WhatsApp Marketing: Best Practices and Strategies for 2024

Discover the optimal methods to leverage WhatsApp as a potent marketing channel, enabling you to extract the utmost potential and achieve exceptional return on investment (ROI). Stay updated with the latest strategies aimed at amplifying value and maximizing the effectiveness of your WhatsApp marketing efforts.

In our latest examination of messaging patterns, we discovered that businesses were utilizing WhatsApp Business Platform to send promotional messages and cultivate leads for purchase at a higher rate. Specifically, our analysis revealed a 27% increase in marketing messages sent via WhatsApp in 2023 compared to the previous year.

In this blog post, we will elucidate the reasons why it is imperative for you to hop on the bandwagon and incorporate WhatsApp into your marketing endeavors. Furthermore, we will provide insights on how to differentiate yourself with a WhatsApp marketing strategy that yields tangible outcomes.

What is WhatsApp marketing?

Put simply, WhatsApp marketing is promotion of a brands’ products and services over the WhatsApp channel.

Brands should remember that WhatsApp is a conversational platform used by customers to chat with friends and family, so having a strong (and non-spammy) strategy is key. Otherwise, you run the risk of building a poor reputation and losing opt-ins.

So, WhatsApp marketing is about brands chatting with customers while promoting their services with relevant and timely messages.

ALSO READ: WhatsApp rolling out new updates for iPhone users: new design, improved navigation and more

8 benefits of WhatsApp for marketing

1. Global reach

WhatsApp is the world’s most popular chat app – in fact it was declared the leading communication channel for smartphone users in 2023. It is used by more than 2 billion people in over 180 countries and supports 70 languages.

2. High engagement

Globally, the average user spent 17 hours a month on the app and checks it 12 times a day in 2022 – meaning your marketing messages get the best visibility.

3. Security and trust

As WhatsApp has strict rules requiring brands to obtain opt-ins from customers, consumers are far more likely to open and engage with messages as they trust that they are legitimate and relevant. WhatsApp also encrypts messages, doesn’t share information with third parties, and there are no ads to distract users from your own marketing messages.

4. High open rate, low bounce rate

Due to this trust, WhatsApp messages have a massive 98% open rate, significantly higher than channels like email and SMS.

5. Easy integrations by API

WhatsApp offers a programmable API which means that it can be easily integrated into any business’s existing marketing stack to enable WhatsApp messaging at scale.

6. Full-funnel interactions

With WhatsApp you can use a single channel to interact with customers all the way from the discovery phase through to purchase and beyond to keep customers engaged and loyal.

7. Ideal for business users

The WhatsApp Business Platform provides organizations of all sizes with features and capability designed specifically for business use cases with brand messages being delivered to the same inbox as users’ personal communication.

8. It enables conversational marketing

Thanks to the rich messaging features on WhatsApp and end-to-end journey interactions, WhatsApp is one of the best channels to enable conversational marketing strategies.

Best practices for using WhatsApp as a marketing channel

There are a wide range of features and capabilities businesses can take advantage of when using WhatsApp for marketing efforts. Let’s break down the most important ones and how to get the most out of them.

Launch click to chat ads

Collecting opt-ins is essential, without them you can’t start a conversation or send any promotional messages. There are multiple ways to collect opt-ins but click to chat ads are among the more popular and effective methods.

As part of your strategy, launch targeted and relevant ads on Instagram or Facebook, with a “send message to WhatsApp” button that gives customers easy access to start the conversation. Once the ad is launched on Facebook Ad Manager and connected to a WhatsApp chatbot, your business can access specific data on how many conversations were initiated and behavioral data such as conversion tracking on websites or mobile apps, post-purchase experiences, abandoned cart recovery, and the end-to-end marketing funnel from the number of impressions in the Facebook feed to the number of conversions and ROAS for each campaign.

It can be used for any stage of the journey, from initial discovery of your brand, to targeted re-engagement, making conversational marketing a breeze.

But this is just scratching the surface of the many benefits from using click to WhatsApp ads.

ALSO READ: How to enable WhatsApp on multiple phones

Set up WhatsApp Flows

A major benefit of using a conversational channel like WhatsApp is keeping the user experience seamless, easy, and of course, within the channel. WhatsApp Flows is designed to help improve customer experience over WhatsApp by simplifying use cases that would otherwise require switching to a third-party website or app. It enables businesses to offer an end-to-end journey all within WhatsApp.

Check out how you can generate leads and collect subscriptions within WhatsApp with Flows:

Deploy a WhatsApp chatbot

Use an automated chatbot over WhatsApp to connect with customers. Your chatbot should reflect your brand persona through its messaging style and image. It is an ideal way to carry out your marketing campaigns and continue the conversation with customers. Connecting your chatbot to a customer data platform will allow you to collect valuable first party data which you can use to better target existing customers in the future.

