Discover how Ramadan transforms shopping patterns and digital engagement. Gain valuable strategies for effectively handling the spike in consumer demand. Dive now into our latest blog for actionable insights.

Chat apps have become the most popular way to communicate with friends, family, colleagues, and businesses.

CHAT APPS HAVE BECOME THE MOST POPULAR WAY TO COMMUNICATE WITH FRIENDS, FAMILY, COLLEAGUES, AND BUSINESSES.

But one app dominates our daily lives – WhatsApp the most widely used chat application on the globe!

In this post, we have compiled a list of all important WhatsApp statistics that you should be aware of in 2022, if you want to explore this chat app potential as part of your company’s communication strategy.

How many people use WhatsApp?

WhatsApp currently has more than 2 billion users worldwide up by almost 1 billion users in 2016 increasing at half a billion every two years. Could we be bold and predict that by 2027, the number of WhatsApp users could be 3 billion users (given their previous track record)?

WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app

In terms of popularity, WhatsApp is the world leader snagging the top-messaging app spot in 53 countries, 27% of the world and 59% of this dataset. WhatsApp easily outperforms Facebook Messenger (1.3 billion) and WeChat (1.2 billion) in terms of monthly active users. 

Excluding China, 69 percent of internet users use WhatsApp.

WhatsApp App downloads

Last year, there were 600 million downloads of WhatsApp making it the most downloaded application under Facebook.

The number of WhatsApp’s app downloads is even higher than some of its closest rivals: Facebook Messenger and Telegram. 

WhatsApp App availability

WhatsApp, a truly global platform is available in 180 countries and in 60 languages. It enjoys the highest market penetration in the Netherlands (85%), Spain (83.1%), and Italy (83%).

WhatsApp average time spent

During 2021, users worldwide spent approximately 18.6 hours using WhatsApp per month.

WhatsApp usage

Over 100 billion WhatsApp messages are sent and over two billion minutes are spent on WhatsApp voice and video calls every day.

WhatsApp Business Users

In just one year after WhatsApp launched its B2B initiative, WhatsApp Business, it clocked up more than 5 million business users.

WhatsApp for Customer Support

In 2020, 62 percent more companies compared to the previous year used WhatsApp for their customer service communication.

WhatsApp for Business Messaging

More than 175 million people worldwide interact or send a message to a business via WhatsApp.

WhatsApp Open-rates

In contrast to SMS and Emails, WhatsApp API messages have a robust 99% open rate , meaning that of every 100 messages sent 99 messages are read and, and even better the response rate is just less than 50%.

These powerful statistics prove just how valuable WhatsApp messaging is to your business to help you reach even more people via their preferred channel.

To learn how to leverage WhatsApp as a differentiated channel in your business and start talking with your customers seamlessly, contact us today.

With a truly conversational API from WhatsApp, you can now deliver personalized WhatsApp Templates with promotional content such as product recommendations, back-in-stock alerts, timely offers and informational alerts

Until recently, WhatsApp only allowed sending transactional messages using pre-approved templates to opted-in WhatsApp users outside the 24-hour conversation window. Templates included notification-type messages, like delivery alerts, order confirmation, etc.

Message templates having promotional content such as discount offers, product back in stock alerts, and informational alerts that didn’t  meet the criteria or usage guidelines would be rejected by WhatsApp.

Marketing and Promotional Messages for WhatsApp Business Accounts

As of  September 2021, WhatsApp has enabled businesses to initiate conversations with their customers using promotional templates outside the 24-hour conversation window.  Obviously, the message has to be pre-approved by WhatsApp before you can send it to your opted-in customers.

You can send rich content messages using images, videos and documents to reach your targeted audience about your offers and discounts.

So let’s take a look at how you can use  promotional templates to send WhatsApp campaigns.

• Relevant deals and offers
• Renewal reminders
• Product recommendations
• Cart abandonment followup
• Price alerts
• Product up-sell offers
• Back-in-stock reminders

Tips for creating Message Templates

You can immediately begin to send new types of messages without the transactional-only restriction on messages outside the 24-hour conversation window. You can create and submit message templates directly to WhatsApp from the Campaign Manager inside Digital Connect.

