Sure, we all talk about email campaigns and SMS campaigns, but have you ever tried sending a campaign through WhatsApp?
Yet in December 2019, WhatsApp stopped offering newsletters, and that was really not cool for businesses and especially online stores that used it as their main communication channel. With one click, you could send a message directly to all your WhatsApp subscribers, and it would appear at the top of each of your customers’ messages. Period. It was extremely effective with an incredible open rate.
Honestly, it’s complicated to launch a WhatsApp campaign yourself because you need to know the WhatsApp API… Fortunately, we have managed to create an application that is super simple to install, and with just a few clicks, you will be able to send your newsletter campaigns on WhatsApp without worrying about the technical aspects.
WhatsApp is Everywhere and Becoming a Reference
Who doesn’t have WhatsApp today? There are billions of users worldwide, especially in Europe where WhatsApp continues to grow. For example, more than half of French people have WhatsApp installed on their mobile phones.
And what do you think is the reason? Well, it’s an excellent way to contact family and friends, share photos, or even documents, no matter where you are in the world. Instead of creating an account on, say, Messenger, where you need an email address, fill out your profile, and so on, WhatsApp offers the simplicity of using your own phone number, making it very easy to access a WhatsApp account.
And current startups and online stores have understood this well; you see more and more websites offering to contact an advisor via WhatsApp with a response, for example, within 24 hours. And frankly, that’s great because you can leave the site and continue chatting with an advisor to get answers to your questions. Instead of waiting for an email where you might get a response again within 24 hours, with WhatsApp, you feel like you’re having an instant conversation.
Now imagine if all these people who contact you on WhatsApp enter a customer database and you could recontact them by sending a newsletter with an open rate of over 90% compared to emails that stagnate around 25%… In other words, you would have the potential to make almost four times more sales!
WhatsApp Newsletters, the New Eldorado of Marketing
WhatsApp newsletters have many advantages, such as the high open rate I mentioned earlier, but also the click-through rate and the feeling of being able to ask questions directly to the newsletter and get a response.
When you send an email campaign, only a few people will ask you questions in return without expecting a response. On WhatsApp, it’s different; you feel like you’re engaging in a conversation and someone is talking to you. Thus, many of your customers who receive your WhatsApp newsletter will feel like they can communicate with you.
And that’s something ultra-important because you will gather a lot of information about their questions, objections, or concerns about your offer. Then, all you need to do is respond to close the sale, and you have a great conversion rate. And frankly, I will show you how an artificial intelligence can do this for you because you don’t have the time to respond to thousands of customers who expect an instant response. And no worries here because we have removed all technical barriers through the Coco application, which allows you to run your WhatsApp campaigns, send cart abandonment reminders, or manage all your customers with a highly efficient AI that knows your catalog inside out.
So, in a way, WhatsApp becomes an ultra-efficient marketing tool where you can:
- Run newsletter campaigns that appear at the top of your customers’ message list
- Send effective cart abandonment reminders with an insane open rate
- Respond to everyone who writes to this phone number thanks to AI
And we can imagine many scenarios that we have integrated, such as automatically asking for the customer’s opinion on the product after receiving their order or sending them a tracking or order status link.
However, there are some disadvantages, but they are not significant if you use your number correctly, for example:
- Your number can be blocked if you send spam
- You have a score that represents the quality of your phone number. If you send messages to people who have never agreed to receive messages from you via WhatsApp, your score will drop, and you may lose your number.
And that’s it, in a way. If you behave well with your users and respect GDPR and their consent, there is nothing to worry about. Some might say there are other disadvantages, like the size of your contact list being limited or not having detailed reporting. That was in the old days. Now, there is no limit on the number of contacts in your list.
If you want to send 10,000 messages, you can send them; only the price and cost of sending will be affected. Indeed, WhatsApp offers quite an original pricing where you can send whatever you want within a 24-hour window. I will explain all that to you.
The Cost of Sending a WhatsApp Newsletter
Note that we are not talking here about WhatsApp Business, where you will have a channel that is very quickly limited and where it is not possible to create personal and personalized interactions with your customers. We are talking about a real phone number where everyone can contact you, and from this number, you will be able to activate your cart abandonment reminders and also your marketing campaigns like newsletters or even send a simple promo code.
To do this, WhatsApp applies pricing that is much more interesting than that of SMS. If you want to run an SMS campaign, you will have to pay for each message you send to your customers. For example, you will pay to send your newsletter, and if a customer asks you a question, you will have to pay again to send your response.
And that’s where WhatsApp is really interesting because you will pay to open a 24-hour window, and you can find the rates for different countries right here. In France, the cost will be around €0.13 per message sent, which opens a 24-hour conversation with unlimited messages. In India, the rate will be 10 times cheaper, depending on the customer’s phone number.
So, if you send your WhatsApp newsletter to 1,000 contacts, you will pay around €130. However, it is a profitable operation because, during those 24 hours, AI can respond to all your customers’ questions and close the sale for you.
Here are all the advantages:
- You will be four times more visible than with an email or SMS campaign
- You create a close relationship with your customers and even exclusivity
- You will obtain very interesting data, such as your customers’ questions or concerns, which you can address
- AI will close all your customers, whether there are hundreds or thousands at the same time, and it will cost you nothing during the 24-hour window
So, simply put, when you send your WhatsApp campaign, there is indeed a cost associated with all the people who have not spoken to you within 24 hours to reopen this 24-hour window. But if someone has already spoken to you within a 24-hour window, it will cost you nothing to recontact them.
