Instant Messaging is 2022 is Biggest Growth Hacks For Your Startup
One of the most important areas of focus for a startup is customer/user instant messaging apps. To find and retain new customers, startups traditionally rely on digital media websites and mobile apps as well as digital marketing channels such as search, display and social media.
Most of these channels are one-sided, in that your startup “pushing” ads and announcements to your target audience. What if you could personalise a two-way conversation with everyone in your target audience at large? This is possible through voice messages.
Instant messaging can help your startup interact with customers and nearby users. It does not require the use of a website or installation of a mobile app. You interact with them the same way they do with your friends and family.
Statistics about instant messaging
1. Every day, 175 million consumers message a business via WhatsApp (Source: WhatsApp)
2. 90% of Instagram users follow at least one company (Source: Instagram)
3. 50% of businesses intend to spend more on chatbots than mobile apps (Source: Gartner)
4. The open rate on WhatsApp and other messaging apps is 98 percent, compared to 20 percent on email.
How Can Your Startup Leverage Conversational Messaging For Growth?
Instant messaging can help your startup in three areas: marketing, commerce, and support. Let’s look at each of them individually.
Marketing through conversation earns the trust of your potential customers just as you would a friend or family member.
Conversational marketing guides customers through a marketing funnel through a range of personalised chat experiences delivered through messaging apps like WhatsApp, Instagram and more.
1. Marketing Entry Point — Use a QR code or URL to turn any digital or physical entry point into a conversation starter, be it a website, app storefront, billboard or anything else. Display, product packaging, or digital advertising are all options.
2. Marketing Chatbots on WhatsApp, Instagram — With AI-powered brand bots on WhatsApp and Instagram, lead generation, lead nurturing, and lead conversion can be seamless from a single entry point. The leading travel, any messaging app.
3. Use A2P Messaging — Send multimedia messages via WhatsApp, Instagram, or any messaging app to automatically start a two-way conversation, for databases small and large.
4. Outdoor Media — If you run advertising campaigns that use outdoor communication networks, QR code-enabled chatbots can turn physical surfaces into chat interfaces.
5. Integration — Integrate messaging with CRM, ORM, social media and marketing automation systems as well as native startup tools.
Conversational Commerce — A Mobile Storefront for Your Startup
Conversational commerce drives revenue for your startup by taking customers on a conversational journey through the buying process, where they can search for products to order, pay for, and track those orders in messaging apps like WhatsApp or Instagram. Huh.
1. Commerce Entry Point — Use the QR code or URL to convert any digital or physical entry point into a commercial entry point.
2. WhatsApp Commerce — Migrate your product catalog to WhatsApp, using the WhatsApp Commerce feature.
3. Product Discovery — Send a product catalog or personalized product message to your WhatsApp database and start a two-way conversation with them.
4. 1-Click Payments within the Messaging Apps — Receive payments in the Messaging app once your customers have paid and are ready to pay.
5. Integrate — Integration your messaging app with major point of sale and payment gateways including UPI.
Conversational Support — 24x7 Personal Assistant for Your Customers
Chat support enables you to provide a 24/7 support channel for your customers, thereby efficiently handling common and complex queries and bringing in live agents at a low cost. It helps your startup maintain a positive customer experience while keeping support costs down.
1. Start Support Chat on WhatsApp, Instagram — Activate support chat when a customer calls a toll-free number or has a positive or negative comment on social media. Send links to customers in advance to support chat on WhatsApp, Instagram or any other messaging app.
2. Support Chatbots — Build them on WhatsApp, Instagram and other apps to handle frequently asked questions and complex queries as well as advanced queries with context switches.
3. WhatsApp-based customer support tools — These tools can help you set up and extend customer support on WhatsApp. They support multiple agents, have easy-to-use chat screens, assist users with referrals and management, and can even generate predefined automated responses to frequently asked questions. It is possible to switch agents at any time.
4. Handover to Single and Multiple Agents — This is an important aspect of chat support in which requests are routed to a single agent or multiple agents based on the routing logic based on volume. Consoles containing single or multiple agents can be used.
A Startup That Became A Unicorn Through The Power Of Instant Messaging
Gupshup is a messaging pioneer that identified a market need in early 2005. It launched an SMS-based social network with 70 million users within a year. Gupshup has since expanded its offering to include business messaging and a chatbot platform.
It then collaborated with WhatsApp and major handset OEMs to improve messaging before launching his own IP messaging channel in 2020.
Gupshup is now the industry leader. Conversational messaging solutions and a single messaging API, making it a one-stop shop for all kinds of messaging needs. Every month, Gupshup sends 7 billion messages to over 100,000 businesses and developers. Gupshup became the 10th unicorn of India in April 2021 with a valuation of $1.4 billion.
Gupshup has raised $30 million in 2021 alone from world-renowned investors such as Tiger Global, Fidelity Management & Research, Think Investments and others. John Curtius of Tiger Global Management said, “With a distinct product, a distinct difference and consistency, Gupshup is in a unique position to conquer this market.”
