In this era where everyone is a native of online social networking, what kind of empowerment, convenience and growth can a small social message on WeChat, WhatsApp or Instagram bring to customers before, during and after the transaction? Social networks are an ideal carrier for companies to communicate with customers. The value of using social networks is not only in marketing and sales communications, but also in improving customer loyalty and reducing churn rates. In other words, a sales strategy based on social dialogue provides brands with many opportunities throughout the entire customer communication chain.
In this article, we will start from the cases of how different overseas brands do social marketing and sales, and explain the huge impact of this small change.
For retail and e-commerce companies, how to use social networks to empower business operations?
Whether it is an online or offline brand, interactive communication with customers is crucial. There is no doubt that the best scenario for interacting with customers today is not on the computer or in emails, but on mobile phones, in social media and social media, and in instant messaging messages.
Why? Still the same sentence: The typical characteristics of current users are online socialization and digitalization!
WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger from Meta, and WeChat from Tencent have become communication channels favored by almost all users around the world. The distribution of the number of users among these three has reached an astonishing 2 billion, 1 billion and 1.2 billion. In other words, instant messaging has become a common communication habit for users around the world.
In Brazil, the installation rate of WhatsApp on smartphones has reached 99%; in India, people handle almost everything on WhatsApp, from chatting with friends and family to communicating transactions, one WhatsApp is enough.
It’s a no-brainer: if you want to reach your customers, social messaging is the way to go. This has been perfectly demonstrated in the domestic WeChat ecological application. For enterprises, especially new retail and e-commerce enterprises, you can interact and communicate with customers throughout the entire full-link journey. Specific values include:
First, there is no need to re-download an APP to complete the transaction
In the current era of extremely rich mobile Internet ecology, every customer is reluctant to reinstall an APP for shopping. At the same time, for enterprises, the time and resource consumption of developing a customer-friendly APP is also huge. So, why can’t we adjust our thinking and build the entire transaction communication within the existing social APP on everyone’s mobile phone? In this way, everyone's communication will be more convenient, and the entire transaction process will also save a lot of economic costs and time costs.
In terms of social tools, they will also continue to expand their commercialization capabilities. For example, WhatsApp has launched a "Business Directory" function in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom. By searching, you can quickly find the business services you need and establish communication. It has never been easier and more convenient for users to interact, communicate and transact with brands.
At this point, we have to admit how powerful the domestic commercial service capabilities based on the WeChat ecosystem are. In China, we have long enjoyed and become accustomed to the similar function of searching for services in WeChat. Overseas, these are just beginning. For China's global expansion cross-border brands, they also have innate genetic advantages and differentiation opportunities. They stand at the end of domestic WeChat marketing to learn and copy, and they can naturally realize the transition from internal expansion to external expansion, win cross-border battles, and win overseas battles!
Second, promote customer transactions
The customer churn rate at the shopping cart stage is as high as 70%, and one of the important churn factors is an overly complex customer experience. It’s an obvious fact that every time your customers need to move from one channel to another, there will be customer churn. Now, social applications easily solve this problem. Because customers can complete the entire transaction process without leaving WhatsApp/WeChat, etc.
"The activation of the payment function directly promotes transactions within the APP. Providing services to customers within one channel or platform can significantly improve customer conversion rates," said Matt, marketing president from Sinch. Matt believes that brands should try to retain customers in one channel or platform from the beginning, so as to minimize the loss of customer loss.
Now, more and more companies are beginning to realize that retaining customers within social applications can help increase conversion rates. From the customer's perspective, compared to switching to other channels and platforms for communication, direct consultation and communication within WhatsApp has three times the chance of closing a deal.
Third, accelerate customer conversion
Compared with phone calls or emails, social communication is convenient and fast. Take WhatsApp as an example. In this social IM tool, the speed of replying to customers is three times faster than other channels or platforms.
Christian from Heimathafen Hotels said that a phone call usually lasts 5-10 minutes, but with social software, we can significantly improve efficiency and compress the consultation time to 2-3 minutes.
Fourth, it is easier to realize automation
Based on social applications, it is easier for companies to integrate functions such as chatbots into customer communication solutions, reducing their investment by 80%. Overseas, BMW solves a large number of customer inquiries through automatic replies on WhatsApp.
Fifth, better service and lower cost
For retail and e-commerce brands, real-time social communication with customers can help brands reduce the number of returns and costs. From the customer's perspective, compared with the time and effort required to return goods, it is very simple and straightforward for them to communicate clearly with the brand's customer service on social platforms; from the brand's perspective, quick communication based on WhatsApp can also provide an effective basis for the brand to decide whether to initiate a return.
