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WhatsApp Business: An Advantage For Small Businesses

WhatsApp Business: An Advantage For Small Businesses

Social networking platforms such as Facebook have completely revolutionized the way we humans interact with each other. Social networking platforms let us connect with just about anybody instantly irrespective of their geographic location, political or economic boundaries. 

Social networking platforms have a very large user base across the world.  In 2020, social networking giant Facebook had a user base of 2.71 monthly users. While other platforms such as Whatsapp, and Instagram have more than 1 billion monthly active users. Seeing this great opportunity, businesses have started using these platforms to reach out to their audience and interact with them personally. WhatsApp is a platform that allows businesses to interact with their customers on a one-to-one basis and helps them give them a personalized experience. 

But WhatsApp, which was created for personal calls and messaging services has its limitations when being used by businesses or large enterprises. That’s when WhatsApp Business comes in.

What is WhatsApp Business?

Optimize usage of WhatsApp business for growth and revenue generation

WhatsApp launched WhatsApp Business in January 2018 mainly targeting small businesses as its user base. This app has all the features of a basic WhatsApp app like messaging, audio calling, video calling, document sharing as well as live location sharing along with additional features that allow business owners to create multiple profiles, build catalogs, send automated messages, and more such features give businesses an edge when it comes to their branding, marketing services, and customer service approaches.

 While WhatsApp Business was created keeping small businesses in mind, large businesses are also finding this platform equally useful in reaching out to their diverse customer base and giving their customer service a personalized touch.

How does WhatsApp Business work?

How does WhatsApp Business work?

Unsolicited messages are never welcome, be it from an individual or a business. In many cases, the recipient gets so annoyed that they end up blocking the sender’s number for a lifetime. That’s something that every business would definitely want to avoid. 

WhatsApp Business overcomes this issue by allowing businesses to send messages to only those customers or individuals who have saved the businesses’ number on their phones.  This indicates that the individual is actually interested in the business and would be interested in WhatsApp conversations. 

But how to get your customers to save your number?

Different businesses follow different approaches whichever best suits their marketing techniques. Some businesses offer freebies or rewards in exchange for customers saving tier numbers while others simply get the user’s consent while they use their product or install their application. There are other techniques as well that you can explore over the web.

Once they make it to their customer contact list, they can use the platform for marketing, providing customer services, or keeping track of their vital customer statistics seamlessly. 

Advantage of using WhatsApp Business For Small Businesses

Advantage of using WhatsApp Business For Small Businesses

WhatsApp Business is a one-stop solution for small and medium-sized businesses. Here are the main advantages of using it for small businesses:

1. Exclusive Business profile

WhatsApp lets you create a professional profile with all relatable pieces of information such as business name, address, business type, opening hours, website, and other contact details. This helps your clients to know you better and engage with you more effectively. It also creates the impression that the business is genuine and can be contacted back anytime.

2. Automated Messages and Quick Reply feature

Typing individual messages for each of its clients/customers can be quite a task for any business. Automated messaging and quick reply feature makes it easy for the Admin to send out pre-curated welcome or generic messages to multiple recipients with just a click. While the admin sends the message in bulk, it will appear for the recipient as a personal message sent out individually and will help in creating a personal bond.

3. Product showcase through the catalog

Setting up a website to showcase products involves skills and has a significant amount of cost involved. WhatsApp Business has made it easy especially for small business owners to set up their product catalog on the app itself, that too in minutes. Now customers need not juggle between the website and WhatsApp chat to place an order or talk to the business about any of their products. It’s also easy for businesses to update their catalog with new products and let their customers know about the new arrivals.

4. Organized chat lists with labels and tags

Having a large customer base on WhatsApp Business doesn’t mean you have to scroll through thousands of contacts before you find the one person you wish to send a message to. The organized chat list feature allows the WhatsApp Business admin to organize the chat list with relevant labels and tags. Labeling chat lists as ‘Payment clear’, ‘Payment Due’, ‘New Customers’, ‘Seasonal Customers’ can help the admin manage conversations easily.

5. Use of corporate number for a business account

Unlike WhatsApp, WhatsApp Business does not require your mobile number to set up an account. Now you need not keep a separate number for your business communications and can use your landline number for WhatsApp Business. This feature becomes really useful for businesses who would like to use WhatsApp for customer service.

6. Messaging tools for automated or scheduled messages

It’s not always possible for businesses to send out welcome or greeting messages every time. There can be instances where you might be away on a business trip or a holiday. WhatsApp Business allows you to set up automated messages like ‘Hello XYZ, Welcome to Abcd business….’. 

WhatsApp Business has been a major game-changer for many small and large businesses around the world and has global brands such as Netflix, BookMyShowOYO, Cred, and Hellmann’s as it’s clients. WhatsApp Business when integrated with Social CRM tools such as SocialEpoch can boost your overall performance of WhatsApp marketing. So, what are you waiting for? Download the WhatsApp Business from Google Play Store or Apple AppStore and take your business to new heights!