2020 hasn’t been kind on businesses — especially if you are in the hospitality and tourism sector. However, things are far from over for these businesses. Several other organizations that are currently smarting under the threat of this imminent yet relentless pandemic. In the existing scenario, businesses must find a way to increase their outreach instead of concentrating on products, services, and sales. Here are ten reasons to use Whatsapp as you move forward in your business in 2020.
The entire repertoire of saleable entities can always come back later.
Therefore, to increase user engagement on multiple levels and across diverse industry verticals, it’s time for entrepreneurs to move to WhatsApp Business for the better part of 2020, and even beyond. Be it setting up a simple WhatsApp status or broadcasting product information to hundreds of users at one time, WhatsApp business is brimming with unexplored possibilities.
Furthermore, WhatsApp is already a massively popular messaging platform with a large user base of 1.5 billion and growing. Therefore, if you can put your business across this messaging app, possibilities are endless.
#1 What is WhatsApp Business?
Before we start talking about the nooks and crannies of WhatsApp Business, we need to revisit the fact that Facebook purchased WhatsApp a while back, thereby rending it free and devoid of those irritating adverts. However, how do you think Facebook contemplated the $19bn deal without having a monetization plan in place?
The reality is, Facebook always had a vision for WhatsApp, which grew in the modern era, only to be named as the WhatsApp Business. The WhatsApp Business application empowers smaller businesses to separate their professional and personal lives. With this efficient tool in place, it is now possible to respond to the local customers at the quickest possible pace.
Moreover, there is a business app, and then there is also a business API that readily caters to the larger businesses, besides allowing them higher volumes, increased process automation, and excellent levels of integration— all for a very affordable pricing structure of pay-per-message.
Apart from that, WhatsApp business is accessible across diverse computing platforms, including iOS, Android-powered smartphones, and even desktops. Besides that, WhatsApp business is available for signups via landlines, as a standalone web application, and comes loaded with analytics and broadcasting tools for increasing the market outreach.
#2 Is WhatsApp still the leading Messaging App?
The popularity of WhatsApp isn’t measurable just by the numbers. As noted, more than 1.5 billion users are active on WhatsApp, which automatically makes it the leading messaging application, by a fair distance. Not just that, this application is potently growing in almost 104 countries to date.
Lastly, with almost 65bn messages sent across daily by nearly 1bn active users, there aren’t enough reasons to not use this application for expanding your business and that too at an unimaginable pace.
Include WhatsApp Business Immediately? Why to consider going down this Line?
If you are a functional business, you should already have a working client base. However, even for the startups, WhatsApp Business is pretty powerful, too, provided they get access to targeted databases. Coming back to the established businesses, this business application is nothing less than an elixir.
While it is always challenging to enlist only ten reasons to justify the use of WhatsApp for business, we will still try to make this read worthy of your time:
#1 Yeah! It’s Free
Anything that comes free is bound to attract a few eyeballs. However, unlike most free applications that push in-app purchases and encourage advertisement viewership, WhatsApp Business is just a simple interface for promoting healthier entrepreneurial ties.
Not just the app, but even the Business API is free to a certain extent, and businesses only have to pay if they send across messages.
#2 Unrestricted Locational Access
WhatsApp is an excellent find for the local businesses, but the issue of locational access doesn’t restrict it. Be it a service or even a product with country-specific visibility, WhatsApp Business is the go-to platform for even the most seasoned entrepreneurs.
Most importantly, it is an accessible interface, offering ubiquitous reach and messaging capabilities that are reliable and efficient. On WhatsApp business, getting real-time updates is certainly a possibility.
#3 Huge, Untapped Potential
Businesses are only restricted by their resources. However, on WhatsApp Business, it is possible to make the best of the marketing capabilities, without even spending a dime. WhatsApp has an overarching user base that spans across diverse age-groups and nationalities.
Therefore, if you have a product or service that makes sense to a specific clientele, WhatsApp Business is the platform to consider.
