TOP 5 WHATSAPP MARKETING TRENDS TO WATCH OUT FOR IN 2022

As the year 2021 comes to a close, there have been many technological advancements that made their way through the year, making smart things smarter. With changing trends and the dynamic market scenario, WhatsApp, one of the biggest social media platforms, has also jumped on the wagon by claiming that it will become more digitally inclusive and financially empowered by 2022. Let’s take a look at some of the other new features and improvements that WhatsApp plans to roll out in the year ahead.

WHATSAPP TRENDS IN STORE FOR YOU

Digitization of small and medium-scale businesses

With the introduction of WhatsApp Business app in 2018 to facilitate business-customer interactions, WhatsApp aims to empower small and micro businesses with the right tools to scale their venture. Being a free-of-cost app, WhatsApp Business is used by over 15 billion businesses across the country, thereby making communication faster, easier and more efficient than ever before. It has and will continue to help companies develop a robust digital forefront as the platform has proved to be extremely beneficial for people, especially women, to reach a diverse customer base in a relatively faster and smoother way.

Multilingual WhatsApp chatbot

When it comes to localizing the customer outreach process, multilingual chatbots are the best tools to reach a linguistically and culturally diverse audience over WhatsApp. More and more businesses are going to adopt multilingual chatbots because of their wide reach, ease of communication and stay ahead of the curve when it comes to providing a superior customer experience.

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Digital-first approach for traditional verticals

Digitization is bringing newer forms of innovations to the fore making industries move at a much faster pace. With more and more companies opting for a digital-first approach to fastrack their business operations, many companies from traditional sectors such as education, financial services and healthcare are readily adopting automation tools and technologies and are planning to scale their workflows and connect with the urban as well as rural population in a much more seamless manner in the coming year.

Citizen engagement and governance

The year 2021 saw a lot of digital initiatives driven by technological innovations that not only made it easier for the government to reach the common people but also helped citizens to access important information in a much faster and safer way. One such instance is the adoption of the MyGov Corona Helpdesk on WhatsApp Business platform. As per an official statement by WhatsApp, “In 2022, we expect more innovation in effective governance and efficient citizen engagement by city and state administrations, thus lowering barriers for citizens to access credible, authentic and useful services.”

Conversation-based pricing model

According to WhatsApp official sources, starting February 1st, 2022, “WhatsApp will switch from a notification-based pricing model to a conversation-based pricing model”. Under this revised pricing model, businesses will be charged per conversation instead of being charged as per the notification sent. WhatsApp is clearly developing a thoughtful monetization strategy through conversation-based pricing that is a step towards building value through meaningful conversations.

UI/UX simplification

With the proliferation of internet services in the rural parts of the country, the urban and rural divide is gradually minimizing in terms of technological advancements and overall accessibility. As per WhatsApp, the total number of internet users in rural India will surpass the total number of users in urban areas by 2025. In this case, simpler and easy-to-use user interfaces and experiences will greatly benefit first time users in rural areas, thereby enhancing and consequently speeding up the digitization process in the Indian economy.

In the coming year, technology will pave the way for a more seamless and interconnected digital ecosystem that focuses as much on improving user experience as it does on developing more business-oriented functionalities. For companies that wish to leverage the amazing benefits of WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Business API, 2022 is the best time to start.