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How to use Whatsapp for Lead Generation
WhatsApp is a hidden ace that many companies are beginning to discover, but not enough yet. This tool, which is now a part of all of our lives, offers a personal and engaging communication channel with users and customers, paving the way for solid and lasting relationships with your audience. That's why you should take lead generation through WhatsApp seriously.
Lead generation on WhatsApp: Why do it?
Why WhatsApp? Well, this communication channel is incredibly effective and solves many of the challenges encountered with traditional web chat or email marketing. Think about it: online chats risk losing valuable contacts when website visitors navigate anonymously, while newsletters risk getting lost among promotional emails or ending up in the "spam" folder.
WhatsApp overcomes these difficulties by offering direct and flexible communication, reducing the wait time between messages and responses. Additionally, its informal tone is perfect for relationship marketing, keeping your audience engaged.
Now, let's look at some data on WhatsApp that demonstrate its significance. With over 2 billion active users every day, it is the most popular messaging app in the world, used in over 150 countries. In Italy, millions of people use it daily, spending an average of over 10 hours a month on this platform.
Here's an interesting statistic: the vast majority of people of all age groups use it, with 97% of users between 18 and 29 years old, 93% between 30 and 49 years old, and 79% between 50 and 69 years old.
Now, you might be thinking, "WhatsApp is fine for personal conversations, but I'm not sure if it's suitable for connecting with my customers." Let's see what the numbers tell us.
Every day, more than 175 million customers contact businesses using WhatsApp. Moreover, over 5 million businesses use WhatsApp Business, so brands adopting this channel are in good company.
WhatsApp provides an important way to keep up with the competition and give your customers the opportunity to contact you through one of their favorite channels.
WhatsApp also helps brands remain competitive in other ways:
- WhatsApp Business accelerates customer service by 225%.
- WhatsApp Business increases sales by 27%.
- WhatsApp Business improves conversion rates by 20%.
Given that WhatsApp has achieved better sales and higher conversions, it's no wonder that this channel is ideal for lead generation. Here are some other benefits of lead generation on WhatsApp.
High open rates
In 2022, the average email open rate across all industries is 21.5%.
The average open rate for WhatsApp Business messages? 98%. WhatsApp is a reliable and trusted channel for customers, much more so than email, and its open rate is already a compelling reason to use it for lead generation and nurturing.
Furthermore, WhatsApp Business boasts a customer response rate just shy of 50%. If you're looking for a new lead generation channel that's worth your time and money, WhatsApp is the right answer.
Drive sales and build relationships
Your customers expect almost immediate responses to their most pressing questions. Young consumers, in particular, are not willing to fill out forms or send emails to brands with unclear or unreliable response times. If they don't find immediate answers, they're likely to move on to another brand that makes it easy for them to understand its products or offers.
On the other hand, when you provide simple support options like WhatsApp (which your customers already love using), they're much more likely to reach out to you. When they do reach out to you, and you provide helpful answers right away, it's time to start building and nurturing a long-term relationship with them.
Stay ahead of the competition
Direct channels like email still have value, but according to a Gated study, 67% of people feel overwhelmed by their email inbox. Consumers receive a flood of marketing emails every day, so standing out when your audience is inundated with unread messages is a significant challenge for brands.
While email inboxes are saturated, from competitive messaging to outright spam, WhatsApp is still a relatively new channel. With just five years of existence, WhatsApp Business offers you the opportunity to stand out early and make an impression on your audience. Your lead generation efforts through WhatsApp are much more likely to gain traction while most other companies are not yet taking advantage of this channel.
Now that we've discussed the virtues of lead generation through WhatsApp, let's delve into some lead generation principles.
Lead Generation Fundamentals
For sales and marketing teams that rely on metrics, it can be all too easy to get caught in the trap of thinking of leads as mere numbers rather than real people.
In the rush to sell more, marketers often focus on ambitious metrics set by their executive teams. They try to inflate the number of leads at all costs, regardless of whether they are actually interested, qualified, or even real. As revealed by a Verse survey, 44% of sales teams cite low-quality leads as the main complaint in the lead handoff process from marketing to sales.
However, even the longest list of shallow and irrelevant contacts is useless for your brand from any perspective. You might think you've achieved something in the short term, but if they don't trust or love your brand, they won't buy from you, and they certainly won't remain loyal to you.
Marketing for Humans
If your potential customers notice that you don't care about their needs or pay attention to their intentions, they won't trust you. In a crowded market, trust is essential.
