How to Promote Your Business Using WhatsApp (8 Tips and Tricks)

WhatsApp is a massive messaging platform.

In terms of direct messaging, WhatsApp even beats Facebook with 2.6 billion users.

However, WhatsApp is part of the Facebook family of apps. So it has many social media features, such as stories, and WhatsApp will likely share more features with Facebook and Instagram in the future.

This makes WhatsApp an incredibly powerful business promotion tool, and you’re right to be here learning how to promote your business using WhatsApp.

WhatsApp offers the one-to-one connection of a direct messaging app, with the wide reach of a social media platform. WhatsApp also works well with other marketing channels, such as email.

This means there are a ton of ways to promote your business on WhatsApp. With that in mind, these are some of the best tips and tricks for connecting with customers on WhatsApp.

1. Build broadcast lists

Broadcast lists are a cool WhatsApp feature that enables you to send messages to groups of customers based on topic or customer interests.

You can use your broadcast lists to send messages that are specifically designed to get engagement from your most valuable customers. Broadcast messages can include offers, invitations, or links.

These lists are perfect for promoting sales, launches, and other events.

Also, these messages can be managed and automated using tools such as the Telnyx WhatsApp business API, which give you the ability to send messages programmatically, rather than creating them from scratch.

It’s an incredibly efficient way to target a specific audience with your messages, without a ton of work.

2. Create a WhatsApp group for your business

WhatsApp groups are a bit of a hybrid between a group chat and a social media group. The messages show up like a group chat.

However, you can include links to join your WhatsApp group on your website, blog, in your email signature, and on your other social media profiles. People join your WhatsApp group simply by clicking the link, and you can grow your group quickly and organically with help from your other marketing channels.

You can also use a WhatsApp business API to manage your groups and send group messages, similar to your broadcast lists.

3. Use WhatsApp as a customer support channel

WhatsApp is an amazing customer service tool. You can use chatbots and other automation tools to resolve simple customer support issues.

Then you can also use WhatsApp to connect customers with customer service representatives via direct messaging to resolve more complex customer service challenges.

Automation tools can help connect customers to the right person. WhatsApp can send certain messages and take certain actions based on customer text responses. A chatbot can ask a series of questions to discover what the customer needs and connect them with a customer service representative who can help them.

This can reduce the load on your call centers, if you have them, and improve customer satisfaction by giving customers an alternative and responsive way to get help.

4. Share business news and updates

Your broadcast lists and WhatsApp groups are great for sharing promotional messages, because people must opt into a group and broadcast lists are built based on customer interests.

However, in your more general marketing communications, it’s best to stick with sharing blog posts, product development updates, announcing new product launches, and anything else that’s interesting, but not terribly promotional.

If you’d like to get a little promotional with your news and updates, event reminders for things like webinars and sales work well.

5. Create visual content

Now that WhatsApp has become a social media platform in its own right, you should use photos and videos.

WhatsApp stories are a perfect place to start. Stories are informal, and they’re easy and affordable to produce. You don’t have to write a script or invest in a lot of high quality production to create video stories.

Shooting a quick behind the scenes video on your phone that shows how a product is made or recapping a recent event is a quick, simple way to create video content for WhatsApp. You can also create quick videos to announce offers or sum up your recent news posts.

How-to videos that show cool ways to use your products or answer frequently asked questions are another great way to use WhatsApp stories.

Although video gets the most attention, don’t be afraid to use images, if you’re unable to create  video or if you just want to spruce up some text.

Either way, it’s important to work visuals into your WhatsApp messaging.

6. Use WhatsApp for feedback and market research

WhatsApp is a great way to solicit feedback from your customers. WhatsApp messages have an incredibly high open rate, and it’s easy for customers to answer questions on WhatsApp.

Send questions to your WhatsApp groups and broadcasts lists. Then you can respond to their feedback directly (and it is important to respond to feedback).

Be sure to use your brand personality to make your requests for feedback engaging and casual. Nobody wants to answer an overly stiff, professional questionnaire. Keep things friendly and personal.

Additionally, you can offer coupons and other rewards to incentivize customers to give feedback and build brand loyalty at the same time.

7. Leverage WhatsApp calling

It’s easy to lean very heavily on the text and visual aspects of WhatsApp. However, the WhatsApp calling feature is incredibly handy for all sorts of customer service and engagement.

Customers can request a call via WhatsApp message, and a customer service rep can call them right in the app. Your customer service reps can also initiate a call during a chat session, if it becomes necessary to resolve the customer’s issue.

This might not seem like a big deal. After all, most people use WhatsApp on a smartphone, which is perfectly capable of making standard phone calls.

However, it’s much more convenient to simply transition from WhatsApp messaging to calling, without leaving the app. Also, it’s much easier to retain an audit trail of customer interactions when everything takes place in WhatsApp.

That way you have better analytics for improving customer service workflows, training new employees, and managing customer accounts.

8. Build a customer database

One of the reasons WhatsApp works so well with other marketing channels is that it’s easy to gather phone numbers and email addresses on WhatsApp.

That way you can expand your email list and communicate with more customers via text message. Even though WhatsApp is an excellent marketing tool, email marketing is still impressively effective, and text messaging is an incredibly reliable channel.

Also, customers who have communicated with your business on WhatsApp will be more receptive to getting messages through other channels.

If a customer has already engaged with your messages on WhatsApp, they’re more likely to open your emails or consent to receiving text messages. That just gives you more ways to reach your customers, and—let’s face it—sometimes an email or a text message is the best tool for the job.

Therefore, using WhatsApp to build a customer database is arguably a necessary aspect of WhatsApp marketing.

9. It’s time to promote your business using WhatsApp

Now that you’ve got a whole bunch of tools in your toolbox for promoting your business on WhatsApp, all that’s left is to get started.

Obviously, you don’t have to jump into the deep end and implement all of these at once. Choose a few that fit well with your current marketing strategy and business model, and start building a presence on WhatsApp.

As you get more familiar with the platform, it’ll be easy to implement more of these tips and tricks. Before you know it, you’ll be getting strong engagement and WhatsApp will be contributing to your marketing success.

Be sure to bookmark this page and come back to implement more tips and tricks as your WhatsApp marketing gains traction.