Moreover, despite the extensive user base, businesses are hardly using the tail-end of this platform. If and when a business gets WhatsApp marketing right, it will always have its hands full with potential and recurring customers.
#4 Broadcasting Capabilities
Provided your customers have a fair idea about your WhatsApp existence, albeit as a business, it is advisable to connect with most of them at one go. Broadcasting is one feature that allows businesses to send across an informative message to multiple clients, provided they have willingly shared their number for interactions. Brands can use the broadcasting capabilities of WhatsApp Business for sharing product information and brand identity.
#5 Better Brand Connections
WhatsApp is synonymous with personalized messaging. Therefore, if you are looking to improve your brand visibility, it is the perfect platform to invest time in. Once you have an audience base on WhatsApp Business, you can strategize the content and make it more brand-inclusive instead of pitching it as outright promotional. Moreover, you can even set a WhatsApp status for catering to an extensive customer base, without even making it look like a direct sales pitch.
#6 Global Engagement
While India boasts of a massive WhatsApp user base, countries like Brazil aren’t far behind. Therefore, it isn’t wrong to infer that if you are planning to market your business in 2020 and beyond, the global visibility and engagement prospects certainly make a great case of unhindered WhatsApp adoption.
That said, once you have a massive user base with global undertones, you can connect with around 256 individuals via chats and almost everybody by setting a simple, businesses-oriented WhatsApp status.
#7 Direct Marketing Options
Here is one messaging platform that comes with a truckload of powerful features, including the read receipts, options to share location, files, images, calling customers for real-time interactions, and more. All these and more lead to the best direct marketing approaches that can get your products out in the open, real quick.
Moreover, the business can pitch direct questions and even conduct surveys across diverse platforms.
#8 Real-Time Customer Support
If you are into a service-based industry, you can quickly avail the real-time interactive ability of WhatsApp to appease your clientele. There are specific customer opt-in features which, if and when accessed, make the clients eligible for real-time interactions with the firm. Businesses then have the freedom and ability to connect directly with the customers.
Most importantly, users are skeptical when it comes to calling, and almost 56 percent of the existing clients prefer to send across messages, to get the issues resolved. Businesses on WhatsApp can use the ‘Quick Replies’ functionality for speeding up customer interactions via the ‘Store and Reuse’ feature.
Apart from that, customer interactions and servicing extend well-beyond the fundamental restrictions of messages. Businesses can put up the away sign for avoiding slow period interactions, whereas they can use other automation techniques to create a certain template beforehand, for chat initiations.
#9 Secure Messaging
Here is one validation that works both ways, but slightly better for the customer-ended interactions. Firstly, a verified business is something every user will like to interact with, especially if the product or service is of interest. While the confirmed sign offers unmatched credibility to businesses, it also renders a sense of security to the proceedings. Apart from that, the messages and even calls initiated via this platform feature end-to-end data encryption.
#10 The Power of your WhatsApp Status
While we did come across this feature a few times during the course of this article, WhatsApp status quotes is one standalone attribute of the Business application that can maximize your saleability, engagement prospects, and even brand identity in an indirect yet responsive manner.
#3 Bottom-Line
Businesses have their tasks cut out in 2020. With the global economy in shambles, only proactive firms will survive the test of time. However, if you are looking for a business and marketing strategy that will put you ahead of any immediate competition, WhatsApp Business is the tool to consider.
While the app still isn’t perfect, it is slowly getting there, in terms of usability and customer outreach. Moreover, the features are still synonymous with the regular WhatsApp application with WhatsApp status and broadcasting being precisely the same inclusions but with a broader scope.
Furthermore, if you are willing to concentrate on generating personalized engagements while being patient with this platform, WhatsApp Business will undoubtedly help achieve better sales, revenue, and unprecedented entrepreneurial growth.
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[ReadWrite didn’t receive any compensation for this mostly ad-type copy. But I decided there was enough valuable information in the piece, that might help you — our readership — that I’ll go ahead and publish it anyway. DR]