WhatsApp groups have been primarily used by family and friends to connect, chat and foster stronger relationships. However, this messaging app has gone beyond its role as a personal communication tool to one that business owners now use to promote their products or services.

Day by day, businesses are leveraging the power of WhatsApp groups to connect with their audience, promote their business and drive engagement. Therefore, this blog post will delve into details how business owners can utilize the power of WhatsApp groups, while also looking at best practices for effective WhatsApp group marketing.

Understanding the role of WhatsApp groups to business owners

With billions of users worldwide, this popular messaging app serves as an excellent tool for business owners. WhatsApp groups can be used by businesses to promote their offers or products. This helps them have a direct and close relationship with their potential clients.

Additionally, creating a WhatsApp group helps to give you a direct reach to your audience. Because this platform is considered a messaging app more than a traditional social media platform, interactions with individuals feel very personal and reduces the feeling of being sold to.

Also, creating a WhatsApp group makes it easier to share updates and promotions about your business.

Marketing campaigns and WhatsApp groups.

A marketing campaign is defined as the series of steps a company or a brand takes to promote a service or a product. Different methods are used to achieve the end goal during a marketing campaign.

For instance, a brand that just launched and is trying to build awareness can use social media platforms to create awareness. They can host webinars and give out freebies to get their target audience into their sales funnel.
Using this example above, let’s link it to WhatsApp groups.

Imagine this new brand now decides to create a link that takes every person interested in the webinar to a WhatsApp group. When this happens, the brand can use the opportunity to introduce itself and the company goals properly.

Additionally, bringing every interested individual together helps to give out targeted content that will show them how much your brand offers and what goal you’re trying to attain. You can also give room for a two-way interaction where your audience can talk about themselves and why they decided to join your group. This can create a lot of friendliness and familiarity even before the main event starts.

Moreover, you can encourage your audience to share your links to their WhatsApp status and to their friends, as this would help you build more awareness for your brand. Now, that we’ve seen how important using a WhatsApp group can be for your marketing campaigns, let’s look at how to use this powerful tool for effective marketing campaigns.

How to use WhatsApp groups for effective marketing campaigns

Here are some things to keep in mind before, during and after using WhatsApp as a part of your marketing campaign.

1. Set clear goals and objectives for your WhatsApp group

You need to be very clear on what campaign you want to run before creating a WhatsApp group. Whether to build brand awareness, generate leads and drive sales.
In addition, being able to do this helps you create a quality and detailed bio that explains to every group member the reason for the group and what they stand to gain by being a member of it.

2. Set group rules and standards

You’ve created the group and potential customers are beginning to troop in, it is time to drop the group rules and regulations. Put rules in place such as

• No sending of external links by any group member without admins approval.
• No DM’s to any other group member to pitch services.
• No conflicts in the group.

3. Content sharing

This is a very important aspect of using WhatsApp groups to run your marketing campaign. Creating targeted and valuable content that are relevant to your target audience will lead to more open rates from your audience.

4. Active Moderation

Creating a WhatsApp group for your marketing campaign gives room for different people to join. However, not everyone who enters your group is your target audience. Therefore, you need to run a contest and pick out moderators or admins from your group. This makes the group members feel appreciated and involved in your brand.

5. Targeted promotions

Your WhatsApp group should be like your very own community. Therefore, there is need to run exclusive offers and discounts for the members in your group. This increases brand loyalty and trust and helps you gain brand advocacy from your group members.

You can also share behind the scenes of your business or brand. This helps build you as an authentic person to your potential customers.

6. Run polls, quizzes or contest

People always love to feel among. While using your WhatsApp group for your marketing campaign, you can also keep the group lively. You can run polls when you’re confused about something and you need their input. Or even run polls to understand their pain points.
And using the example we used above, it can be used to understand what other webinar you can host for them. Also, running quizzes and contests reduces the possibility of your potential customers exiting from your group.

Best practices for WhatsApp group marketing

With the increase in the number of businesses beginning to use WhatsApp for their marketing campaigns, there is a need to look at the best practices to follow, especially when using a WhatsApp group. Let’s get right into it.

1. Respect privacy

It’s always important to obtain consent before adding members to your group.
Additionally, it’s also necessary to ask your group members to exit the group if it isn’t aligning with their goals.

2. Always put out quality content

Always focus on giving out quality content to your audience instead of just spamming them. For instance, if you’re a coach who trains copywriters or even a clothing brand, your messaging has to be one of value to them. For the coaching brand, you could give out books and tips on how to grow as copywriters. While for the clothing brand, you could give them tips on cloth styles and color combinations.

3. Post at optimal times

Always share content when your audience is usually active to increase engagements and reduce message overload.

4. Track and Analyze

You can’t know how well you’re doing until you analyze the effectiveness of your campaigns. You can do this by putting key performance indicators (KPI’s) in place. This helps you to adjust your strategy when necessary.

5. Learn to take feedback

This can also be seen as the ability to be adaptable. Listen to your audience and make adjustments when necessary. You can also use polls to understand exactly what your audience needs and what stage they are in the customer journey.

Conclusion

WhatsApp groups can be used for various reasons, ranging from brand awareness to sales. Although it’s simple and easy to navigate, it’s important to understand how to use it for your marketing campaigns and also the best practices to follow in order to gain customer loyalty and trust.