How to choose the best WhatsApp business platform for your brand
Choosing the right marketing technology for your brand can be difficult. With so many options available—from all-in-one players to point solutions to add-ons—the process demands careful consideration and dedication of time.
Updated on 15 Aug 2024
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WhatsApp Business has emerged as a powerful tool for brands to engage with customers in real-time, foster relationships, and streamline communication. However, the challenge lies in selecting the best WhatsApp Business platform that aligns seamlessly with your brand’s unique needs and objectives.
From understanding the features offered by different platforms to evaluating their compatibility with your business model, it’s essential to have a clear understanding of your requirements to make an informed decision.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the benefits of a WhatsApp Business Platform, how to choose the right one for you, top tips for using WhatsApp for business, and the best WhatsApp Business Platforms for 2023. Let’s get started.
What is a WhatsApp Business Platform?
A WhatsApp Business Platform is a tool that enables businesses to communicate with individual recipients through WhatsApp, offering built-in business features such as automatic quick responses and a company profile.
A WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP) is a Meta Business Partner that has been proven to help brands use the WhatsApp Business Platform (API). WhatsApp Business Solution Providers are approved by Meta to help other brands unlock the potential of the WhatsApp Business API.
Insider became one of Meta’s official WhatsApp Business Solution Providers (BSP) following its acquisition of MindBehind to develop the next generation of WhatsApp Business solutions. This strategic acquisition enabled Insider to accelerate its WhatsApp conversational commerce solutions development, rooted in MindBehind’s world-class technology. The move means marketers can now design and deploy highly effective conversational customer experiences to improve customer engagement, increase lead generation, and boost sales revenue.
The benefits of a WhatsApp Business Platform
There are many reasons why brands shouldn’t sleep on their WhatsApp marketing strategy. Here are the top 10:
- It enables direct customer communication
WhatsApp Business enables direct and real-time communication with customers, allowing businesses to provide quick responses to inquiries, address concerns, and offer support.
- You can create a professional business profile
Businesses can create a dedicated business profile on WhatsApp, providing essential information such as business description, location, contact details, and operating hours to help build trust and credibility.
- It enables automated messaging
Using features like quick replies and automated greeting messages, businesses can save time by automating responses to frequently asked questions or setting up welcome messages for new customers.
- You can use advanced customer segmentation
WhatsApp Business allows for the categorization of contacts, making it easier for businesses to send targeted messages and promotions to specific customer groups. This can help reduce costs and improve ROI from your WhatsApp marketing activity.
- You can share rich media images
Businesses can share images, videos, and documents with customers, facilitating more engaging and informative interactions. This helps build more credibility and trust with customers.
- You can share immediate order updates and notifications
For businesses involved in e-commerce, WhatsApp Business can be used to provide customers with order updates, shipping information, and other relevant notifications.
- You can use WhatsApp to ask for feedback via surveys
Businesses can gather feedback from customers through WhatsApp, allowing for continuous improvement and a better understanding of customer satisfaction.
- You can access analytics and insights to improve performance
Many WhatsApp Business platforms offer analytics tools that provide insights into message delivery, open rates, and customer engagement, helping businesses measure the effectiveness of their communication strategies.
- It enables global reach
With its widespread global user base of over 2 billion users, WhatsApp allows businesses to reach a broad audience, making it an effective platform for international communication and customer engagement.
- It’s a cost-effective method of communication
WhatsApp Business can be a cost-effective solution for customer communication, especially when compared to traditional methods like SMS or phone calls.
How to choose the best WhatsApp Business Solution for your business
Choosing the best WhatsApp Business Platform for your business takes time and care. There are five key steps to take when choosing a platform to make sure that it best suits your needs.
- Define your business requirements
Before diving into the selection process, it’s crucial to clearly define your business needs. Consider the volume and nature of WhatsApp messages you’d like to send. What type of campaigns do you want to send on WhatsApp? Why will this impact your business?
Understanding your specific requirements will help to guide the selection process and ensure that the chosen platform aligns with your business goals. If you don’t begin by defining your business requirements, you can’t evaluate each platform’s ability to deliver against them.
- Evaluate features and functionality in detail
Assessing the features and functionality of different WhatsApp Business Platforms is critical. Once you’ve defined your business requirements, you can look for capabilities that match your objectives.
