Introducing automation and utility conversations in WhatsApp marketing

Introducing automation and utility conversations in WhatsApp marketing

We’re excited to announce the addition of two new features to our WhatsApp integration: Automation and Utility conversations. These enhancements will allow you to streamline your marketing efforts and engage with your customers more effectively by automating messages and providing essential information seamlessly.

WhatsApp marketing has become a prominent player in many marketing strategies, having demonstrated a 44.5% uptick in customers engagement. You can enhance your customer journey using WhatsApp automations to deliver personalized messages at the perfect moments and generate meaningful engagement with your contacts.

Enhanced engagement through journeys

Zoho Marketing Automation's journey builder takes WhatsApp engagement a step further by enabling you to create automated workflows that initiate conversations based on specific customer actions and ensure you trigger various types of interactions throughout the customer journey. The result is a seamless, personalized experience that delivers the right message at the right time.


Benefits for marketers:

  • Holistic customer engagement: Combine marketing efforts with essential service updates for a well-rounded customer experience.

  • Improved customer satisfaction: Foster trust and loyalty by ensuring customers have the information they need, when they need it.

  • Streamlined workflows: Automate routine tasks and free up valuable time for strategic marketing initiatives.

 

A quick walkthrough 

Trigger 

Similar to an email campaign trigger, if a contact from a WhatsApp campaign meets certain criteria, they will be added to a journey. Only actions can be added as criteria for journey enrollment, however. This restriction ensures that only specific customer behaviors—such as responding to messages or clicking links—qualify them as contacts worthy of inclusion. By focusing on these actions, we can enhance engagement and tailor our communications to those who show genuine interest.


Process 

Once a contact is added to a journey, you can define a Process > WhatsApp activity to categorize and send  based on user's activity. In this case, you can choose from multiple activities to associate with a WhatsApp message for greater flexibility and customization in your messaging strategy. 

You can use a single WhatsApp activity component to trigger specific actions based on user interactions. For example, if a user clicks on a specific link in a WhatsApp message, they may automatically move to a different lead stage. Alternatively, if a user responds with a specific keyword, you can automatically send a different WhatsApp message. These use cases highlight how you can engage with users effectively through WhatsApp activities.


 

Action 

You can use this action to send a WhatsApp message to all qualified contacts associated with the journey. By delivering personalized messages to contacts associated with a specific journey, you can achieve more targeted and relevant communication. Additionally, creating and sending purchase confirmation and transactional messages, collectively known as Utility Conversations, allows users to automate personalized marketing campaigns based on user behavior.

 

 


 

Utility Conversations

We've also added a new feature: utility conversations. Previously, Zoho Marketing Automation only supported promotional messages, offers, and updates. Now, with utility conversations, you can deliver essential, purchase-related information directly through WhatsApp.

This enables you to:

  • Provide timely updates: Send order confirmations and other critical information directly to customers to ensure they stay informed throughout the journey.

  • Streamline transactions: Use automated payment reminders and transactional messages to simplify the buying process and reduce friction.

  • Gather valuable feedback: Easily collect customer feedback through surveys to foster continuous improvement and increase customer satisfaction.



Note: Utility conversations have a distinct pricing structure compared to marketing conversations. You can visit our pricing page to calculate these costs accurately. Additionally, utility conversations will be included only in Professional and Enterprise plans.

 


 

With this update, we expect our users to get more out of Zoho Marketing Automation and enhance their brands' reputations with timely campaigns. We're always here to help marketers at every step in their marketing endeavor with Zoho Marketing Automation. Please reach out to us at support@zohomarketingautomation.com. We'll be more than happy to provide assistance!




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