10 Ways to use WhatsApp Messaging for Small Business in India

Mahesh, is a vegetable vendor in Aundh, Pune.  Not too long ago, he used to take orders on call and deliver wherever required. But now, he takes a snap of whatever he has and sends it to a group of customers on Whatsapp. Customers get to see what he has to offer and if the vegetables are fresh before they place an order – Whtsapp Messaging marketing is growing and it has taken an important role in our daily lives.

Brief About Whtsapp

“Whtsapp”….no longer an anonymous word for us. Founded in the year 2009, Whtsapp messaging has  revolutionized the concept of messaging services. Offering a rich-set of features that include instant messaging and sharing, automatic contact addition, and Wi-Fi operations, WhatsApp alone has 500 million monthly active users. Purchased by Facebook for $19 billion dollars last year, WhatsApp has made it to be the most discussed – about mobile app across the globe.

One of the greatest advantage, is this  Whatsapp does not interfere users with irrelevant ads – hence can prove to be an effective tool to promote your small business. Let me tell you how?

1.Using Whatsapp For Internal Team Communication

Whenever we tried to implement any new tool for internal communication.  People are reluctant to ‘learn’ new things. Best thing about WhatsApp is that almost everyone uses it and it does not require any training. Another advantage is, employers don’t need to explicitly ask the team to check WhatsApp messaging as they are anyway hooked to it.

2. Using Whatsapp Messaging For Customer Communication

A wise sales tip – If you do your followups on WhatsApp instead of direct phone calls, you will get 40% more response. No one appreciates phone calls from unknown numbers but we are more likely to respond to personal messages. When companies started using WhatsApp Messaging for customer communication, they noticed better response and engagement.

This also gives an opportunity to be little informal. For example, you have sent a quotation to your potential customer but haven’t heard from him, what do you do? You either call him or send a followup mail using formal language. Instead of doing this, if you just send a short message on WhatsApp asking about the status, you might get a quick response.

3.Using Whatsapp Messaging For Customer Support

WhatsApp could be a great tool for customer support simple because of its wider reach. Your customers would always prefer to send you a message over WhatsApp messaging rather than calling a helpdesk number or raising a ticket.

So, choose WhatsApp as a customer support tool only if you have lesser number of customer requests.

4.Using Whatsapp Messaging For Promotion & Marketing

WhatsApp Messaging is the new SMS. Companies have realised that WhatsApp can be a very strong marketing tool. It is a good one-to-one platform for direct communication with the listeners.

You can use WhatsApp Messaging to send images, audio files, short video clips of your products and text messages to users across the world. Unlike SMS or Email, there are less restriction on the format and delivery chances are higher.

This doesn’t mean that you should spam your customers with WhatsApp messages. Ideally you should use WhatsApp to connect with existing loyal customers rather than trying to reach new users. Everyone hates messages coming from unknown numbers.

If you really want to get a good response, you will need to come up with the creative ways to promote your business using WhatsApp. For example, Colgate invited people to send selfies of their smile via WhatsApp, to a phone number displayed on the toothpaste pack. Motivation: a chance to be styled by brand ambassador Sonam Kapoor’s stylist.

5.Using Whatsapp Messaging For Events

If your company organizes events, a WhatsApp Messaging Group is a great way to keep people informed about the event. Once you have the phone number of attendees, you can check if they use WhatsApp and invite them to a group related to your event. You can post updates and supporting multimedia content about your event, and even take pictures on your phone and share them with members.

6.Using Whatsapp Messaging For Multiplying Your Databas

Ask your customers / fanbase to add you if they want to be notified of special promotions and discounts.Use it as a communication option for customer service inquires. -Third party programs now allow you to manage WhatsApp Messaging via desktop.

7.Using Whatsapp Messaging For Group Targeting

Group targeting is the best way to segment and target your customers. WhatsApp Messaging allow marketers an ability to create groups of similar interests and start discussions. This way you get better insights by other business owners adding them to group chat room that you create. Another advantage of this feature, there are more chances of your message to go viral when the participant shares the content with their friends.

8. Using Whatsapp Messaging For Brand Management

Smaller businesses typically do not have huge budgets for branding and online marketing. That is when WhatsApp comes to the rescue—paving the way for effective user experience and helping them stay in touch with the customer’s changing preferences. With simple interactive messages and surveys, you can keep track of what’s clicking for your marketing campaign and what’s not. You can integrate WhatsApp Messaging services with your overall branding strategy for effective brand positioning and management.

9. Using Whatsapp Messaging For Customer Communications

Advertising and soliciting business on WhatsApp is great way to improve your relationship with your customers/clients.You can use WhatsApp Messaging to share your blog posts, provide news and updates, and communicate with your customers and readers. Give them a reason to like and trust you.

10. Using Whatsapp Messaging For Researching Market

For growing up your Business you can also organised surveys and focus on the group discussion with your customers, suppliers and employees and target the market segments on real time. Sometimes you can also choose some of the group members and alert them for the time from which you are going to start the discussion and what will be discussed during the discussion, so that they can be also prepare well by themselves.

Bottom Line

WhatsApp Messaging is a powerful communication tool. It has become widely popular due to its simplicity. Apart from using it for personal communication, you can use WhatsApp Messaging for your business in various ways. Its cost effective and you can get started quickly.

SME Joinup connects you with trusted Whatsapp Marketing service providers, all you need to do is join our network and get connected immediately.

Image source: Digitaljournal.com