Customers today want you to send perfect messages at the right time, but not so perfect that the messages sound a little creepy. You also need to keep in touch with them and continuously nurture them to stay top of mind, but not too much that you overwhelm them and get labeled a “nag”.
It almost feels like a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation, right?
No. Sending tailored messages at the perfect time for maximum customer engagement is still achievable, especially with a WhatsApp drip campaign.
With around 3 billion unique users, WhatsApp is ideal for boosting engagement, nurturing leads, and driving business growth.
This article will explore what a WhatsApp drip campaign is, why it’s essential, how to set it up, and top tips to maximize its benefits for your business. Let’s get started!
Summary:
What is a Whatsapp Drip Campaign?
Why Use a Whatsapp Drip Campaign?
How to Set Up a Drip Campaign on WhatsApp
Top Tips to Run a Successful WhatsApp Drip Campaign
Conclusion
FAQ
What is a Whatsapp Drip Campaign?
A WhatsApp drip campaign is a marketing strategy in which you send a series of automated messages to your audience or prospects through WhatsApp. These messages are triggered by specific actions, such as purchases, sign-ups, or customer milestones.
The goal is to maintain consistent communication, which will help you nurture strong customer relationships and guide your audience down the sales funnel without overwhelming them.
For instance, say a new user signs up for your service. You can send a welcome message immediately and an onboarding guide a day later, followed by relevant discount codes and helpful tips or product suggestions.
Now, you’re probably thinking that it works just like an email drip campaign, and it does. However, what sets WhatsApp drip campaigns aside is the channel’s immediacy and conversational tone, which makes your communication feel even more personal.
Why Use a Whatsapp Drip Campaign?
WhatsApp is more than a chat and messaging platform. Its ability to efficiently deliver drip campaigns has made it an essential tool for businesses seeking to enhance customer engagement and streamline communication.
Here are some of the key reasons why you should run a WhatsApp drip campaign:
Ease of follow-up (with automation)
One of the biggest advantages of a WhatsApp drip campaign is the ability to automate follow-ups. Instead of manually sending messages to each customer, which is tedious, you just need to set up a series of pre-scheduled messages.
For instance, you can easily create a follow-up sequence to reengage abandoned carts. Start with a usual reminder message after a few hours, followed by a limited-time discount code or free shipping incentive about a day later.
You can create urgency and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) by mentioning stock scarcity, where necessary, or limited-time deals 2-3 days later to drive immediate action.
High personalization
WhatsApp drip campaigns allow you to tailor messages based on individual user behavior, preferences, purchase history, or stages in the customer journey.
Personalized messages typically feel more relevant and create a stronger connection with your audience.
For instance, you can send product recommendations based on previous purchases or provide exclusive offers to loyal customers.
WhatsApp broadcasts also support a wide range of content formats, such as images, videos, text messages, files, and webpage links. This means you can reach different segments with their preferred content types for high engagement.
More engagement
WhatsApp has open rates as high as 98%. This is over double the average email open rate, which recent research estimates to be around 39.64%.
Moreover, a typical WhatsApp user opens the platform’s Android app more than 911 times each month, which is more than 30 times each day. Therefore, running a drip campaign on this platform ensures your messages are not only delivered but also read.
WhatsApp’s conversational nature also works in its favor since it encourages two-way communication, which makes it easier to keep your audience engaged and responsive.
Increased efficiency (saves time and effort)
WhatsApp drip campaigns automate your communication process, saving you time and effort. Once you set up the sequence, the WhatsApp marketing system takes care of the rest.
Most systems use generative AI in marketing products, like template message generators and chatbots, to simplify the drip campaign creation and management process further. This frees your small business team to focus on other critical tasks, such as generating new leads and product development.
Higher brand recall
The series of relevant and personalized messages you send through a WhatsApp drip campaign will make a great impression on your prospects. So, even if they do not make a purchase immediately, your brand will remain top-of-mind when the need arises or when they are ready.
How to Set Up a Drip Campaign on WhatsApp
Now that you understand WhatsApp drip campaigns and their benefits, let’s discuss how to create one.
First things first, while it’s possible to set up a WhatsApp broadcast on the WhatsApp app, especially for small businesses, it’s quite tedious. You need to select your contacts, organize them into a broadcast list, and either schedule or start sending messages. However:
- You will need to add the numbers manually
- There’s a limit of 256 contacts, which in turn limits scalability
- The contacts must have also saved your business number, or else they will not get your messages.
- You can only access your WhatsApp Business account on five devices at the same time
- The app also lacks a dedicated analytics tool to help you measure the performance of your WhatsApp broadcasts
- Besides the usual text, images, and videos, you can’t use interactive elements like quick reply buttons
Therefore, your first step should be to choose a reliable third-party tool or WhatsApp Business API provider like AiSensy to create and manage your drip campaigns.
