WhatsApp has over 2 billion users in more than 180 countries, being the most accessed messaging app in Latin America. 96% of the Brazilian population uses WhatsApp (according to Statista’s research). This implies that, regardless of your target audience, it is almost certain that they have WhatsApp as one of their favorite communication channels, and perhaps it is already one of the best channels to establish a commercial dialogue with this audience.
For a culture where the customer must be at the center of all communication, marketing, advertising, or public relations actions, starting the dialogue through the customer’s favorite channel, or simply having it as an option for a transfer is already a step in the right direction to engage much more.
That said, it is important to remember that engagement goes beyond ‘communicating,’ it represents a much closer proximity between consumer and brand and does not come without efforts linked to personalization. Twilio’s 2024 Customer Engagement Report pointed out that 82% of interactions between customers and brands are digital and that 36% of people spend more with companies that personalize their communications. Through personalization, engagement is achieved, which ultimately generates financial return.
With this line of thinking drawn, it is time to think about how to achieve financial return, in this case starting from WhatsApp as a tool for personalized and engaging dialogue. Recently, Twilio released an e-book titled “O poder do WhatsApp para engajar clientes: guia prático“. It presents a lot of relevant information on this topic, as well as powerful insights on the subject.
Starting from this, I want to give you an overview of what is discussed in the material, in order to make you curious to check out the full material and start embracing WhatsApp in your journey to improve the relationship between you and your customers. Therefore, let’s reflect on the direction of WhatsApp in the customer journey and on six hot tips on how to start in the customer engagement journey with WhatsApp.
Which functions to direct WhatsApp to?
WhatsApp can be a tool used in sending promotional messages, such as loyalty programs, engagement campaigns, customer acquisition, lead qualification, post-sales and loyalty, self-service via chatbot, among other possibilities.
Meta recently launched, and Twilio now has clients in beta testing for the new WhatsApp Business Calling feature, where the user can make a voice call to the company using the WhatsApp application with Twilio Programmable Voice. With WhatsApp Business Calling, clients and brands will have a voice channel to communicate, for various use cases, including customer service, customer support, sales, post-sales, among others.
This powerful application, when combined with customer engagement platforms, becomes a channel with automated campaigns, without ceasing to be personalized. It is even possible to use predictive AI to collect, integrate, and deeply analyze customer data, which will be used in dialogues via the app.
However, it is important to remember that for a more robust personalization, it is important to collect quality data, first-party data or primary customer data, and an open dialogue channel, like WhatsApp, is ideal for this.
Using WhatsApp in marketing and sales
- Know your audience in detail – it all starts with understanding who your audience is. There is no strategy without prior knowledge of preferences, needs, pains, desires, language, service channels, most loved products/services, etc.;
- Segmentation – personalization is closely linked to segmentation, which delimits common characteristics and behaviors among customers. Here you can use AI to analyze large volumes of data and track changes;
- Plan – the customer journey needs to be carefully planned step by step. It’s not enough to start a dialogue, there needs to be a marketing flow that leads to sales within the communication designed for WhatsApp;
- Be creative – it’s important to explore different message formats, sending conversational messages with texts, images, videos, and links to the website, blog posts, or even news related to the segment. To make this more automated, it’s possible to implement an intelligent chatbot to serve the public through selected buttons or keywords;
- Mental triggers – as messages are instantaneous, there is little time to capture someone’s attention. Mental triggers are techniques that stimulate a person to take a certain action. There are various types of triggers, such as urgency, social proof, and authority;
- Click Ads for WhatsApp – the idea is to have a link that directs the customer straight to the brand’s WhatsApp, enabling them to start a conversation without needing to save the number. It’s essential to monitor the click-through rate, the number of people who actually start a conversation, and the average response time of the agents.
Additionally, as a bonus tip, when using the WhatsApp Business API integrated with Twilio’s customer engagement platforms, you gain scalability and customization of campaigns and messages; a high delivery capacity; integration of chatbot and intelligent virtual assistant into the app; multi-channel support in a single API. Secure third-party data collection in compliance with regulations; sending data to over 400 apps with predefined integrations; and automation of processes and campaign deliveries, content, and notifications.
With these tips, I hope I have intrigued you to learn more about how to start using this communication channel as a powerful tool to personalize, engage, and achieve a better financial and customer relationship return. If you want to know more, the complete e-book on the subject is available at: The power of WhatsApp to engage customers: a practical guide.
*Vivian Jones is the Vice President at Twilio for Latin America.