• Businesses should choose an existing template category during submission
• Template review will check for Commerce or Business Policy violations and correct formatting
• Templates must be formatted correctly. See here for formatting guidelines
• Plan in advance to account for review times

You must obtain opt-in from customers in advance of sending any business-initiated messages.

Note: WhatsApp templates fall into many categories. To get a promotional template approved, select ALERT_UPDATE as the template category.

WhatsApp supports up to 250 templates per account by default. We recommend starting with a handful to get started faster. If you need more than 250 templates, please open a support ticket stating your reason. WhatsApp reviews requests for higher template limits within 2-4 weeks and may approve a higher limit of 1500 templates at their discretion.

Best practices to ensure relevant WhatsApp campaigns

The 1:1 nature of WhatsApp conversations makes it relatively easy to send your customers with truly personalized offers, promos, or discounts. Your messages should be expected, timely and relevant.

The more you customize and personalize the experience to your customers, the less likely they will report spam and the more likely they will continue to engage with your brand.

Drive your WhatsApp campaign from your understanding of the customer behavior and interests. Customize your message content and timing to be more relevant, like offering a discount offer to your customers for communicating with your business on WhatsApp.

Example: You can run Facebook Ads that click to WhatsApp that will directly open a WhatsApp chat where people can start a conversation with your WhatsApp chatbot.

Your WhatsApp business Solution should integrate with offline and online data points to enrich the customer profile, helping you send relevant, highly personalized campaigns beyond just using the customer’s first name.

If you’re going to use WhatsApp as a marketing channel, you need a contact list. A highly relevant contact list is the key to a successful campaign. WhatsApp requires customers to give consent that they want to receive updates on WhatsApp before they receive the message. As a result, you need to get a list of people who are already interested in your products and services. This will lead to a highly relevant contact list you can use for different campaigns.

And to make sure they open your messages and take action, make a note of the following things:

• Keep your communications short and to the point
• Reinforce your messages with multimedia files, such as videos, animations, or pictures
• Use emojis wherever appropriate. 
• Don’t spam your customers. You don’t want to message customers too frequently, or they will feel annoyed.

WhatsApp Opt-ins are more than just good manners

Businesses are required to obtain opt-in before sending proactive business-initiated messages to customers outside the 24-hour conversation window. If you don’t receive opt-in from your users, you stand to lose your WhatsApp number, so make sure you’re 100% familiar with what’s required. By opting-in customers you can reduce the risk of customer blocks and WhatsApp placing limits on the ability to reach customers.

It is your responsibility as an organisation to safely store your user opt-ins. 

You can collect opt-ins  wherever is best for your customers.

• On WhatsApp
  • In a WhatsApp thread as soon as they start a conversation with your WhatsApp Chatbot.

• Off WhatsApp
  • Include the opt-in option on your website
  • Include the option on your Phone interactive voice response (IVR)
  • Send SMS with one click opt-in option or a link to your landing page which will lead them to more information before opt-in
  • Missed call
  • Ads that click to WhatsApp
  • During a transaction process
  • QR Code

As of September 2021, these opt-in best practices are also now included at the bottom of the WhatsApp Business Policy.

Importance of WhatsApp’s quality rating and messaging limits

Your WhatsApp phone number quality rating is based on how your customers have received over the past 7 days. This rating is determined by the feedback from your customers, and ultimately determine your ability to send template messages on WhatsApp.

Phone number Quality Rating

Your quality rating indicates how template messages have been received by your users in the last 24 hours. There are three different states of messaging quality:

• Green: High quality
• Yellow: Medium quality
• Red: Low quality

If your quality rating reaches a low state or your phone number status changes, you’ll receive an email and notification in Business Manager as a warning. Your Status will change to Flagged or Restricted.

• Flagged: This status occurs when the quality rating reaches a low state. Businesses can’t upgrade messaging limit tiers during the Flagged phase. If the message quality improves to a high or medium state for 7 continuous days, your status will return to Connected. If the quality rating doesn’t improve, your status will still return to Connected, but you’ll be placed in a lower messaging limit tier.
• Restricted: This status occurs when you reach your messaging limit. During a Restricted phase, you can’t send any notification messages until the 24-hour window is reset. You can still respond to any messages that customers initiate.

