Continuing from Part 1 of this topic in Episode 17, we'll talk about the opportunities WhatsApp Business offers small businesses and nonprofits/NGOs, some tips to help you make the most out of these opportunities and caution you on common mistakes.
Opportunities
- Share business contact information
- Tagline
- Address and opening hours
- Send updates (Nonprofits such as Milaap share donation acknowledgement and project updates)
- Website
- Email
- Engage customers, donors, volunteers, etc. For example, Tamil Shirts.com (50 designs with more than 7,000 customers from India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, the U.A.E., and U.K.) uses Quick Replies to be more productive, label customers and make follow-up calls for sales. Since they began using the WhatsApp Business app, they say sales have increased by 30 percent, customer interaction by 70 percent, and leads getting converted to new business by 20 percent.
- Labeling allows your response to be more in line with the stage the customer/donor is - inquiries, orders, warm leads, hot leads
- Improved communication - product images, demos, audio explanations, video walkthroughs, live video chats. For example, Bengaluru-based software as a service (SaaS) startup Lorry Business to Business (LOBB), create a group, from sharing proof of delivery, to tracking location, to business acknowledgement, to keeping everyone in loop
- Upload your product service catalog - promotions
- Helps businesses transcend geographies - customers from across the world
- Good source for referral business
- Use the live location feature (Hey DeeDee, the company paving the way for delivery girls, uses the app to track the attendance of the staff even when they are on the road), and they collect real time feedback too on Whatsapp
- With regular Whatsapp, you can still use:
- Status
- Tag line
- Contact info
- Other ideas: Video walkthroughs, live video chats
- Disappearing messages (expire after 7 days) - coupon codes, limited period offers
- Broadcast
- Groups
Some tips
- For your Whatsapp Business Account, remember:
- More transactional
- Take permission
- Respect the receiver’s request to exit
- Use the features well - label, quick replies, auto response, catalog, etc.
- Be authentic
- Communicate, be responsive
- Use the status and profile picture (regular WhatsApp)
- Pay close attention to the needs of your customers and address them
- Build trust - referral source
Read the stories of how small biz are using WhatsApp for ideas and inspiration.
Common mistakes
- Not having a strategy
- Bulk messaging - spamming
- Not taking permission
- No personalisation, generic messaging
- Not maintaining the hygiene of the contact list
- Excessive messaging
- Not giving complete business information in the profile
- Nonresponsive
- Not organising your contact list
- Not setting an Away message
- Not tracking links
- Don't add people to groups without their permissions - group chat link is the better way - let them join
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