If you are looking to use WhatsApp business messaging for marketing, whether you are promoting offers, driving awareness, or nurturing customer relationships, here are five tips on how to do it effectively.

1. Building a strong customer opt-in list

WhatsApp requires explicit, verifiable customer opt-in before you can send a business-initiated message via the WhatsApp channel. This protects users from unwanted spam and ensures your audience wants to hear from you, which results in higher customer engagement rates, better overall campaign performance, and return of marketing investment.

Using WhatsApp business messaging for marketing begins by collecting customer opt-ins, that is, getting their consent for your brand to engage with them via the WhatsApp channel. There are several ways that you can do this: on your website, add a checkbox at checkout allowing customers to opt-in to receive marketing messages via WhatsApp, or a Click-to-WhatsApp button; run Click-to-WhatsApp Ads in your social media posts so customers can start chats with your brand; and when chatting via WhatsApp with an existing customer, asking them to reply “Yes” to confirm they want future updates or promotions via the WhatsApp channel.

It is important to remember that when you send out broadcast WhatsApp marketing messages to customers that have opted-in to receive communications that you also include clear opt-out instructions at the end of that message – this is standard practice in mobile marketing generally.

2. Share engaging, click-worthy content

WhatsApp allows for the use of rich media within business messaging campaigns, letting you get creative with your marketing. Using WhatsApp pre-approved marketing templates, you can customise you marketing messages with product images and videos, carousel-style image drops, short promotional video clips, and limited-time offers with discount codes. In modern mobile marketing, these high-quality digital media engagement increases both clicks and conversions about your product or service from your target audience.

3. Automated WhatsApp flows create stickiness

Within the WhatsApp Business Platform, you can set up automated communication flows tailored for specific customer engagements. This feature is designed to enhance your customers’ experience on WhatsApp in a seamless and effortless way. It enables your business to build and deliver an end-to-end customer journey entirely within WhatsApp. You marketing message is then becomes the starting point to sales and further engagements with your product or service all within same chat with your customer.

4. Use WhatsApp status and channel ads for organic reach

While broadcasting marketing messaging via the WhatsApp channel requires template pre-approval, WhatsApp offers two organic discovery tools which can be set up with Meta’s Ads Manager. These adverts are then made available via Updates within WhatsApp and allow customers to discover your product or service in-app.

You can use Status for daily deals, behind-the-scenes content, polls, and short announcements. Channels is a space where you can upload your products so customers can browse, ask questions, and even initiate orders directly from WhatsApp. These features help keep your brand visible and allows a customer to start a conversation with your brand.

5. Measure, improve and repeat

As with any mobile marketing campaign it is best to track and optimize your performance using mobile messaging metrics. For WhatsApp business messaging used for marketing communications there are three key metrics to monitor: message read rates, click-through rates for your call-to-actions, and your campaign’s quality rating. Reviewing these business messaging metrics allows for improvements to be made to your content or audience as you prepare for your next WhatsApp marketing campaign.

Quality rating is a specific WhatsApp measure that provides customer feedback on your messaging, including why they may have blocked your number from sending them marketing communications. It is important to note that your quality rating influences your broadcast messaging limits and aims to help you improve your marketing content. Ensuring you have a strong quality rating ensures your marketing campaign continues to scale smoothly to reach more customers within your target audience.

The WhatsApp marketing takeaway

When used as part of your communication strategy, WhatsApp business messaging becomes a powerful conversational marketing channel. Focus on opt-in, personalization, audience segmentation, and timely communications to build stronger customer relationships and convert conversations into sales.

Are you ready to take your WhatsApp marketing to the next level? Contact the Kero team today and experience smarter customer communications at scale using our WhatsApp Business Platform solution.