When you think of social
media, sites like Facebook and Twitter probably come to mind immediately. But
messenger apps have actually
caught up to social networks in terms of users. And
increasingly messenger apps
are being used for marketing.
The leader in most of the
world is WhatsApp (a pun on the phrase “what’s up”), with 1.2 billion
monthly active users around the world.
That kind of market
penetration can’t be ignored. But how can you effectively use WhatsApp for
marketing? Like all relatively unexplored frontiers, there are equal measures
of risk and reward for early adopters. Here’s our marketer’s guide to WhatsApp.
What is WhatsApp?
WhatsApp is a free mobile
app that uses your phone’s internet connection to let you chat with other
WhatsApp users, without SMS text message charges. The app also lets you share
files and images, and supports free voice and video calls.
Its support for a wide
range of phones has made it especially popular in areas with high SMS charges,
including Brazil, Mexico, and Malaysia—where
60 percent of the population uses WhatsApp. In fact, it’s the
most popular alternative to SMS in 109 countries,
or 55.6 percent of the world.
While Facebook acquired
WhatsApp for US$19 billion in
February 2014, it’s been operating as a separate entity since then, and hasn’t
yet seen the same marketing-friendly features as Facebook Messenger.
How to use WhatsApp
WhatsApp has versions for
iPhones, as well as Windows phone, the Nokia S40, BlackBerry, the Nokia S60,
and the BlackBerry 10. There’s also a web app and desktop versions for Mac or
Windows PCs, but you need to have it installed on your mobile phone first,
since each WhatsApp account is tied directly to a single phone number.
Once you download and
install the app, you need to confirm your country and enter your telephone
number. To set up your profile, you can either import your Facebook information
with a single click, or manually add an image and add a profile name (which you
can change later).
WhatsApp uses the phone numbers from your phone’s contact list
to show you an up-to-date directory of WhatsApp users who you already know.
Anyone who has your phone number in their phone’s address book will
automatically see your listing, too, unless you change your privacy settings.
There
are three basic ways to share messages, photos, and videos using WhatsApp.
01. One-to-one chat
Like other chat programs, you can chat directly
with another user who is in your phone’s contact list. You can also call or
video call them, or even record snippets of audio to text to them.
02. Broadcast lists
When you send a message to a
broadcast list, it will go to anyone in the list who has your
number saved in their phones’ address book. They’ll see the message as a normal
message, similar to the BCC (blind carbon copy) function in email. If they
reply, it will appear as a normal, one-to-one message in your chats screen, and
their reply won’t be sent to anyone else in that broadcast list. Broadcast
lists are limited to 256 contacts.
03. Groups
Group chats let you message with up to
256 people at once, sharing messages, photos, and videos. Everyone in the group
chat can chime in and also see everyone else’s responses.
Why should you use WhatsApp for
business?
The best
reason to use WhatsApp for business is that many of your customers are probably
already using it. More than 50 billion messages are sent
through WhatsApp every single day.
Surprisingly,
users of WhatsApp and similar services are willing to engage with businesses.
According to Nielsen’s Facebook Messaging Survey, 67 percent of
mobile messaging app users said they expect to use chat more for communicating
with businesses over the next two years. What’s more, 53 percent of respondents
say they’re more likely to shop with a business they can message directly.
If your customers and prospects are young, they’re more likely to be
comfortable using messaging apps for their day-to-day communication. A study by Pew Research Centershows that 42 percent of smartphone owners between 18 and 29 years old
use messaging
apps like WhatsApp, compared with only 19 percent of smartphone owners who are
50 or older.
Plus, messaging apps like
WhatsApp have incredible engagement rates: 98 percent of
mobile messages are opened and read, with 90 percent of them getting opened
within three seconds of being received.
WhatsApp may already be a
key way for your audience to share content via dark social—a
term to describe when people share content through private channels such as
email or chat apps like WhatsApp, as opposed to more public networks like
Facebook.
In fact, a huge majority
of sharing online—84 percent—now
takes place on private channels like messaging apps, so even if you’re not
using WhatsApp to market your business, your prospects are likely using it to
extend your content’s reach already.
WhatsApp marketing strategies and
tips
Since WhatsApp doesn’t
sell ad space or have any business-specific features (yet) you have to be
innovative in your marketing approach.
While WhatsApp is different
in its reach and features than other messenger apps, it’s important to develop
your WhatsApp strategy alongside your general messaging app
marketing strategy.
