How to sell on WhatsApp?

WhatsApp has become one of the strongest communication channels, especially due to its volume of users, with more than 2 billion active users worldwide.

This, combined with a message open rate of around 98%, makes it a very interesting communication channel.

Selling on WhatsApp is therefore a possibility.

In this article, we are going to look at the basic aspects so that you can add WhatsApp to your list of communication tools.

Why sell on WhatsApp?

The first thing we are going to do is look at some of the advantages that WhatsApp offers as a sales channel.

What would represent the real reason for using it.

· Direct and personal contact

Like email marketing, WhatsApp allows for private and direct communication.

However, you have to be careful, as WhatsApp is normally used in private/family environments, which a sales channel would not be.

This is why communication must be polite and at reasonable times to avoid causing annoyance.

Remember, WhatsApp is normally used as a private or family channel, something that a business trying to sell, is not. Therefore, you have to be careful with communications.

· High open and response rate

As it is mainly a private or family channel, users expect very relevant communications or those from their close circle; therefore, the open rate is usually around 90-98%.

What is important?

Above all, don’t send unsolicited communications, due to the high risk of them being marked as such, blocking your sender.

As we saw before, we have to make sure that communications are relevant, polite, and timely.

· Convenience for the customer

WhatsApp is a familiar environment for users, who already use it and where they can communicate bidirectionally and privately.

Therefore, it is a convenient and easy-to-use medium.

· High conversion and ROI

As a conversational medium, it allows you to use various sales strategies in real time.

This allows an experienced sales team to convert an initial conversation into a sale.

Therefore, the ROI can be very high.

Furthermore, of course, it can be used as a support and help channel, building customer loyalty.

Step 1: Prepare your WhatsApp Business for selling

The first thing you should know is that WhatsApp offers a specific application for businesses, WhatsApp Business, with features more geared towards sales and customer service.

· Create and optimize your WhatsApp Business profile

Download the WhatsApp Business app and set up your company profile.

· Include all relevant details

Your business description, opening hours, address, link to your website, and social media.

A complete profile conveys trust and professionalism.

In addition to all this, add a profile picture (for example, your company logo) that is easily recognizable.

· Set up a product or service catalog

WhatsApp Business allows you to display a catalog within the chat.

Upload photos of your products with their name, description, and price.

This way, customers can see your offer without leaving the conversation, making the purchasing process simpler.

To give an example, if you sell clothes, the customer can browse models and check stock directly in the chat.

· Prepare welcome messages and quick replies

You can have this ready with the WhatsApp Business messaging tools, and thus save time.

For example, you can create an automated welcome message to greet those who write to you for the first time.

But you can also define quick replies (default messages) for frequently asked questions.

For example, you could have information about the available payment methods.

This way, you not only save time, but you can also attend to customers when you are not available.

· Personalize the service

Although there are many automation options, remember that contacts expect to receive personalized service, so you should try to offer it whenever possible.

Remember that personalized service makes the difference and, ultimately, increases the chances of a sale.

· Initial best practices

Although we might think that WhatsApp is a fairly informal channel, the truth is that your customers expect a respectful tone.

You can be friendly and take care of aspects like tone, spelling, etc.

Step 2: Effective strategies for selling on WhatsApp

Now that we have everything ready, we need to think about some strategies, so to speak.

Some things will seem obvious to you, but it doesn’t hurt to review them anyway.

Sometimes we forget the most obvious.

· Respond quickly

It’s sad to have an immediate communication channel and the first response you get is:

• Leave your message, we usually reply in a couple of hours

Then why use WhatsApp?

Normally, your customers will expect that, at least within business hours, you respond immediately.

If this is not possible for you, maybe WhatsApp is not the channel you need.

Of course, if the doubts are about purchasing or acquiring your product or service, an immediate response will help.

· Build trust from the first contact

All the information you offer your customers on WhatsApp must be easily verifiable on your website.

And, of course, if the WhatsApp channel is handled by several people, the information offered must be the same.

Imagine if each person gave different information, how could you trust them?

Listen patiently and always try to put yourself in the customer’s shoes.

This doesn’t mean you should always agree with them, but try to understand their reasons, and not turn inquiries into arguments.

· Use attractive multimedia content

As we have seen before, on WhatsApp you can share much more than text.

Images, videos, audios…

You have many options to give customers the information they need to clear up their doubts.

The advantage is that you can adapt to the needs of each customer.

· Include clear calls to action

In all your communications, you can include some type of call to action that helps the customer move forward in the sales funnel.

Something as simple as:

• Would you like to proceed with the purchase? I can send you a secure payment link right now 😊
• Reserve your product by replying Yes and we will coordinate the shipping

Also, if you work with the WhatsApp API, you can use buttons (for example, “Buy now” or “View catalog” buttons).

The key is to use each message to move customers forward in the funnel.

· Don’t overdo the urgency

Earlier we mentioned the importance of moving contacts forward in the sales funnel.

However, you have to be careful.

It doesn’t hurt to share a discount code if you have one, for example.

But telling a customer there are few units left in stock, especially if it’s something they can’t see on your website, may seem like you are trying to force the purchase.

Urgency is a basic sales technique, which also works very well.

Although like everything, in excess it loses its effectiveness.

· Don’t forget to follow-up

As much as we would like, not all sales are closed on the first contact.

If only, right?

That’s why it doesn’t hurt to do a little follow-up a couple of days after the initial contact, to find out if everything is fine or if they have any more questions.

But don’t overdo it, one thing is a friendly reminder, and another is to insist every day.

In summary, if there is one thing to highlight, it is not to overdo it. Do not saturate.

And remember that sending mass messages to numbers without authorization is considered spam and can damage your business’s reputation (or even cause WhatsApp to block your business account!).

