How to utilize Whatsapp for your small or local Business

Almost 200 million Whatsapp active users today are in the MENA region. An opportunity that Whatsapp didn’t ignore and has invested in facilitating business transactions for its users by offering featured messaging tools.

Many e-commerce startups and SMEs nowadays rely on WhatsApp as one of their main communication sources. It is fast, more engaging with clients, and most importantly, widely used which increases reach.

What is WhatsApp Business

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WhatsApp is a free mobile messaging app that allows users to communicate with friends and family. WhatsApp Business also allows users to communicate in a professional setting. It is used for group messaging, calls, and multimedia sharing, regardless of mobile device type. The app also allows for international communication between users and the desktop version makes it easier.

Aside from being the world’s most popular messaging platform in over 100 countries, with over 2 billion active users, more than Twitter (0.33bn), Reddit (0.43bn), and Instagram (1bn) combined, Whatsapp is a great opportunity to expand your communication and reach more clients for your business, due to its popularity as well as its fast-based technology in instant messaging. It is no surprise that Meta acquiring it back in 2011 was great leverage.

A lot of e-commerce businesses also rely on Whatsapp Business for their product launch, customer support, delivery status, and much more business-oriented features. Let’s dig into the details.

The main key to selling on WhatsApp is views. In the end, Whatsapp is a messaging app and as a client or a customer, it is a higher probability to open a text message on your device than on any other platform. What’s the value of having a fast messaging system for your business?

Well, it’s as simple as: more views => more clicks => more interest => more sales.

Investing in the image you showcase your clients or leads is an important step to take into account if you want to acquire loyal customers. We are going to navigate you now through some tips on how to utilize WhatsApp for business.

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1. Create a dynamic and illustrative business profile

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Aside from your business name, your description should reflect on your business values and objectives while keeping the tone of voice more personal. In the end, your customer base is using WhatsApp in an informal setting and would be disturbed by seeing content in a corporate tone. Add your website, location, opening hours as well as a contact number for reach, and invest in an elaborative picture of the products you sell.

2. Order your products in the catalog

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WhatsApp Business’ catalog helps you showcase your products to your customers and navigate them through purchasing without having to leave the app. You can highlight the launch of new products, seasonal offers, or the most popular products. Many details go into presenting your products such as a title, a description of the product, an image, the priceand you can also include a link of the product to direct customers to your website.

3. Optimize your content for automated messages

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Efficient customer service is always an advantage when building a B2C relationship. The amount of time it takes for a business to answer a customer’s question is important to the flow and the course of the sale.

The faster the reply is, the easier it is for a client to make a purchasing decision or to get transparency. Therefore, using Quick replies with saved answers to frequently asked questions will save you some time and also satisfy your customers’ need for answers.

Create shortcuts to avoid the lost time in typing answers to repetitive questions.

4. Organize your customer base

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Labels can help you categorize your users and messages. Not only this will save you some time, it can also ensure a more organized business dynamic. New customers can be sent customized offers or discounts, payments details (pending, paid, canceled, or through COD, Visacard, Mastercard) can help you with orders’ shipments and status.

With all these tools you can very easily create a dashboard to overview how your business is performing. The most significant benefit of including a WhatsApp chat on your website is that you can continue the conversation after your customer exits. This is not available when utilizing a standard live chat, which improves both your customer’s and your own experience.

Using Whatsapp Business can increase your customer acquisition through a click-to WhatsApp approach in your paid campaigns. Notification opt-ins can also update your customers with price drops or back-in-stock products.

Delivery tracking, order status, and feedback can become easier to share and collect. Many other ways and strategies can upgrade your e-commerce presence and influence on social media platforms, find out more on how Amplify can help your e-commerce business reach its goals.