Personalizing Customer Engagements with the WhatsApp Business Platform

We recently hosted a webinar on “Personalizing Customer Engagements with the WhatsApp Business API,” featuring Gartner analyst Daniel O’Connell, Meta Director of Product Marketing Afsheen Ali, and Twilio Senior Director of Product Marketing Vanessa Thompson. In this webinar, they discussed the importance of WhatsApp as a channel and how to use WhatsApp for growth marketing. Their conversation explained why WhatsApp is an important channel for multinational organizations, and shared best practices for marketing over WhatsApp, including ensuring proper opt-in, taking advantage of various entry points, and using WhatsApp as part of a larger multi-channel marketing strategy. In this article, we will share our key takeaways from the webinar – you can also watch the webinar in full here.

Takeaway #1: WhatsApp is a critical channel for multinational organizations who are looking to do business where WhatsApp is popular.

WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in many parts of the world, including Latin America, India, and Europe, and is often customers’ preferred method of communication, rather than SMS. No matter where a brand may be headquartered, for those looking to reach their customers in those regions, they need to be on WhatsApp.

Takeaway #2: The WhatsApp Business Platform offers tools for businesses to maintain compliance when using the channel.

The WhatsApp Business Platform includes end to end encryption (for the on-premise version), archiving and retention capabilities, and policies to govern message content and personal information. All of this ensures businesses can use WhatsApp in compliance with not only their enterprise IT policies but also country or industry regulations, helping them to avoid fines and lawsuits. Gartner predicts that 80% of customer service organizations will choose to use messaging apps like WhatsApp instead of native mobile apps by 2025, so it’s critical to ensure this is being done compliantly.

Takeaway #3: WhatsApp can be used to communicate with customers throughout their purchase journey to drive acquisition, conversion, and repeat purchase.

WhatsApp is a useful tool at any stage of the customer journey, from helping consumers learn more about a product, make purchase decisions, or get post-purchase support. Businesses can incorporate WhatsApp at the top of the purchase funnel by running an ad campaign on Facebook or Instagram with ads that click to message on WhatsApp. Once a user has clicked the ad to start the message, a business can ask for their continued opt-in for future updates so they can keep engaging with the user going forward. Then, a business can later reach out to the user again. For example, if they are running a holiday sale, they can message the user proactively to encourage them to make a purchase and move them to convert.

The engagement doesn’t need to stop at that point – a business can send messages post-purchase including order status updates or for post-purchase support. They can also later re-engage the user with relevant offers or back in stock alerts to drive repeat purchase.

Takeaway #4: Offering a variety of different entry points enables consumers to reach out on their terms.

WhatsApp offers a variety of unique entry points – from click to message ads or deep links on email campaigns to QR codes on billboards, product packaging, or receipts included in shipped products, businesses can make it easy for consumers to reach out to them on WhatsApp at various points in their purchase journey. By enabling these entry points, brands allow their customers to take action when it is useful to them. This not only helps offer more opportunities for engagement, but provides businesses with valuable data points around what their customers want and what works for them to engage.

Takeaway #5: WhatsApp doesn’t need to be used in isolation; integrating it into a larger multi-channel marketing campaign helps consumers communicate with brands at any stage of their customer journey.

WhatsApp can be part of a larger marketing strategy that includes digital ads, billboards, even email or SMS. Using WhatsApp as a tool to allow consumers to reach back out when they see an ad on Instagram or receive an offer in email provides valuable engagement data and allows a business to move them through the funnel more quickly. Incorporating the various entry points WhatsApp offers, including Click to WhatsApp ads on Facebook and Instagram, QR codes, and deep links helps support a multi-channel marketing strategy.

To learn more best practices for WhatsApp and tips for using WhatsApp for growth marketing, check out the full webinar recording.