With over 2 billion users in more than 180 countries, WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messaging app. Statistics state that over 65 billion messages are sent every day, which accounts for a whopping 750,000 messages per second. Still, WhatsApp is more than just a regular platform for messaging, especially for businesses who wish to get in touch with consumers.
The fact that WhatsApp is so popular worldwide, intuitive, user-friendly, and doesn’t have friction in adoption makes it the ideal platform for lead generation and sales. So, if you are struggling to generate leads and convert them into sales or facing difficulty in segmenting leads based on conversations, keep reading ahead to learn how to do it.
Reasons to Use WhatsApp Chatbots for Lead Generation and Sales
Gone are the days when WhatsApp only used to be a personal messaging tool. Thanks to services like WhatsApp for Business or WhatsApp API, the use of WhatsApp for sales and lead generation doesn’t require being a back-alley covert quest anymore.
WhatsApp Business is facilitated to aid brands in generating and capturing leads to boost sales. From up-and-coming businesses to large-scale companies, practically everybody is now incorporating the use of WhatsApp chatbots into their different customer service channels. Still, WhatsApp offers numerous capabilities that also serve well in lead generation.
There are various reasons why businesses should use WhatsApp chatbots, if they aren’t already, for lead generation and sales, such as:
● Familiarity
WhatsApp has established quite a name and reputation for itself. With more than 5 billion downloads, the world knows that WhatsApp is the primary medium for real-time messaging.
It is also why it is the most highly downloaded and extensively used messaging app globally. Hence, it needs no introduction to why it can serve as a brilliant platform for lead generation.
● Friendliness
You do not require a special introduction or training to become familiar with the WhatsApp chat interface. The design aims to make it relatively simple and easy for users to interact in real-time via instant messaging. Ultimately, this results in higher adoption.
● Mass Accessibility
WhatsApp boasts an impressive 2 billion monthly active users and continues growing at a seemingly active rate. Thanks to its mass accessibility, businesses have ample ground to source potential leads.
● Built for Business
Finally, the WhatsApp Business app makes it relatively easy for businesses to attract leads, interact with them, and qualify. In addition, it even includes the feature of a built-in catalog to display your products, canned responses to promptly respond to inquiries and concerns, and use labels to sort chats.
Key Features of WhatsApp that facilitate Lead Generation
61% of marketers categorize lead generation as their most significant challenge. On top of that, only a tiny fraction of those generated leads turn into sales. Consequently, there’s never-ending pressure on business owners to maximize lead generation.
In comparison to conventional lead-generation strategies and channels, WhatsApp stands out in numerous ways and offers business owners a new way to attract, reach, and interact with leads. Some of its impressive features include:
1. Real-time lead qualification
Nearly all businesses encounter the difficulty of junk leads, which are leads that don’t fit into the ideal customer profile that a business creates for itself. If not, the leads do not carry the complete information, making it challenging or impossible for the executives to pursue.
Besides, junk leads come in bulk quantities, making it even harder to find warm, potential leads that have a high probability of converting into customers. WhatsApp chatbots allow you to minimize these challenges to a significant level.
Moreover, it helps real-time lead qualification by grouping customers based on their demands. For instance, customers who seek initial information about the business and its product offerings can be categorized as early-stage prospects. Customers asking for pricing information are warm leads with a significantly high chance for conversion.
Moreover, WhatsApp for Business enables you to label and sort your conversations using the “Labels” feature. You can tag leads and new customers using a label to make sure they do not get lost in the middle of other conversations.
2. Multilingual customer service
In case you didn’t know already, the language businesses use for customer communication plays a significant role in your ability to generate leads and turn them into sales. In their research, some Stanford scholars discovered that using specific words in product descriptions could forecast sales.
In addition, if the business communication or product descriptions are in a language that’s native to your prospects, it invokes a sense of authority or culture that can significantly aid in selling products.
Simply put, multi-lingual selling and customer service are essential for all international businesses. Still, employing polyglot sales representatives can be incredibly costly and hamper your budget.
Luckily, this kind of problem can be prevented with the help of WhatsApp chatbots. You can easily integrate language applications into your WhatsApp chatbot and allow it to communicate with the customers in their choice of language.
3. Marketing using WhatsApp stories/status updates
WhatsApp introduced its “status” feature at the end of 2020. Unarguably, it was an attempt to copy the Snapchat stories feature, which by that point in time, had become quite the rage on social media. Still, WhatsApp statuses serve a more valuable and substantial purpose than merely social sharing. Business owners can actively use the “Status” feature for marketing purposes.
Sharing images of your product offerings, explainer videos or product tutorials, and even customer testimonials as status updates or WhatsApp stories can be highly effective. Based on your customers’ queries, it’s relatively easy to classify them as leads or prospective customers who have a likelihood of converting in the foreseeable future.
