WhatsApp is now the most popular messenger app in the world. Indeed, it has over two billion users that are using it every month.
This means there’s every chance your customers have it on their smart devices and daily lives—making it an excellent lead generation tool.
And the potential is huge.
In this article, we’ll look at the benefits of using WhatsApp to supercharge your lead generation strategy.
Let’s dive in.
Why Use WhatsApp for Sales Leads
There are multiple reasons why WhatsApp is the ideal lead generation tool in 2022. They are:
It’s Easy to Use
You won’t need to undergo any rigorous onboarding to use WhatsApp for business, even if you’ve not yet used it yourself.
WhatsApp was designed to be easy to use. Setting up an account and getting started takes just a matter of minutes.
Designed With Businesses in Mind
One of the best things about WhatsApp is that, while it’s most definitely used as a social app, it was also designed with businesses in mind.
In fact you can create a business account for the app. It comes with a range of products that support businesses from large to small.
Businesses can use it to respond instantly to customer queries (great for customer service). They can also share photos of their latest products and videos demonstrating how their product or services work.
How to Capture Sales Leads Using WhatsApp
WhatsApp’s lead generation tactics will be slightly different from the ones you’ve used on other channels. However, the end goal is still the same—to capture leads you can later turn into customers.
Eliminate Junk Leads
One of the biggest challenges businesses face when it comes to lead generation is separating the wheat from the chaff. In other words, attracting qualified leads while discarding junk leads takes time.
WhatsApp is the perfect tool for this since it can be used as a chatbot that responds to customer queries. For example, if a prospect asks a top-of-the-funnel question, they can direct them to the correct stage of the sales funnel.
Funnel stages allow you to target prospects with the right marketing strategy—matching it to where they are in their buying journey.
Share Stories
Do businesses need to share Stories on WhatsApp?
Stories are an incredibly popular feature on WhatsApp (known as WhatsApp Status).
Inspired by the Stories feature on SnapChat and Instagram, WhatsApp Status allows you to connect directly with your followers by sharing content they might be interested in. This can be new products, product launches and customer testimonials.
You can also share user-generated content to hook your followers via some powerful social proof.
The beauty of WhatsApp Status is that not only can your content pique your follower’s interest—they respond to it there and then. You can then take their queries and direct them to the answer.
Provide Better Customer Service
One of the best things about WhatsApp is that it’s always on. This means that, whenever a prospect or customer has a question, they can ask it at any time and get an instant response.
Considering that research has shown customers now expect super-fast response times, this is ideal.
WhatsApp can work just like a chatbot that provides exemplary customer support. If a customer has a query—be it related to your products or whether you’re offering any discounts—they can get in touch with you via WhatsApp, and the app will take care of the responses for you.
Not only is this great for building trust and relationships, but you can use WhatsApp to nudge your prospects further down the sales funnel and towards a conversion.
Leverage Consultative Selling
Consultative selling is when you put the customer-business relationship first. This is done by making it more personalized. Instead of simply going for the hard sell, you take the time to understand their problems and find a solution based on their specific needs.
Rather than focusing on the product, you focus on the customer.
Traditional consultative selling channels include email and phone. WhatsApp, however, is a game-changer. It’s flexible for both parties, conversations take place in real-time at any hour, and you can easily and quickly share images, videos and whatever other documents are needed.
Use WhatsApp to extract relevant information from the end user. Then spend time nourishing the relationship with them, get to know them and deliver an awesome brand experience that results in sales.
Naturally, this may require a bigger, dedicated sales effort. If your budget needs stretching, checking out SaaS lending might be an option.
Incorporate It Into an Agile Marketing Campaign
Agile marketing puts data-driven decisions first—ensuring you speed up your marketing processes and get better results faster. It improves predictability, speed, and adaptability to change.
You can put together an agile marketing team to perform tests to see what works and isn’t in your WhatsApp lead generation strategy. Then you can extract the data and come up with rapid iterations that’ll increase your conversions.
Conclusion
WhatsApp has quickly grown to become the third most-used social media platform in the world. And because people use it to connect with businesses as well as being social, it’s essential that you start to tap into its potential.
Setting up a WhatsApp account is simple enough. Then, you can start implementing tactics such as consultative selling and sharing Stories to engage prospects, filter out junk leads—and grab more sales.