You can view your phone number quality rating by clicking on Profile Settings inside your Digital Connect account.

Template Quality Rating 

A red template is alarming. We recommend not only stopping the use of that template but also understanding the reasons behind the low rating to avoid the issue in future campaigns.

30-day Quality history

This report will help you understand how your quality changes over time

Messaging Limits

The messaging limit tiers determine how many users you can send templates to on a daily basis. This includes new conversations as well as existing conversations with users.

The messaging limit does not limit the number of template messages you can send, just the number of users you are trying to message. It only applies to messages sent in response to a user-initiated message within a 24-hour period.

• Tier 1: Allows your business to send messages to 1K unique customers in a rolling 24-hour period.
• Tier 2: Allows your business to send messages to 10K unique customers in a rolling 24-hour period.
• Tier 3: Allows your business to send messages to 100K unique customers in a rolling 24-hour period.
• Tier 4: Allows your business to send messages to unlimited unique customers in a rolling 24-hour period. 

A business starts in Tier 1 when it registers its phone number. You can send any number of messages within 24-hour period to a customer who has interacted with you on WhatsApp.

For more details on messaging limits you can refer to the official documentation on Capacity, Quality Ratings, and Messaging Limits.

Good Practices to Improve Quality Ratings

Check if you or anyone from your business has added a template within the last seven days. This may help determine a problematic template(s).

Make sure your templates comply with the WhatsApp Business Policy.

• Be mindful of your messaging frequency; avoid sending customers too many template messages a day. Be mindful of informational messages, optimizing for content and length.
• Only send messages to users who have opted in to receive messages from your business
• Make sure that your messages are clear, personalized, and useful to users. Avoid sending open-ended welcome or introductory messages.

Beware! Customers can report spam on WhatsApp

Your customers are in control when they communicate with you on WhatsApp. WhatsApp gives customers the ability to block your business, indicating the reason behind it. 

WhatsApp leverages these quality signals to determine the phone number quality rating and when applicable uses this feedback as a potential reason for red (low) or yellow (medium) quality.

E Ocean, a rapidly growing omni channel cloud communication platform is excited to announce that We’re now a Meta Business Partner!

The Meta Business Partner badge is awarded to companies who meet the highest standards of performance and service.

As a badged partner, this designation is a recognition of our team’s expertise and efforts to build a messaging experience at scale and automate customer service, lead generation and transactions for our clients over WhatsApp Business Platform.

THE BENEFITS OF BECOMING A META BUSINESS PARTNER

E Ocean’s recognition as a Badged Meta Business Partner, provides us access to tools, resources, training and support to help our existing clients and future prospects engage with their customers in meaningful ways at scale over WhatsApp.

Tools and Resources

We get access to necessary time-saving tools, exclusive in-depth resources to help understand the latest product updates and industry insights.

Training

Our teams can leverage Meta learning tools and trainings to enhance knowledge.

Dedicated Support and Prioritised Issue Resolution

We get priority customer support to help resolve issues related to features, bugs and APIs.

Recognition in Meta Partner Directory

We get to display our Meta Business Partner badge on external facing materials (marketing materials, website, email, etc.)  our website and our very own listing on Meta Partner Directory for potential leads to connect with us from around the world.

So if you are interested in leveraging WhatsApp as a differentiated channel to build conversational relationships with your customers to drive business outcomes then get in touch with us today.

Our sales experts will be more than happy to assist you to build your business presence on WhatsApp.

With roughly 2.91 billion monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2021, Facebook is the biggest social network worldwide. According to a report by Facebook Insights, 53% people said that they would prefer to shop with a business they can contact

With roughly 2.91 billion monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2021, Facebook is the biggest social network worldwide. According to a report by Facebook Insights, 53% people said that they would prefer to shop with a business they can contact through a chat app. Enter WhatsApp, the most popular messaging app in the world with more than 2 billion monthly active users globally.

Combining Facebook, the most popular social media network with WhatsApp, the most-used mobile messaging app, what you get is great business growth potential.

