Why You Should Be Using WhatsApp As a Marketing Tool
by Startacus Admin
Want to reach and communicate with your customers wherever they are? WhatsApp SMS can be an effective marketing tool to help you do just that.
Text messaging is no longer just a convenient way for friends or partners to chat. It's become a powerful mobile marketing tool for startups and small businesses. Many people today own phones and use them for communication. Since the phone is always in your hand, tapping into SMS (short message service) or texting is a great way to reach and communicate with your target audience. You'll be reaching your customers where they are, which is a great first step towards gaining their trust and engagement. Let's see why you should be using SMS for marketing.
Brief SMS Marketing Statistics
Recent industry statistics show that 91% of consumers gladly opt-in for SMS messages from the brands they like. Companies also realize consistent ROI from their SMS marketing strategy. For instance, WhatsApp reported a 98% open rate of their text messages, with other reports showing 112.6% conversion rates after opening. That is also why chatbots work well, making WhatsApp an engaging marketing channel.
What You Need for Effective WhatsApp Marketing
To be more effective in WhatsApp messaging, businesses should instead use a reliable WhatsApp Business API rather than a WhatsApp for Business app. While the app is effective for startups, it lacks the capability to serve large messaging volumes to customer notifications and support as an API does.
5 Reasons Why WhatsApp SMS Is an Effective Marketing Tool
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Numbers
WhatsApp is today the most popular mobile messenger app, with over two billion trusted users worldwide in 180 countries. This means if you're using WhatsApp, you're targeting a large volume audience, and you're available to serve your customers and where they want to interact with you.
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Engagement
WhatsApp is the third most used app and has the highest engagement rate of all social media platforms. 70% of all WhatsApp users use it daily. This means your messages cannot go unread as long as they're well-positioned and you maintain active contact with your customers without appearing like a brother.
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Connection
As of 2020, 175 million people sent a message to a WhatsApp Business account on a daily basis. As a business, this means you can provide customer care or deliver notifications to a multitude of people daily on the world's most popular SMS messaging app.
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Automated Notification or Customer Support Messages
Like chatbots, WhatsApp Business allows you to set automated messages to provide faster, seamless customer care and handle customer requests at scale through rich conversations. Since your customers always expect a response, automation allows you to keep them engaged while human interaction is on the way.
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It's More Than Texting and SMS
With WhatsApp, you can send messages other than SMS, such as voice messages, images, calls, video calls, documents, photos, videos, and your location. When marketing your products or sending out notifications, you'll answer all customer inquiries with little effort, and you can direct a customer to your business location.
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Value for Business and Customers
By leveraging WhatsApp chatbots, you can have nearly 80% of business inquiries addressed without a voice call. This reduces the volume of your business's incoming calls and the associated operational costs. At the same time, automation improves response efficiency and ensures every customer receives an answer from the business. This results in increased customer satisfaction.
Endnote
Customers engage with SMS much faster than any other digital marketing channel. WhatsApp presents a better opportunity for reaching out to customers with important privacy and data security considerations. It's also uniquely personal, making it an ideal communication model for many brands and consumers.
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Published on: 7th July 2022
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