A provider like AiSensy helps you reach a large number of users efficiently. It also enables automation by allowing you to send pre-approved template messages at scheduled intervals, which saves time and resources.
Furthermore, you will have access to detailed insights and analytics on campaign performance, which will help you optimize your strategies for maximum campaign success.
So, how do you create a WhatsApp drip campaign on AiSensy?
Log in to your AiSensy account. If you don't have one, you'll need to create an account and set up your WhatsApp Business API.
Next, approve a template message from WhatsApp since you can only send pre-approved template messages to users. AiSensy provides a wide range of pre-approved templates for different industries.
However, if you want to create your own, go to the 'Manage' section in the dashboard.
Click on '+New' to initiate the creation of a new template message.
Fill in the required fields, which are the template name, category, type, language, message format, and interactive actions like CTA buttons or quick replies. Ensure your template complies with WhatsApp's guidelines and formatting rules, then submit your template for approval.
Once your template is approved, go ahead and set up your drip campaign. Go to the 'Campaigns' section in the AiSensy dashboard. Click '+Launch' and select 'API Campaign' to create a new campaign.
Add an appropriate name to your campaign, choose the pre-approved template message you created earlier, and set the API campaign live. These details make it easy to organize and identify your drip campaign.
Go to the manage page and copy the API key. An API key helps with authentication and integration with other systems
Once you have completed these steps, your API campaign is set up and ready to be activated. From here, you just need to define your audience and set up automation triggers. When users trigger those events, APIs will automatically send them your template message.
If your users’ actions are recorded in other databases or platforms, such as your CRM, you can integrate them into AiSensy using tools like Integrately or Pabbly.
Monitor the campaign's performance through the dashboard to track your campaign status and metrics such as delivery rates, open rates, and user responses.
Top Tips to Run a Successful Whatsapp Drip Campaign
A WhatsApp drip campaign is easy to set up, and the benefits are great. But how do you get the most out of it? Here are six key tips for running an effective WhatsApp drip campaign.
1. Provide opt-in and opt-out options
Your users should voluntarily take the “opt-in” action on your prompts. This will help you comply with data privacy regulations. It also makes sure that you're reaching a genuinely interested audience.
Additionally, give your audience a simple and quick way to opt out of the sequence. Letting customers opt out easily will maintain their trust and lower the chances of your messages being marked as spam.
Read: Top 7 Strategies to get WhatsApp Opt-in from users easily
2. Segment your audience properly
Audience segmentation allows you to send highly targeted messages that resonate with each recipient. This boosts your conversion rates significantly.
To properly segment your audience, consider factors such as previous interactions, behavior, demographics, and the stage of the customer journey.
3. Ensure messages are highly relevant
Always align your content with recipients' past interactions with your brand, interests, and preferences. Whatever the message, make sure the content resonates with each unique prospect.
4. Avoid repetition
Your WhatsApp drip campaign should not bombard users with repetitive information. Provide fresh and engaging content in each message to move the conversation forward.
You can easily do this using tools like an AI paraphraser to repurpose some of the content on your other marketing assets for your WhatsApp drip campaigns. This ensures you never run out of fresh content without putting pressure on you to create unique content for each channel.
5. Set the optimal time interval
The frequency of your messages is a key factor in your campaign's success. Sending too many messages within short intervals will overwhelm users. On the other hand, sending them too far apart will cause engagement to drop.
Therefore, analyze customer engagement behavior to determine the best interval between messages for maximum engagement.
6. Track performance and improve
Monitor your drip campaign performance regularly if you want to run successful WhatsApp drip campaigns. Track key metrics like open rates, response rates, and conversions. Use the data from these metrics to continually improve your message templates, sending times, and other marketing strategies.
Conclusion
WhatsApp presents a massive opportunity for businesses that want a highly responsive channel. WhatsApp messages have one of the highest open rates of any channel, as mentioned earlier. Users also treat WhatsApp messages with some level of urgency compared to other channels like email.
That means that WhatsApp can be an incredible tool for all your business communications where urgency is a factor. Think about limited-time offers, abandoned carts that need to be recovered within days, key business developments that must be shared with existing customers, etc.
The good news is that it’s quite easy to set up a WhatsApp drip campaign, as shown in the article above. Go ahead and try it today!
FAQ
A WhatsApp drip campaign is a series of automated messages sent to users over a certain pre-set period to keep them engaged.
Yes, you can personalize messages by including users' names. You can also leverage past interactions and behavioral data to send relevant messages.
The cost of a WhatsApp drip campaign will vary based on the platform and tools you use. But, they’re generally cost-effective compared to other marketing strategies, especially given WhatsApp’s high engagement rates.
To avoid spam complaints, always get opt-in consent, only send relevant messages, and provide an opt-out option to maintain a positive user experience.
Yes, you can use multimedia elements like text, images, videos, files, and links to make your messages more engaging and informative.