Luckily, setting up a chatbot isn’t as hard as you might think. There are free templates available that can help you quickly launch a reliable chatbot in a matter of minutes. Checkout our guide to building a chatbot on WhatsApp to get you started:

Set up WhatsApp product catalogs

This feature enables you to add up to 30 products with photos and detailed descriptions that people can browse from within the WhatsApp chat. This feature is also available to integrate via the API. When a person wants to purchase an item, they can make a payment within WhatsApp, or click through to your website’s checkout page complete the transaction. This allows customers to transition from each stage of the journey seamlessly by remaining within the WhatsApp conversation.

Take payments via WhatsApp

If your conversational marketing flows have been successful, and your customer has reached the end of the funnel, don’t redirect them to a new channel – keep everything within WhatsApp by enabling payments on WhatsApp. For the time being, this feature is only available in India and Brazil, but WhatsApp will expand this offer to other regions in the future. Get prepared and learn more about how to use payments in this blog.

How to create a WhatsApp marketing strategy

So, now that you know about the benefits of WhatsApp marketing, and some powerful features that can level up your efforts, how do you put it all together to build a successful strategy?

Here’s a quick checklist of all the steps you will need to cover:

1. Decide how you will use WhatsApp

Depending on the size of your business and the marketing use cases you want to cover, you can use the WhatsApp Business App or the WhatsApp Business Platform.

At a very high level the app is better suited to smaller businesses while larger enterprise businesses will get more benefit from the WhatsApp Business Platform due to its scalability and automation options.

To help you decide, you should read our useful guide on the differences between the WhatsApp Business App and WhatsApp Business Platform.

Here’s a quick comparison to help you decide which works best for your business:

	WhatsApp Business App	WhatsApp Business Platform
Audience	Small/medium size businesses and entrepreneurs	Medium/large size businesses or SMBs looking to scale
Platform	App or browser	Solution provider like Infobip
Number of users	Up to 4 agents	Unlimited
Features	Business profile Product catalog Broadcast messages (limited to one message) Automated messages (limited) Group chats (can both create and participate in) Voice/video calls Green tick verification is not supported No buttons	Business profile Product catalogue Broadcast messages Automated messages (unlimited, including chatbots) Session messages Group chats (create but not participate in) Official Business Account (green tick) available Various types of CTA buttons
Integrations	Not supported	Supports integrations

2. Define your WhatsApp opt-in strategy

We’ve touched on opt-ins via click to chat ads above, but there are multiple ways you can collect opt-ins.

Opt-ins must be collected before you message a customer using WhatsApp. If a customer completes a consent form, or if they initiate the conversation, you have collected their opt-in for receiving messages over WhatsApp. The business is responsible for storing opt-ins (aka customer consent to receive messages from your brand).

When collecting opt-ins, you must:

clearly state that a person is opting in to receive messages from your business over WhatsApp
clearly state the business name that a person is opting in to receive messages from
comply with all meta regulations and local regulations

You can then consider how you will maximize opt-ins.

Consider advertising on Facebook and Instagram with ads that click to WhatsApp
Displaying an opt-in link on your website and social media pages
Build opt-in requests into your business workflows, for example at checkout show customers the benefits of opting in to receive delivery notifications, product registration help, or special offers on related products
Use QR codes on outdoor media and product packaging that when scanned launch a WhatsApp chat with your brand.

3. Identify key use cases and message types

Look at your current marketing strategy and funnel and determine where you can best use WhatsApp to boost engagement. Perhaps you struggle with lead generation, or your conversion rate is low.

Part of this process should be to identify the types of messages that you will use, for example: list messages for booking appointments or displaying past orders, CTA buttons for easy replies, maps for location services, and other rich media to add value to your interactions.

4. Define your target audience and build personas

The people that you send marketing messages to on WhatsApp will be a subset of your total customer database, in that they must be users of the app and must have opted in to receiving messages. Beyond those commonalities they will be as diverse and different in their expectations and requirements. Take time to determine who you are targeting, what their needs are and how you can use WhatsApp to help them meet those needs.

A customer data platform will help you collect data on customers and store it in one place. Then you can create detailed customer profiles that will help you determine what personas you are targeting and how to effectively communicate with them.

5. Set measurable goals

Outline measurable KPIs that will help you track progress once you include WhatsApp in your strategy. This could include conversion rate, cost per conversion, or click rates on campaigns. Setting clear and measurable marketing goals will help you understand the impact that WhatsApp is having on achieving your business goals.

6. Define your brand persona for WhatsApp messages

People use WhatsApp to connect with friends and family and have personal conversations. When using the app to interact with a brand, they expect the same type of experience. Make sure that your brand persona and tone of voice can be properly presented on the chat app.

