WhatsApp Newsletter: How to Use to Engage Customers & Sell?

Proving necessary information to your prospects is a vital part of the sales process. Imagine you want to buy a product but there is not enough information available about it. Would you still make the purchase decision?

I know I wouldn’t. And most customers are the same. 

Furthermore, offering essential details about your product or service not only affects the decision-making but also engages your leads, allowing you to interact with them fully. 

So it makes sense to ensure your customers receive all the required details about your business, be it about your offerings or any general information that they should know. 

Having said that, there are many ways to deliver information to your customers. One of them is WhatsApp newsletters. Over the last few years, WhatsApp marketing has become a primary means of engagement and conversion for many businesses. 

That’s why in this guide, I will go over what WhatsApp newsletter is, its benefits, and how you can start sending these newsletters to enhance engagement and drive more sales. Let’s dive into it!

What is a WhatsApp newsletter?

As the name suggests, WhatsApp Newsletter is a kind of newsletter that you can use to connect with your contacts and send useful content to them directly. It is a great means for you to make sure your contacts are engaged and are up-to-date with your business. 

With this newsletter, you can deliver information about the latest events, deals, account updates, reminders, limited-time offers, or educational content to make your prospects’ lives easier. 

Here’s an example of WhatsApp itself sending information about its new features with the help of a WhatsApp newsletter. It incorporated a short video explaining how to properly send voice messages over WhatsApp.  

Although you can reach out to a large number of users via WhatsApp newsletter, there is one thing that makes it stand apart from other newsletters. And that is the fact that you have to use WhatsApp Business Messaging templates when sending newsletters via WhatsApp. 

Unlike other channels where you can craft newsletters however you want, WhatsApp only allows you to send newsletters using its messaging templates. Since these newsletters are being sent as broadcast messages, you need to adapt them according to these templates and get them approved by WhatsApp beforehand.  

Benefits of using WhatsApp newsletter to engage your prospects

There are several benefits of using WhatsApp newsletters to enhance customer engagement and drive revenue for your business. 

Wider reach

WhatsApp is one of the most used communication platforms, used by billions of users worldwide. According to Statista, almost 3 billion people are actively using WhatsApp around the world, making it the leading conversation channel for international mobile users. 

This goes to show that there is a huge audience waiting to be targeted on WhatsApp. And this is where the WhatsApp newsletter comes in. You can use these newsletters to engage a wider audience to expand your market reach and generate new leads for your business. 

Better engagement

WhatsApp offers a higher engagement rate compared to other communication channels. For instance, WhatsApp has an open rate of a whopping 98%, which is significantly more than emails that have an open rate of only 20%. 

This means you can 5x your customer engagement on WhatsApp by sending emails. Also, email newsletters are, most of the time, only support one-way communication. But with WhatsApp, your recipients can reply back to your newsletters straight from the app. Plus, by adding CTA buttons, you can increase your chances of getting conversions.

Highly interactive

Unlike traditional communication channels like SMS or email that support limited multimedia options, WhatsApp allows you to send photos, videos, gifs, catalogs, and files to make your newsletters more interactive. 

Since WhatsApp supports numerous multimedia file types, you can employ different kinds of content in your newsletter to boost sales engagement and encourage your contacts to move on to the next step of the sales process.

Steps to create a perfect WhatsApp newsletter for your business

Now that you know what WhatsApp newsletter is and its benefits, let’s see how you can incorporate it into your marketing strategy to drive engagement. 

Plan your newsletter

The first step in implementing any new marketing strategy involves planning. And the same goes for running a WhatsApp newsletter campaign. 

Before you dive into designing your newsletters, there are a few questions you need to answer:

• What are you trying to achieve with your WhatsApp newsletter?
• What type of newsletter are you thinking of sending (informational or promotional)?
• How often will you send the newsletter (daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly)?
• What time of the day are you thinking of engaging your audience (morning, noon, or evening)?

By knowing the answers to these questions, you will have a clear idea of how to go about and run successful WhatsApp newsletter campaigns to get maximum ROI. 

For example, we recently started our LinkedIn newsletter, The Growth Flow which is a weekly newsletter about growing your business, and we are already close to reaching 1000 subscribers after only a couple of articles. This is because we comprehensively planned our newsletter according to our business goals.

Although LinkedIn and WhatsApp are two different platforms, what I meant to say with this example is that with the right strategy, you can create a detailed roadmap to streamline your WhatsApp newsletter without running into issues down the road. 

Know your audience

The next step in sending effective WhatsApp newsletters is understanding your audience. Since WhatsApp only allows you to send messages to people who have opted-in to receive them from your business, most of your audience will already know about your company.

So, you have to ensure that your newsletter is relevant to your readers and is tailored to their needs. For instance, WhatsApp is used by many industries for seamless communication, but most of these are B2C companies, like e-commerce, healthcare, real estate, retail, banking, and education. 

That being said, if you are operating in a B2C market, you already know that your audience consists of everyday people who are looking for products or services that will enhance their quality of life. 

