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Become A Startup Insider With Inc42 Plus
Join our exclusive community of business leaders &makers for in-depth tech stories and intelligence on India’s tech economy you won’t find elsewhere.
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When WhatsApp was initially launched in 2009 as an instant messaging platform, few realised how it would evolve into one of the most sought-after apps for direct-to-consumer (D2C) businesses, providing them with a direct and personalised communication channel to engage with customers.
It gradually incorporated the ‘whole open-ended bounty of the internet’, and features like group chats and group calling, voice messages and location sharing made it a virtual home for netizens. But the launch of WhatsApp Business in 2018 was a game changer as companies started building their virtual offices on the app.
Inc42 and Wigzo recently held a masterclass titled How To Utilise WhatsApp Marketing To Supercharge Your D2C Business to explore the key strategies businesses should adopt for best outcomes. Conducted by Wigzo’s founder and CEO, Umair Mohammed, the session covered many critical aspects, including:
- Identifying various avenues of WhatsApp marketing – what all is on offer for D2C brands
- Why customer segmentation is crucial while developing a WhatsApp marketing strategy
- An insight into various customers cohorts that can be created to speed up D2C growth using WhatsApp marketing
How D2C Brands Can Redesign Customer Engagement With WhatsApp
The market opportunity for D2C in India is estimated to reach $300 Bn by 2030, according to an Inc42 report. The very term direct-to-consumer also indicates how critical it is to establish a two-way communication channel to build and cement brand-consumer relationships. Many social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook have also seen this trend of brands communicating with consumers directly.
“People prefer to talk to their favourite businesses on WhatsApp simply because it is easily reachable, and the conversation gets saved. If a business falters on committed timelines, there will be proof that the company has already communicated those timelines to the customer. In fact, WhatsApp has become an integral part of how we function daily and how businesses operate,” said Umair.
“With WhatsApp marketing, you can recover up to 60% of abandoned carts, increase sales by 30% and conversion rates by another 30%,” said Umair while addressing the major concerns of D2C brands at any given time.
And the use cases are endless, right from boosting reach and conversions, improving customer satisfaction and re-engaging with dormant customers to simplifying the shopping experience and bringing the storefront on the app itself.
Shopping online is an experience that generally ends with doorstep delivery. But when a brand asks for customer feedback, shoppers will feel more valued as their opinions may help create an impact. For an average online buyer, the human link is missing. But this can be addressed by the WhatsApp chatbot that interacts like a human, thus strengthening consumer trust.
Clearly, WhatsApp marketing and chatbots are throwing open many opportunities that D2C brands can utilise to empower shoppers and grow customer lifetime value significantly.
Besides conversing with new customers, re-engaging with the existing base is equally important to ensure long-term retention. So, creating specific customer cohorts is a prerequisite, according to Umair.
“Small-ticket spenders, repeat customers and the recently refunded are some examples of [customer] cohorts. You should target the right cohorts to generate maximum value – for example, VIP or champion customers, big spenders or those with high AOV (average order value). The lost customers will make another segment. You need to define a lapse point and send timely communication to lost customers based on that,” emphasised Umair.
Watch the masterclass to understand how to optimise WhatsApp marketing to grow your D2C business.
