General Management
Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
Open For AdmissionAs we enter another year and decade, one of the patterns that digital marketing specialists all over the world have been discussing is ‘WhatsApp Marketing’ and how it can assist brands to reach out to their consumers successfully.
At a recent Facebook Marketing Summit (FMC) 2019 in the Netherlands, the organization declared that it will show 'Status Promotions' to its clients where they will have the option to see the name of the sponsor alongside their related ad. This is expected to open a conduit of opportunities for brands keen on getting up-close and personal with their purchasers.
Source - businessofapps.com
Today, there are two services from WhatsApp that can be utilized by marketers to reach out and get in touch with their consumers. The first one is the Whatsapp for business app, that can be utilized by private companies and the other being, WhatsApp for Business API that has been intended to be used by medium and huge organizations to inform their consumers about their services and products.
For a very long time, one-way interaction with the customers was the only way advertising could function. The development in the services available on the internet has permitted brands to get more and more personal with their consumers and have allowed for increasingly interactive and two-way communication. The most important aspect in driving a successful marketing campaign is knowing how the customers are reacting, and tailoring the ads as per the individuals' needs. The new Whatsapp feature allows the companies to do exactly this.
With the Whatsapp for business app, small companies can maintain a simple product catalog and have features like auto-respond which helps them respond to their customer's queries. It is similar to the normal Whatsapp application and can be simply installed on the devices without much hassle. The limiting factor is that it needs to be controlled manually and cannot cater to more than 100 consumers.
The WhatsApp Business API, on the other hand, caters to large and medium enterprises. It allows dealing with consumers on a large scale, having much fewer restrictions and providing enterprises with more tools to customize their advertisements. It also requires more commitment, as the companies have to invest in setting up a dedicated infrastructure to use WhatsApp business API.
It’s Already Showing a Huge Promise!
Considering the wide user base of the app, it makes for a platform where the companies can reach out to an already engaged audience. The initial survey data shows a very promising result that has been unprecedented in the realm of marketing.
The wide reach of the app can be leveraged by brands to tap into an untouched consumer segment on a personalized level.
Moreover, the messaging interface of the app makes it very susceptible to getting clicked on and checked by consumers, and as the nature of the ad is personal it evokes a desire in the consumer to interact with it. As the services are conversational in nature and can be interacted with, a lot of sectors like travel, hotels, and niche news channels are already successfully utilizing it to reach out to their customers.
You too can benefit from this and become a leading marketing expert on Whatsapp. We provide the Executive Programme on Digital & Social Media Marketing Strategy (EPDSMMS) by IIM Calcutta which is aimed at honing your skills and making you ready to fully utilize the new emerging platform. The six months long course with live online classes is designed to hone the digital marketing skills of the learners and help them in planning and implementing the digital and social media marketing activities to create awareness, and ultimately drive sales.
Keep yourself updated.