WhatsApp marketing has been effectively taking over from social media and other online communication strategies for the past few years. But the hype is unlikely to die down anytime soon. Adding chatbots to the mix can truly revolutionize your marketing.
But where do you start?
Although WhatsApp has business features, it is not whatsapp marketing meets chatbots the most popular channel when it comes to advertising.
Could your business’s marketing operations benefit from a WhatsApp bot? What opportunities and challenges should you be aware of? How would you use WhatsApp for your business?
Don’t worry, we’re here to help you complete the closed loop on customer acquisition.
A brief history of WhatsApp marketing
Looking at whatsapp and digital marketing it may feel like it’s been around forever, but its history is very short and surprisingly recent.
When former Yahoo employees Jan Koum and Brian Acton founded WhatsApp in 2009, the app became hugely popular but still lacked a commercial presence.
In May 2018, Koum announced his exit from WhatsApp amid a strategic conflict as parent company Facebook began to push a more business- and ad-friendly model. Thus, interest in WhatsApp marketing began to grow with new features for businesses.
- Free WhatsApp Business app for Android launched in select markets
- Launch of revenue-generating WhatsApp Business API
- WhatsApp Business app for iOS launches globally
- Launch Advertisements in WhatsApp Status Stories
Why should you use whatsapp marketing meets chatbots?
WhatsApp is undoubtedly the most popular messaging app. In 2020, the app surpassed records for monthly active users, growing from 1.5 billion in December 2017 to 1.6 billion in April 2019 and 2 billion in April 2020. Currently, WhatsApp is the leading messaging app in 133 countries around the world.
No other social or messaging app can boast a comparable reach. Additionally, WhatsApp users tend to be highly active, sending over 65 billion messages every day.
WhatsApp offers businesses a catalogue of products from which they can choose the one that best suits their needs, allowing them to connect with their target audience.
Before we dive into WhatsApp Marketing, it’s important to understand the features and differences between WhatsApp Business what it is and why you should care and the WhatsApp Business API, as these two services are very different.
WhatsApp Business App
The WhatsApp Business app is a free (standalone) app designed to support small and medium-sized businesses and connect with their customers. Essentially, it enables brands to prioritize customer messages and respond faster. If you’re only relying on WhatsApp’s web functionality, this is definitely an upgrade.
Privacy is at the core of WhatsApp, so you can only contact people who have given their consent or initiated the contact.
- Business Profile: The WhatsApp Business deb directory app allows brands to create an official business profile with relevant details such as company address, phone number, description, email, website link, etc.
- Messaging tools: WhatsApp Business App allows businesses to set up quick replies, messages, and greetings.
- Tags: The app allows you to apply different tags to active chats. For example, you can label a chat as “New Customer” or “Complaint” to get an overview of your customer’s requests. You can use preset tags or create your own.
- Statistics: WhatsApp also provides some basic statistics such as the number of messages sent and delivered, and the number of messages that were actually opened and read.
- WhatsApp Web: Brands can send and receive messages using WhatsApp Business on desktop, making it more manageable for business.
WhatsApp Business API
The WhatsApp Business API is not an application. It requires a complex technical setup, but it allows you to integrate your WhatsApp Business profile with the systems you already use and use it as an intermediary between your business and your customers. The WhatsApp Business API is still in beta and the process is quite complicated.
The WhatsApp Business API has two main features, each with specific message types.
- Notifications in WhatsApp template message format (off-site news alerts): This feature allows brands to send message-driven notifications to customers. These are paid for and can be sent only when the predefined conditions whatsapp marketing meets chatbots of the message template are met. Pre-approved notification message templates include pre-order reminders and delivery updates. These notifications are manually reviewed and therefore cannot be used for promotional purposes. Not sure what to look like? Check out our sample collection of WhatsApp template messages.
- Customer support in the form of WhatsApp conversation messages: This feature allows you to provide customer support by following its instructions exactly. In this case, there is no limit to the number of messages that can be exchanged within a session. WhatsApp conversation messages are messages sent and received in response to a conversation initiated by the user. A new session is activated every time the user sends a message/request and lasts for 24 hours from the latest user message. If you fail to reply within the deadline, the only way to resume the conversation is to use a paid WhatsApp template message.
WhatsApp Business API allows you to perform some very complex actions and actions, one of which is building a relationship with your audience through chatbots.
The best part about the API is that you can design and build a WhatsApp bot to automate the most common processes and requests your customers encounter.
You can use bots to collect feedback, have your customers and prospects fill out forms through conversations, and best of all, seamlessly extract and update submitted data into your CRM, Excel sheets, or other databases.
Innovative WhatsApp Chatbots
Chatbots for WhatsApp not only allow you to get in touch with your customers and prospects in the way that is most comfortable for you, but also allow you to automate that communication.
We live in the experience economy. Customers are demanding much more from brands and companies than they used to. In fact, many believe that the experience of interacting with a company is more important than price.
Advanced technology makes everything faster, so today’s consumers expect fast, personalized responses, instant assistance, and memorable interactions.
Chatbots offer businesses the opportunity to maintain automation while still retaining personalization. Even better, users predict some useful uses for chatbots:
Bots’ ability to automate key business processes while maintaining a human touch on the world’s most popular messaging app makes them one of WhatsApp’s most promising marketing tools.
What do I need to create a WhatsApp bot?
The process of creating a functional bot takes some time, but it’s definitely worth it.
1. Get WhatsApp API Authorization
Next, of course, you need to apply for the whatsapp marketing meets chatbots official WhatsApp Business API. As mentioned above, the API is still in beta mode, so WhatsApp is currently targeting medium and large businesses. For example, Landbot can act as an administrative intermediary and monitor your application and settings.
2. Choose a chatbot builder
If you want to create a chatbot for WhatsApp, we highly recommend using a Bot Builder as it simplifies the whole process a lot.
For example, Starlight offers App Center feature modules that allow you to build and test conversation flows before launching them. Introduce third-party integrations (Slack, Google Analytics, etc.) that enable handoff by a human agent without requiring programming skills.
Additionally, the builder allows you to manage and analyze all conversations and collected data in a central location.
WhatsApp marketing campaign example
There are lots of creative WhatsApp marketing strategies you can use to make the most of the official API.
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