Think about how many unread emails are currently sitting in your inbox. Now compare that with the number of unread WhatsApp messages on your phone.
For many of us, there's quite a difference.
Email marketing remains an incredibly useful part of a digital marketing strategy, but our communication habits have changed considerably. We use WhatsApp to talk to family, friends, colleagues, clients and increasingly businesses, and because it's an app many people already check throughout the day, marketers are understandably beginning to look at it rather differently.
In this episode of The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast (286), we were joined by sales expert Charlie Day, founder of Sales Made The Agency, to talk about WhatsApp marketing and how she has been incorporating it into her own sales process and those of her clients.
We'd actually been trying to find somebody to talk to us about WhatsApp marketing for quite some time, so Charlie had plenty of questions coming her way.
Why are businesses becoming interested in WhatsApp marketing?
Charlie's interest in WhatsApp started with her own behaviour as a consumer. Her email inbox was becoming increasingly difficult to keep on top of, whereas she was regularly checking WhatsApp and rarely leaving messages unread. After joining a couple of other businesses' WhatsApp marketing lists, she noticed that she was reading the messages they sent her.
That led to an obvious question: if that's where people are already paying attention, could it become another useful way of communicating with potential customers?
Charlie began testing it within her own business before introducing it to some of her clients, and she says the engagement she's experienced has been significantly higher than she typically sees from email. While those results will naturally vary between businesses and audiences, it was enough to convince her that WhatsApp deserved a place within her wider marketing and sales activity.
The key point here isn't that we should all abandon email and move everything to WhatsApp. It's that customer behaviour changes, and good marketing means paying attention to where and how your particular audience wants to communicate.
Where does WhatsApp sit in the marketing funnel?
One of the first questions I wanted to ask Charlie was where WhatsApp belongs within the marketing funnel. Is it an awareness tool, something for consideration or is it more suited to conversion?
Her approach is primarily to use WhatsApp once somebody is already within the funnel rather than trying to use it to reach completely cold audiences.
She gave the example of running a masterclass. Once somebody has attended, they may receive a WhatsApp message about the offer discussed during the session, followed by another message containing the replay. Charlie and her team can then see who has engaged and potentially continue the conversation with people who have shown genuine interest.
This is where WhatsApp becomes particularly interesting. It doesn't necessarily need to replace the channels that bring people into your world. Instead, it can provide another way of moving somebody from initial interest towards a conversation.
For businesses selling services where trust and personal communication matter, that can be incredibly useful.
Broadcast or conversation?
Not every WhatsApp marketing message needs to become a one-to-one conversation. Charlie uses different approaches depending on what she's trying to achieve.
For general sales tips or authority-building content, she has used broadcast-style communication where recipients aren't expected to respond. This works more like a newsletter, with useful information being delivered directly to the audience.
When the purpose is to generate sales conversations, however, she wants people to reply.
That distinction is important because the format should follow the objective. If you're sending useful weekly tips to a large audience, you might not want hundreds of individual responses every time you send something. If you're promoting a service or inviting somebody to take the next step, allowing them to reply could be exactly what you want.
The mistake would be adopting WhatsApp simply because everybody is talking about it without deciding what role it's actually going to play in your customer journey.
WhatsApp feels personal, and that's both its strength and its challenge
One of the reasons businesses can be hesitant about WhatsApp marketing is precisely because the platform feels so personal. This is where we talk to our family, organise nights out, message friends and send the inevitable "I'm running five minutes late" message.
Does a business belong there too?
Increasingly, the answer can be yes, but how you use that access matters.
The personal nature of WhatsApp is one of the things that can make it valuable. A conversation there can feel much more immediate than filling out a contact form or waiting for somebody to respond to an email. Charlie actively wants potential customers to feel comfortable messaging her and starting that conversation.
However, that doesn't mean every business owner has to publish their personal mobile number everywhere. A separate business number can provide some separation, and WhatsApp Business offers features specifically designed for companies.
The important part is deciding what you're comfortable with and setting the system up in a way that works for your business.
Don't assume your customers want another app
There was another point in our conversation that I think is particularly relevant when businesses are building communities or introducing new ways for customers to communicate with them.
Every additional platform creates another hurdle.
You might find an excellent community platform with fantastic features, but if joining requires somebody to download another app, create another account and remember to check another notification feed, you've introduced friction.
WhatsApp has an advantage because many customers may already have it installed and already use it regularly. They don't necessarily have to learn a completely new behaviour to communicate with your business.
