Email vs WhatsApp newsletters

Are your promotions leading to conversions?

WhatsApp is becoming a popular choice for customer communications among businesses around the world, big or small - mainly due to its ease of use, widespread adoption, and high engagement rates. In contrast, the use of email is declining as more businesses and individuals adopt other communication tools — such as WhatsApp — and spam filters become more effective, leading to low conversion rates for promotional emails.

The numbers don’t lie. Take a moment and consider that the open rate, response rate, and click-through rate (CTR) for emails are only 20%, 5%, and 6%, respectively. Direct messages instead give your content a fair chance for engagement, with an impressive 98% open rate, 45% reply rate, and 36% CTR.

Let’s explore the value of using WhatsApp for marketing promotions and newsletters.

Why is email dying?

There are a few reasons why consumers and businesses alike are starting to reduce their email use, pivoting to a mobile-first approach to marketing instead.

First off, we live in a fast-paced society where people expect an immediate response. That's not what normally happens with email, where you're bound to wait around at least a couple of hours for a response (if you're lucky). This is a major reason why consumers are starting to opt to get in touch via WhatsApp or social media rather than email when they have the chance, and prefer to be contacted in a similar way.

Secondly, businesses are starting to realise that their content is likely to go unread if sent via email... Promotional emails often end up in spam or promotion folders, and even when they don't, it's very possible that they will never be opened. On average an employed person has 651 unread emails in their inbox!

That's why new marketing channels such as SMS marketing and WhatsApp Newsletters are gaining popularity.

WhatsApp is the new black

There’s a lot of hard work and strategy that goes into creating a newsletter that prompts action. Knowing that email newsletters only have a 20% open rate and a low 6% CTR can be disheartening. That’s where WhatsApp newsletters come in.

Between the real-time nature of communication and the high number of people who own a phone (and claim the device is the most important item they own), it’s no wonder that WhatsApp is becoming a preferred method of communication — slowly pushing email out of the way.

Here are some of the many benefits of using WhatsApp for customer communications:

• Real-time communication: WhatsApp allows for real-time communication, which can be more efficient and convenient than sending emails back and forth and having to wait hours for an answer.
• Easy of use: WhatsApp has a simple and user-friendly interface, making it easy for businesses to communicate with customers, and for customers to reach out to businesses who are on WhatsApp.
• Widely adopted: WhatsApp is one of the most widely used messaging apps in the world, so it is likely that most of your customers and employees will already be familiar with it.
• Personalisation: With WhatsApp it's easy to personalise your communications with videos, images, stickers, emojis, and more... Over 55% of people say they feel more personally connected with a brand that sends them messages!
• High open rates: With WhatsApp messaging, the chance that a customer will read your message is high because an average WhatsApp user spends approximately 38 minutes on the app every day. 80% of WhatsApp messages are read within 5 minutes!
• High conversion rates: businesses who use WhatsApp messaging reveal that their messages have an open rate of 99% and a response rate of over 40%. Compared to traditional marketing channels, 80% of WhatsApp messages are read within 5 minutes and have a 70% click-through rate. When effectively used, WhatsApp marketing can increase conversion rates by over 112%.
• Cost-effective: WhatsApp is a cost-effective way to market to your target audience. This is because WhatsApp uses the internet to send messages, meaning there are no SMS charges, except for WhatsApp API.
• Strong security features: WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption for all messages, ensuring that your communication is secure.

Overall, WhatsApp marketing is an effective strategy. With over two billion users worldwide, WhatsApp boasts a high adoption rate, an opportunity for personalised communication through one-on-one messaging, and convenience of communication. By offering an easy and efficient platform for communication, WhatsApp offers the potential to build relationships, improve customer satisfaction and drive action.

If you plan to switch to WhatsApp marketing and reap the benefits, then it’s important to consider GDPR compliance. Check out this article to learn more!

Two is better than one

There’s no denying that WhatsApp provides powerful opportunities to grow your business and connect with your clients, but that doesn’t mean it has to be an isolated effort. Why not adopting a multichannel approach to promoting your business by leveraging the benefits of multiple communication channels, like WhatsApp, SMS, and email? (Hint: Instagram is coming soon too!)

By reaching your audience through various channels, you increase the likelihood that your message will be seen and heard.

Having multiple options to choose from also allows you to pick the most appropriate channel to reach different segments of your audience. Email is a more formal and professional channel and can be useful to reach your old-school customers who might not have WhatsApp and/or don't appreciate being reached out to via SMS.

Finally, with a platform like Fuzey which allows you to send newsletters and promotions  via multiple channels, you can easily conduct A/B tests to find out which channel is most impactful for your audience or different segments of it. 

With an omni-channel platform like Fuzey, you can use a multi-channel approach to communication from a single, unique inbox. It’s never been easier!