WhatsApp for business: 5 ways brands can leverage the world’s most popular messaging app
Katie Morley
Jul 8, 2023
Katie Morley
Jul 8, 2023
Katie Morley
Jul 8, 2023
Katie Morley
Jul 8, 2023
WhatsApp isn’t just an app for friends and family anymore. Its vast and active user base opens up a range of opportunities for brands looking to make their mark. Beyond personal connections, WhatsApp serves as an ideal platform for customers to engage, explore, and interact with their favorite brands, capitalizing on the convenience and seamless experience of online messaging.
Mobile messaging is all about speed and convenience. It lets businesses reach out to their audience anytime, anywhere, forging personal connections that cut through the noise. No more overcrowded channels—WhatsApp offers a more personal space for brands to connect with their customers on a deeper level. And with a 99% open rate, your target audience is practically guaranteed to pay attention, keeping your brand at the forefront of their minds.
Understanding WhatsApp for business
Why do businesses need to rethink their WhatsApp strategy?
Build trust and loyalty with WhatsApp for business
Increase customer acquisition with WhatsApp for business
Use WhatsApp for business to improve product discovery
Reduce cart abandonment and lost revenue with WhatsApp for business
Encourage repeat purchases with WhatsApp for Business
WhatsApp made easy with Insider
WhatsApp for business FAQs
WhatsApp Business API prioritizes real-time, relevant, and valuable B2C communication over bulk promotional messages. This means sending blast marketing campaigns and generic promotions is a big no-no on this platform. To succeed, it’s crucial to segment your customers and provide detailed information accurately.
In this article, we’ll walk you through five strategies for using WhatsApp as a marketing channel. You’re likely already familiar with using WhatsApp to send promotional messages or have exchanges that result in customers’ clicking through to your site to complete their purchase or take the next step in the journey.
However, now businesses can also use WhatsApp Commerce, an end-to-end customer experience that allows customers to make purchases within the app–no URL, no outbound links (and no catch).
Whether you’re new to WhatsApp for business or want to enhance your current strategy, this article highlights 5 effective ways to engage your audience and achieve impressive results using Insider’s WhatsApp Marketing solution.
We’ll explore five key use cases covering:
Want more? Check out our Rethinking WhatsApp ebook for an additional seven use cases to help make your WhatsApp marketing strategy a success.
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“Insider is a must-have tool if WhatsApp is one of your marketing channels. As a channel, WhatsApp provides immense opportunities for marketers to develop relationships with their customers. Insider has helped us realize the full potential of WhatsApp for our business by making it incredibly accessible, easy to use, and enriching it with templates and various automation.”
- Director of eCommerce | Leading retail brand | Read more 5-star reviews on G2
Customer expectations have changed. The most-loved brands are the ones that put their customers first, whether it’s with personalized messages and recommendations or with seamless buying experiences. There’s no room for friction, and even the slightest poor customer experience can impact your CLTV.
It’s also worth noting that because customer expectations have shifted towards personalized communication, generic mass marketing campaigns are no longer effective in capturing customers’ attention and loyalty. WhatsApp provides a direct channel for businesses to engage with customers, understand their preferences, and deliver tailored experiences that resonate with them.
It isn’t just the marketing capabilities—WhatsApp offers a range of features and tools that can significantly enhance customer satisfaction, advocacy, and loyalty. Verified business accounts inspire trust and confidence in customers, allowing businesses to provide efficient customer support.
WhatsApp also enables businesses to send transactional updates, order confirmations, and delivery notifications–keeping customers informed and engaged throughout the process. With prompt responses, real-time assistance, and personalized communication, your brand can create a smooth, satisfying customer experience for all.
Take a closer look at how Insider’s WhatsApp solution is resetting marketing expectations for customers.
The main agenda of any marketing or eCommerce strategy is building enough trust with your audience to convince them to do business with you. Once they have, brands must nurture users and develop ongoing relationships to build lifelong customers.
Here are two Insider WhatsApp Marketing features that can help you do just that.
There’s no better feeling than making your newest subscribers feel instantly welcomed and appreciated. By sending a personalized welcome message to new opt-ins, you set the tone for a positive and engaging relationship immediately. It’s a lovely gesture and an effective way to communicate what they can expect from you.
