WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging platforms with over 2 billion active users worldwide. This massive user base presents a huge opportunity for businesses looking to connect with customers. One way businesses can leverage WhatsApp is through broadcast messaging, allowing you to send a single message to many recipients at once. Broadcast messaging opens up new possibilities for sales and marketing.
Selling through WhatsApp broadcast involves creating and sending promotional broadcasts to a targeted list of contacts. It provides a way to advertise products, share special offers and discounts, and drive sales. However, there are specific guidelines and best practices to follow when using WhatsApp for commercial messaging. Here, we will explore everything you need to know about how to effectively sell on WhatsApp broadcast.
Benefits of Selling on WhatsApp Broadcast
Using WhatsApp broadcast for sales and promotions provides several key advantages:
– **Reach a large audience instantly**: You can easily send a single message to hundreds or thousands of customers at once. This enables you to achieve greater reach than manual messaging.
– **Personalized communication**: Despite reaching many people, broadcasting on WhatsApp still feels like personalized communication rather than robotic bulk messaging.
– **Higher open & response rates**: Since WhatsApp messages appear in the main messaging thread, they have much higher open and response rates compared to other channels like email.
– **Low cost**: Sending WhatsApp broadcasts is free, making it a highly cost-effective promotional channel. The only cost is your time.
– **Easy tracking**: You can easily track message delivery and opt-ins to monitor broadcast campaign performance.
– **Leverage existing customer base**: Chances are, you already have a WhatsApp subscriber base you can broadcast to. This enables instant access to an engaged audience.
– **Generate more sales**: Broadcasts are a proven way to boost sales, traffic, and conversions when crafted effectively. It provides a direct line to convert contacts into customers.
With these advantages in mind, incorporating WhatsApp broadcast into your sales and marketing strategy can be highly beneficial. The key is executing it thoughtfully and strategically.
Rules & Regulations for WhatsApp Business Broadcasting
When selling through WhatsApp broadcasts, you must operate within WhatsApp’s rules and regulations to avoid having your account banned. Here are the key guidelines to follow:
– **Obtain opt-in consent**: You must have clear permission from each recipient before adding them to your broadcast list. You cannot randomly message people without consent.
– **Honor opt-out requests**: Provide a clear opt-out process and immediately remove any recipient who requests to be unsubscribed.
– **Limit promotional content**: No more than 30% of your messages should be promotional content like sales broadcasts. The rest should be conversational.
– **Identify as a business**: Use a business profile and clearly identify your business name so recipients know the source.
– **Don’t spam**: Only send useful content recipients would find relevant and avoid spamming them with constant broadcasts.
– **Use WhatsApp-compliant tools**: Only use officially approved tools and services for managing your WhatsApp account and broadcasts. Avoid third-party mass messaging apps.
– **Respect privacy**: Do not share or use contact data without permission and comply with local data protection regulations.
Following these rules helps build trust, deliver value, and sustainably grow your WhatsApp subscriber base for long-term success. Violating the guidelines can result in WhatsApp suspending your account.
Step 1 – Create a WhatsApp Business Profile
The first step is to create a WhatsApp Business Profile, which unlocks additional features not available on a standard WhatsApp account. Here is how to set one up:
1. Download the WhatsApp Business app on your phone. It’s available for both Android and iOS.
2. Open the app and agree to the Terms of Service.
3. Enter your business phone number and verify it through SMS.
4. Give your business a name, description, profile photo, and other details that will be visible to customers.
5. Select the categories that best describe your business.
Once your business profile is created, you can access tools like quick replies, greeting messages, and broadcasting that you can use for sales and promotion.
Step 2 – Build Your WhatsApp Broadcast List
The foundation of any successful broadcast campaign is your broadcast list. This includes collecting phone numbers of contacts who have agreed to receive your commercial messages. Here are some ways to responsibly build your WhatsApp broadcast list:
– **Website opt-in**: Allow website visitors to opt-in by providing their phone number. Be transparent that they will receive promotional messages.
– **Physical opt-ins**: Collect phone numbers in-store from customers interested in receiving updates and offers.
– **Existing customer base**: Segment your customer database and reach out to gather opt-ins from contacts open to receiving WhatsApp broadcasts.
– **Social media followers**: Run social media ads inviting followers to join your WhatsApp list.