Sixth, expand transaction scope and increase customer unit price
Brands communicating with customers within social applications will also increase their intimacy with customers. Because in this way, the atmosphere of communication between the brand and customers is almost the same as that of communication between customers and relatives and friends. To put it bluntly, it is more intimate and personal. Based on this communication scenario, companies can build customer trust and loyalty, and can also promote customers to communicate with other products or make repeat purchases in the future.
Below are some examples of social marketing applications in the customer journey by overseas retail and e-commerce brands.
Customer service consultation stage - taking Miss Pompadour as an example
MissPompadour is an online retail paint brand. Combined with WhatsApp customer service, they can convert ten inquiries into nine effective transactions. They firmly believe in the value of digital platforms in customer communication and use Instagram and WhatsApp as customer communication tools to ensure customer consultation needs during communication.
Order stage - taking Kikuu as an example
Kikuu is an online shopping mall, they cover nearly 20 African countries. For customers who never leave their mobile phones, they provide a very efficient and simple transaction method: establishing order transactions directly on WhatsApp.
Customers can obtain relevant product information by clicking on links or entering keywords, serial numbers, etc. This method has brought them a 59.6% sales increase.
Payment stage – taking JioMart India as an example
JioMart India supports ordering and payment directly within WhatsApp. As the first region to support WhatsApp payments, Indian e-commerce has huge new opportunities. JioMart India also seized this opportunity and integrated the customer's full-link transaction process on WhatsApp.
JioMart India customers can browse products, add to shopping cart and pay in the WhatsApp mall to complete the entire transaction process.
Logistics stage – the example of Erwin Müllers
On WhatsApp, Erwin Müllers handles tens of thousands of requests for express delivery status updates every month.
Erwin Müllers started as an express logistics service 70 years ago, and now they are a popular online retailer. Information becomes a core element in their daily business operations.
In the beginning, Erwin Müllers only wanted to attract customers through WhatsApp, but now they have found that customers of all ages almost use WhatsApp to check the status of express logistics updates. Especially based on the empowerment of automated tools, Erwin Müllers can handle tens of thousands of express status update requests every month. This amount was absolutely unbelievable to them before.
Customer service and returns stage - taking Hessnatur as an example
Harald, head of customer service from Hessnatur, said: Based on WhatsApp, customers can easily send us pictures. Whenever there is a dispute in a transaction, this form can help us quickly find and deal with the problem, and avoid customer returns. This is a huge economic advantage and can reduce a lot of resource waste for enterprises.
Customer loyalty building stage - taking H&M as an example
The reason why social communication can be successfully implemented in corporate marketing and sales is that users need such convenient communication solutions. In this regard, H&M retains customers through efficient social communication in the UK, establishes strong social connections, and gains user loyalty.
Customer repurchase stage - taking AlphaPet as an example
AlphaPet is a high-end pet food brand, and they also pay special attention to direct communication with customers. For many pet owners, they also look forward to receiving full consultation services when purchasing pet food. Combining this customer demand, AlphaPet strives to convert every customer inquiry or question into a transaction during communication with customers. For them, there is no more user-friendly communication and transaction platform than WhatsApp.
Customer recommendation stage - taking TechStyle Fashion Group as an example
TechStyle Fashion Group increases customer satisfaction by communicating with customers on social media. This highly personal form of communication is proven to be well worth the money. For many brands: The benefit of affiliate is that a positive customer experience leads to heartfelt recommendations from customers. Compared with official introductions, recommendations from real users are often more impressive to potential customers. The brand's gain is not only efficient handling of customer problems, but also a 95% customer satisfaction rate.
Customer evaluation stage - taking Sportstech as an example
For public domain platform merchants like Amazon, evaluation is a magic weapon that will never change. Overseas, the Sportstech brand has created a mature evaluation model in conjunction with the WhatsApp chat robot. In this matter, SocialEpoch has also created a targeted solution that combines public owned channel real-person evaluation + owned channel feedback to the public domain + brand interaction + distribution growth, using the WhatsApp owned audience pool to solve compliance evaluation problems for Amazon platform merchants.
Customer retention stage - taking Dr. SAM as an example
Through social tools such as WhatsApp, the overseas Dr. SAM brand has reduced its customer churn rate to 50%. On the Internet with the explosion of information, it is easy for customers to switch directions and buy from brand merchants. Solving customer retention problems, building user loyalty, and reducing churn are new challenges for every brand. After only 100 days of using WhatsApp as a customer, Dr. SAM reduced customer churn by 50%.
Summary: After understanding the actual value and successful cases of social marketing in the overseas brand marketing and sales process, a question worth digging into is: How can we apply this successful experience model to our own operations? In this regard, we will also introduce it to you in detail in the next issue from the perspective of professional solutions, opening up customer touch points, and seamlessly integrating into the brand mall in social communication.
