To run a profitable WhatsApp business you will need practical promotion and marketing strategies. These strategies will effectively let you reach the right audience. In this article, I will elaborate on 8 WhatsApp business marketing strategies that can help you grow your business and make more sales.

It is no longer news that WhatsApp is the fastest growing social media networking app in the world. Also, it is the communication platform with the highest open rate.

As the largest messaging application, WhatsApp has more than 1.3 billion active users globally. Up from over 1 billion MAU in February 2016. And businesses have been using it as part of their communications solutions.

WhatsApp has modernized itself with the huge variations related to business communication. This year 2022, some other features that will help businesses will be introduced. Check this to see 4 brand new features that have been added.

Customer engagement is important for any sort of business. And as such, they have started utilizing WhatsApp for effective, timely communication.

WhatsApp offers direct communication between you and your customers via concise but helpful messages.

By including WhatsApp into your business marketing plan. You can respond quickly to all the necessary inquiries from all your loyal customers in no course. Check this for All You Need to Know About Whatsapp Marketing in 2022.

WhatsApp Business Marketing

Businesses today are doing great on Whatsapp. This is because there are lots of things they can do with WhatsApp that they can’t do with other platforms. One of such things is real-time directly messaging. It is so easy to easy and effective that almost everyone with a smartphone has a WhatsApp app installed.

As smartphone users are rising greatly, you have a chance to connect with your target customers and produce substantial leads for your business. And these are not mere sales leads, but active leads. Whatsapp is known to have the highest engagement rate among all messaging platforms.

Now, let me walk you through the 8 practical strategies for WhatsApp business promotion and marketing that can increase your user base, customer engagement, and sales.

Practical Strategies for WhatsApp Marketing

1. The Best App to Use

Use Whatsapp For Business App Instead of the Normal WhatsApp. Yes, the normal Whatsapp messenger is different from WhatsApp for Business. WA Whatsapp is more business-friendly.

WhatsApp Business is an Android app that is free to download and was built with the small business owner in mind. With the app, businesses can interact with customers easily by using tools to automate, sort, and quickly respond to messages

This application arrived with a lot of amazing benefits and features for small and large-scale businesses. Some very helpful features like auto-replies and labels.

Here are some of the benefits of WA Business app:
Business Profile: Create a business profile with helpful information for your customers like your address, business description, email address, and website.
Quick Replies: Quick replies let you save and reuse messages you frequently send so you can easily answer common questions in no time.
Automated Messages: Set an away message when you are unable to answer so your customers know when to expect a response. You can also create a greeting message to introduce your customers to your business.
Messaging Statistics: Access important metrics such as how many of your messages were successfully sent, delivered, and read.

Create a business profile with helpful information for your customers like your address, business description, email address, and website.

2. WhatsApp Business Brand Persona

You need to create an Appealing Brand Persona for Whatsapp. Whatsapp is a messaging application where people reach out to families and friends. It’s an avenue to discuss really personal things, even flirt as well.

The first strategy to using Whatsapp for promoting your business is to customize and create an appealing brand persona.

Since you are intending to use WhatsApp as is a tool to reach out to customers, your customers must be able to identify your brand quickly.

You should create an engaging brand persona or character that represents your brand with its WhatsApp number. People don’t like to chat with impersonal company names.

Let assume your brand has a customer section that attends to customer complaints and queries, you can create a specialized number dedication for this purpose. This number can be managed by a real person so there is a human feeling.

Often busy business people find it easy to engage with this person on WhatsApp, exchanging pictures of products they are interested in, asking questions, and even agreeing on payments, delivery terms, and more.

The persona is the first thing you need to sort out if you want to get your strategy right.

The first strategy to using Whatsapp for promoting your business is to customize and create an appealing brand persona.

3. Contact Database

Getting the customers to sell on WhatsApp is next. You be needing as many customer numbers as possible to build a list of people to reach out to.

Since you cannot just push messages to consumers that are not on your list, you will need to get them to opt-in. It is a way of getting customers to message you first and you then add them to your WhatsApp contact list.

It’s so unfortunate that you need a number before you can communicate with your customers on WhatsApp but there is actually a way out!

In order to build a contact base of users, you need to offer them something of value in exchange for their phone number.

This can be a promotion, a freebie, a free service, or valuable information.