There are a few limitations
you need to address when developing your WhatsApp marketing strategy. First of
all, there is no such thing as a business account, so if your brand is creating
an account it faces the same limitations as any other user.
Since each WhatsApp
account is tied directly to a single mobile phone number—and you can only
message with up to 256 WhatsApp users at once—it isn’t a good choice for
large-scale, one-to-many marketing. So your chances of success are higher when
you use its limitations to your advantage.
Remember
that, like other mobile messaging services, part of the power of WhatsApp is
that it’s tied to our phones, which tend to seem more personal to us than our
computers—they’re not shared and we carry them everywhere. So any marketing
campaigns you tackle should reflect (and respect) the personal aspect. This is
where consumers interact with their friends, so trust and creativity is key.
Not
surprisingly, some of the best examples of effective WhatsApp campaigns hail
from regions with the highest penetration, including South America. Here are
some case studies of brands who have made an impact using WhatsApp for
marketing.
Create a brand persona to chat with users and build buzz
When Absolut Vodka
launched their Limited Edition Absolut Unique bottle collection in Argentina
WhatsApp was a natural place to try and build buzz, since 84 percent of
the country’s mobile phone users were on the app at the time.
For the launch they
decided to host a very exclusive party. The catch? There were only two
invitations available to the public. Anyone wanting to win these tickets had to
use WhatsApp to contact an imaginary bouncer named Sven and convince him to let
them go.
The campaign generated
over 1,000 unique images, videos, and audio messages people created to convince
Sven, and built buzz in the community.
Offer one-on-one help to inspire new uses for a product
Hellmann’s in Brazil
wanted to inspire people to think of mayonnaise as a cooking ingredient, not
just a condiment. So they invited visitors to their website to submit their
phone numbers along with a picture of the contents of their refrigerator. They
were then connected through WhatsApp with real chefs, who came up with a recipe
using Hellmann’s and the other ingredients in their fridge. The chefs even
taught the users how to cook the meal through pictures, videos, and other
WhatsApp features.
The results? A total
of 13,000 participants spent an average of 65 minutes interacting with the
brand, and 99.5 percent of them approved of the service. The brand was so happy
with the results from the Brazilian campaign, they rolled it out to Argentina,
Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Offer discreet advice and service to high-value customers
High-end lingerie brand
Agent Provocateur has been using WhatsApp
to offer their top clients updates on new arrivals and events
at the brand’s stores for a while now.
Customers can also ask
advice from the privacy of of the messenger service.
The approach was so
popular with VIPs that Agent Provocateur’s launched a similar WhatsApp
promotion named Ménage à Trois for
all customers last Christmas. WhatsApp users could invite a personal shopper
into a group conversation with their partner to discuss what they wanted for
Christmas. Agent Provocateur’s team of style advisers answered the questions
manually, engaging with each couple.
While it was a small
campaign—with 112 conversations taking place—31 percent of the chats resulted
in store visits and 61 percent converted to website traffic.
WhatsApp marketing tools
Since WhatsApp doesn’t
offer any business tools or an API yet, small-scale targeted campaigns like the
examples above are the best strategy. To start engaging with people, you need
to have them add your number to their phone’s contact list. WhatsApp does
provide a way to add a click-to-chat link
to your website, email signature, or social media pages that makes it easy for
people to start a conversation with your brand.
Keep in mind that the
expectation in messaging is for near-instant replies, so make sure you have the
resources to manage the chats, or—like Agent Provocateur did—limit availability
to specific windows of time.
There are third-party
WhatsApp marketing tools and services offering to set up multiple WhatsApp
accounts and groups for marketers, but using them can lead to you being blocked
temporarily or banned entirely from the service. Plus, mass
messaging in this type of environment can do a lot of damage to your brand.
The good news is that
WhatsApp is busily working on features to help businesses engage with their
users.
The future of WhatsApp marketing
While WhatsApp isn’t as
feature-rich as Facebook
Messenger for marketing, it is moving in that direction.
The company has
announced it is working on business-friendly features: “In the
future, we will explore ways for you and businesses to communicate with each
other using WhatsApp, such as through order, transaction, and appointment
information, delivery and shipping notifications, product and service updates,
and marketing. Messages you may receive containing marketing could include an
offer for something that might interest you.”
Until
then, marketers who create campaigns that work with—not against—WhatsApp’s
unique characteristics will have an advantage. The lack of advertising and
corporate presence on WhatsApp means that early adopters can really stand
out—if you do it right.
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