WhatsApp engagement: strategies for business success

Messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram have revolutionized the way businesses engage with customers. WhatsApp chatbots enable personalized chats which increase trust and foster strong relationships with customers. Let’s explore the importance of WhatsApp integration and how it affects the way businesses interact with customers.

Why WhatsApp engagement matters

WhatsApp is number 1 among messaging platforms nowadays. With over 3 billion users, WhatsApp is equally popular among people of different age groups and is relevant across various geographies. Let’s explore why engaging customers via WhatsApp is your right business strategy.

Simple integration

WhatsApp Business API facilitates the integration with such platforms as Salesforce and CRM, which is crucial for businesses. It’s convenient to keep all customer data in one place and grow relationships with your customers through WhatsApp chatbot integrations.

Deeper customer relationships

The conversational nature of WhatsApp allows businesses to build deeper, more personal relationships with their customers. By providing a direct line of communication, customers can interact with businesses in a way that feels natural and personalized. This personal touch not only fosters a sense of connection but also builds trust and loyalty, which are key to long-term customer retention.

Business-centricity

WhatsApp Business has plenty of specific features that arrange customer-brand quality communication. Businesses can share rich media content, engaging images, and videos, create product and service catalogs for display, etc. Based on recent statistics, there are around 200 million daily messages to WhatsApp business accounts worldwide.

Key strategies to increase WhatsApp engagement

Personalized communication

Creating personalized starters and showcasing product and service brochures through WhatsApp Business API is a successful customer engagement strategy. Use customer data to tailor WhatsApp messages and boost conversions.

Leveraged WhatsApp profile

Thinking of your WhatsApp communication channel as the storefront of your brand makes you want to optimize your business account. Add email address, working hours, website and social network data, brand description, and physical address to build trust and facilitate opt-in consent acquisition.

Boost interactivity

WhatsApp business allows interaction with customers through rich media, such as GIFs, images, video, and voice notices. Also, opt for contests, quizzes, live Q&A with experts, group discussions, interactive catalogs, etc.

Best practices for effective WhatsApp engagement

Immediate real-time communication

Customers expect quick replies from brands once they reach out. WhatsApp chatbots enable immediate and efficient responses to customers’ problems and queries. Moreover, chatbots can serve many customers at the same time without a drop in service quality. Such a strategy helps users to experience a friendly atmosphere and engage more.

Gathering customer feedback

Not many customers care about providing feedback to the businesses they interact with. Traditional filling out forms is boring and time-consuming. Digital engagement WhatsApp makes feedback interactive and exciting helping to understand the mood of the audience and keep track of customer experiences. Also, WhatsApp is the messaging app with a channel conversational flow facilitating customer feedback generation.

Automated incentives offering

Any type of automation increases the business profitability, especially if the talk is about tedious repetitive tasks. In addition to various tasks that can be automated from the support and sales spheres, WhatsApp communication channels can ace marketing. Based on the history of user-brand interaction, chatbots can automatically send users incentives such as promotions, gift cards, and hot sales options.

The most convenient and effective way to set up automated offerings is by using third-party automation tools—like Chatfuel. Besides messaging, it allows for automation of other processes like lead qualification, customer support, sales, post-purchase communication, and so on. Sign up for a free trial to see how Chatfuel can help you use WhatsApp for business to its full potential.

Proactive approach

Adding value to the conversation through sending helpful messages before users even ask for it, is a great way for a business to engage with the customers. These could be instant post-purchase status notifications, tracking data, reminders, and other types of information.

Display of products or services

Around 40 million people view WhatsApp Business Catalog every month. Hence, making product and service catalogs available for browsing in the WhatsApp messaging window is entitled to improve customer engagement and strengthen your relations with them.

Examples of successful WhatsApp engagement strategies application

Interaksi

Interaksi is an Indonesian startup that helps to connect contractors and freelancers from such spheres as education, design, and photography. Before WhatsApp API integration there were problems with missing messages because they used to send messages manually, long waiting times, and Business account blockage due to spamming concerns.

After a consultation with Chatfuel Interaksi decided to integrate WhatsApp's communication channel and increase digital engagement through WhatsApp.

Eventually, Interaksi’s reachability increased 100% with an open rate of 65%. Automated messaging enabled to connect a contractor and a freelancer in less than 5 minutes with a 75% retention rate.

Restaurants.club

Restaurants.club is one of Chatfuel's clients that benefit from engaging customers via WhatsApp across social media. This MarkTech software-as-a-service platform offers various services for restaurant owners in Italy.

Through WhatsApp Business API and access to built-in ChatGPT, Restaurants.club enables a conversational style of communication, immediate replies, and continuous notifications to confirm appointments with leads.

As a result, Restaurants.club managed to get 100% lead outreach with a 50% open rate.

Summing up

Leveraging WhatsApp for customer-business interaction is a win-win strategy to increase engagement, boost platform productivity, and build personalized trustworthy relations with the audience that is impossible through traditional channels. It’s important to work out the right communication strategy and receive loyal and supportive customers who will become brand advocates for your products and services.