How to use WhatsApp retargeting: your New Year's guide

"If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again:" a common phrase we say to children to help them keep going. Well, it's for grown-ups too, especially those working on WhatsApp marketing campaigns. It even has a name: WhatsApp retargeting or remarketing.

Retargeting in a nutshell 🎯 🥜

If you’re trying to sell goods and/or services you already know that just because your website might be receiving plenty of visits, some customers simply aren’t ready to purchase right away. Regardless of the reasons why, this can lead to abandoned carts, and less sales and conversions than you’d hoped for.

Once they leave your site, they’re gone FOREVER 😱… unless you can bring them back. This is where retargeting comes in handy. Retargeting simply means reaching out to these customers again, with personalised content based on the user's profile and information like personal interests, pages visited, and demographics. This is possible through different means and channels to remind them of the great reasons why they should complete their purchase or revisit your brand.

What is WhatsApp remarketing? 📈

There are many reasons why you might want to reach out to an individual or group of  potential customers more than once. For instance, if you learn that most of your consumers are pet owners 😽 🐩 🦜  or that they prefer to order Italian meals 3x per week, or that during winter holidays they head to the mountains to ski. 

If you’ve learned new and valuable information about your audiences’ preferences, it’s best to use WhatsApp Remarketing rather than send another email newsletter or other promotional media. Why? Because WhatsApp marketing has an impressive open-rate. With conversational marketing messages, you’re likely to see a 98% open rate, compared to the average 25% open-rate achieved by email campaigns. 

Why? Because WhatsApp marketing is based on direct, 1:1 communication via messaging; no spammy newsletters.

Is WhatsApp retargeting effective? 💰

WhatsApp retargeting campaigns is effective for existing customers that have opted in to your WhatsApp channel. You can reactivate them to buy your products and services or even upsell or cross-sell relevant products based on custom tags.

This segmentation occurs based on a customer's interests following from chat interactions, like demographics, size, and buying behaviour. This allows you to reconnect with them through a personal and direct communication channel and guide them back to your sales channel or even sell directly in chat.

The most effective retargeting campaigns can be achieved with the help of a professional WhatsApp marketing platform. 

Combining retargeting with the other advertising campaigns can help increase sales by 50%.

Because WhatsApp retargeting features direct conversations between two parties, it’s very important that you base your remarketing campaign on confirmed customer preferences. You can’t just guess. You need to know your target group well and address them as individuals. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

To better ensure success, create a filter for your ideal customer group and attempt to reach only those who are actually interested. Keep in mind the time of day, the day of the week, the tone, and the frequency of messaging. These details could make or break your retargeting campaign.

For example, you don’t want your dog food ad to reach your clients while they’re asleep, or your 50^th diaper promotion to reach a now annoyed non-parent. 😬  Also, remember that the format and length of the text are important and should be scaled according to your brand and your clients style. 

The main reason WhatsApp retargeting is so effective is because it can be tailored to your customers’ needs and wants, no matter where they are in the buying journey. Additionally, you’re able to reconnect with an audience who has already shown interest, giving you a better chance of gaining conversions, and conversations.

Why use a WhatsApp retargeting campaign? 🤩

1. Stay top of mind: WhatsApp remarketing campaigns increase the chance of customers returning to your site via specific and relevant personalized chat campaigns.
2. Incentivize: Retargeting is a great way to inspire your customers to act. For example, you can create an irresistible incentive to purchase (or opt-in) by offering a discount or free consultation. Just be sure to remove recent purchasers from your target audience before you send out the promotion.
3. Become a great guide: If you have a long buying journey, WhatsApp retargeting can help you guide your customers. With a WhatsApp remarketing platform, you can offer people custom-made ads for their position in the process.

What to include in a WhatsApp retargeting campaign ☑

Okay, so your audience is definitely into football but they haven’t taken any action on your WhatsApp broadcast made especially for football players 😤 What do you do? You set yourself up with a WhatsApp remarketing platform, and create highly-relevant, WhatsApp remarketing messages. They’ll be directed to those who:

• Have read your previous campaign
• Responded to the broadcast 
• Received the previous message but didn't read it
• Segment based on custom tags

3 tips to consider as you build your WhatsApp retargeting campaign

1. Try WhatsApp retargeting chats 💬

Don’t guide your customers to the same web page over and over, and ask them to do the same thing. Take them to a new channel, like WhatsApp chat, where they can reach you 24/7. Once they hit “send”, you'll have their contact details and can connect with them anytime that is appropriate for them.

2. Use pre-filled WhatsApp texts 📱

Create a sense of urgency with your ad to increase the potential for customers to follow you. Ask your customers to press the “send message” button to receive a coupon code. Then, use a pre-filled WhatsApp message for the ad, where your customers can enter their details and receive the discount offer. If they still don’t bite, you also have the chance to increase the incentive without having to offer the discount to your entire WhatsApp broadcast group.

3. Create automated chat response with coupon code 🤑

Now that people are responding to your WhatsApp remarketing ads, you won’t have time to answer each message or question personally. You can set up a WhatsApp opt-in message with a personalized discount codes as soon as a customer sends a message. 

You can also set up automated messages or flows based on a trigger keyword or phrase. This behaves somewhat like a WhatsApp chatbot but will feel for customers like a quiz to recommend them the best fitting products or to show additional, relevant deals to your customers, as long as they’ve opted-in. 🤓

WhatsApp retargeting removes the guesswork

The biggest benefit of using WhatsApp retargeting is that it can save you time and money. Without a WhatsApp remarketing platform, you’ll struggle to find out your audiences’ preferences, or the reasons why those who’ve already read or replied to your messages still aren’t buying.

WhatsApp remarketing campaigns can help you:

• View performance analytics and re-target the most relevant audience for another WhatsApp marketing campaign
• Send retargeting campaigns based on users’ specific replies and information
• Monitor ‘read and replied’ rates
• View reasons for failed messaging
• Increase conversions via real conversations rather than spammy advertising

Find out more about WhatsApp retargeting with charles