This information will help you craft a personalized WhatsApp newsletter that fits the needs of the majority of your audience, elevating sales engagement and boosting the likelihood of getting purchases, 

Choose the platform you want to use

By now you must be done planning your newsletter. So all that’s left is to start sending them to your contacts. There are two ways in which you can send the WhatsApp newsletter: WhatsApp Business app and WhatsApp API. Let’s see how you can use both of them as per your requirements. 

WhatsApp Business app

With the WhatsApp Business app, you can reach out to up to 256 prospects at once using the broadcast feature. You can create a WhatsApp Business broadcast list consisting of the contacts you want to engage via WhatsApp newsletter. 

To create a broadcast list, download the WhatsApp Business app from the App Store or Play Store. Next, sign up using your phone number and create a business profile for your company. You can also convert your existing personal account into WhatsApp Business.

Click on the menu button in the top-right corner and choose the New Broadcast option.

Continuing to the next screen, you will see the contacts saved on the SIM card you used to register your business account with. You can choose the people you wish to send the WhatsApp newsletter to from this list and once you are finished selecting, click on the check mark at the bottom. 

The broadcast list you created will show up in the chats and you can open it to send your WhatsApp newsletter in bulk to all the members of the list simultaneously.

Note: There is one thing you have to keep in mind when running newsletter campaigns on WhatsApp. You need to ensure that your audience has opted in to get your WhatsApp newsletter. To do that, you can WhatsApp newsletter CTAs on your social media profiles, distribute your WhatsApp QR code, or use click-to WhatsApp Ads. 

WhatsApp API

Another way to send WhatsApp newsletters is to use the WhatsApp API. Unlike the WhatsApp Business app that lets you send newsletters to only 256 contacts at once, with WhatsApp API, you can increase that number to thousands. 

Furthermore, WhatsApp API allows you to send a variety of messages via templates as newsletters as long as they comply with WhatsApp’s Policies and Guidelines. So, if you have a large user base you want to engage with your newsletter, WhatsApp API is the correct choice for you. 

However, before you can start using the WhatsApp API to send WhatsApp newsletters at scale, you need to integrate it with a marketing platform with WhatsApp compatibility. This is because the WhatsApp API is a backend program that requires a frontend UI for you to use it. 

Having said that, there are various WhatsApp API providers available in the market that offer WhatsApp API integration, allowing you to get started with your WhatsApp newsletter initiatives. And one of the best solutions that enables you to send WhatsApp newsletters effortlessly is Zixflow. 

Zixflow is a futuristic engagement and communication platform that comes with modern functionalities to connect with your contacts. By linking WhatsApp API with Zixflow, you can start sending your newsletter to a large number of prospects, allowing you to boost the probability of getting conversions. 

On top of that, the process of integrating Zixflow with WhatsApp API is very simple. You can easily create a Zixflow account, navigate to the WhatsApp section, and follow the on-screen instructions to link them together. 

One thing to keep in mind, you will have to subscribe to the Starter plan (costing $39/month) before you can add a WhatsApp number to your Zixflow account. Also, if you come across any issues in the process, we are always ready to jump on a call with you to resolve your problems immediately.

Additionally, once you have integrated WhatsApp API with Zixflow to create a WhatsApp CRM, you can import contacts’ details and start using them immediately to deliver your WhatsApp newsletter. With our no-code WhatsApp Campaign Builder, you are able to craft dynamic WhatsApp newsletter campaigns and send them straight to your contacts or schedule them to be sent at a future time automatically. 

Monitor your newsletter’s performance

The final step in running a productive WhatsApp newsletter campaign is to measure how well your efforts are going by tracking the right WhatsApp Business analytics. It is crucial to know where you are lacking or what you could do better to further improve the efficiency of your WhatsApp newsletter. 

Unfortunately, if you decide to use the WhatsApp Business app to send your newsletters, you cannot track its performance in-depth because the mobile app only provides a basic analytics section that gives you an overview of the total messages sent, delivered, and read. 

However, with WhatsApp API, you can get a complete picture of your WhatsApp newsletter campaigns by accessing the analytics dashboard (if it provides one) of the platform you integrate with WhatsApp API. But if you are using Zixflow to send your WhatsApp newsletter, you don’t have to worry about getting an analytics tool to keep track of your performance. 

With Zixflow’s reporting dashboard, you can access summaries or detailed reports for your newsletter campaigns, allowing you to get a 360-degree view of your efforts. This way, you can monitor each individual contact to see whether they have received or read your newsletter to ensure maximum engagement.

Kickstart your WhatsApp newsletter to boost engagement and revenue effectively

A WhatsApp newsletter is a great way to engage your customers on the go, keeping them updated with your business and convincing them to get your products or services. 

You can pick between the WhatsApp Business app or the WhatsApp API to send your newsletter directly to your customers according to your goals and number of customers. 

If you pick the WhatsApp API for running your newsletter campaign, then Zixflow is the best platform you can integrate with it for a streamlined WhatsApp experience. 

This is because Zixflow enables you to get started with the platform without paying any monthly usage charges. With its campaign wallet payment structure, you can top-up the wallet and start sending your WhatsApp newsletter. 

Sign up for an account for free and experience a next-gen communication platform at your fingertips.