To build trust, start by considering the customer journey. Don't use the same messaging and WhatsApp contact strategy for everyone. Instead, consider where, how, and why someone has provided you with their contact information. Then, use this information to continue the conversation thoughtfully, bringing them closer to making a purchase but without pushing them.
If you meet their needs by providing value, these contacts can become customers. However, this won't happen if you lose their trust by spamming those who provide you with their information.
Pay Attention to the Customer Journey
How can these principles be applied in practice?
Suppose you provide hair cutting services to your customers. There should be a clear difference in how you respond to a customer who provides their contact information when booking a haircut and someone who signs up for your newsletter or email list.
The person who booked an appointment has expressed a clear intent and a need for your service. You could follow up with that person to nurture the relationship by sending a WhatsApp reminder to book another appointment in the future, especially if you've also asked them about their preferred haircut schedule. For example, a message reminding them that it's been four months since their last appointment shows that you're attentive to their needs and goes beyond simply offering a discount.
Building Customer Relationships the Right Way
The highly relational nature of WhatsApp, and customers' familiarity with using the channel for casual encounters, presents both an opportunity and a challenge for brands. Those who succeed on WhatsApp will adopt a personal and intentional approach to interacting with customers.
If your priority is to build meaningful relationships with customers on their terms, you'll be more successful in encouraging customers to contact you via WhatsApp. Additionally, you'll receive more responses from customers and more meaningful responses.
That's why personalization is so important. Personalization is a marketing buzzword for a good reason. According to McKinsey, 71% of consumers expect businesses to provide personalized interactions. Customers want brands to adapt to their needs, and brands that don't will quickly fall behind.
Lead with Value
Best practices for building customer relationships are not unique to WhatsApp: you should lead with value on every channel, from social media to email to SMS.
When you market and generate
leads through WhatsApp, focus on providing meaningful content that your audience will appreciate. Avoid abusing their trust and contact information in exchange for value and support.
Focus on the long-term game of nurturing WhatsApp leads over time with value-oriented WhatsApp newsletters.
Use WhatsApp newsletters to send exclusive channel-specific content that your customers won't find anywhere else, from discounts to product samples to insights to help them use your product. Promote these benefits to encourage people to contact you via WhatsApp because they can't get these benefits elsewhere.
You can also use WhatsApp Business notifications to nurture your audience selectively. Share automated information such as appointment reminders or shipping updates. Or send personalized messages to remind an existing customer how long it's been since their last order (and encourage them to order again).
Many brands have used WhatsApp to think outside the box with creative marketing campaigns designed to provide value to the audience.
In perspective, the possibilities for informing, helping, and even entertaining through WhatsApp are endless.
So, how do you start lead generation with WhatsApp?
Here are some guidelines:
1. Activate WhatsApp Business
Download the app, create a business account by entering your business name, category, and business image (logo).
2. Customize your business profile
Add information such as your address, business description, and opening hours. If you sell products or services, create a catalog with images, names, and descriptions to make it easier for your users.
3. Encourage users to contact you
Remember, it should always be the user who initiates the conversation. A great strategy to increase inbound contacts is to organize contests on WhatsApp: the user writes to your business WhatsApp number to participate in the contest, agrees to the privacy policy, and immediately finds out if they have won a prize. Once you have their number, start building a solid relationship with the lead, but try not to send too many communications to avoid being blocked.
4. Use Chatbots
Chatbots, when properly configured, can speed up customer service by quickly answering frequently asked questions. Users expect immediate responses on WhatsApp, so chatbots can be invaluable.
Five Tips for Lead Generation on WhatsApp
1. Connect WhatsApp to your website
Replace traditional website chats with WhatsApp. This allows you to collect your contacts' phone numbers, answer questions and doubts in real-time, and create a starting point for building a direct relationship.
2. QR Code
Create a QR code with a link to your WhatsApp chat to include on flyers, promotional materials, or your website.
3. WhatsApp Instant Win
Organizing a contest on WhatsApp allows you to gather a large number of qualified contacts behind the promise of one or more prizes. Certainly, among those listed, this strategy can generate the highest number of leads because the opportunity to win a prize, solely by sending a message, is appealing to many users.
To ensure that the leads collected are in your target audience, it's important that the offered prize is relevant to your business. For example, if your company deals with travel, you could consider offering an experiential or physical prize related to the travel industry.