4. Establishes the base for consultative selling
Selling can be deemed a private, relationship-based transaction. So, if a sales development executive can establish a positive relationship with customers, there is a significantly high likelihood of observing the transactions occurring.
The term used to define the sales tactic, where open dialogues and relationships with the customers to prioritize their wants and better understand their problems, is known as “Consultative Selling.”
Until recently, surveys, phone calls, SMS messages, and emails established the groundwork of consultative selling. The most evident disadvantage of these mediums was that they were slow and failed to gather accurate information.
In this case, WhatsApp chatbots ensure real-time communication and a normal conversation where the sales representative can collect information from the prospects regarding what they expect from your business.
So, once the right stage has been set for consultative selling, WhatsApp significantly helps generate leads and increase sales.
5. Share engaging content
Millennials and Gen-Z customers desire to be engaged, and content offers the ideal context for that. Engaging, informative, and educational content allows customers to make well-thought-out decisions.
Consequently, they also feel good about the business, ultimately leading to a lasting relationship. WhatsApp chatbots help engagement by permitting multimedia content to be instantly shared without difficulty.
In fact, WhatsApp Business enables businesses to upload a catalog of their products, videos, and such collateral that engages customers and allows them to make a well-thought-out decision. Moreover, it establishes the base for active engagement, which results in better product/brand awareness and recall.
How to Use Whatsapp Chatbots for Lead Generation
Even though WhatsApp chatbots set the ideal lead generation and sales platform, you should not predict leads to flow in without putting in some effort. Here are a few approaches that can aid you in transforming WhatsApp chatbot into a lead magnet.
1. Use WhatsApp chatbot links on social media and in email signatures
Once your WhatsApp Business account gets verified, it’s best to share it on all your online profiles, website, and other marketing materials. If your sales team is cold calling out to prospective customers via emails, their email signatures provide premium real estate to pace chatbots.
An email signature isn’t just the end of your emails. Instead, you can use them as email footers to offer more information regarding your business, its product offerings and/or services, and even ongoing offers/discounts or upcoming events.
Usually, email signatures are used to include the sales representative and business’s contact details. They are also great for having the link to your WhatsApp chatbot and labeling it as an all-inclusive communication channel to seek any kind of information about the business.
Customers can easily use this link, and this ultimately results in lead-gen. Remember to position the chatbot link as a CTA (call to action) by using a copy like “Get in touch with us on WhatsApp.’
2. Use chatbot links in paid ads
Instagram ads, Facebook ads, Google display ads, text search ads, and Twitter ads are amongst some of the most renowned paid channel ads via which businesses can run successful marketing campaigns. The most popular practice is to ask users to share contact details via a lead sign-up page or a pop-up form.
Typically, this process can be long since it requires sharing the lead information with a sales representative, who will then qualify it and start a conversation. Still, if a WhatsApp chatbot link is offered instead of a form, you can skip the needless steps, instantly start a conversation with a prospect, and qualify them as a cold or warm lead.
3. Make use of automation
WhatsApp Business simplifies message automation and allows you to create multiple shortcuts to ensure your messages remain efficient. This ultimately results in an enhanced sentiment towards customer service and makes replying to messages within a day a realistic and attainable target.
In addition, sending consistent replies makes your customers view you as a professional brand. You can choose from various tools that require coding to create your WhatsApp chatbot. They mainly include customizable templates too.
On the other hand, you can check out the WhatsApp Business API that enables both medium and large enterprises to engage with customers. You can integrate the API with multiple backend arrangements like Customer Relationship Management and marketing platforms.
4. Use a WhatsApp QR code
Dropshipping and delivery of goods at our doorsteps, in the comfort of our homes, has taken away the personal touch and customer interaction. However, you can still create a WhatsApp channel to allow your customers to engage with your business.
New prospects and current customers can easily contact you to find information about your products or make repeat purchases. Unlike other customer communication mediums, such as social media, emails, telephone, etc., that take longer to complete, WhatsApp offers instant communication. Thus, it also helps with lead generation.
Sharing WhatsApp links via social media handles or email is relatively easy. Still, you can always consider using QR codes when you want to make them easily accessible offline. All you are required to do is include the WhatsApp QR code on your online store, product labels, or product packaging to generate leads.
WhatsApp QR codes allow you to convert leads into sales, so you can begin by generating one for your business. It must have proper commands to direct prospects toward using the WhatsApp chatbot.
Tech-savvy marketers will use this code to direct the users straightaway to product listings. You can also link advertisements to a QR code and let the WhatsApp chatbot take care of the checkout process.
5. Keep dropping triggers
The WhatsApp chatbot can continually drop in triggers to prospective customers via automation so they can engage in the same conversation once again. It might even bring customers back to the same point they left the chat, thus stimulating them to buy again.
5 Effective Tips to Improve Your Sales on Whatsapp
Once you’ve acquired potential leads on WhatsApp, it is time to convert them into sales. However, this requires following these tips.