It is a good opportunity to show your brand’s playful and human side, which makes for more engaging marketing interactions. WhatsApp is not the right channel for boring and robotic conversations.

7. Create workflows (WhatsApp Marketing)

Building out your workflows is key to delivering the right message, to the right person, at the right time. Using an omnichannel customer engagement solution such as Moments can help you design and launch interactions with engaging message types over WhatsApp.

Checkout a list of use cases and what rich message types from WhatsApp that would make your messages stand out:

Event triggered notifications

Use event or behavior triggered messaging to reach your customers at the right time. If a customer’s favorite item is out of stock, send them offers for similar products over WhatsApp to encourage a sale.

Ideal message type: Carousels

Cart abandonment

The immediacy and high open rate of WhatsApp messages make it an ideal channel for converting cart abandoners. Send coupons and reminders to encourage a conversion.

Ideal message type: Coupon codes

Transfer to an agent

WhatsApp is also ideal for customer service. Transfer customers to speak with an agent when they have a more complex query over chat or voice call.

Ideal message type: Quick reply buttons

Appointment booking

Streamline your processes and reduce the workload of your staff by providing self-service appointment scheduling options for customers via WhatsApp.

Ideal message type: List messages

Timed messages

Use WhatsApp to send promotional messages at the best time or date to convert. For example, when a sale starts, or prior to the expiry date of a contract.

Ideal message type: Limited time offers message types

Upsell and cross-sell

Send customers related product recommendations based on purchases or items that they have shown an interest in or placed in their shopping cart.

Ideal message type: Product catalogs

WhatsApp marketing examples

Nivea

Nivea launched a highly creative and successful campaign around their Cocoa Shades lines that used a WhatsApp chatbot to connect with consumers in their target market with a positive message celebrating diversity. Their goal was to improve engagement by connecting with customers one-on-one. The campaign was so successful that it achieved 207% of its reach target and is being used as a global case study for the brand.

Kibon

Kibon, a beloved ice cream brand and part of Unilever, needed to find a way to streamline B2B communication with their partners as they moved to digital forms of communication. A WhatsApp chatbot allowed Kibon to cover the entire partner journey over the chat app. The WhatsApp campaign generated 30,000% ROI in three days with 74% of partners viewing the campaign on WhatsApp.

WhatsApp marketing for any industry

Retail and eCommerce

Send promotional messages for new products: based on customer interests you can send targeted messages for new products, with full descriptions for customers to browse within the chat.
Back-in-stock messages: instantly send back-in-stock messages for your customers favorite products along with CTA buttons for reserving or purchasing the products in WhatsApp.
Abandoned cart messages: remind customers to complete their purchases so they don’t lose the opportunity to buy what they left in their carts.

Telecommunications with WhatsApp Marketing

Loyalty promotions: launch loyalty campaigns with special contracts or plans for loyal customers.
Phone recommendations: When a customer’s contract is almost up or they haven’t purchased a phone in some time, send them a list of phones that fit their needs within WhatsApp. The customer can browse product details and ask to be transferred to an agent for more information.
SIM registrations: Help customers to register new SIM cards by deploying a WhatsApp chatbot that guides them through the process without them having to visit a physical store.
Top up data: Enable customers to easily top up their data or upgrade their contracts.

Banking and financial services (WhatsApp Marketing)

Lead generation chatbot: use a self-service chatbot that can help customers navigate the discovery stage of their journey. The WhatsApp chatbot can answer questions about accounts, plans and send educational videos and materials to help with converting the lead.
Account registration: Open up cross sell opportunities by enabling customers to register for new accounts via WhatsApp. Read how our customer DinarPAY did this very successfully.
Time-sensitive promotions: send customers campaigns with time-sensitive promotions for better interest rates or collecting loyalty points. On WhatsApp, your campaigns have the best visibility, so they are sure to be seen and acted on quickly when sent to the right audience.

Building a chatbot on WhatsApp using Infobip’s chatbot-building platform Answers has helped us introduce self-service options to customers. As a result, we’ve seen a reduction in the volume of queries coming to our customer care center and a 40% increase in click-through rates – rising from 20% to 60%. The onboarding assistance and servicing we received from Infobip have made sure that the integrations were easily made.

Find out how Anand Rathi, one of India’s leading financial services firms specializing in wealth management and investment banking used a WhatsApp chatbot to provide an interactive customer experience. The overall impact of the innovative solution was a 40% increase in click-through rate from 20% to 60%.

Kick-start your WhatsApp marketing strategy

WhatsApp Business Platform messaging is a powerful and wide-reaching communication platform that can help you create meaningful connections with your customers. That’s why a WhatsApp marketing strategy is a key part of your marketing arsenal, supporting your customer experience goals and helping to add value at critical moments in the customer journey.