WhatsApp Business – The Marketing Tool Of 2020?

According to ‘industry experts’ WhatsApp Business is going to be huge in 2020 so we thought we’d have a look at it.

On the surface the idea that WhatsApp Business can provide bars with a new vehicle to speak to its customers makes perfect sense. WhatsApp is the top messenger app in the UK (the US still prefers Facebook Messenger) so you can rest assured most of your customers are familiar with it.

The question is what the Holy Emoji is WhatsApp Business and how can it be of use to you?

It is targeted at small and medium-sized businesses and designed to allow them to keep in contact with their customers and answer questions in real-time. Your profile will allow you to have an image, description, location, URL and contact details.

Due to its nature, customers have to opt in, it’s really a tool to allow communication to existing customers as opposed to targeting new ones. However, with the competition for those customers quids getting ever more ruthless any advantage you can have should be welcomed.

It allows you to chat to customers quickly and easily, as well as programming in quick replies for all those frequently answered questions such as ‘What time do you open?’, ‘What time do you close?’, ‘Can I reserve a table for 23 people on a hen do in 5 minutes?’ (you might need to have a ‘Fuck Off’ quick reply for that last one, unless you’re LCC).

You can also label each contact with tags such as ‘Regular’, ‘Rum Lover’, ‘Vegetarian’, ‘Happy Hour Hogger’ etc and then send out ‘broadcasts’ to those specific groups with targeted offers, special events etc.

Other great news is it’s free (currently).

The Downsides

There really are only two major downsides from our point of view. Firstly, if you already have WhatsApp connected to your mobile number you can’t have WhatsApp Business connected to the same number. You can however use a landline number to sign up so providing you have either a work mobile or landline number you are good to go.

Secondly it can only be accessed by one person at a time making it a bit of a pain if someone stays logged in and goes AWOL.

It certainly appears to have all the hallmarks of a hugely beneficial and popular tool, we see no reason why it won’t become a huge resource in 2020. Saying that we still have a MySpace page and a minidisc player so what do we know…..

You can download WhatsApp Business on your iPhone or Android through your relevant App Store thingy.