Social media marketing is the new norm. But winning at it can be a bit challenging when advertising costs are sky high, and trust and attention are getting harder to earn.
In an interview with Shopify Plus, Leon Hugs, associate partner, at Piper Private Equity said - “Some brands are seeing ad costs go like five times higher than it used to be to drive the same amount of traffic.”
But with WhatsApp, things are a bit unique. By using the right tricks and strategies you can boost your business through WhatsApp marketing. That too without putting a hole in your wallet.
But if brands view this space as just another place to run ad campaigns, they'll hit the same ad-spend ceiling and miss out on what makes WhatsApp Marketing unique. So what should you do?
Formulating a WhatsApp marketing strategy that aligns with all dos and don’ts; make the best out of the platform.
Before you get started with WhatsApp promotion
Before you dive into the rest of the article, there are a few things you must keep in mind for WhatsApp marketing messages. Unlike other social channels, there are a few limitations involved with WhatsApp.
If you already went through the WhatsApp Business Policy then you would know what I’m talking about. And if you haven’t, then I definitely do recommend you to do so. But here few of the most important ones.
Only contacts who have already opted in to receive communications from you can receive WhatsApp advertising messages sent using the API. Additionally, a template for these messages must be pre-approved by WhatsApp.
Only within the first 24 hours after receiving a customer's most recent message, you are permitted to reply with a WhatsApp marketing message. Currently, WhatsApp is working on providing more suppor to the messages you can send within this 24-hour window.
Customers can now receive customized Non-Transactional Promotional Messages on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp promotion: What to follow
1. Use data to personalize messages
Using personalized data and reports can help you formulate better messages that are more likely to be perceived well by your target customers.
If your business wants access to personal information, you have to get it and use it in a way that builds trust. By fostering a healthy community and appealing to shared values, brands can achieve the relevance customers want without the privacy concerns of one-to-one personalization.
By using MyAlice’s dashboard you get access to unique reports and information about your customers on WhatsApp. Use these data to formulate better approaches for each group of customers.
2. Maintain a proper frequency with promotional messages
When it comes to WhatsApp promotions a lot of business owners go overboard with their marketing messages.
But here’s the thing - no one likes consistent messages about the same thing again and again. And at some point instead of coming off as informative, it comes off as annoying.
So even though it may be tempting to move quickly with promotional content - given WhatsApp's immense potential, you should maintain a respectable frequency. Instead of sending promotional messages often, you should send them at strategic frequencies to untap optimum WhatsApp Marketing.
Because even if it's a highly tailored and direct marketing channel, WhatsApp is primarily a personal chat software.
3. Promote your WhatsApp on other platforms
WhatsApp is not a platform where, "if you build it, people will come." Customers must have your WhatsApp number in order to contact you.
Run a brief awareness campaign to inform customers that you will provide customer support through the platform once your business profile is complete. This could involve sending out emails to current clients, advertising on other social media platforms, and making a short change to the "Contact Us" part of your website.
3. Get WhatsApp Business API
Getting the WhatsApp Business API is arguably one of the best things you can do to promote your company or product on WhatsApp.
Yes, the free WhatsApp Business app has a lot of features, including everything the WhatsApp Messenger app does as well as a complete business profile and a product catalog. But it still falls short of what the API can achieve for a company, especially one that is expanding.
For instance, the API gives you more tracking options and increases the amount of data you can provide for your WhatsApp marketing campaign (more on this later). Then, using this, modifications can be made as necessary. To organize your marketing activities, you may also set up messaging automation.
Visit our post comparing WhatsApp Messenger, WhatsApp Business App, and the Business API for a thorough explanation of what the API can do versus the free app.
WhatsApp Promotion: What To Avoid
1. Avoid using the same social content
Different target groups prefer different social channels. This means your customers that are on Instagram may not be on WhatsApp. People use different social media platforms to share and consume information and content on different interests.
This is why it is important for you to generate different social content for each platform. You don’t need to always generate unique content for each platform. However, you should tweak them for each platform to match the target audience.