You can create an attractive promotion to get users to share their numbers with you. Once you add them on WhatsApp, send them the promo/offer which they can then redeem, and there begin their relationship with you.

What the Video before to learn more.

4. Whatsapp Business Contents

What kind of content will delight your audience on WhatsApp? Every platform has its own unique content that appeals to the audience in that platform. Whatsapp is no different.

If you are going to use video content, it must be according to the timeline for WhatsApp, i.e. Whatsapp status video. The same goes for text, images, and voice notes, underwise known as VN on WhatsApp.

Since your customers likely use WhatsApp on the go, you will need to serve them content on the go. this brings us to appealing content that will lighten their day and at the same time, pointing them to your business.

5. Customer Support

Providing real-time customer service is a luxury small businesses cannot afford, but with WhatsApp, you and your small staff can answer any questions your customers might have quickly.

And because the app supports rich media, you can use text, audio, or video to provide a personal customer service experience.

Whatsapp has a 70% opening rate, which means you are almost guaranteed exposure of your message if your customer is on WhatsApp with you.

Different businesses are already using this to their advantage. Even very big brands are not left out.

6. Research & Feedback

WhatsApp has so far not been used extensively for research but offers an easy-to-use, inexpensive and quick platform to run some quick research and also generate customer feedback.

You can ask consumers about flavours they like, ask them to choose between options the brand is proposing to launch among other things. Also, WhatsApp is highly relevant for conducting some quick discussions internally within your company.

Furthermore, instead of calling customers for feedback, you can create questions for your group that will bring to birth answers that are relevant to your business. This is marketing research at its best, and it is free.

With the feedback you collect from your customers, you can respond to their demands and promote the products and services you render. By developing creative and entertaining questionnaires, you can interact with your customers in a way that is not intrusive.

And their input can be of great value, which can be rewarded with special offers and coupons to encourage future engagement, brand loyalty, and long-term customer retention.

7. Use WhatsApp Business Status

In WhatsApp status, you get to see the happenings of people in your life more than Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat since this is one of the most used social media apps in the world.

I examined a few replies to understand how people used the Whasatpp status feature, here is what I gathered:

Status update in WhatsApp:

One can share his feelings, state of mind, or whatever he is up to.

Another said it’s also a medium to tell your friends where you are if you are on a trip, vacation, or an adventure.

Some people also use it to pass a silent message to someone, it’s like making a statement.

You can also use it to tell everyone that you are busy or available or in the office, etc.

You can also put funny one-liners, jokes, poems, etc. It shows your area of interest and tells about your personality.

But how can this status feature benefit your business?

In ‘status update’, apart from sharing photos and happenings around you, it can be used as a ‘flash advertisement’ for your business. Since this status is available for 24 hours to its viewers, it is a useful tool for highlighting your work or the topics you follow.

Coupled with the ability to share links, you can leverage this feature to grow your business and increase the number of returning customers.

8. Speciall Offers

With the new Status feature, you can create special promotional codes your customers can share to redeem at your business. Using the instant photo and location feature, Status can let everyone in your group know about the promotions you are running.

This could include a two-hour flash sale or a one-day special to drive in traffic and create buzz.

Based on interaction levels, you can expand the promotion with WhatsApp-Status exclusive coupons or promotions.

You can have weekly, monthly, or even daily giveaways to bring foot traffic to your store, or visitors to your website.

Since WhatsApp and Status are free, the only cost of such promotions is the promotional products or services you give away. This considerably lowers the overhead of any marketing venture.

This WhatsApp marketing strategy works best if you are looking to drive new customers and returning customers to your website.

LEARN MORE With our Course: Introduction to WhatsApp Marketing

In conclusion

WhatsApp as a communication tool continues to develop and add more features — like Status — with more likely in the future. It is a versatile platform that lets you send files, images, and short video clips about your products and services.

But the code for using WhatsApp efficiently is to avoid abusing the relationships you build with your audience.

Here is a quick piece of advice for you;

Measure your interactions so each message you send has value. Don’t make every conversation about making a sale. Remember other users have the power to delete your message with a single click.

With the new Status feature, WhatsApp is now more valuable than ever for businesses. Use the existing features to provide valuable engagement with your audience as a way of spreading the word about your brand and learning more about your customers’ needs.