WhatsApp marketing: running bulk messaging campaigns

Since its launch in 2009, WhatsApp had become a download phenomenon, reaching 600 million users worldwide by August 2014. The app opened up a far more fluid, instant way of reaching people, and it was never going to stay limited to private conversations: businesses and online shops could take advantage of it too.

With the first bulk messaging platform built by our agency, companies could reach thousands of people in seconds and put their products, offers and news straight onto the smartphone their customers carry everywhere. It became a genuinely useful channel for internet marketing strategies, capable of improving conversion rates and increasing sales substantially for a fairly small investment.

The service handled more than plain text. Images and video could be sent too, and campaigns carrying audiovisual content were consistently better received than text alone. People who watch a video about a product are roughly twice as likely to buy it, which made video marketing a natural fit inside a WhatsApp campaign.

The platform let businesses upload their own customer database or work with segmented third-party databases, so campaigns could be targeted rather than sprayed at everyone.

The appeal was simple: near-total open rates, immediate delivery, and a channel people actually read, at a moment when email open rates were falling year on year.