In this blog, we’ll learn how you can post Ads that click to WhatsApp  to navigate your customers to open a conversation with your business on WhatsApp to address customer queries and concerns, offer customer support and increase conversion rates! On top of that,  conversations are not charged when your customers  message you using  Ads that Click to WhatsApp or a Facebook Page call-to-action buttons

How to connect Facebook and WhatsApp Business

There is one thing that you need to do before you can begin running Facebook Ads that click to WhatsApp and starting conversations with your customers.

• Create a business account by downloading the WhatsApp Business app or integrate with the WhatsApp Business API

After you have  set up your WhatsApp Business account, you need to connect the account to your Facebook business page. Here’s how.

Step 1: Head to Facebook Business Suite. Your business page should show up by default if you’re already logged in as an admin of your page.

Step 2: On the left side column, click on All Tools → Page Settings.

Step 3: In the column on the left-hand side, click WhatsApp.

Step 4: To connect your WhatsApp Business account, Facebook will send a code to your registered WhatsApp number. Enter your WhatsApp phone number, and click Continue.

Step 5: Once you receive the code, input the code and click Confirm.

Once all of this is done, you would have successfully created your Facebook and WhatsApp Business Account. But there is an additional recommended step that you should perform.

Add a WhatsApp button to your Facebook page

Upon entering  your correct code, you will be prompted to add a WhatsApp button to your Facebook page. We highly recommend doing so to provide your customers with an additional channel through which they can reach you on WhatsApp while allowing you to leverage Free entry point conversations.

Once you add a button, it will appear like this on your Facebook page.

Customers who visit  your Facebook business page can reach you on WhatsApp business account by clicking on the WhatsApp button.

You have successfully added a new option on your Facebook business page to allow your customers to reach you on your WhatsApp Business account . Now let’s dive into how to create Facebook ads that click to WhatsApp.

Create Facebook Ads that click to WhatsApp

There are two ways to enable Facebook users to click through to a WhatsApp chat with your business:

• Boost an existing Facebook post
• Create a new ad in the Facebook ads manager

Let us explain both options.

Boost a Facebook page post

Step 1: Navigate your Facebook business page and select the post that you want to promote.
 Alternatively, you can create a new post, publish it and then promote it.
 Step 2: Click on the Boost post  button

Step 3: This will bring up a pop up window with a number of options. Under Post Button on the left side menu, select Send WhatsApp Message.

What this does is add a call-to-action (CTA) to your post. You’ll be able to see a preview of your boosted post on the right.

Step 4: Build or choose your target audience, opt in or opt out of ad placements, schedule your ad duration (how long do you want the ad to run) and a life time budget. However, the boost begins automatically so you can’t schedule it to start in a few days or weeks.

Step 5: When you’re satisfied with the ad parameters, click the Boost post now button. If you’ve yet to add a payment method, you will be prompted to do so at this point.

Congratulations, you’re all set!

Once your ad has been approved and published, customers viewing your sponsored content will be able to send you a WhatsApp message from the post itself.

Add WhatsApp Button in Facebook Ads From Ads Manager

Step 1: Go to Facebook ads manager.

Step 2: Under the Ads tab, click on the green Create button.

Step 3: Choose the campaign objective you want to target

Note that only a few available campaign goals work with WhatsApp. Only campaigns with Traffic, Messages and Conversions can direct users to WhatsApp.

Step 4: After choosing your campaign objective, decide on your ad campaign budget and click Continue.

Step 5: At the ad set level, the next step is to create a Facebook Ad that clicks to WhatsApp.

With the Traffic and Conversions objectives, you can only choose one location per ad set so be sure to select WhatsApp.

In case you selected the Messages objective, you can choose up to three destinations: WhatsApp, Messenger, and/or Instagram Direct. If you truly want to test WhatsApp’s potential for your business, consider selecting this app only. If you’re still working to identify the best messaging app for your audience, you may want to try out all three apps instead.

Step 6: Then decide where to place your ad, target audience and budget.

It is important to understand that WhatsApp targeting has its own limitations. Facebook Ads automatically broadens your targeting parameters, making it difficult to limit delivery to a niche audience. Keep a close eye on your campaign analytics to make sure you get the results you want.