Sending reminder messages about the products or services that align with your customers’ interests is an excellent way to keep them informed and engaged with your brand.
If you provide timely updates on relevant products, you can cultivate loyalty and trust among your customers. This proactive approach ensures they stay up-to-date on the products they genuinely care about, strengthening their connection to your brand.
An international beauty brand was focused on re-engaging customers who abandoned purchases due to price or stock issues. It decided to implement a personalized replenishment strategy to encourage repeat purchases.
After analyzing channel adoption data, it recognized WhatsApp as a potential platform for reaching its customers. Initially, the brand was skeptical, but a conversation with Insider’s local support team revealed the significant potential of WhatsApp for business and the convenience it offered customers.
In one of its most successful WhatsApp campaigns, the brand carefully chose a segmentation of loyal customers who had purchased products >$150 in the last 45 days. Using a conversational commerce template, it built a replenishment reminder message that reminded customers when one of their favorite products was about to run out, and gave them the option of repurchasing immediately or being reminded again later. This campaign led to a 30% increase in its repurchase rate.
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“We had a reputation for excellence, but we knew our marketing campaigns were falling short. When we first spoke to Insider, WhatsApp was low-down on our list of potential new channels, so you can only imagine how delighted we are with our results. Our conversion rate has increased by 67%! With just one new channel! It’s totally transformed our whole marketing strategy.”
- Head of eCommerce | International beauty brand | Read more 5-star reviews on G2
Download the Rethinking WhatsApp ebook to discover the full story.
No matter the industry, growth is crucial for staying ahead—making customer acquisition a top priority. To help achieve this, here are two WhatsApp Commerce features that can come to the rescue and empower brands to transform casual browsers into loyal customers.
More often than not, customers simply require a gentle push in the right direction. By sending well-timed messages containing personalized discounts, brands can effectively convert their subscriber into a buyer.
Drive conversions by sending timely price alerts whenever there’s a drop in the price of a product that interests your customers. To create a sense of urgency and boost demand, don’t hesitate to include compelling messaging such as “grab them before they’re gone” or “don’t miss out” to generate excitement and interest in your products.
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“We saw a very high return on investment with Insider’s WhatsApp Commerce when we combined the app’s popularity with Insider’s segmentation and personalization capabilities. We were able to orchestrate highly-tailored messaging for our customers on their favorite channels. Since not many brands are on WhatsApp, we’re now able to catch our customers’ attention quickly.”
- Digital marketing manager | Healthcare brand | Read more 5-star reviews on G2
Download the Rethinking WhatsApp ebook to discover the full story.
Despite what you may think, competition with other brands shouldn’t be your biggest marketing concern—ignorance should be. It’s challenging to convert customers if they remain unaware of your latest offerings. If 49% of shoppers rely on Google to discover new items, imagine the impact of directly sharing your new products with them on their phones.
Have something new to offer? Ensure your customers are the first to know through a WhatsApp Promotion. The best part is, with Insider’s advanced segmentation capabilities, you can create highly targeted and AI-driven audiences based on their previous purchasing behavior, resulting in improved return on investment.
If you have a popular product, leverage WhatsApp Commerce to send a product card showcasing your latest must-have item directly to your customers. We mentioned that your customers won’t need to leave WhatsApp to make a purchase—with this convenient approach, they can place their orders without the need to visit your website.
For an eCommerce manager, few things are as frustrating as a customer who visits your site, browses around, and then leaves without making a purchase. This not only means missing out on the chance to engage and satisfy a new customer but also directly impacts your revenue. Every lost customer represents a blow to your bottom line. However, with WhatsApp Marketing, re-engaging those lost customers becomes effortless.
Reclaim your cart abandoners by sending timely and customized cart nudges that capture their attention. Decrease abandoned cart rates by crafting personalized cart recovery messages that emphasize the exact products they showed interest in. To further incentivize their return, consider including a compelling offer, such as a 5-10% discount, which has proven to be an effective method for converting abandoners.
Looking for more inspo to recover lost revenue? Check out our Rethinking WhatsApp eBook for more use cases.