For instance, if personalized communication is vital, consider platforms that offer advanced customer segmentation and targeted messaging features. Evaluate automation tools, analytics capabilities, and any unique features that can enhance your customer communication strategy. A comprehensive understanding of the platform’s features will help you make an informed decision based on your business requirements.
- Consider integration possibilities
Integration is key to a seamless business operation. Check whether the WhatsApp Business Platform integrates with your existing tools and systems, such as CRM software, e-commerce platforms, or customer support systems.
Integration streamlines workflows, reduces manual efforts, and provides a unified view of customer interactions. Choosing a platform that easily integrates with your existing tech stack contributes to operational efficiency and a cohesive customer experience.
- Consider scalability
As your business grows, so will the volume of customer interactions. Selecting a WhatsApp Business Platform that can scale alongside your business is essential. Ensure that the platform can handle increasing communication demands and is at the forefront of WhatsApp innovation. This will ensure you don’t have to switch to another platform later down the line.
Scalability is a critical factor in preventing the need for frequent platform migrations, saving time and resources in the long run.
- Evaluate ease of use
User-friendliness is a fundamental consideration, especially if your team will be using the platform on a regular basis. Opt for a platform with an intuitive interface and straightforward navigation. A user-friendly platform minimizes the learning curve, reduces the need for extensive training, and enables your team to leverage the platform’s features effectively. A smooth and user-friendly experience contributes to higher adoption rates and efficient usage of the WhatsApp Business Platform within your organization.
Best WhatsApp Business Platforms for 2024
#1 Insider
Insider is the ultimate WhatsApp business platform for brands looking to engage customers on their favorite channel. Insider empowers brands to deliver marketing, commerce, and customer engagement experiences within WhatsApp—without any redirects. Insider makes WhatsApp business messaging super simple, so brands can focus on what matters most: delighting and engaging customers.
Insider’s integration of the WhatsApp API includes features such as frequency capping and silent hours set by artificial intelligence using predictive behavior models. This, plus dynamic, context-sensitive media, interactive buttons, and more allows brands to engage effortlessly with their audience—when it’s most convenient for them.
Using WhatsApp Business API with Insider’s proven experience helps businesses provide users with more meaningful customer journeys, backed by proactive and personalized messaging.
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“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 a variety of different automations.”
— Digital Marketing Manager at a leading US retail brand.
Access Insider’s WhatsApp Commerce
Insider also offers industry-leading WhatsApp Commerce. WhatsApp Commerce allows businesses to deliver immersive web-style experiences within WhatsApp, combined with the power of two-way conversational messaging.
This pioneering technology enables businesses to create seamless buying experiences, from sending personalized promotions, capturing leads, and launching products to delivering post-purchase confirmations and loyalty experiences. Businesses can offer more value based on the users’ willingness to engage, heralding a new age where consumers can discover, browse, and buy products, and engage with businesses—right within the app where they spend most of their time and in the conversational style they use with their friends and family.
Insider also makes it easy to:
- Send promotional and transactional messages: Insider offers various message types, including promotional messages, real-time alerts, segmented promotions, event reminders, and purchase confirmations.
- Access the analytics dashboard to review and improve performance: Insider provides a single, user-friendly dashboard for tracking opt-ins, opens, delivery rates, and click-throughs for each WhatsApp marketing campaign.
- Grow your subscriber base: Brands can start building immediately with engaging and compliant WhatsApp lead collection templates across desktop and mobile channels. These templates are expert-approved and ready to go.
How MadeiraMadeira improved AOV and achieved a 3.5X higher CVR with Insider’s WhatsApp marketing software
With Insider, MadeiraMadeira’s marketing team managed to run one of the most successful WhatsApp campaigns in the industry with personalized, contextual, and timely communication, including campaign promotions, purchase confirmations, order updates, reminders, and so much more, for each user.
“I would recommend Insider to any brand that is looking to bring better value in 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.”
— Marketing Manager at MadeiraMadeira
If you want to learn more about Insider’s innovative approach to WhatsApp Marketing, you can download Rethinking WhatsApp today. This ebook explores 12 ways brands can supercharge their customer experience through WhatsApp marketing with Insider.
The ebook discusses how brands can use Insider’s WhatsApp business solution combined with its advanced customer journey builder (Architect) to deliver seamless experiences at scale. And not just on WhatsApp either, Architect allows brands to send consistent messages across 12+ channels. Download today to find out more.
