Joy in the Inbox: How Insider and Meta Turn WhatsApp Into Your Holiday Growth Engine

In the race to capture shopper attention this holiday season, brands that communicate with customers (not at them) drive growth. 

Shoppers expect convenience, speed, and a personal touch across every channel, and real-time messaging delivers all three.

Taylan Yapici (Insider’s Group Product Manager) recently sat down with Daniela Birnbaum (Meta’s Strategic Partner Manager) to discuss how brands can transform WhatsApp into their most powerful holiday marketing channel. 

Insider’s webinar, Joy in the Inbox: Holiday Playbook for WhatsApp Marketing, unpacked new consumer behaviors, practical use cases, and why the partnership between Insider and Meta is redefining omnichannel customer engagement.

The new holiday shopper

Last year, 45% of shoppers in North America and EMEA waited until November to make a purchase, with many delaying purchases until Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) to get the best discounts. 

To communicate with their favorite brands last holiday season, 42% of shoppers used business messaging, with a whopping 85% choosing WhatsApp as their preferred channel. As a result, WhatsApp activity within the Insider ecosystem doubled last year during this peak season. 

So, it’s clear that business messaging and WhatsApp should be a part of your holiday strategy this year. But why do consumers prefer it?

Daniela Birnbau explained that it’s because today’s consumers crave simplicity, speed, and convenience, even if it’s through AI. Our data supports this:

• 40% of shoppers say it’s the easiest and most convenient method
• 36% think they get a quicker response than other methods
• 33% say they’re able to communicate with a person live
• 27% are more confident communicating through a messaging service

What’s in it for brands? Business messaging balances immediacy and authenticity while outperforming traditional outreach.

• 51% to 87% higher conversion rates vs. traditional channels
• 64% customer retention rates (up from 51% previously)
• 54% improvement in agent productivity in customer care

For brands planning 2025 holiday campaigns, the data points to an evolution in how customers engage. Business Messaging complements traditional channels like SMS and email with faster, more conversational interactions that help move shoppers from interest to purchase.

Insider and Meta: Better together for WhatsApp Marketing

With over two billion users worldwide, WhatsApp offers unparalleled reach. But scale alone can’t create meaningful engagement. That’s where Insider steps in.

Insider’s platform continuously ingests product, loyalty, campaign, and other data across multiple platforms to build unified customer profiles, create smart segmentation, and power three layers of AI:

• Predictive AI identifies the next best action for each user.
• Generative AI creates content and journeys on demand, cutting campaign build times by half while maintaining brand voice and compliance.
• Agentic AI acts in real time, not just recommending but also executing brand guardrails.

Working together, these AI models enable personalization across the entire customer lifecycle. And, because speed is critical during the holiday season, Insider’s AI-powered Smart Journey Creator helps marketers craft ready-to-use journeys based on brand needs in minutes instead of hours.  

Combined, Meta’s global messaging reach and Insider’s AI-powered campaign orchestrator helps brands build, personalize, and send more relevant customer conversations across the journey.

Connect to holiday season customers through conversation

Every marketer knows that friction can kill conversion. WhatsApp’s conversational format removes that friction by allowing customers and brands to connect instantly, whether a shopper initiates the chat or a business reaches out first. 

User-initiated conversations

There are two types of user-initiated messages, both of which open the door for more personal interactions that drive loyalty and conversion: 

Customer Support

Some of the most authentic interactions begin with the customer. When shoppers message a brand directly (to ask about product availability or check shipping details, for instance), it creates a natural opportunity to respond in real time and strengthen trust.

Click to WhatsApp Ads

Another driver of customer-led moments is Click to WhatsApp Ads. When customers tap these ads on Facebook or Instagram, they open a chat with the brand inside WhatsApp, turning a simple ad click into a personalized conversation that can lead to conversion and loyalty. 

Brands can capture these spontaneous, high-intent interactions and fold them into larger customer journeys that include follow-up messages, offers, and support. You can generate leads, drive consultative sales, build a customer or subscription base, distribute coupons, and more. 

Click to WhatsApp campaigns use conversation to propel the customer journey

Business-initiated conversations

There are three types of business-initiated messages, each serving a distinct role across the customer lifecycle: 

1. Marketing messages that capture attention and inspire: Send re-engagement nudges, limited-time offers, or personalized recommendations enhanced with rich media like videos, product cards, emojis, and stickers. We have seen 20x ROI on WhatsApp compared to SMS or email. 
2. Utility messages that reassure: Provide order confirmations, payment alerts, and delivery updates directly in apps. Each message eliminates uncertainty and builds trust. Utility messages are especially important during the busy holiday season, helping to reduce inbound service requests during a high-volume period.
3. Authentication messages that protect: Use one-time codes or secure verification links for account creation, recovery, and checkout. Customers stay within a trusted environment, providing a safe and secure shopping experience

AI-Powered innovation for the holidays and beyond

What truly differentiates Insider’s WhatsApp solution is the intelligence behind it. The company’s agentic AI suite transforms automation and is expected to make a significant difference this holiday season.

• Support Agent integrates with a brand’s existing systems (CRMs, payment gateways, order systems, etc.) and knowledge base, resulting in instantaneous and conversational support and issue resolution. It includes a personalization layer with centralized data for unique interactions and targeted communication. Early adopters report a 60% reduction in support costs, a resolution rate of 85%, and 90% answer accuracy. 
• Shopping Agent acts as a digital sales assistant who reads intent, preferences, and user behavior to guide customers through the purchase funnel (without relying on search bars or filters). Early adopters report 10% increase in conversion rate, 22% increase in AOV, and 34% increase in revenue per visit, driving measurable holiday pipeline growth. 

Together, these two AI-powered capabilities enable marketers to deliver seamless, one-to-one experiences across channels (including WhatsApp, SMS marketing for the holiday season, and email marketing), helping every holiday interaction feel timely, personal, and perfectly aligned with customer intent.

 Best practices for the holiday rush

Yapici closed the webinar with five practical guidelines for building an effective holiday WhatsApp strategy:

1. Build your list early using your existing customer base, Insider’s gamified lead-collection templates, and/or Click to WhatsApp ads.
2. Match the tone of the channel with friendly language, emojis, and stickers.
3. Provide users with the option to opt out to ensure better deliverability and drive user trust.
4. Segment by use case to avoid message fatigue.
5. Personalize every message with our unified profiles and predictive AI to send the right message at the right time.

As marketers prepare for the year’s busiest season, conversation is the new conversion. 

With Insider and Meta, brands can meet shoppers where they already are (on WhatsApp) and turn every interaction into a moment of connection. 

Whether it’s guiding a purchase, resolving an issue, driving holiday personalization, or sparking loyalty long after checkout, real-time messaging gives marketers the agility and authenticity today’s customers expect.

Watch the webinar