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“WhatsApp commerce just makes sense. We were struggling with our cart abandonment rate, but all our customers needed was a nudge in the right direction. We already used email to send out cart recovery messages. Still, we’ve seen a 73% increase since using WhatsApp too.”
- VP of Marketing | International sports retailer | Read more 5-star reviews on G2
MadeiraMadeira, Brazil’s largest home goods platform, aimed to enhance customer value through personalized content and communication. Leveraging Insider’s pre-built WhatsApp templates, it quickly created a tailored WhatsApp marketing campaign.
With personalized, contextual, and timely messagin—including promotions, confirmations, updates, and reminders—MadeiraMadeira saw an immediate boost in average order value (AOV) and achieved a conversion rate 3.5X higher than its website average.
“I would recommend Insider to any brand looking to bring better value to its customer communication. Insider has a unique way of tying together channels in one single journey where we were actually able to communicate better with each customer.”
- Pamela Melo | Marketing Manager at MadeiraMadeira | Read more 5-star reviews on G2
Download the Rethinking WhatsApp ebook to discover the full story.
While acquiring new customers is exciting, building a loyal customer base is even more valuable. The goal should be to create a customer experience that fosters repeat business—the best kind of success lies in having customers return not just once, but potentially ten or even a hundred times.
Prioritizing strategies that encourage customer loyalty is crucial, especially considering that acquiring new customers can be five times more expensive than retaining existing ones. Here’s a valuable Insider WhatsApp feature that can assist in achieving this objective.
Automated product reminders, known as replenishment reminders, are highly effective in driving repeat purchases. With the assistance of machine learning, your understanding of individual users becomes more profound over time, allowing you to personalize and schedule each message according to their purchase history. This convenient feature ensures that your brand reappears just as your customer’s product is running low or running out entirely.
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“WhatsApp for business just makes sense. We were struggling with average order value, but all our customers needed was a nudge in the right direction. We already used email to send out replenishment messages, but using WhatsApp too has increased our AOV by 23%.”
- VP of Marketing | International sports retailer | Read more 5-star reviews on G2
Insider simplifies WhatsApp Marketing. With over 40 pre-approved WhatsApp templates for inspiration, creating highly personalized campaigns is a breeze. You can also incorporate dynamic data attributes like last-visited products, while adding branded images, text, and compelling calls-to-action.
Our integration of the WhatsApp API goes beyond the basics, offering features like frequency capping and AI-driven silent hours based on predictive behavior models. With dynamic and context-sensitive media, interactive buttons, and more, users can effortlessly engage with your brand at their convenience.
Ready to get started with Insider? Book a demo with one of our experts and start reaching your customers where they spend the most time.
WhatsApp Business is a version of the WhatsApp messaging app specifically designed for businesses to communicate with their customers, features include two-way messaging, bulk promotions and WhatsApp Commerce.
WhatsApp Business API is an interface provided by WhatsApp that allows larger businesses to integrate WhatsApp’s messaging capabilities into their own applications and systems.
To send marketing messages on WhatsApp, you can use WhatsApp Business API, which requires integration with your business systems and compliance with WhatsApp’s policies. Alternatively, you can use WhatsApp Business app’s built-in features for sending messages to customers who have opted-in to receive marketing communications. The best way to leverage WhatsApp for business is with a customer data platform such as Insider, so you can target WhatsApp messages based on customer behaviors.
WhatsApp Business offers additional features for businesses, such as a verified business profile, automated greetings and replies, message statistics, and the ability to create labels and organize customer conversations.
WhatsApp marketing can be highly effective as it allows businesses to directly engage with customers, send personalized messages, and build a more intimate and immediate connection.
It is legal to use WhatsApp for business, but there are certain guidelines and policies set by WhatsApp that businesses must adhere to. It’s important to comply with anti-spam regulations, obtain proper consent from customers before sending marketing messages, and respect user privacy.
Written by
Katie Morley
Katie is an award-winning content marketer with over eight years of experience in content strategy, development, and copywriting. As Global Content Director at Insider, she currently oversees content strategy across 26 regions. Fun fact: Katie read 64 books last year (for which she owes a long commute and two week-long holidays where she spent approximately six hours a day with her nose in a book).