That doesn't automatically make WhatsApp the right choice for every audience, but it's worth considering. Instead of asking customers to come to yet another place, sometimes the better question is whether your business can meet them somewhere they're already spending time.
Build a WhatsApp list, not just an email list
For years, marketers have encouraged businesses to build email lists because they provide a direct route to people who have chosen to hear from you. Charlie believes businesses should start thinking about building WhatsApp lists in a similar way.
That doesn't mean replacing one with the other. In fact, Charlie continues to use email regularly herself. The opportunity is to give people another way of choosing how they hear from you.
One of the examples she shared came from a speaking event where she wasn't allowed to sell directly from the stage. Instead, she displayed her mobile number alongside a QR code and invited attendees who wanted more sales tips to message her.
Around 100 people joined her WhatsApp list, according to Charlie, and she subsequently generated thousands of pounds in business following the event.
There are two lessons in that example. The first is obviously the potential of WhatsApp, but the second is broader: give people a simple next step when they're interested in what you have to say.
Whether that's scanning a QR code, joining an email list, messaging you or downloading something useful, don't leave an engaged audience wondering what they're supposed to do next.
Consent still matters
The fact that WhatsApp feels informal doesn't mean businesses can simply start messaging every phone number they happen to have.
If you're going to use WhatsApp for marketing, people need to understand what they're signing up for, and your approach needs to comply with the relevant privacy and electronic marketing rules that apply to your business and audience.
Charlie explained that people joining her list opt in using their mobile number, are told they'll receive marketing messages and are given an unsubscribe option. That's an important part of treating WhatsApp marketing as a genuine marketing channel rather than simply assuming that because somebody gave you their number for one reason, you can use it for another.
For businesses operating in Ireland or elsewhere in the EU, GDPR is part of that wider compliance picture, alongside the rules that apply specifically to electronic direct marketing. If you're planning to introduce WhatsApp marketing at scale, it's worth making sure your consent process, privacy information and use of customer data are set up correctly rather than trying to fix them afterwards.
WhatsApp can become part of your customer service too
Marketing isn't the only reason customers are increasingly communicating with businesses through WhatsApp. Customer service is another obvious use.
I recently ordered custom T-shirts and the entire conversation with the supplier happened through WhatsApp. It was quick, convenient and, importantly, it was taking place somewhere I already use every day.
This is another reason WhatsApp can become useful throughout more than one stage of the customer journey. A person might initially use it to ask a question before buying, continue the conversation while making their decision and then return to the same channel if they need help afterwards.
For businesses, that continuity can help make communication feel considerably easier, provided you have the systems and resources to manage it properly.
Will WhatsApp eventually become as crowded as email?
Probably the biggest question hanging over any new marketing opportunity is what happens when everybody starts doing it.
One of the reasons WhatsApp marketing can attract attention now is that people's inboxes aren't necessarily as saturated with business messages as their email inboxes. If every company suddenly begins sending WhatsApp promotions several times a week, that advantage could disappear very quickly.
Charlie's approach is to use marketing channels while they're working rather than assuming one tactic will continue delivering the same results forever. She talked about how marketing methods come and go, and sometimes even come back again. Direct mail that once felt old-fashioned can suddenly stand out precisely because fewer businesses are using it.
The same principle applies here. WhatsApp might be an opportunity for your business now, but that doesn't mean you stop paying attention to email, social media, search, direct mail or anything else that continues to work.
Marketing rarely needs another either/or argument. Quite often, the best answer is and.
Start by testing rather than rebuilding everything
If WhatsApp sounds like it could work for your audience, you don't need to move your entire marketing operation there next week.
Start with something manageable. Think about where it could fit within the customer journey and what somebody would genuinely benefit from receiving there. It could be follow-up after a webinar, reminders about an event, useful tips for people who've deliberately opted in or a route for potential customers to start a conversation with you.
Then monitor what happens.
Are people opting in? Are they opening and responding to the messages? Are conversations turning into enquiries or sales? Are people staying subscribed, or are they quickly deciding they've heard enough?
The answers will tell you far more about whether WhatsApp belongs in your strategy than somebody else's impressive statistics ever will.
WhatsApp marketing is interesting precisely because it combines something businesses have always needed, direct communication with customers, with a platform many people already use every day. Used thoughtfully, it can give customers a quick and convenient way to move from being interested in your business to actually having a conversation with you.
And sometimes that conversation is exactly what turns marketing into a sale.
