Picture this: You enter a physical store. As soon as you step in, you’re greeted by a salesperson who follows you around, suggests some best picks, and tries to persuade you to purchase items. You might have said “No, thanks!”, but you catch yourself waiting in line at the checkout counter to pay for items you didn’t originally intend to buy.
That’s how influential human-to-human conversations and marketing are.
The power of customer relations isn’t to be overlooked, especially in today’s B2B landscape where competition is getting fiercer. To stay in the game with other key players in the field, businesses must establish good customer relations and ensure customer satisfaction.
Most e-commerce businesses have become reliant on one-way marketing strategies like direct mail, email, SMS marketing, paid social media search and promotions, and traditional advertising methods like print, television, and radio ads.
This approach may have worked well in the past, but the unidirectional flow of information this tactic entails is deemed ineffective and outdated in today’s digital-driven market. Modern-day consumers expect to converse and engage brands on multiple platforms (it’s one of the best ways to warm up your cold leads, by the way) and one-way marketing strategies don’t take into account the changing customer behavior and preferences.
Along with their increased demand for more personalized and interactive experiences, consumers want more than just a brand to buy from. They need one that they can trust and connect with.
This is where conversational commerce comes in.
Conversational commerce: What you need to know
Conversational commerce is the point where messaging applications and shopping merge. It refers to the trend towards engaging with businesses through messaging and chat platforms such as well as via voice assistants which communicate with users through voice-based commands.
These messaging apps enable consumers to ask questions, get customer support, chat with company representatives, receive personalized recommendations, click to purchase, and see reviews.
One of the most commonly used applications by B2B businesses, especially in Singapore, is WhatsApp. This multi-platform messaging app lets users send messages and make voice and video calls for free, provided that there’s an internet connection.
The said app is a preferred messaging channel worldwide for both personal and professional use with over 2 billion active users. Its worldwide fame is largely attributed to its simple and straightforward features, ease of use, and capacity to perform on multiple platforms.
WhatsApp’s Click-to-Chat feature allows people to chat with someone not saved as a contact in the phone’s address book. The chat opens via a link generated using that person’s phone number. More companies now deploy Click-to-Chat to boost their live chat capabilities by leveraging a platform that customers and prospects are actually using.
Why WhatsApp is a “Must-have” for your B2B Business
Gone are the days when WhatsApp is used only as a personal messaging tool. Today, it has evolved as a preferred tool of B2B advertising and marketing companies, not just to reach and engage with customers but also to find sales leads, making it an efficient growth marketing strategy.
Here are some more reasons why you need WhatsApp for your business:
- It builds strong relationships with clients
WhatsApp allows two-way communication, which helps them feel like they’re speaking to a friend rather than a business. The app’s user-friendly interface and ability to send messages, voice notes, and images give customers a personalized experience. This can help businesses establish stronger customer relationships and increase customer loyalty.
Businesses can also use WhatsApp to transmit updates, notifications, promotional messages, and announcements to their clients. By adopting this approach, brands can enhance customer engagement as more than 70% of consumers prefer to engage solely with personalized marketing messages. - It lowers marketing costs
WhatsApp’s Click-to-Chat feature allows businesses to create a hyperlink that takes the user directly to a WhatsApp chat with the business when clicked. Using this feature helps businesses eliminate the need for costly SMS campaigns or other advertising forms that require a large portion of the budget.
Instead, a business can easily promote their WhatsApp link on their social media pages, websites, and other digital channels, thereby encouraging customers to interact with them directly.
Since you can generate leads and provide support promptly using the said feature, you can eliminate the need for developers and marketing operations, as you won’t require a mobile app or a landing page. - It improves sales: WhatsApp has become an efficient tool for businesses to improve their sales by suggesting products to customers through the chat feature. It also enables businesses to retarget customers by sending exclusive offers and personalized messages, reminding them of their previous transactions and motivating them to purchase more.
This can result in the creation of robust customer-business relationships, foster brand awareness and loyalty, drive an increase in repeat purchases, and enable businesses to generate more sales. - Higher open and conversion rates
As mentioned earlier, the Click-to-Chat feature creates a clickable link that opens a chat with the business in WhatsApp, making it easier for customers to connect with businesses.
It is beneficial for businesses since it improves accessibility, personalization, and convenience, resulting in more engagement and higher conversion rates. It also enables quicker response times, resulting in improved customer satisfaction.
Related: How To Use WhatsApp for Lead Generation, Sales Prospecting, and Nurturing
WhatsApp’s Click-to-Chat is the future of marketing lead generation
Although there are various ways for businesses to connect and interact with customers across different platforms and locations using WhatsApp’s Click-to-Chat, one significant reason why they incorporate this feature into their websites is because of its potential to generate leads.
One of the top lead generation service providers that recognize this app’s potential for reaching target customers is Callbox. Our team has integrated the WhatsApp Click-to-Chat feature on our Singapore website, making it easier for customers and visitors to connect with their team. With this addition, users are able to conveniently use their favorite messaging app to get in touch with us.
With WhatsApp users in Singapore making up 73% of the population, the Callbox team believes embedding Click-to-Chat functionality on the website is clearly a step in the right direction. WhatsApp ranks as the most popular instant messaging platform in more than half the world’s countries, and the Singapore market sees one of the app’s highest penetration and usage rates.
WhatsApp is also becoming a key B2B social media platform. In a HubSpot survey, nearly 3 in 10 respondents name messaging apps like WhatsApp or WeChat as their preferred business communication channel. The Facebook-owned messaging company also recently unveiled WhatsApp Business (a free Android app tailored for SMBs), which many industry observers consider a clear signal of WhatsApp’s growing focus on the B2B segment.For desktop users logged into WhatsApp, clicking on the widget opens a chat with a live operator via WhatsApp Web. Otherwise, the widget takes users to a page with instructions and a QR code to start a chat session.
By integrating WhatsApp’s Click-to-Chat tool into our website, our team can help businesses expand their reach and connect with their target customers more easily. By generating unique links and integrating them into their marketing campaigns, we at Callbox can facilitate direct and personalized communication between businesses and their customers, ultimately leading to better engagement, more leads, and increased sales.
While there are various marketing channels and techniques available, nothing beats a personal touch when it comes to B2B marketing. This means going beyond automated messages and generic communications, and instead, engaging with customers on a more personal level.
Personalized interactions help to build trust and establish a stronger connection between businesses. It shows that the seller is invested in understanding the customer’s needs and is willing to go the extra mile to meet them.
This approach can help to differentiate a business from its competitors and build a positive reputation that can lead to repeat business and referrals. Callbox makes this possible by merging Click-to-Chat into our website.