Can Whatsapp Be Used As A New Digital Marketing Tool?

Digital Marketing is an enormously expanding area and one of the most talked about topics in mobile marketing industry. According to the Digital Marketing Institute, “Digital Marketing is the use of digital channels to promote or market products and services to targeted consumers and businesses.” So, what happens here is simply the active promotion of products, services or facilities by means of digital technologies. Digital marketing became more sophisticated in the 2000s and the 2010s, when the proliferation of the capabilities of devices to access digital media at almost any given time led to great growth.

We live in a techno savvy world where over 170 million people are in constant touch with social media and that is why it is quite evident to imagine that very soon the traditional marketing platforms will cease to exist as digital market will completely take over. There are many reasons which have brought the traditional marketing on the road of extinction. Here is how I would line it up in the order of its importance :

1. It’s cost effective, as money matters!
2. Hunting down the right audience has never been easier, may it be local or international.
3. Knowing your audience better… while one person likes to read a blog post, another person likes to watch a YouTube video, and others love to share messages over WhatsApp and traditional marketing doesn’t give the audience much of a choice on that.
4. Real time result! As you don’t have to wait for weeks because you can see the number of visitors to your site and its subscribers increase and much more just at the touch of a button.
5. Brand development: A well maintained website/app with quality content targeting the needs of the audience can add a significant value and lead generation opportunities
6. And lastly my personal favorite, “Viral”!… using social media “Like” and “Share” buttons on your website, email and social media channels enables your message to be shared incredibly quickly. That’s why high-quality content is so important.

The 21st century is of digital marketing and it is undeniably true that smartphones has played a key role in its expansion and it continues to do the same going ahead. People are consuming digital content on a daily basis of which an excellent example is Whatsapp. Whatsapp Marketing has taken over the digital world with a tumultuous reaction. It is observed that people are spending more time on Whatsapp than the time spent on the internet or on the social media. It has added a major value to the area of digital marketing as it has become a “Viral” medium of circulating messages across the global network. Its diverse and interactive ways of communication can contribute immensely to digital marketing and that is why Whatsapp can indeed make an effective marketing tool to the Digital world.

Many brands have begun using WhatsApp as a ‘contest platform’ – a platform on which consumers can participate in a contest. Most contests require consumers to send their entries, via WhatsApp, most often in image, audio or video format. The ease and convenience of WhatsApp is lost on no one, least of all brand managers and digital agencies. As the Preamble of the app says “Cross-Platform mobile messaging with friends all over the world”, undoubtedly it is quite available on pretty much all the different range of smartphones and is connected to a vast network of consumers. This makes it easier not just to stay connected with the existing customers but to increase the rapport building with your existing clientele. One great feature of Whatsapp is that it allows large number of users to interact on a common place through groups, on the other hand it also gives the power to a customer to delete and exit the group, making it user friendly.

WhatsApp is reliable tool for business marketing

Promoting your products or services in a better way through WhatsApp is quite critical, because at the end of it the motto is to attract maximum customers. To begin with, the app provides features to change profile pictures and keep different status, for e.g. setting the company logo as their display picture as it can help in gaining and arousing interest in the potential customers and keeping the appropriate description of the product or service which the company wants to project can aid in better understanding. However, there is a fine line between keeping the interaction in an appropriate way, because bombarding the customers with perpetual promotional messages will only end up in a negative way which in turn will result in loss of the customer and probably you getting blocked!

It goes without saying that in this constant process of developments and trends in Digital Marketing, origination of WhatsApp can inspire us as the potential digital marketers and has contributed to invent more dazzling and innovative ways to widen the clientele.