4. Social Advertising
WhatsApp, as you may know, is part of Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram. Creating a WhatsApp Business account allows you to connect all three platforms, with significant benefits. For example, by creating lead generation campaigns, you can direct conversations to your WhatsApp Business, collecting potentially interested contacts for your business.
5. Use WhatsApp in your email signature
Another excellent way to direct your customers to WhatsApp is to let them know it's available when you connect with them through other channels, such as email. Try adding a "click-to-WhatsApp" link to your email signature.
If you've already included your phone number, replace it with a link to invite people to chat with you directly on WhatsApp. As soon as they click this link, they'll be launched into a conversation with you in the app.
The Tricks and Non-Tricks of Lead Generation on WhatsApp
Since WhatsApp is the latest in customer communication (and lead generation), you may be wondering how to make the most of it when connecting with your customers.
Review this list of dos and don'ts to make the most of WhatsApp customers and generate contacts that turn into lasting customer relationships.
Adapt to WhatsApp: don't talk the same way you do on other channels.
While the principles of lead generation are the same across channels, your message and tone should not be the same. People use WhatsApp like any other messaging app, most of the time to send messages to their friends and family. They send messages that resemble their way of speaking, and your brand's messages should reflect these expectations.
You might be used to sending long emails with several sentences in a paragraph or lengthy descriptions. But for WhatsApp, this approach is wrong. Your audience doesn't want to read a wall of text on WhatsApp. They want you to quickly get to your point.
Send short and sweet WhatsApp messages - ideally no more than one or two sentences - that resemble conversational texts. Get to a clear action and value right away.
Show your brand's personality
Did you know that nearly 9 out of 10 consumers say authenticity is important to them when choosing brands to support?
People want brands to be honest and transparent about their values and identity. Since WhatsApp is an interpersonal channel, authenticity is even more important when connecting with customers.
Reflect your brand's voice and personality in every message. If your brand typically uses emojis and exclamation points, WhatsApp is the perfect channel to do so. Your marketing should resemble a conversation with customers, so don't be afraid to be creative, fun, or witty.
Don't immediately push for a sale
We understand: when an interested customer contacts you via WhatsApp, it can be tempting to see how quickly you can persuade them to make a purchase.
But if you jump straight to conversion or closing the conversation as soon as someone engages with you on WhatsApp - without paying attention to their intentions - you'll frustrate them at best and, at worst, drive them away.
Consider where they are today in their journey and ask if they are still gathering information or if they need resources or expertise to guide their research. Build your awareness activities based on their needs and priorities before moving on to an aggressive sales approach and "immediate purchase."
Don't neglect current customers: continue to nurture them even after the purchase
Your WhatsApp marketing job doesn't end after a customer makes their first purchase. In fact, this is the ideal time to show customers that you care about the relationship with them and that their business is important. This is where long-term nurturing begins, and from a business perspective, this is when your approach can determine the customer's Lifetime Value (LTV).
After a customer places an order, offer them valuable resources to help them understand and use your product better.
Provide personalized guidance based on their previous purchases, including complementary products, but be sure to respect timing. Don't bombard them with more marketing right away. Give it some time before their order arrives and they can express any doubts about the product. This way, you'll ensure they are satisfied with the product and open to the idea of buying from you again.
Set follow-up expectations
One of the advantages of using WhatsApp is that customers don't have to wait on your website for a response, but they won't wait forever either. That's why you need to set follow-up expectations, especially during peak times or if a potential customer contacts you when your office is closed.
When a customer reaches out to you, make sure they know as soon as possible when they will receive a response. Whether you use an automatic response or a chatbot designed to recognize specific keywords to answer direct questions, take the time to reassure your customers that a response from your team is on its way. You can also ask them to leave their contact information for a follow-up the next day.
Allocate time for informal conversations, but don't overlook automation
On WhatsApp, a little human touch goes a long way. Unfortunately, the time required to add that human touch adds up quickly. Even though it's worthwhile for your team to invest time in creating WhatsApp messages that are helpful, they only have a limited number of hours in a day.
You don't always have the time to personalize responses or go the extra mile.
This is where automation can help. Tools like quick replies and chatbots can help streamline repetitive tasks that can accumulate, saving precious time for customer service and sales teams to reinvest in customer conversations.
The goal is to save time where and when possible, and then reallocate the saved time to build relationships and make customers feel heard.
In conclusion
WhatsApp is a powerful tool that you can no longer ignore for your business. Start planning a lead generation strategy with WhatsApp today to build meaningful relationships with your customers, increase conversions, and loyalty, and outpace your competitors. Are you ready to get started?
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