Email has been the conventional mode of communication for businesses trying to keep customers engaged. Marketing campaigns have long been judged by measuring open rates and landing-page metrics.
But you're missing out if you're not using WhatsApp marketing for your business. WhatsApp is a communication tool that's constantly evolving to meet the needs of businesses. From its early days as a simple messaging app to its current incarnation as a powerful business tool, WhatsApp has come a long way.
While email has been the long-standing standard for business communication, it's no secret that it's no longer as effective as it used to be. In fact, many businesses are now turning to alternatives for their communication needs. Here's a look at some of the reasons why email is no longer effective:
With the advent of instant messaging and other alternatives, the rate of opened emails has decreased significantly.
In fact, with Apple's announcement of Mail Privacy Protection, email open rate is no longer a consistently effective metric for measuring the success of email campaigns.
The problem with email is that anyone can send you messages, regardless of whether they're a trusted brand or not. Your inbox is probably filled with spam messages from brands you don't even recognize.
Spamming has negatively impacted many brands, and it's something that customers are now very aware of.
In the world of instant gratification, people want answers to their questions immediately. Email can't do that.
Your customers want to interact with you in real-time. Email doesn't do that. One-way communication doesn't cut it in 2022.
Email was designed to be read on a desktop computer. But now, with the rise of mobile devices, email hasn't kept up.
Different mobile devices have different screen sizes, so the chance of email not being optimized is very high, resulting in a negative user experience. In addition, different email clients display emails differently, so what may look good in one client won't look so great in another.
This is a big problem for businesses, making it challenging to know whether their emails will be seen the way they want.
Aside from email, there are many other communication tools, including social media, phone calls, and text messages. But WhatsApp offers a level of convenience that other tools simply can't match. Here's why:
One of the most important aspects of any communication tool is its open rate: How often do people actually see the messages you're sending? WhatsApp has a very high open-rate. 95% of WhatsApp messages are opened within 2 minutes of being received.
It's way greater than the average open rate for an email, which is only 20-30%.
WhatsApp allows live two-way communication, a huge advantage for you and your customers, especially for engagement. You can not only send messages to customers but also receive messages from them. This is a big deal because it lets you have real-time conversations with your customers.
You build rapport with your customers: they get to know your brand through your customer-service interactions or when you give quick answers to important questions.
The average response time for an email is about 12 hours, but there's high variance, so it can be as long as 8 days. You can't even guarantee that your customer will get your message right away. In fact, they might not even see it until they check their email days later.
But with WhatsApp, businesses can expect a reply in minutes — even seconds.
This is because WhatsApp is designed for real-time communication. And since most people have their phones on them at all times, they're more likely to see and respond to a WhatsApp message right away.
It's a huge advantage for businesses needing to get in touch with their customers immediately. And it's one of the main reasons why WhatsApp is quickly becoming the preferred communication tool for businesses.
According to a recent survey, 75% of customers consider speedy responses critical to customer service and experience. So this means that if you're still stuck in the past with email's response time, you're already missing out on a huge opportunity to improve your customer service.
Multimedia is a great way to add an extra layer of information to your messages. And since people are more likely to remember information presented in a multimedia format, it's a great way to grab your customer's attention.
Many email platforms can't send multimedia natively. You have to download an attachment to view it, which is not always convenient, especially on mobile.
WhatsApp is designed as a multimedia platform — it's not an add-on or an update. It's just there.
When it comes to business, being unique is important. This is especially true when it comes to communication. With WhatsApp, you can personalize messages with emojis, GIFs, and even pictures.
WhatsApp allows brands to create a more personal touch with their customers, making it more likely that they'll remember your brand and do business with you again in the future.
People, not just businesses, prefer automation simply because it saves us the time and effort of doing things manually. Fortunately, WhatsApp APIs can automate some tasks for you.
For example, you can send automated messages to get a confirmation for Cash on Delivery (COD) orders instead of calling each and every customer, thus saving time and money.
You can automatically send order-related updates like order confirmations or shipping information once an order is placed.
That's a big deal because it allows businesses to focus on more important tasks, leaving the communication part to WhatsApp.
As brands continue to see the benefits of WhatsApp because of better customer engagement, many are already using the app for sales, marketing, and customer support.
WhatsApp is a revenue driver because engaged customers are loyal customers, and open rates are higher than any other messaging app. WhatsApp blows email away.
So if you're still using email, SMS, or other messaging apps to communicate with your customers, it's time for you to make the switch to WhatsApp and watch your customer engagement rise.
.svg){kind=icon}
