When we talk about social networks, it is very likely that in the collective unconscious we think of Facebook, Instagram or even Twitter. While messaging applications are now also among network users! In addition, messaging platforms are increasingly used as a marketing lever for companies.
With these more than 2 billion subscribers, an open rate of 70% and a market penetration of 94%, WhatsApp has become the leader in messaging.
So why not take advantage of such results to boost your marketing campaigns using WhatsApp?
What is WhatsApp?
In February 2014, Facebook bought WhatsApp for $ 19 billion.
WhatsApp is a free mobile application using an internet connection that allows you to chat and send and receive messages for free.
WhatsApp supports image, audio and video files as well as audio calls.
WhatsApp is compatible with most smartphones and its free use has made it very popular in countries where the price of classic SMS is very high!
WhatsApp has thus become the real alternative to the use of traditional SMS in more than 100 countries around the world.
Using WhatsApp
WhatsApp is compatible on most of the operating systems of mobile phones (iPhone, Android, Windows, …). Once the application is installed, all you have to do is enter your phone number and country of residence and your profile will then be saved.
WhatsApp uses the phone numbers in your directory, and each time you go to save a new contact, if it uses WhatsApp, then you can communicate with that new contact using the WhatsApp application.
Like all messaging applications, WhatsApp allows you to chat individually with the party of your choice with whom you choose to use text messages, video, audio and file exchange.
But beyond the “one to one” exchange, you can create a mailing list from your phone book.
When you use a distribution list, you can therefore send the same message to all the contacts contained in your distribution list or even chat simultaneously with your distribution list, which cannot exceed 256 contacts.
WhatsApp for business
With more than 60 billion messages exchanged every day, WhatsApp is already used at work. Using WhatsApp for work means interacting with your customers and prospects almost instantly and meeting their expectations.
It turns out that 67% of WhatsApp users would like to interact with brands within the next two years and nearly 53% of these people say they are likely to order as a result of messages exchanged directly with the merchant.
In addition, if your target is young, it is very likely that this target uses messaging on a daily basis. 42% of smartphone users aged 18 to 29 use the WhatsApp application compared to only 19% of older users over 50.
On the other hand, WhatsApp messaging enjoys a very high engagement rate. 98% of messages sent on WhatsApp are opened within 3 seconds of receipt.
Overall, many people in your target audience are sure to already use WhatsApp.
Currently, 84% of online shares are done through private channels like WhatsApp.
Strategic advice
WhatsApp does not sell advertising space and does not offer a dedicated business application. You will need to be innovative to reach your audience!
It will therefore be important to develop a marketing strategy specifically dedicated to this type of messaging. You must therefore bypass the limits of the WhatsApp application which limits its use for personal purposes. A WhatsApp account is therefore associated with your mobile phone number and you can only send the same message to a maximum of 256 people.
But it will be easy for you to get around these limits!
Remember that the integration of WhatsApp with a mobile phone is a major advantage that allows you to reach your target without fail