When it comes to modern marketing, precision and personalization are the holy grails. Enter WhatsApp drip campaign—a powerful yet subtle method for nurturing leads and engaging customers. Through targeted messages delivered at just the right moment, these campaigns can significantly boost conversion rates and customer satisfaction. In this guide, we'll explore everything you need to know about WhatsApp drip marketing, from the basics to best practices.
WhatsApp Drip Marketing: The Basics
Let's kick things off from square one. In this section, you’ll learn what a WhatsApp drip campaign is, how it works and why you should include them in your marketing efforts.
What is a WhatsApp Drip Campaign?
A WhatsApp drip campaign is a communication strategy that aims to engage leads and customers with a set of WhatsApp notifications over time. Unlike a traditional blast campaign, drip campaigns are methodical, with messages tailored to move the recipient through the customer journey.
Loh Yi Xuan, Growth Manager for respond.io, shares some insights on using WhatsApp as a messaging channel for drip campaigns.
"Although WhatsApp is an excellent channel for many businesses, adopting an omnichannel approach offers a key advantage. By increasing touchpoints, businesses can effectively remain top-of-mind for customers and enhance engagement. While drip campaigns on WhatsApp alone yield promising results, embracing omnichannel strategies represents the future of business growth."
That being said, not every business is omnichannel. Some stick with WhatsApp because it's so popular in many places, or they find it hard to capture contacts on other messaging apps.
If that sounds like your situation, don't worry. Using WhatsApp as your standalone messaging channel can still make your drip campaigns successful. Let's start by seeing how businesses use WhatsApp for growth.
WhatsApp Drip Campaign Use Cases
You can emply WhatsApp drip campaigns to onboard new users or customers, introducing them to your product or service features and helping them get started with your offerings.
Businesses also use drip campaigns to boost revenue by suggesting additional products or upgrades to current customers, considering their past purchases and preferences. Sometimes, they use them to re-engage dormant or inactive customers by sending targeted messages and offers.
Most importantly, you can use WhatsApp drip marketing to develop sophisticated lead nurturing strategies. Focus on addressing pain points and gradually guide leads toward making informed purchase decisions.
We’ve covered what WhatsApp drip campaigns are and how businesses use them. Next, we’ll help you understand how they work.
WhatsApp Drip Marketing: How Does it Work?
Imagine a digital water droplet falling on a leaf, each a touchpoint in the prospect or customer’s experience.
In the context of WhatsApp, a drip campaign may start with a simple greeting message, followed by a series of messages spread across days or weeks, each designed to inform, engage or encourage the recipient in a specific way. The end goal is to lead the client to a successful conversion.
Let’s use a practical example. This education business enrolls students in three steps, each corresponding to one message. The first message is triggered after a lead clicks on a click-to-chat ad:
- Welcome and Course Introduction: Immediately after potential students show interest, they receive a welcoming message that introduces the institution and highlights unique course features.
- Financial Aid Information: Two days later, a message is sent sharing information about financial aid, scholarships or payment plans to alleviate financial concerns, one of the main pain points for students and their parents.
- Enrollment Deadline Reminder: Five days before the enrollment deadline, a final reminder is sent emphasizing the urgency of enrolling due to limited availability. It includes a direct link to the enrollment page or an offer of personal assistance with the process.
A WhatsApp drip campaign offers unique benefits that sets it apart from other sales and marketing strategies. Let's take a closer look at what makes them stand out.
Benefits of WhatsApp Drip Marketing
WhatsApp's high user engagement rates make it an ideal platform for drip campaigns. Messages are more likely to be opened and read on WhatsApp compared to emails, ensuring that your content actually reaches your audience.
In fact, WhatsApp users typically return to the app around 22 times daily, spending an average of 59 minutes interacting with the content.
When it comes to personalization at scale, WhatsApp is king. This makes communication more effective, as messages can be tailored based on individual customer behaviors, preferences and stages in the customer journey.
You have the option to automate broadcasts in various content formats such as videos, text messages, webpage links and other formats supported by WhatsApp. Additionally, personalized texts can be sent to individuals based on their respective sales stages.
On the same note, automating content delivery ensures that the right message reaches the right person at the right time. Whether it's a welcome message, a follow-up, or a special offer, timing plays a crucial role in conversion rates.
Lastly, by maintaining consistent and relevant communication with prospects and customers, WhatsApp drip campaigns can significantly boost conversion rates. The strategy keeps your brand top-of-mind, gently nudging leads down the sales funnel with information and offers aligned with their interests and needs.
You are already familiar with the basics of a WhatsApp drip campaign. It is now time to unveil how to set up one on respond.io
How to Set Up a WhatsApp Drip Campaign on Respond.io
It is not possible to run a WhatsApp drip campaign efficiently on the WhatsApp App or the WhatsApp Business app. To run one, you’ll need the WhatsApp Business API. And because APIs have no interface, you must connect it to a messaging inbox like respond.io’s to send and receive messages.
Once you’ve set that up, there are two ways to get started: Via WhatsApp broadcast or with Workflows, respond.io’s automation builder. Both methods have their pros and cons.
Using the Broadcast Module for WhatsApp drip marketing is no-frills. Create an audience and schedule messages to be sent to them at specific times. This is suitable for simple drip campaigns with a fixed schedule. However, some businesses want more flexibility in terms of customization and advanced automation.
If that is your case, use Workflows instead. You can set up more sophisticated drip campaigns with conditional logic, conversational AI, personalized messages based on user behavior and much more.
Despite the wonders of automation, human agents are unmatched when it comes to persuasion and critical thinking. If your agents ever need to personally handle a client, they’ll be able to stop the WhatsApp drip campaign for a single contact without affecting the rest of the audience.
Albeit more complex to set up, a WhatsApp drip campaign built on Workflows enables more targeted and tailored communication, leading to better engagement and results.
WhatsApp Drip Campaign: Best Practices
To conclude this article, we'll explore some best practices for ensuring the success of your WhatsApp drip campaign.
Obtain Consent
Always obtain explicit consent from users before adding them to a WhatsApp drip campaign to comply with privacy laws and WhatsApp's terms of service.
Timing is Key
Schedule your messages thoughtfully. Consider the frequency and timing to avoid overwhelming your audience. Optimal times can also vary based on your audience's habits and time zones.
Personalize Your Messages
To make the messages feel more personal and relevant, use the recipient’s name and tailor the content based on their interests, previous interactions or behavior.
Monitor and Respond to Replies
Be ready to engage in real-time conversations. Automated messages can initiate the conversation, but personal interaction can drive it home.
In wrapping up, we've uncovered the secret sauce behind effective WhatsApp drip campaigns: personalized, timely messaging to nurture leads and maximize conversions. But to run the most effective campaign, you’ll need a full-fledged customer conversation management software.
Respond.io has been built to help businesses with their sales and marketing efforts throughout the entire customer journey. Ready to launch your first WhatsApp drip campaign? Try respond.io for free!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can WhatsApp be used for abandoned cart reminders in e-commerce? Does this comply with WhatsApp's opt-in rules?
Yes! WhatsApp can be used to send abandoned cart reminders in e-commerce. However, it's essential to obtain explicit opt-in from customers to receive such messages, ensuring compliance with WhatsApp's policies.
Further Reading
Did you find this article useful? If so, the following reads might interest you.
- WhatsApp Sales: How to Sell on WhatsApp
- WhatsApp Opt In: Getting Customers to Opt In WhatsApp
- WhatsApp Lead Generation: How to Use WhatsApp to Get More Leads
