WhatsApp Marketing – Marketing on WhatsApp!

23 May

WhatsApp Marketing – Marketing on WhatsApp!

WhatsApp marketing is not a “thing” yet. But since the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook, WhatsApp has made some serious news. I’ve been a WhatsApp user since the initial days as it was a very good alternative to the paid messaging service. But this 19 billion dollar acquisition made me realize the potential of WhatsApp in day to day life. I started using it for WhatsApp marketing. And the results are outstanding!

WhatsApp Marketing – Marketing on WhatsApp!

Marketing on WhatsApp is something which very few would think of. We as marketers try to market our products and services to people we don’t know in real life. What if the product / service you are selling has a lot of potential and the users are your near and dear ones? That would lead to direct publicity. They can also talk on other marketing platforms about your product / service and get interested people for your product / service even without you marketing it on a large scale.

What Are The Possibilities?

I used to keep in touch with my family and friends one on one using WhatsApp. As I became a progressive user, I started with groups. You can add 50 people in a group and chat with all the other 49 people at the same time. If all these users are power user, the group might get cluttered with comments from everyone at the same time.

I wanted to reach the masses and wanted it clutter free. So I started with WhatsApp marketing using Broadcast Lists. In a broadcast list you can add a maximum of 256 people. The best thing about broadcasting your message is that it gets delivered as a personal message and the person receiving it thinks, he / she got a personalized message from the sender. This is the upside of using a broadcasting list over a group.

There is also a downside for WhatsApp marketing using the Broadcasting Lists. If you have a certain contact in your contact list but they don’t have you in theirs and you try to broadcast a message via the broadcast lists option, the message won’t be delivered to them. Only contacts with your number in their address book will receive your broadcast list messages.

To experiment with WhatsApp marketing, I created a broadcasting list of my close friends and started broadcasting informational messages. There are over 100 people in this list and except a few everyone loves to get these messages. Once the beta stage was cleared, I started broadcasting messages to almost everyone in my friend list. The best thing that happened to me was some of my friends with whom I had lost contact, rekindled our friendship over this amazing app. The first day I saw 10 of my friends reverting back to me. On the subsequent days the number gradually increased. As of today, I’m conversing with a little over 100 people on a daily basis. And my broadcast messages are going to a little over 200 people. Thanks to the WhatsApp marketing idea that I thought of.

Something To Remember!

Before starting WhatsApp marketing sending any broadcast, make sure that they want them. After creating a broadcasting list, the first message to the list should contain the summary of what you intend to send these people along with a unsubscribe request. For instance, when I create lists, my last line reads as: If you wish to unsubscribe, send STOP MESSAGES. This makes the person know that you value their privacy. But make sure to remove such participants from your list otherwise you might lose a friend for bombarding with messages.

What Should Be The Frequency?

An effective way of marketing on WhatsApp can be with frequency. If you want people to know that you care for them and are sending these messages to rekindle your lost touch, make it one message per day or lesser. You don’t want people to get bored with your constant messages.

How To Make It More Effective?

Once you are all set with your WhatsApp marketing subscribers lists, make sure you send relevant messages to the relevant list of people. To help you do so, rename the lists to avoid confusion. Another practice that can make you, “The Guy” is to send messages at the same time of the day or week. For instance, if you have a broadcast list that broadcasts jokes daily, make sure to send it in the noon when people are tired from their work and are about to go on a lunch break. This will cheer them up. And once there’s continuity in your messages, people will long for your messages if they are really good.