2. Avoid leaving your business profile and product catalog empty
Whether you send WhatsApp promotional messages via the free business app or the API, you must make sure that customers can recognize your brand and your goods.
This entails completing each and every field in your company profile, including the one for your product catalog.
Increasing sales is the ultimate objective of every company (including WhatsApp marketing campaigns), and it is closely related to product visibility.
In addition to increasing the visibility of your products, WhatsApp's integrated product catalog allows customers to remain within the app, minimizing the potential of distractions from having to open a browser to access your store's website.
WhatsApp Promotion Examples
World Health Organization
In the pretext of the COVID-19 pandemic, The World Health Organization introduced specific COVID-19 WhatsApp hotlines to assist users in seven languages in March 2020.
By sending a WhatsApp message to a location-specific number, users can call the hotline. They are then presented with a number of options for further information about the illness, immunizations, and other topics.
Users can find a reliable compromise between self-service and live support with the help of this automated chatbot.
Flipkart
Flipkart intended to generate interest for its impending Big Billion Days online sales, for which it wanted to reach as many people as possible.
Flipkart introduced an automated chatbot to help customers during the purchase process. Still, they added a wow factor by personifying it with Amitabh Bachchan, a well-known Bollywood actor in India.
They used all of WhatsApp's available communication types, including images, audio, videos, and emojis, to build rich-media conversations.
Through games with emoji support and puzzles, customers could learn more about the offer on WhatsApp.
Clarks
For Clarks, a retailer of shoes, WhatsApp appeared to be a viable choice for building brand awareness and demonstrating their progress.
The Rat to Rudeboys campaign gave WhatsApp users the chance to have real-time conversations with various figures from Clark's history and receive pictures, videos, and texts that helped to create a realistic documentary.
Clarks was able to connect with consumers through this fun and engaging campaign and gather the information that eventually assisted them in reaching prospective customers in subsequent campaigns.
Formulate your own WhatsApp promotional strategy
WhatsApp can be useful for marketing objectives for companies of all sizes. If used right, this channel can enhance client retention, foster long-lasting relationships, and eventually boost sales. And luckily, now you know the dos and don’ts for WhatsApp promotion.
So now it's time to go outside the box and develop your own promotional strategies for your WhatsApp store.
Do you find yourself chasing down new customers because current customers aren't sticking around, and you need to keep your eCommerce business afloat? Is it a sustainable strategy to run your eCommerce business?
We hear you saying no because it actually isn't. It's time you need to focus on Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
In this competitive narrative, you can't really go far by keeping on investing in getting NEW customers rather than keeping your OLD customers. What you really need to concentrate on is maximizing your revenue from your present customers. And this is where customer lifetime value comes into play.
According to Tim Cameron Kitchen- CEO of Exposure Ninja, "In order to increase your customer lifetime value, you need to pull two levers. One, increase the number of purchases. And two, increase the purchase value of each customer. And of course, a good business will have a combination of both of these levers."
We want your business to have high customer LTV. So we noted down a series of pointers that you could follow to increase your customer lifetime value and higher profits. Before we dive into the strategies, let's start with the basics.
What is Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)?
According to Omniconvert, "customer lifetime value (CLV) shows how much revenue a business can expect from one customer compared to how long the company predicts that customer will stay."
Customer lifetime value is an important metric for eCommerce brands to measure the average accumulating total of their purchase for some time.
Lifetime value helps you determine if your business will scale the ROI from marketing. It also helps you evaluate the retention strategy depending on how low or high your LTV is.
How To Increase Customer Lifetime Value
You can increase your customer lifetime value by either increasing your Average Order Value or Average Purchase Frequency. An increase in either of these metrics will rise Customer Lifetime Value. Apart from that, let's take a look at the other ways to increase CLV.
— Improve Your Customer Support
Treating your customer right is the core to increasing customer lifetime value. According to Tim Han, an international speaker and author from success insider - "treating your customers like family is the key to recurring customers."
Now we're not telling you to turn a blind eye to their red flags and keep on supporting them. But we definitely recommend you to go a bit above to give them special treatments. In fact, according to research from PWC, 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. So enhancing your customer support is an absolute must.