This is the kind of optimization we have done at Coco with our application that really allows you to manage everything from A to Z on WhatsApp. For the rest, you can refer to the WhatsApp pricing table, which you can find right here.
But Then, How to Capture Contacts on WhatsApp to Send Your Campaign?
Okay, all this is interesting, but to send a WhatsApp campaign, you first need people in your database who agree to receive marketing messages on WhatsApp. Especially if you work in Europe, you will need to comply with GDPR with clear consent from them. And that’s really not straightforward unless you have a good application like Coco!
Customers can enter your WhatsApp database in several ways. First, we will provide you with a bubble that can be installed very easily in two clicks on your Shopify store. Once activated, everyone who interacts with this bubble will be automatically sent to your WhatsApp, and we will ask them if they want to receive marketing messages in accordance with GDPR. Of course, if you are not in Europe and not subject to these issues, you can uncheck this option.
Thus, anyone who comes to chat with your chatbot on the site will be automatically registered in your WhatsApp contact database, and you can retarget them. Moreover, I mentioned earlier the abandoned cart reminder. This is not the subject of this article, but know that every time someone abandons their cart or even confirms an order on your site, the phone number is registered in your WhatsApp database, and you can recontact them.
So, you will have visitors, people who have abandoned their carts, but also all your best customers within reach and, above all, within reach of a newsletter. In summary, it’s very simple; you just need to install this bubble to capture your visitors, and everyone who orders on your site or abandons their cart is also registered.
What is possible to do is also add a direct link to your WhatsApp, which we provide, of course, and which you can place on any button on your website or even include in an email newsletter to bring a lot of contacts to your WhatsApp channel.
The Interface for Creating Templates and Sending WhatsApp Messages
As I mentioned earlier, there is no need to worry about WhatsApp API or create templates directly in your Facebook Business Manager. The WhatsApp system works like email through the creation of a template that must, however, be automatically approved in a few minutes by Meta. I remind you that Meta owns WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram…
Thus, it automatically verifies, but sometimes manually, the quality of the messages you are going to send, already to see if it complies with the imposed rules such as avoiding spam or talking about topics that can be disturbing or unsuitable for your audience, in order to preserve the brand image of WhatsApp. But don’t worry, it happens very quickly and easily thanks to our interface.
We call the newsletters Icebreakers. Simply because you will be able to recontact your customers and let AI take over to chat and close your customers. We break the ice a bit and create a unique relationship between each person and your brand.
So, go to the Icebreaker tab, then click on create a template. As you can see, it is then extremely simple; you will be able to:
- Add a custom image
- Write your own text by adding variables like a first name
- Directly add links that will become clickable buttons with a maximum limit of 3 buttons
Then, you will just need to validate the template in the corresponding language. Then, AI will automatically target your database in the corresponding language. You will then just need to schedule the launch date and time, and it will be sent automatically.
If someone asks a question directly on WhatsApp following this message, the artificial intelligence will automatically respond, knowing your online store, your products, and your subject perfectly. And as I said before, there can be 1,000 conversations at the same time; it is absolutely not a problem.
And what is wonderful is that you have a direct presence in the WhatsApp application on your customers’ phones. Often, even days later, customers come back to ask questions to your bot because they know they can find you on your website, of course, but also now on their WhatsApp and get advice and quality products.
In other words, when you send a newsletter, you also send the possibility for people to get personalized and high-quality advice, greatly improving your brand image and presence while boosting your sales. As you can see, it only takes a few minutes to send your WhatsApp campaign; there is no need to worry about the technical part; we have simplified everything for you.
Tips and Best Practices for Your WhatsApp Marketing Templates
To get better results and also protect the quality of your phone number, I would like to give you some tips that will help you maximize your results with your WhatsApp newsletters
Avoid Spamming
Meta is particularly sensitive about its brand image for WhatsApp and does not like what can be considered spam. Whatever happens, we have integrated functionalities and buttons that allow your customers to easily unsubscribe from your WhatsApp list to protect your phone number and your reputation.
Ask yourself if the newsletter is qualitative and not too pushy; otherwise, you risk having a high spam rate, which would be a negative signal. Always respect your users’ point of view and avoid sending campaigns three times a day. Don’t forget that this is where they normally come to chat with their friends and family, so you shouldn’t be too intrusive.
Love and Advise your Customer
You also need to consider that AI will speak on your behalf and that a new way of communicating is possible. Rather than forcing and proposing, for example, the purchase of a product as is done through an email, you can ask the user questions so that they respond and AI can then advise them. For example, if you offer skincare products, you can send a newsletter asking your customer about their current issues, such as if they have redness on their skin, and so on, rather than proposing a product.
The AI will then take into account the responses from your customers and naturally direct them towards the most interesting products for them.
Build a relationship
And that’s the whole point of creating a sincere but automated relationship with relevant advice to guide them towards the best purchase on your website.
Lastly, don’t hesitate to personalize with emojis, speak with a name so that people can identify you and start creating a relationship with you. We are on an instant messaging app, so we want to have a personal relationship with the person we are talking to. Your customer doesn’t want to be just a number to whom advertising is sent; they want to be heard, listened to, and understood.
So, if you follow all these tips, you can now set up WhatsApp campaigns. You will just need to install this application on your Shopify store, and your customer database will gradually fill up. You can then follow this tutorial to send a campaign on WhatsApp.
And if you have any other questions, you can make an appointment with us, and we will explain everything in detail and how to make your WhatsApp marketing absolutely amazing.
