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Is the 25th of November, a normal date? Yes for businesses not tied to the e-commerce industry perhaps it is. But for all retailers, Black Friday is a big deal.
Traditionally, the phenomenon revolved around people visiting physical stores and scoring great deals on Friday the 25th. But this is no longer the case. The focus is hardly on Friday anymore. Because weeks in advance, all the way up to Cyber Monday, businesses are running Black Friday campaigns. Many e-commerce companies without physical presence have joined Black Friday. And the focus has shifted from enticing shoppers to the stores. The goal in 2022 is to gain people to the website, in much bigger numbers than to the store.
The E-commerce and retail industry is known for reinventing itself. Staying behind is not an option. So are your teams reinventing the wheel each year trying to beat the competition and ace Black Friday online? Well, not this year! In this blog, we will give three very practical WhatsApp tips & tricks on how to make a recurring success out of Black Friday online.
1. Reach as many people as possible with Black Friday broadcast messages
Step one in any sales campaign is getting the message out. Let’s be honest during many sale periods, including Black Friday, discount prices are very close together. Still, you want customers to think about your Black Friday online deals, not those of your competitors.
You can send an email, sure. But your target audience will receive lots and lots of Black Friday emails. So many will become numb to them. This is reflected in the average open rate of 15,68% for e-commerce emails.
So why not meet your prospects and customers on platforms that don’t spam them with commercial messages?
Broadcast your sale
WhatsApp is used by billions of users, people chat with friends and family every day. But in addition, it’s also a great communication channel for businesses. With WhatsApp Business, you can send ‘Broadcast messages to a list of your customers. Update your customers with a Broadcast message about your online sale. Or even broadcast them a newsletter! With the average open rate of WhatsApp being higher than 90% you’ll be sure they will know all about your upcoming sale.
Note: As said WhatsApp is not for spamming customers. That’s why there is a policy in place. Firstly, contacts must have your number saved on their phones. Much like a regular email opt-in. And secondly, there is a limit to the contacts on your Broadcast list, you can add up to 256 contacts.
2. Don’t let anyone wait with auto-replies & quick replies
Before, during, and after your sale you’ll receive various questions regarding Black Friday. Before about the details of your sale, during about products and stock, and after about orders and deliveries. But you don’t want to jeopardize the great response times of your teams and great reviews just because it’s the busiest time of the year.
Set up auto- and quick replies to not only maintain low response times but also win much-needed time back!
Auto-replies to manage expectations
It’s not always possible to provide customers with immediate answers. Especially not during the Black Friday period. But at times like these with so many incoming queries, it’s especially pivotal to manage expectations. So you won’t end up with bad reviews from people that had to wait too long for an answer.
Luckily, there is the feature ‘Auto-replies’. Did you just send out a broadcast message but not have the immediate manpower to answer all incoming questions? Set an auto-reply saying you’ll get back to them asap. Or is there a massive backlog of answers already? Set an auto-reply relaying the busy period and thank customers for their patience.
Check out more on auto-replies
Quick replies for recurring questions
There are certain issues that customers will run into when it comes to buying products online. And luckily these can be clustered together to make it easier for your customer service teams to provide the right answers.
But not only can many customer queries be clustered together, but the answers to recurring questions can also be smartly automated. Set up quick replies to various questions. So that whenever customers ask about their delivery, team members can directly answer with pre-written texts. For instance, telling them where to find more info on deliveries. Sounds simple, but it will save your team a lot of time not having to answer the same questions over and over again.
More on how to set quick replies for WhatsApp
3. Keep the conversation going with chatbots & flowbots
After creating buzz around your Black Friday online sale with Broadcast messages, and engaging with customers solving their queries, it’s great to keep that momentum going. Leading up to the Black Friday sale you want people to buy and convert of course. But once the sale has ended, and the prices are back to normal, it’s even more appreciated when customers return.
So how can chatbots & flowbots help?
Both tools are always present, even when your team is not. So is it extremely busy, or outside of working hours? Doesn’t matter. Both the chat- and flowbot can still answer customer questions.
The chatbot sends pre-filled answers depending on the keywords it recognizes. It’s a great solution for simple questions about the stock.
The flowbot simulated conversations and offers options. What do customers want to know and where do they want to end up? The bot offers multiple options and can direct people to a useful help center article or the right team.
Trick: Before customers are for instance appointed to the service, support, or finance team you will already have gathered a lot of customer data and data about the query. Making it easier for the team member to answer the question!
And these bots can be applied to the channels people prefer. A live chat is stuck to the website and closes when prospects leave. But both the chat- and flowbot can be applied to WhatsApp. Where you can pick up the conversation after people leave the website.
The WhatsApp Business API is the key to your Black Friday online success
Broadcasting, automated replies, and bots can relieve your team, save time and make the Black Friday period and your online sale into a big success. But the WhatsApp Business app won’t do the trick. You need to connect to the WhatsApp Business API to unlock these features.
How? Get in touch with Trengo, a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider and try out WhatsApp Business in a 14-day free trial
Want to prepare your CS team for Black Friday? Read our tips here.
Or want to read more on how to start a Black Friday marketing campaign on WhatsApp, check out the blog here.