Step 3: Tools and technology that boost sales on WhatsApp

In addition to what we have seen so far, you can use some tools to help you with sales management from WhatsApp.

· CRM and contact management

You can use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to organize information from your leads and customers who contact you via WhatsApp.

Tools like Zoho or others allow you to register every inquiry, make notes about customer needs, and track what stage of the sales process they are in.

This way you can keep your follow-ups more organized and not lose opportunities in the sales funnel.

For example, you could schedule reminders to contact a potential customer who asked for information.

· Automation with bots

This is a double-edged sword.

While automating communications can help you serve more contacts, on the other hand, it is not the personalization users expect from this channel.

In the end, you will have to choose which path is more interesting for you, automate or humanize.

· Payment links and integrated e-commerce

One way to close sales directly from WhatsApp is to offer direct purchase links.

For example, PayPal links, Stripe, etc.

This way you can send customers a link from which they can complete the purchase directly.

And if necessary, you can help them directly, with any questions that arise during the process.

· Contact lists or API for mass messages (with permission)

WhatsApp Business App offers the broadcast list feature, which lets you privately send the same message to many contacts at once (up to 256 recipients per list).

This is a good option for sending promotions or news to your customer base, as long as they have given you their consent and have your number saved (otherwise, the message will not reach them).

If the volume you need to send is larger, you can use a tool like Mailrelay that works through the WhatsApp API.

However, the API requires following strict Meta policies: message templates must be pre-approved and users must have opted in to receive communications.

If your business scales, using the API with a provider like Mailrelay will allow you to create and send broader WhatsApp Marketing campaigns.

· WhatsApp Analytics and metrics

Although WhatsApp doesn’t have metrics as broad as an email marketing tool, you will have the basics in WhatsApp Business:

• Sent messages
• Delivered
• Read
• Received

Always remember to analyze this data to optimize future campaigns.

For example, if you notice that certain promotional messages had a low response, you can try another type of wording.

Or if you see that certain times are not effective, you can try others.

Step 4: Techniques to close the sale and build customer loyalty

If you are already one step away from closing the sale, how to make sure you don’t lose it?

· Offer a simple purchasing process

This should be a priority.

The purchasing process should be easy, and as we mentioned before, if doubts arise during it, you can help them.

· Confirm and thank them for the purchase

At the end, you can confirm the purchase with the customer, indicating their order number, so they can track it.

And of course, also thank them for the purchase, mentioning that they will receive more information by email if that is the case.

This avoids doubts and strengthens customer loyalty.

· Offer good after-sales support

Differentiate yourself from the competition by offering good support after the sale.

Most businesses are only interested in you leaving a review, so they can later use it in their marketing channels.

Instead of this, go further and show interest in whether there’s anything they would improve, or if everything went well.

Genuine interest will give you information, and also helps build customer loyalty.

· Invite feedback and testimonials

WhatsApp is also useful for collecting opinions.

If everything has gone well, you can ask your customers to leave you a review or rating, this will help your company be more reliable in the eyes of future customers.

WhatsApp and Email Marketing: union to multiply sales

Both communication channels, WhatsApp and email, can work in combination to obtain the best advantages of each of them.

· Multichannel reach

The reality is that today most people use multiple channels for their digital connections.

Since customers are not in a single place, you will also have to connect with them through multiple means.

For example, you can send a newsletter with news and offers via email (an ideal channel for longer, more detailed, and visually rich content) and then use WhatsApp to remind your contacts to check their email, where they will find a special offer.

This double exposure reinforces the message and increases the probability of conversion.

· Lead nurturing and process automation

With an email marketing tool like Mailrelay, you can automate a welcome email series.

Once this initial phase is finished, where the contact has received essential information about your product or service, you can also contact them via WhatsApp.

With Mailrelay you will have all automation features available, unlike other platforms (like Mailchimp or Brevo) that limit these features only to paid plans.

· Detailed content and complete catalogs by email

While on WhatsApp you can send short and concise messages, email allows you to offer more information.

For example, you could send a complete catalog, a brochure, or a newsletter with several sections and high-quality images.

Mailrelay offers you a newsletter editor with AI features to write attractive content, which helps you create professional emails even if you are not an expert designer or copywriter.

All with a simple and easy-to-use interface.

· The largest free account on the market

Mailrelay’s free account allows you to send up to 80,000 emails per month to up to 20,000 contacts, this is free.

This far exceeds the limits of free accounts from other tools (which usually restrict to 2,000–5,000 contacts or fewer monthly messages).

What can you do with such a large free account?

To begin with, you can manage a large subscriber base and do email marketing at scale without investing from day one.

This means you will have several advantages.

Every sale you have will have cost you nothing.

· Dedicated technical support (even on free accounts)

Mailrelay offers expert technical support on all accounts, even on the free plan.

By phone, live chat, or tickets.

If you have any questions, you just have to contact us, and we will help you as soon as possible.

· Deliverability and analysis

It’s useless to send emails if they don’t arrive or you don’t know what happens to them.

From Mailrelay, we help you so that your deliverability is as good as possible.

Our support team has decades of experience in deliverability in email marketing campaigns, which allows us to help you effectively.

You will be able to check this through real-time reports and statistics.

You will be able to see who opened your emails, which links they clicked on, click heat maps to know which areas of the newsletter attracted the most attention, etc.

With this data, you will be able to truly optimize your campaigns.

Mailrelay’s statistics allow you to make decisions based on data, which improves your ROI.

Conclusion

Take advantage of all the tools at your disposal. Your customers are on multiple channels, Mailrelay offers you email, SMS, and WhatsApp so you can reach them wherever they are.

It is the most effective, proven way for you to increase your sales, to be where your customers are.