Do you want more control over where your WhatsApp ad appears? Scroll down to open Facebook’s brand safety options. With these controls, you can:

• Upload block lists to prevent your ad from appearing on certain domain
• Exclude it from appearing alongside certain content or topic types.
• Select an inventory filter for in-stream videos and IGTV.

Step 7: At the ad setup level, upload at least one image or photo and write a compelling headline, description, and primary text. If you want to put your ad copy to the test, select Optimize Text Per Person. This feature allows Facebook to shift ad text between fields. For instance, your description could appear in the primary text field to improve performance.

Step 8: Go to Call to Action, select Send WhatsApp Message finally click the green Publish button to launch your campaign.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully set up Facebook ads that allow customers to start a WhatsApp conversation with you from your Facebook business page. Now you can start connecting with customers at scale to provide them  immediate and personalized customer service.

What will your customers love more than a good product? What transforms a regular customer into a loyal customer? Today’s customers expect a personalized shopping experience where they feel your business is assigning value to their personal preferences and needs. An effective personalized operating model with reliable communication elements can help retailers and brands keep pace. 

According to Facebook Messaging Survey, 67% of mobile messaging app users said they expect to use chat more for communicating with businesses over the next two years and about 53% of the respondents reported that they are more likely to shop with a business that they can message directly.

Today’s retail environment is challenging from all perspectives, highly personalized customer experiences and individual attention to each customer’s needs, when offered to millions, are nearly impossible to uphold. Imagine the impact your improved and personalized business communication will have on your customers when addressed directly on their favorite channel of communication which they already use to connect with friends, family, and their loved ones. 

To retain customers and keep them from departing for a competitor due to poor or inefficient communication, personalize your customer’s experience by targeting a certain segment with broad-based offers sent across through WhatsApp, by remembering their choices, their names, preferences, suggesting highly relevant products, sending sales announcements and, enabling purchases through WhatsApp Business API. 

Make your customers a part of your retail dialogue, and leverage data to create one-to-one personalization. For a customer, being able to reach out to a brand at any time and have their queries catered to within 24 hours is an experience of bliss. In this fast pace of life today, consumers neither have the patience nor the time to make multiple calls and requests for customer support every time an issue arises with a purchase from their favorite brand. The retail and service industry is adapting modern communication channels to provide their customers with an easy, simple, and fast mode of communication.

WhatsApp has revolutionized the way we communicate with friends and family. With over 2.5 billion users worldwide, it is now facilitating businesses to communicate with their customers seamlessly across the globe. e.ocean, a leading Cloud Communication solutions provider, is enabling businesses to leverage the WhatsApp Business API to provide 24×7 customer support and sales onboarding.

WhatsApp has revolutionized the way we communicate with friends and family. With over 2.5 billion users worldwide, it is now facilitating businesses to communicate with their customers seamlessly across the globe. e.ocean, a leading Cloud Communication solutions provider, is enabling businesses to leverage the WhatsApp Business API to provide 24×7 customer support and sales onboarding.  

Using Digital Connect, our conversational messaging platform enterprises can  communicate with their customers around the world over WhatsApp without any developer efforts. They can automate customer support using a 24×7 chatbot channel for high volume, routine queries where customers want fast and simple answers while empowering their customers to transfer to live agents for a swift and seamless redressal of more complex queries. The fact is that delivering ‘human powered’ service to engage customers in a real conversation drives greater loyalty and brand advocacy.  

e.ocean’s WhatsApp offerings serve multi-purpose use for businesses depending on their need. Banks can send account statements, account balance, OTPs, and more. Insurance companies can allow their users to get policy-related updates, submit documents, process claims, and more. An e-commerce firm can send shipping information related to the delivery of products to customers and keep them informed at each step of the way. Food delivery businesses can allow their users to place and get updates on their orders.

WhatsApp Business API is one of the most popular communication channels for businesses to engage with their customers. If implemented properly, it can not only help meet customer expectations but exceed them. e.ocean is ready to help you build your presence on WhatsApp by providing you access to WhatsApp Business API and accelerating your journey with your customer by removing the complexities of communication.  Contact us today to learn more about our WhatsApp Business API pricing and solution. 

