With more than 2 billion people using WhatsApp, there’s a lot of potential for businesses. Anyone can use WhatsApp Business, but is it right for you? Is it worth using a WhatsApp Business account if you’re on other platforms? In this blog, we’ll answer that and more. Learn what it is, what the WhatsApp Business account benefits are and how to get started.
What is WhatsApp Business Account?
WhatsApp Business is a suite of WhatsApp products that enable businesses to communicate with their customers on the channel. They have tools specifically designed for customer interaction.
For example, these tools can help you send broadcast messages, set auto replies, have multiple users reply to customers and more. Today, more than 50 million businesses around the world use WhatsApp Business to communicate with customers.
Now that we've taken a look at what a WhatsApp Business account is, let's explore the benefits of a WhatsApp Business account.
Why WhatsApp Business Account?
WhatsApp Business benefits companies in many ways. The audience and features that WhatsApp provides help boost your profile and manage customers better.
Let’s dive into these benefits in more detail. Here are 5 ways WhatsApp Business can benefit your business:
WhatsApp Business Account Benefits: Increase Your Reach
WhatsApp is a goldmine for any business that wants to reach out to a huge user base. If you’re in one of the 188 countries or regions where WhatsApp is dominant, there’s a good chance that your target audience is using WhatsApp. The huge audience alone is a good reason to get a WhatsApp Business account.
WhatsApp Business Account Benefits: Boost Your Marketing Efforts
WhatsApp Business can produce cost-effective marketing campaigns. Reach out to a large number of customers with minimal effort using promotional broadcasts. As WhatsApp has a 98% open rate, targeting the right audience with the right message can make your marketing campaign a success.
Another useful feature is the ability to create a catalog of products and services. This allows businesses to showcase their offerings and share them with customers. Then, customers can browse and purchase items directly through the app, keeping the customer experience as seamless as possible.
WhatsApp Business Account Benefits: Create an Effective Sales Funnel
The number of businesses selling on WhatsApp is increasing. Compared to traditional channels like email and SMS, WhatsApp has a high conversion rate. First, the instant and personal nature of WhatsApp allows agents to keep customers’ attention for longer.
It also has multiple entry points for customers to start conversations via WhatsApp QR codes, chat links and WhatsApp widgets. These entry points make it easy for customers to start conversations, which leads to better customer engagement and sales. It literally pays to sell on WhatsApp.
For instance, Sharwa, an Egyptian social commerce platform, manages a conversion rate of 40% by choosing WhatsApp as its primary communication channel while Dubai-based 800 Storage achieved 30% more conversions when it learned to harness the power of WhatsApp.
WhatsApp Business Account Benefits: Offer Better Customer Service
Using traditional channels like email and webchat for customer service comes with limitations like slow responses and scattered conversation threads. This makes it difficult to provide personal solutions and improve quality assurance.
WhatsApp can solve these problems by offering fast-paced interactions, easy identification of contacts and access to conversation history on the same thread. This helps agents understand customers’ issues and can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, as it did for Indonesian web hosting provider Jagoan Hosting.
WhatsApp Business Account Benefits: Increase Trust and Credibility
A WhatsApp Business account enables you to create a professional image for your business. You can add your business logo, description and contact information to assure potential customers that you are a legitimate and trustworthy business.
Furthermore, WhatsApp allows businesses to verify their profiles with the WhatsApp Green Tick, which adds an extra layer of credibility. A verified profile badge shows that WhatsApp has confirmed that the phone number of the account belongs to a prominent business.
Now that you know the benefits of a WhatsApp Business account, let’s get started with setting one up.
How to Get Started with WhatsApp Business
Getting started with WhatsApp Business is easy, but did you know there are two WhatsApp Business products to choose from?
Enjoy the benefits of WhatsApp Business by selecting the right type of account to use. But what are these account types and which one is right for you?
WhatsApp Business App
If you are a sole proprietor or have a small team of agents, then the WhatsApp Business App is the best option for you.
You can connect to 5 devices to a single account, comprising 1 phone and 4 additional devices, or 10 if you have WhatsApp Business Premium. The Business app is similar to the WhatsApp app with a few additional features to help businesses chat with customers.
However, if your business grows or if you run a medium or enterprise company, it isn’t practical to use the WhatsApp Business App. In that case, WhatsApp API is what you need.
WhatsApp Business API
WhatsApp Business API is best for SMEs and large businesses that send and receive a high volume of messages. You can get an official WhatsApp API account from a WhatsApp partner. As the API doesn’t have a user interface, you’ll need to connect it to a messaging inbox to send and receive messages.
Respond.io is a customer conversation management software that is also an official WhatsApp partner. It allows you to access the WhatsApp API and manage your WhatsApp account and conversations from a single platform. It also provides a range of features to enhance productivity and improve the customer experience.
Check out how respond.io can help you maximize the potential of WhatsApp Business.
Supercharge WhatsApp Business with respond.io
With respond.io, your WhatsApp Business account isn’t just a tool to communicate with customers. Respond.io lets you do so much more.
Take advantage of these powerful features that will improve productivity and control over the customer experience.
Advanced Chat Automation
Automate conversations and business processes using respond.io’s flexible Workflows automation builder. These include:
- Automated welcome and away messages: Draft a greeting or away message for your customers. All you need to do is configure your business hours and draft your message. You can even ask customers for their details so you can follow up later on.
- Create a drip campaign: Convert leads or trial users into subscribers by using WhatsApp drip campaigns. Set up a series of automated messages that entice customers across multiple messages.
- Automate sales and support features: Organize leads, manage them, exchange information with your existing software stack and collaborate for great customer experiences. Furthermore, you can provide top-notch customer support, even for complex inquiries.
- Gauge customer satisfaction: Measure the performance of your agents with automatic customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys at the end of conversations. You can use this data to make improvements to your processes.
If you want to boost your business further, read on and learn how broadcasts can help you.
Broadcasts over WhatsApp
WhatsApp broadcasts are a great way to send promotional messages, account updates or WhatsApp newsletters using pre-approved message templates. As repond.io is an official WhatsApp partner, you can create message templates, submit them for approval, manage them and send them all from the same platform.
Next, let’s take a look at how you can integrate WhatsApp with your existing e-commerce and CRM platforms.
Integration with E-commerce Platforms and CRMs
With respond.io, you can integrate your WhatsApp API account with over 5,000 applications. This includes CRMs like Hubspot, Salesforce and Pipedrive, as well as e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce.
This enables you to retrieve and update contact data or create deals and tickets while chatting with customers. You can also automate account updates, abandoned cart messages or post-purchase notifications.
Finally, let’s see how businesses can use respond.io to overview teams and gain insights into necessary actions.
Reports and Analytics
The respond.io Reports Module gives summarized and detailed view on the performance of your agents. Identify unproductive agents, learn which channels your customers are on, review past conversations and more. This is a powerful tool that will keep you on top of things.
You’ve reached the end of the article. Are you convinced by WhatsApp Business account benefits for your business? Sign up for a free respond.io trial or get the WhatsApp API directly from respond.io to experience these benefits yourself.
Further Reading
Are you interested in learning how WhatsApp can benefit your business? Read these articles to find out:
- WhatsApp Broadcast: How to Broadcast WhatsApp Messages
- How to Get WhatsApp API: WhatsApp API Integration
- WhatsApp Automation: A WhatsApp Business Automation Guide