– **QR code**: Print a QR code allowing people to easily scan and join your broadcast list.
The focus should be on building quality over quantity – an engaged list of loyal customers and subscribers who want to hear from you. Avoid the temptation to buy random phone number lists which lack opt-in consent. Build your list slowly and consistently.
Step 3 – Create Engaging Broadcast Content
To maximize open and response rates for your broadcasts, you need compelling content people want to receive. Here are some tips for creating effective WhatsApp broadcast messages:
– **Offer discounts or coupons**: Special promotional offers entice people to buy your products or services.
– **Share new product announcements**: Launching something new? Let your subscribers know first about new menu items, products, or services.
– **Send event reminders and invites**: Remind customers about upcoming events or invite them to special sales and events.
– **Provide exclusive sneak peeks**: Give your subscribers access to new arrivals, inventory, or content before anyone else.
– **Deliver value-added content**: Could be helpful tips, behind-the-scenes footage, or entertaining content.
– **Poll subscribers**: Interact with subscribers by asking questions and polling for opinions using built-in WhatsApp Polls.
– **Segment and personalize**: Tailor content based on subscriber preferences, demographics, and purchase history data.
– **Make it actionable**: Include clear calls-to-action so recipients know any next steps you want them to take.
A balance of promotional content, valuable information, and entertainment is ideal. Test different types of content and analyze performance data to determine what resonates best with your subscribers.
Step 4 – Manage Your Broadcast Workflow
Manually messaging hundreds of customers is time-consuming. That’s where tools like WhatsApp Business API and third-party apps come in handy to automate and manage your broadcasting. Here are some options:
– **WhatsApp Business API**: Integrate directly with the WhatsApp API to build scalable broadcasting capabilities into your business systems and workflows.
– **3rd party apps**: Use dedicated tools like Chatmatic, Wassenger, etc designed for managing WhatsApp business messaging at scale.
– **Social media management platforms**: Certain platforms like Hootsuite also offer WhatsApp messaging integration and automation.
– **CRM software**: Sync your CRM system like Salesforce with WhatsApp to streamline sending broadcasts to customer contacts.
– **Custom development**: For ultimate customization, have developers build WhatsApp broadcasting features tailored to your specific needs.
Look for tools that make it easy to schedule messages, track performance, export reports, follow up automatically, and more. Proper broadcasting tools will help you save time and communicate with customers more efficiently.
Step 5 – Measure Results & Optimize
The key to maximizing your return from WhatsApp broadcasting is diligently monitoring campaign analytics and using those insights to improve your approach. Make sure to track:
– Open rates: Percentage of recipients who open your broadcast message
– Click-through rates: Percentage who click any included links
– Response rates: Percentage who actively respond to broadcast
– Unsubscribe rate: Percentage who opt out from future messages
– Sales/conversions: Actual sales or leads generated from broadcast
Based on these metrics, you can fine-tune elements like your opt-in process, broadcast content, call-to-action, sending times, target segments and more to boost performance. Continually testing and optimizing your campaigns is crucial for success.
WhatsApp Broadcast Best Practices
Follow these best practices to ensure your WhatsApp sales and promo broadcasts are executed effectively:
– Only send useful, relevant content your subscribers want. Don’t spam them.
– Personalize content using merge fields like first name when possible.
– Make your CTA bold and clear. Place it front and center in the message.
– Limit broadcasts to 1-2 per week max so you don’t overwhelm recipients.
– Send broadcasts on weekends or evenings when users are most active on WhatsApp.
– Use action buttons, SMS templates, links or visual media to make your broadcasts interactive.
– Always include an easy opt-out method in each broadcast message.
– Thank new subscribers for opting in and onboard them with a welcome message.
– Apply segmenting and lifecycle workflows to send targeted content to different subscriber groups.
– Monitor analytics regularly and continuously optimize based on performance data.
Conclusion
Broadcasting promotional messages on WhatsApp provides a highly effective sales channel for businesses to leverage – if executed properly. Follow WhatsApp’s guidelines, thoughtfully build your list, craft valuable content, automate workflow, and relentlessly optimize based on data. This will allow you to engage customers in a personal, scalable way that drives real business results. Just remember – quality relationships and value for subscribers should be priorities over aggressive selling. Maintain that balance and your WhatsApp broadcasting will flourish.