With a monthly active user of 2 billion and a presence in over 180 countries, WhatsApp’s unprecedented growth in recent times is mind-blowing. WhatsApp’s user-centric nature and encryption capabilities have not only positioned it as a favorite app for communication with loved ones and family but as also an app for commerce.
Personal brands, local businesses, and organizations are adopting WhatsApp in their numbers. Also, with the presence of WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp payment features in some countries, businesses can conveniently transact business on the platform. This post is a complete guide on how brands can make sales and marketing on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp Sales Funnel
You probably might have heard of the sales funnel and marketing funnel before now. A Funnel in marketing simply means a system that lets you prime your prospect for sales by taking them from one level of awareness to another. Sames applies on WhatsApp, having a great funnel strategy will enable you to close more deals and make more revenue.
Shortly we’ll be analyzing the four-step WhatsApp funnel process, an excerpt of the WhatsApp Sales Funnel Blueprint. The WhatsApp Sales Funnel consists of a database of contacts, personalized offers, Whatsapp messages, and conversions.
1. Database Of Contacts
Ramsay Leimenstoll said, “A small list that wants exactly what you’re offering is better than a bigger list that isn’t committed.” Every form of marketing begins with knowing your audience and creating a database of interested buyers. You almost can’t do without a list in marketing. The same applies to WhatsApp, you can’t make sales on WhatsApp until you have built your database of contacts.
Unlike other platforms where using hashtags can amplify your reach even without a large following, WhatsApp is unique. You’ll only get to market to those that have the willingness to give you their contacts.
You can build your database of contacts on WhatsApp by adding your WhatsApp contacts on all your marketing materials and social handles, by offering discounts and freebies on WhatsApp purchases, running click-to-chat Facebook ads, etc.
2. Personalized offer
Creating a great personalized offer on WhatsApp is how you get your contacts to buy from you. As simple as that. Let’s face it, we live in a distracted world with many things constantly competing for our attention. The average WhatsApp user belongs to 5 WhatsApp groups, all with information competing for their attention as well.
A personalized offer is simply a custom massage tailored specifically to a contact based on their interest and preferences in the past. For instance, if you sell shoes and one of your contacts has indicated an interest in a shoe before when you have something similar you can craft it like an offer and show it to the same contact. That’s how you win.
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3. WhatsApp Message
A WhatsApp message is how you communicate with your contacts. It could be either through text, video, emoji, or even stickers. Your messages shouldn’t be boring, spice them up with both verbs and adjectives to make them interesting.
WhatsApp messages it how you present your personalized offers to your contacts. It should follow the rules of communication engagements: clarity, persuasion, timely, and consistency. Be consistent, but don’t spam your contacts with many messages.
4. Conversions
Conversions are when your user has finally taken your desired action, might be sales, event registration or sign-ups depends on how you measure conversions. WhatsApp recently launched WhatsApp Pay in India, Brazil, and a few other countries to encourage small businesses to receive payments on the platform.
If you’re based in Africa where WhatsApp Pay is not yet active, you can use Paystack or barter to receive payments on WhatsApp. By the way, for practical steps on how to set up payments on WhatsApp, get WhatsApp Sales Funnel Blueprint
WhatsApp Status Marketing Strategy
WhatsApp Status/Stories is one of the greatest inventions on the WhatsApp platform. It’s a feature that lets individuals share images and 30-seconds videos on their status that lasts for 24 hours. It’s a great way of putting your products and messages in front of your contacts.
As the time people spend on their smartphones is increasing, the number of WhatsApp views and engagement are increasing as well. Multinationals and businesses of all sizes are also utilizing WhatsApp for their marketing and sales.
Steps in Creating a Killer WhatsApp status strategy
- Know Your Audience: Truth be told, you can’t sell to those you don’t know. Whether it’s a new or existing product, knowing your audience helps you in creating a better sales message and offer. Even their taste pinpoints and likes to better post what will appeal to them.
- Know Your Prime Days & Hours: Know the times your contacts are usually online and post on their primes hours. Especially on evenings, weekends and public holidays, people tend to be less busy and usually view more WhatsApp statuses.
- Post Less, But Targeted: Posting many statuses scares your contacts, might even lead to some muting your status. Learn to post less, but targeted content. For instance, if you’re a small business selling clothes or materials on WhatsApp, you can post different categories of clothes on different days to keep your contacts engaged.
- Mix Funny and Educational Content: Marketing should be fun, don’t make it boring. Posting only business content will scare your contacts, have a mix of funny and educational content to make your status interesting.
- Post Questions and Quizzes: Marketing is two-way communication, don’t make it a speech. Start conversations with your contacts by posting interesting questions that inspire responses and interactions.
There’s never been a better time to start marketing and generating on-demand sales through WhatsApp, don’t sleep on it. The engagement and open rates on the platform are amazing, take advantage of it. Get WhatsApp Sales Funnel Blueprint for killer WhatsApp strategies that are guaranteed to triple your sales.