We help businesses set up their verified WhatsApp Business accounts to have a remarkable impact on their customers through which brands can improve their reach, send messages across to their customers at a faster delivery rate, have fully encrypted and secure engagement with their customers, maximize the number of viewers to potential customers while achieving all the primary marketing objectives and sales goals. WhatsApp Business API will give businesses the competitive advantage they have been seeking for decades, engaging their customers on the platforms they are already using. 

When taking our business online, or reaching out to your customers online, leave behind the face-to-face interactions with your customers, making your interactions instant, impactful, and more powerful. More than three million organizations worldwide are using WhatsApp Business, and approximately 84% of small and medium businesses confirm that they actively communicate with their end-users through this messaging channel

 Top 5 reasons for you to choose WhatsApp Business API for customer engagement

1. Decrease time of response
2. Improve messaging delivery
3. Connect with customers on their most liked channel
4. Instill brand identity with every interaction
5. Enable real-time conversations 

e.ocean provides rich communication solutions through next-generation SMS protocol that upgrades text messaging while delivering features to a device’s default messaging app.

Every day, billions of people and thousands of businesses are connecting via text messaging, a modern way to communicate that has been around for over three decades. We are offering our customers a next-generation SMS protocol to improve their marketing customer service and increase customer engagement leading to an increased number of sales for their businesses. 

SMS has been a crucial part of our lives for the last 30 years; as users ourselves, we send more text messages than phone calls or in-person meetings for instant messaging. However, with the new wave of upgraded text messaging and advanced SMS functionality available on mobile phones, all groups’ usage is skyrocketing. 

Most businesses rely massively on SMS for customer feedback, reward and loyalty offers, and disseminate sales and early launches information. All told, there are nearly 15 million text messages sent every minute in the world, summing up to about 22 billion messages sent only in a day. 

Texting is one of the simplest and most convenient ways of communicating with users, which does not leave anyone behind; even the 2g users enjoy the same attention from their favorite businesses and brands as a 4g user. In addition, the ease of writing a short, quick-to-read, and engaging text message to put across for your consumers makes the design and implementation process for communication easier to conceive and implement. 

From a consumer’s perspective, your customer does not have to sit on hold, take time out of their busy schedules to make long phone calls, visit your outlets in person, or wait for their emails to be responded to in the long queue of questions. Instead, your customers can shoot out a simple text, enabling two-way messaging, and be assured of getting a succinct & timely response. 

As the world is slowly recovering from the impact of Covid-19 and we are all leaving 2021 behind, one of WhatsApp’s significant focuses for 2022 is to use this platform to help all kinds of businesses to expand their reach and distribution.

As a communication solution provider, we are closely witnessing a massive shift in how people receive information and the mediums they are using to communicate with businesses from all around the world. Covid 19 forced us into a fast-tracked transition to digitalization that otherwise would have happened over decades, directly impacting the expectations and behavior of today’s customers.

Tools and platforms for corporate communication have become crucial for businesses to run; however, the consumer has branched off more towards sticking to their ‘own conventional’ applications for communication, even with brands and companies.

Recognizing and leveraging on current user behavior patterns, WhatsApp aims to enable businesses to improve their communication, now more than ever, to allow millions of people from across the globe to communicate easily with the companies of their choice.

In the new normal, as the businesses shift from physical to digital and are more focused on expanding their digital footprint, the customers will also need a more efficient and simplified channel to indulge their favorite brands. Global statistics reflect that even the older generations who were not comfortable with texting or WhatsApping are now inclined to message a business when they need to contact them compared to their priorities before the global pandemic.

To meet the continuously increasing needs of consumers and businesses while providing a unified platform that brings them together, WhatsApp Business offers two ways for merchants and service providers to engage with their customers and expand their businesses.

From a business and a consumer perspective, WhatsApp is the most widely used and accepted communication platform, making it almost a democratic choice of communication for the end-users. However, the beauty of this communication solution is now hidden in the fact that the reach and digital presence of a micro, small and medium-sized business on WhatsApp Business API are the same as a massive global conglomerate. Therefore, they provide a perfect opportunity for the customers to choose their preferred businesses to initiate engagement.