, ‘>’, ‘?’, ‘@’, ‘[‘, ‘]’, ‘^’, ‘_’, ‘`’, ‘{‘, ‘|’, ‘}’, ‘~’, ‘×’, ‘÷’, ‘”‘.

4. Make things easy with automated messages.

There will be times when you will be away and won’t be able to respond to the queries promptly. Automated replies will let your customers know that they shouldn’t expect a speedy response. This feature could also be used to send a greeting or an introduction to your brand automatically.

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● The magic of labels

Labels are a magical feature, both on mail and WhatsApp. They will help you organize the gazillion messages you might receive on WhatsApp. It will make the process of WhatsApp marketing easy for you. You can create separate groups such as New Customers, Awaiting Payment, Patron, Awaiting Order Confirmation, etc. Once you have coded all your chats under different labels, you will be able to draft quick replies unique to each one.

● Curate a catalog of your products and services

This is the most crucial part of setting up your WhatsApp profile. Creating a catalog or menu of your products and services will make it convenient for your customers and result in a decreased message pile for you. Plus, it will reduce the steps in your users’ journey. That means a lesser bounce rate and increased conversions.

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The Final Word

WhatsApp has changed direct marketing for good. It has become the most personalized and engaging platform. The best part is that its team is hands-on in taking steps to ensure that it doesn’t end up becoming a spammy platform.

At this point, it’s imperative for every brand to pivot towards WhatsApp marketing. It’s not just topical but also essential, and it’s here to stay.

Key Takeaways

● Technology has started to pave the way for a more seamless and interlinked digital ecosystem, emphasizing improving the user experience and introducing more business-oriented features.

● WhatsApp has improved the technical map of the marketing world. While email has been generating the best ROI for companies, WhatsApp seems to be catching up. The best part is that it is more personal.

● Kick-start your WhatsApp marketing journey by creating a profile and updating all your details in it.

● Don’t forget the importance of taking your clients’ permission before texting them on WhatsApp. Many WhatsApp business profiles are regularly banned for not following the terms of WhatsApp.

● Also, inform your customers beforehand about the kind of updates they will receive from you on this channel.

● Like every other marketing platform, there is a good time to message on WhatsApp. Follow it to receive the best results.

● Never send messages that may seem spammy. It will only help you get blocked on the platform. Keep it clean.

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