WhatsApp vs WhatsApp Business – Is There a Difference?

The Difference between WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business

With more than 2 billion active monthly users, WhatsApp is clearly showing its impact globally. There are many reasons why consumers prefer this app to stay in touch with family and friends. Consumers can send and receive various messages with images, videos, and GIFs – at no cost.

On the other hand, WhatsApp Business was created with small businesses in mind to help them handle customer queries, give updates on products or services, or communicate promotions.

WhatsApp Business has made it convenient for small business owners to take charge of the experience customers have with them by making it possible to strengthen customer support with the messaging app.

The main difference between the consumer version of WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business is that WhatsApp Business has marketing tools that businesses can use to make their marketing campaigns more effective.

Using professional tools like WhatsApp Business will encourage customers to trust and engage with your business.

The Benefits of using WhatsApp Business

1. A Branded profile for your business

You’re able to put together a well-structured business profile, displaying your business logo, hours, description of what’s on offer, physical address, email address and a link to your Savvy Site. Potential clients will have all this information on hand without having to bounce between fragmented search results.

Having a consistent online presence, with recognisable branding across all platforms, fosters deep trust with customers in your business.

2. Create social media click-to-chat ads

To help increase conversion rates on your social media ads, you can craft a clear ‘call to action’, allowing customers to click on the ad, sending them directly to WhatsApp Business to get in touch with you. This enables you to sell to the customer while their interest is piqued.

Even if you are not running social media ads, customers can still communicate with you on WhatsApp Business directly from your Savvy Site, Facebook and Instagram. From within your WhatsApp settings you can connect it to your Facebook and Instagram pages resulting in a button prospective customers can click on. Similarly, your Savvy Site also has a field where you enter your WhatsApp number resulting in a quick action button, right there on your site. This makes your business accessible and alleviates your customer’s online frustrations.

WhatsApp Business users can now also create ads via their WA Business that will appear on customers’ Facebook newsfeeds. Note that these Facebook ads may be at a cost, but well worth it.

3. Label your contacts

Manage your contacts easily by labelling and categorising them under different coloured tabs. WhatsApp allows you to create up to 20 labels. There are a variety of ways you can label your contacts, for example, leads/customers/business type/subscribers/brand ambassadors etc., which makes it easy for you to search, find and send them the right marketing messages at the right time.

4. Create a catalogue

Creating a catalogue makes it easier for the customer to see what your products and services are. You can add a description and price for each item.

This functionality helps you display your products or services to customers. By filling in these optional fields: title, description, website link to the product listed online and the code for each product with a photo, will help customers that might not have the time, data, or a Facebook account to search for specific product(s). Catalogues can be shared with customers and customers would be able to share these catalogues with their friends and family, too. Customers are also able to message you, the business owner, directly if they have questions or requests.

5. Cart

With the cart feature, which appears as a shopping cart button next to your business name, customers can select and add multiple products from your catalogues. This will help them get the ball rolling with the ordering process. Once the products are selected, customers can adjust the quantities before checkout. Customers can send their selected items in their cart to you as a WhatsApp Message.

6. It helps your customer service team

With this app, you don't have to have one person responsible for the communication between the business and the customers. You can have up to four users connected to the business profile fielding customer queries.

7. Connect with your target audience

Did you know that WhatsApp newsletters have a higher open rate than email? This is because the information is more accessible to customers on WhatsApp. Using the Broadcast messaging feature will make sending promotional messages quick and easy because you can send them to your entire customer base. Just beware to not spam your customers.

The Broadcast feature also allows you to send important information such as a list of new products, promotions, specials and discounts to customers. Instead of constantly sharing new product lists, promotions and more to non-related public groups on your WhatsApp platform, a customised broadcast list can be created where you can select the contacts that you would like to promote your new products to.

8. Efficient messaging options

• Greetings. Setting up an automated welcome or greeting that automatically sends to new customers when they start a conversation with you, saves you time and acknowledges your customer. You can switch these automated messages on and off as needed.
• Automated responses. This is an ‘away’ message for when customers try to communicate with your business after hours. The automatic response will let the customer know that you are not available right now, and by when to expect a response from you.
• Quick replies. Get back to customers instantly. Customers tend to ask the same kinds of questions, and you can make it convenient for yourself by creating templated replies for a couple of frequently asked questions.

9. Access to WhatsApp metrics

View important metrics like how many messages were sent, delivered, and read. This information is important to track how well your marketing messages are performing.

10. Global reach

The world is your oyster so to speak, with more than 100 countries using WhatsApp. With the average text message open rate of 98%, it is a valuable tool to use to grow your business.

This way of interacting with customers is not only about how easy it will make things for your business, it is about how easy it is for your customers to communicate with you.

Customers prefer to access the internet via their mobiles. 69% of total ad spending will be generated through mobile in 2027 so it’s in the best interest of your business to be mobile-friendly and easy for prospects to reach you. WhatsApp Business can be easily linked to your Savvy Site, allowing your customers to connect with you instantly while they are engaged with your products or services. It’s an excellent complement to your Savvy Site, helping you turn leads into customers.

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