A solid customer support strategy includes attention to the customer pre, mid and post-sale. Your customer support should cater to your customer at every stage of their buying journey. A great way to make sure your customer's queries are always answered in no time is by using an AI-powered chatbot. Having a live chat available can turn a customer question into a sale or complaint into a resolution. We recommend you check out MyAlice as their chatbot can actually automate your entire selling process from start to finish. And the best part is, MyAlice is completely free to sign up!
You need to make sure your customers are returning again and again for the delightful experience you provide.
— Send out occasional gifts
Who doesn't like free stuff? Especially when it comes as a surprise from a place you shopped from. We find ourselves leaning towards shops that offer great discounts or free goodies in most cases. And that's because this is a psychological trick that all of us fall for.
Lippincott's creative consultancy provided a scientific and psychological-based study called the "Happiness Halo" - proving exactly that. In the "Happiness Halo," the author stresses, "Appeal to customers' reason and they're yours for a day. Appeal to customer's emotions, and they're yours for a lifetime."
And nothing is more solid than sending gifts to appeal to your customer's emotions. It shows them that you care about them more than just a means of getting some sales.
We're not telling you to send out gifts 365 days a year to every customer for every purchase. But rather, identify your loyal set of customers and potentially loyal customers, and then send out occasional gifts to show them you care.
— Nudge Your Customers into Subscriptions
One of the most popular ways (that works) of increasing the number of purchases of your customers is by bumping them into subscriptions. They're one of the new trends of e-commerce. And they can be lucrative enough that we even see big names like GoPro getting into the subscription realm they previously didn't opt for.
You can nudge them into a subscription by displaying a subscription-biased pricing option of your product.
This basically means you will show the pricing option of a one-time purchase on one side. And on another, the pricing option is based on subscription. However, you need to show your customers how the subscription pricing will be more effective and profitable.
This will incentivize them to opt for the subscription rather than going for a one-time purchase.
Another way of getting your customers into subscriptions is by showing the subscription as the default purchase method. And if customers want to go for a one-time purchase, they need to click on that purchase method.
You can do to level up the subscription game by giving them an option to allow your customers to customize the time frame and the amount of product for the subscription. This way, they will not have too much stock of the product based on their lifestyle. And they are less likely to cancel the subscription altogether.
— Integrate Add-ons and Upsells
Another great way to increase the average order value of your customers is by adding add-ons and upsells. Big names like GoDaddy GoPro have been using this pricing strategy for years now, which has helped them generate more sales.
Everything that you throw at your customers before and after purchasing the products is for one thing - increasing the order value.
And therefore, there's an increase in customer LTV. Some of your add-ons and upsells features may seem annoying to your customers. But it's a genius idea for your business.
Since you are competing in a very competitive and price-sensitive space, If you want to maximize your customer acquisition, you need to maximize the value of every customer you get through the door.
By doing so, you can save the money that you would have otherwise spent on getting new customers. So you can now invest it in other business activities. Like - marketing. Which will help you build market share without increasing the price of their core product.
— Introduce Premium Versions
Introducing a line of premium versions of the same product can incentivize your customers to opt for better options. But, you need to make sure you can present it in a manner that demonstrates why the premium versions are better than the regular ones.
That way, customers who always want the best of everything are more likely to opt for the premium purchase. The pricing of the premium product will also be higher than the regular, which may be a problem for some of your customers. In such a case, you can introduce split pay for that.
Now split pay is absolutely everywhere and another massive trend of e-commerce over the last few years. One of the biggest players in the split pay market -Klarna, claims to increase the average order value by up to 58%.
Split pay will help you get more sales for your premium products and end up increasing the average order value for your customers.
Drawing Conclusion: Loyalty Brings Revenue
The right customer lifetime value model can boost your company's growth and progress in many ways. It puts more money in your business's wallet by lowering customer acquisition costs and saving money on marketing and sales activities.
Delivering a great deal of value, understanding the customers being in their shoes, prioritizing customer service are what they need to come back to you again and again.
