When it comes to the vast horizons of potentials it holds, WhatsApp’s broadcasting feature will surely have been cherished by most marketers. WhatsApp broadcast campaigns are very effective and consistently show better results in terms of sales growth.
In the eCommerce world, broadcast messages have been particularly effective when promoting sales, discounts, alerting customers about new products and similar strategies that could score well in terms of customer engagement.
But your WhatsApp broadcast messages need to be compelling enough to actually make an impact and convince audiences to interact with and read them. It should be appealing and irresistible for your prospective customers - pretty much similar to how a WhatsApp message needs to be as interesting for it to be replied to or forwarded!
So along with the offers you are proposing and the wording of your message, the creative that you include in your WhatsApp broadcast campaign can make or break your success.
After having worked with hundreds of DTC businesses on their WhatsApp broadcast campaigns and using creatives to make them more visually appealing, we have found some best practices to follow.
We have been seeing businesses use third-party service providers to send visuals alongside their WhatsApp broadcast messages.
But more often than not, these images either don’t download on low networks or so out of proportion that they are far from being even remotely enticing, making the entire message look shabby to say the least.
After having tried and tested a few variations ourselves, the best size for WhatsApp broadcast images is as follows:
- Recommended aspect ratio 1.91:1
- Image dimensions of 800 x 418 pixels or 1200 x 628 pixels
- Image size under 64 KB
When creating your graphics or image for the WhatsApp broadcast, try not to add too much text in the visual. Adding too much text might seem like a good idea, but will end up making the visual look too cluttered on smaller screens.
Keep it “light and breezy" or “sharp and precise” - but either way, simplicity is what you should go for. Use the space on the visual to highlight the core message of the copy and leave the rest for the text you’re sending across.
For example, if you’re running a 20% off sitewide for 48 hours, your visual could include ‘20% off sitewide’ only and leave the rest for the message.
There are more and more marketers using WhatsApp broadcasts for promoting their products and services and as this number increases by the day, it’s becoming more important to ensure you’re not just ‘one of them’ - your brand recall is equally important.
Go with colours that shout out your brand’s character and appeal. Choose colors that go well with your brand’s identity and use them to paint a general approach to your creatives. Stick to your brand colors consistently across all your campaigns to boost recall.
The numbers that you present in your visual content are proven to attract people. People will be able to assume the value that your brand has to offer through numeric much faster.
Image reading ‘50% off’ vs reading ‘fifty percent off’ - which one stands out to you almost instantly?
When you are promoting discounts, sales events or announcing a limited amount of stocks, bring up the numbers related to your message into the front and center of your graphics.
For example, when you are sending something like; “25% Off on All Orders!”, use a bigger font to highlight the number. Try making the rest of the text smaller; but do make sure the number doesn’t look ambiguous either - your supporting text is important too.
People trust products that get endorsed by others like them, or by popular figures that they relate to. It’s only natural that an average online shopper would first look for reviews and the ratings of each product before deciding to make the purchase.
When promoting your product or your new collection, use social proof like reviews, celebrity endorsements, ratings and popularity among customers, or testimonials to tell how much of a trusted and established business you are. You can incorporate elements of each type of social proof in your WhatsApp broadcast image.
For example, if the product was donned by an influencer, including a picture of them in the visual alongside their name will instantly grab attention.
Similarly, if the product has received positive reviews, displaying 5 stars in your visual along with a support text saying ‘most reviewed’ will do the selling for you!
Playing around with colors in your creative is more important than you would think. For you to inspire the desired action from your customers use suitable colors and contrasts. This is a great way to grab attention instantly.
People react psychologically to colors and contrasts and this has always been used to engage audiences in media apps, and creative campaigns. Think of how Instagram grabs your attention by its red “like” icons.
The difference in luminance makes the colors in your broadcasted image look distinct. Use contrast to highlight core elements of the message in your creative. The goal is to provide a subtle nudge to guide where the recipient focuses visually.
For each creative you use in your WhatsApp broadcast campaign, try and stick to just 1 or 2 fonts. Too many different fonts in a broadcast creative may be hard to read on smaller screens and also cause ambiguity in the message you’re trying to convey.
We recommend using only two fonts - one for the title or the core message you want to promote, and another for describing it.
Here too, try to be consistent with the fonts you use across all your WhatsApp broadcast campaigns. Stick with your brand’s character when selecting and using the fonts; a good idea is to use the ones on your website.
Your WhatsApp broadcast messages need to be crisp and to the point; that means every word and asset - in this case, your visual, counts.
The creative you send across is the first thing a recipient sees in your WhatsApp broadcast message. Use copy and elements that will instill instant FOMO in the consumer.
Around 60% of people shopping online actually complete a buy after experiencing FOMO and most of it is as soon as within 24 hours. Everyone will want to grab hold of good products and good deals before it slips out of their reach.
Using product labels like “only a few stocks”, “selling out fast”, “flash sale” and similar in your creative can help you add FOMO to your campaigns.
Not every customer is the same. Now it might be difficult to personalize your WhatsApp broadcast image for each buyer, you can actually segment and target customers with similar demographics.
If your creative or image is funny and creative, with bright colors and a casual tone, a younger audience will take to it well, while an older audience would not react to it with the same enthusiasm.
The best way to do this is to segment your customers based on their demographics or their journey with your brand so far (first time buyers or loyal customers). Then use a Shopify WhatsApp marketing app like QuickReply.ai to set up separate broadcast campaigns for each list. This way you don’t have to worry about sending different creatives to different customers, manually.
Another way to use your WhatsApp broadcast creative is to add a call to action in the copy on it. Even though apps like QuickReply.ai enable you to add intuitive call to action buttons to your WhatsApp broadcast message, you can drive an action out of the recipient through your visual as well!
For example, adding an ‘order now’ text to your visual is a great visual cue to what is expected from the recipient.
There is no “One size fits all" approach to running effective WhatsApp broadcast campaigns. But there are definitely a few WhatsApp broadcast best practices that can help you drive conversions and sales from your campaigns.
But don’t restrict following the WhatsApp marketing best practices in your messages alone. Following the ones above in your broadcast creatives can help you get better results - because visuals are processed by the human brain 6x faster.
To be able to run, monitor and test different best practices in your WhatsApp broadcast messages is easy. With an app like QuickReply.ai you can closely monitor the performance of your campaigns, letting you test what your customers respond to the most. From the core message to the creative, it helps you track results with ease.
Ready to start making the most of your WhatsApp broadcast campaigns? Install the QuickReply.ai app today.
If you’re new to WhatsApp broadcasts, explore the potential of the marketing channel with us. Book a demo today.
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In the broadcast list, search for and choose the contacts you want to add. When you tap the Tick or the Check Mark to confirm your choices, your broadcast channel will be available. Simply Copy and Paste or submit a text on the broadcast channel to send messages to the created broadcast list, and all the receivers will receive the message.
WhatsApp Business users typically share a broadcast message. It can also be used to send out invitations or wishes to a large group of people. WhatsApp Groups allow users to send messages to users who are not in their contact list but must be in a similar group.
When you send a message to the broadcast list, it is delivered to all recipients on the list who have your phone number saved in their address book. The message will be delivered normally to the recipients. When they respond, it will appear on your CHATS screen as a normal message.
