Owned by Meta, the WhatsApp app is an individual and group instant messaging platform, and it is also the most popular worldwide, having around more than 2 billion users in June 2022 alone, so Therefore, every month you have quite a few users who decide to use the app.
WhatsApp is an app that is also useful for businesses, for this reason you can use this platform to use it in your business, no matter what it is about, your customers may use and contact you through this app.
The app has some marketing benefits that can help you and your e-commerce to have more contact with your customers, let’s see what are some of these marketing benefits that you can use for your business:
- You can have better communication with your customers, since WhatsApp has notifications every time a message arrives, therefore, you will be able to reply to messages instantly within your office hours.
- Customers can use the app and in the search engine they can search for companies by name or phone number, which makes it easier for customers to find companies, including yours.
- WhatsApp messages do not have a character limit, therefore, this is a great opportunity to chat with your customers.
- You can create your own business profile, WhatsApp has several marketing tools that you can use to your advantage for your online business.
Using WhatsApp
Customer service:
This app offers many tools to improve the customer service experience, as customers can have an easier way to contact companies, and companies can respond faster to messages from their customers.
Also, WhatsApp does not require an open browser to receive notifications like other web chat platforms require. In addition, using WhatsApp and its tools, you can have messages for your customers such as “away” or also to notify them about opening hours, and even give customers self-service options.
Marketing messages:
When it comes to marketing, one of the most important benefits for business accounts using WhatsApp is that you can send broadcast messages, which are similar to the messages you can send via SMS or email.
In commercial accounts, limited lists of up to 256 people can be created for transmissions, lists that can help you get in touch with VIP clients or when, for example, you have an event and you must contact the attendees. On the other hand you can also create groups, however, these can deviate from the important topics.
Despite having the option to write long texts since there is no limit on messages, ideally you should use WhatsApp as SMS and messages should be used sparingly.
Set Up for Business
It is very important to have a business phone number that is different from the personal one, therefore you can have two SIM cards, one business and the other personal. Once you have the business phone number you can receive an SMS to confirm and verify the business phone number to create the WhatsApp Business account.
When you have your commercial account you can create your profile in the app, in this way you can start using the available tools, for example, you can add your opening hours, links, descriptions, contact details and you can even create a catalog of your products or services. In addition to this, you can also request the business directory, in this way customers will be able to search and find your WhatsApp profile more easily.
Also remember that the app has tools for messages, therefore you can create “away” messages and also welcome messages for your customers, and there is also the option of quick responses with templates to make it easier.
WhatsApp Business Options
Business App is for small companies:
Using this option you have access to basic functions, such as personalized messages, profile and your catalog of products or services, plus it’s free.
Business Platform is for larger companies:
With this option you can add functions via API, such as a chatbot, or transactional messages that are for example, order confirmations, tracking information, verifications. On the other hand, after the first 1000 a fee will begin to be charged for each conversation.
WhatsApp Shopping
With the WhatsApp app you can now have the shopping cart option, so customers can add products from your catalog and send a single message with the order they want to place. And for example, in August 2022 in India an alliance was achieved between WhatsApp and JioMart, where customers can order groceries without leaving the app.