1. Use WhatsApp Web
WhatsApp Web is basically an extension of the app’s mobile version that can be accessed from a PC. To use it, you will need to link your mobile application to the computer by means of scanning a QR code that WhatsApp will provide you.
Once you connect to the web version, you can easily and conveniently send messages to prospects from your computer. It is far more efficient and accessible than typing on a smartphone.
2. Endorse your business on WhatsApp
WhatsApp Business has a ton of promotional features that you will not see in the regular version. For instance, business owners can send promotional content to their customers using the broadcast list feature on WhatsApp Business without breaching any privacy regulations. The status feature allows you to share details directly regarding promotions and sales.
Once you’ve updated your status on WhatsApp, it will be visible to others for 24 hours. This establishes a sense of exclusivity. This particular feature stimulates prospects to engage with you right away. Hence, it is a brilliant technique for getting engagement from your followers.
3. Post/send interesting content
While using WhatsApp Business, you should bear in mind to be selective regarding the content you choose to share on your profile to keep people interested. Here are a few tips worth following:
- Use promotional messages that connect with your WhatsApp profile
- Generate educational content regarding your product
- Send videos that will be appealing to your audience
- Deliver prompt customer support via the app, including voice messages
Most importantly, limiting the number of messages you send to users in a given period is imperative since you do not want to overwhelm them or perceive your brand as pushy and unprofessional.
4. Earn user loyalty
WhatsApp offers various means of communication for a brand to engage with its follower base, including push notifications, group chats, and broadcast lists.
- Broadcast lists: allows you to send messages to several contacts simultaneously.
- Group chats: enables you to talk with 256 people in a group at once.
- Push notifications: enables you to send customers messages for various use cases, like an order update.
5. Take customer support to a new level
Finally, businesses can use WhatsApp to support and strengthen their customer service offering. It is the perfect platform for customers to directly get in touch with your brand and get immediate answers.
Note: WhatsApp Web might be more efficient for this customer support, or you can also consider using message automation to aid with the bulk of customer support messages.
About SocialEpoch – Reach Your Potential Target
Now that you know how much of a significant role Whatsapp plays in lead generation and sales, you can use a renowned WhatsApp Business Integration CRM tool with a centralized management system and multi-agent support, like SocialEpoch, to your advantage.
At SocialEpoch, we aim to offer you a comprehensive set of the world’s top leading social marketing solutions, our most significant area of expertise. You can vastly benefit from the most unique, best-in-class products and services, including marketing, social e-Commerce, training, WhatsApp Marketing, CRM, etc.
Our company comprises the most hands-on operating technologies and over 300 members with a terrific deal of industry expertise that backs us in catering to clients worldwide, including FinTech firms, retail brands, gaming apps, digital platforms, etc.
Our target audience consists of cryptocurrency/consultant/call centers/lottery/casino/real estate, eCommerce firms, and an array of B2B businesses. The two esteemed products we offer to our clients are:
- SocialEpoch WhatsApp CRM
- SocialEpoch Facebook Lead Generation Tool
1. SocialEpoch WhatsApp CRM
SocialEpoch WhatsApp CRM offers an array of essential features such as:
- Bulk Message Sender
- WhatsApp Business API (free of cost)
- Professional Support
- Multi-lingual Support
- Multi-account login facility (you can operate up to 10 WhatsApp accounts concurrently)
- Data Synchronization
- Manage contacts (straightforward import/export of customer contacts and efficiently arrange customer tags and persona)
- Create/edit user personas (categorize and arrange customers with personas and tags for custom-built marketing)
- Assigning tasks (allows you to allocate tasks and/or clients to your teams)
- Group Management (group broadcast and group member export enables you to get in touch with your target audience accurately)
- Smart Chatbot (collect information from prospects and solves their concerns 24/7)
- Follow-up sessions (follow up with your customers and give them all the information with the group)
- WhatsApp Marketing Toolkits (create your own site instantly, select from different free content templates, and modify your eCommerce business according to your liking)
- Customer journey (to keep track of how your customers react and document the process of generating and acquiring leads)
- AI Exploring for Prospects (big data and artificial intelligence (AI), explore prospects on WhatsApp, and get in touch with them promptly)
2. SocialEpoch Facebook Lead Generation Tool
SocialEpoch Facebook Lead Generation Tools offers bulk Facebook accounts and an array of account marketing solutions. Its key features include:
I. Marketing Center
- Auto join groups
- Bulk sharing to groups
- Bulk comments on page posts and/or group posts
II. Management Center
- Management of bulk accounts
- Automated data backup
- Insights from your audience on Facebook
III. Facebook Data Scraper
- Friends
- Active users
- Groups
- Pages
- Marketplace Sellers
Rest assured, we use innovative and personal social marketing technologies. We aim to offer comprehensive lead-generation approaches to our respected clients. So, join us, and together we can strive to achieve a win-win solution.