Download Rethinking WhatsApp today to discover why Insider is the #1 choice for brands looking to engage their audience on their favorite channel with WhatsApp marketing
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“Insider has helped us remarkably strengthen one of our main messaging channels [WhatsApp], optimizing it not only for conversions but also for real-time conversations with our customers. With this, we are able to show our customers that we care about them and listen to them. This has been very important for our business, helping us build trust and loyalty with our customers.”
—Director of eCommerce at a leading retail brand
Discover more with Insider’s WhatsApp Explorer
What could you do with WhatsApp? Explore 40+ pre-approved templates to tackle anything from churn rate and customer loyalty to conversion and subscription. Take a look at Insider’s WhatsApp Explorer today to discover our expert-approved and ready-to-go WhatsApp message templates.
#2 MoEngage
MoEngage‘s WhatsApp Marketing Platform offers a comprehensive solution to enhance customer engagement and drive results. This platform enables omnichannel engagement by integrating WhatsApp into various channels, allowing personalized communication, product recommendations, and campaign sharing. The emphasis on personalization and segmentation ensures tailored messages based on customer preferences and behavior.
MoEngage’s commitment to a holistic view of customer profiles facilitates customized interactions, making it a scalable and data-driven solution for businesses looking to leverage WhatsApp for effective marketing campaigns.
Learn: 7 Best Moengage Competitors and Alternatives
#3 Braze
With features like Audience Sync, Braze facilitates real-time, two-way messaging at scale. Users can create a WhatsApp Business Account within Braze to streamline management. The platform’s intuitive composer enables marketers to build, preview, and send WhatsApp messages efficiently, incorporating rich, interactive elements like images and quick reply buttons.
To boost engagement and conversions, Braze allows the creation of dynamic brand conversations using Canvas Flow, their journey orchestration tool. The platform emphasizes personalization through advanced segmentation, dynamic content personalization, and AI-driven messaging to deliver the right content at the right time.
Learn: 11 Best Braze Competitors and Alternatives
Why brands choose Insider’s WhatsApp business solution
Insider is the trusted partner for over 1,200 brands, assisting both leading enterprise brands and high-growth startups in delivering deligthful customer experiences. Recognized as an Official WhatsApp Business Solution Provider, Insider collaborates with Meta’s product teams to contribute to the evolution of the next generation of WhatsApp Business solutions, revolutionizing the interaction between brands and consumers.
The platform provides advanced capabilities in customer segmentation, allowing users to identify, define, and target their audience using 120+ attributes such as traits, behaviors, and preferences. With centralized customer profile management, Insider facilitates the unification of data from various sources, including websites, apps, email, CRM, POS, and contact centers, creating a consistent and comprehensive 360-degree customer view.
Leveraging AI-based insights powered by built-in AI and machine learning, Insider enables quick and intelligent marketing decision-making. Moreover, with a collection of 100+ pre-built templates designed for web and apps, Insider’s intuitive editor expedites the launch and customization of personalized customer experiences.
Learn more
If you’d like to learn more about how Insider can supercharge your WhatsApp marketing strategy, then book a demo with one of our experts. We’d love to show you how we do things around here.
Frequently Asked Questions
The WhatsApp Business Platform is tailored for larger enterprises and businesses with advanced requirements, often dealing with substantial scale and complexity. It provides a comprehensive set of features, including advanced automation, integration capabilities, and extensive customer engagement tools. Businesses leveraging the WhatsApp Business Platform typically collaborate directly with WhatsApp as Official Solution Providers, working closely with the platform to offer tailored solutions and support.
WhatsApp Business is designed for smaller businesses and individual entrepreneurs seeking a direct communication channel with their customers. It is a more accessible and straightforward solution, with simplified features compared to the platform version. Businesses using WhatsApp Business can directly set up their accounts through the WhatsApp Business app, making it suitable for smaller operations.
Firstly, apply for the WhatsApp Business Solution through a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider like Insider to undergo a verification process for access. Collaborate with your chosen provider to integrate the platform with your existing systems, ensuring a centralized approach to customer communication.
It’s essential to comply with WhatsApp policies and regulations and stay informed about any updates. Train your team on effective platform usage, conduct testing for seamless integration, and stay connected with your provider for ongoing support.
