At Meta Connect — 2023, Mark Zuckerberg announced the basic updates that will soon affect the WhatsApp for Business platform. All of them are aimed at adapting the app to the modern needs of the business world as quickly as possible. The global goal of the upcoming transformations is to do everything necessary to make it as easy for a user to purchase WhatsApp as it is to write the word "hello" to a loved one.

DecisionTelecom can help you launch bulk WhatsApp messaging on behalf of your brand. Still in doubt whether you should add this messenger to your customer communication strategy? Let's tell you about the upcoming innovations that will help your company to scale and increase sales.

Meta Verified for Businesses: checking businesses for authenticity

It is assumed that all pages of one company registered on different Meta business platforms (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp) will undergo a verification procedure. Organizations whose authenticity is successfully confirmed will be able to receive a special trust mark.

On the WhatsApp for Business platform, Meta will mark them with the symbol "Verified", which will be visible to all users. The sign will testify that the person who wants to buy a product/service is dealing with a real, honestly operating company.

For buyers, Meta-confirmation is a great way to protect themselves from losing money. People will favor trusted businesses, not wanting to be victims of fraudsters. And companies will have a chance to increase the trust of their target audience and use traditional mailings in parallel, to encourage users to place an order.

Channels as a way to increase brand awareness

Meta Corporation announced that channels in WhatsApp will soon be available worldwide. Every messenger user will be able to use the search bar to find channels according to their interests and subscribe to them. And companies that have created their business accounts will be able to publish in them:

• news about themselves and their activities;
• surveys for subscribers;
• videos;
• photo content.

Each subscriber will have the opportunity to follow the publications in the company's feed, put reactions to them, and send them to friends (i.e. make a repost). If necessary, the channel administrator will be able to remove it from the search results, allowing only those who have received an invitation to subscribe.

There is a possibility to prohibit subscribers from making reposts of publications or screenshots of business content. Each of the publications will be saved in the feed for 30 days, after which it will be deleted automatically.

Channels in WhatsApp for Business will become another space in which it can constantly be in front of the target audience. A definite advantage will be the ability to engage subscribers to interact with content published on WhatsApp. This is an additional line of communication with potential customers along with the classic newsletter.

WhatsApp Flows Quick Recording Forms

At Meta Connect — 2023, there was also an announcement about the creation of so-called WhatsApp Flows. These are customizable forms that companies can add to dialogs with their customers. There are plans for WhatsApp Flows to become an analog of the classic quick record/purchase forms present on many websites.

Now a potential customer will not have to walk through web resources with confusing navigation. Directly in the WhatsApp chat it will be possible to:

• book a train or airplane ticket;
• make an appointment for a procedure or meeting;
• order food from cafes and restaurants.

This will require filling out a short form and entering your data in the appropriate lines. When using WhatsApp Flows, customers will be able to save the most valuable resource — time. This means that the business will have the opportunity to increase the number of customers and boost sales.

Simplified ad launch with WhatsApp for Business

According to Mark Zuckerberg's statements, it will soon be possible to create ads directly on the WhatsApp for Business platform. Before this, the app's functionality did not include the ability to run targeted ads. Setting up an ad display in WhatsApp was done only through Facebook's advertising cabinet.

Now the developers of the platform plan to make it easier for companies. It will no longer be necessary to go to the Facebook advertising cabinet and deal with its functionality. To set up targeted advertising on WhatsApp for Business platform, you need to create a profile with the status "Business" and link a valid means of payment to it — a bank card.

The advantage of a business profile is also that it can be filled with information that customers will need. A catalog of goods/services of up to 500 items is loaded into it, where you can make a detailed description of each item, and specify its basic characteristics and price.

WhatsApp Payments: the ability to make payments in chat

The cumbersome payment process will be replaced by fast chat-based transactions. The feature is now being tested in Brazil and India.

Meta's management has signed agreements with global payment systems. Thanks to this, every WhatsApp user will be able to:

• add goods to the cart;
• choose a payment method;
• pay for purchases directly in chats.

Businesses will have the opportunity to significantly simplify the customer journey and the sales funnel. It will no longer be necessary to do mailings with details.

Now a person will not need to leave WhatsApp for third-party resources to pay. So, the number of abandoned baskets and unpaid goods/services will go down, and the sales of companies will increase.

WhatsApp for Business is a promising platform, as the number of messenger users reached 2 billion in 2023, and this figure continues to grow. The platform is increasing its popularity in Ukraine.

If you, considering this trend, are planning to start using WhatsApp to communicate with your target audience, DecisionTelecom is ready to help. Contact our sales department by phone or go to the "Contact Us" section of the website, click on the "Contact Us" button, and fill out the feedback form.

DecisionTelecom specialists will develop a communication strategy for your company and set up bulk WhatsApp messaging for your customer base. As our experience and daily practice show, with the right segmentation of the target audience, the open rate of advertising messages in WhatsApp is 40-50%, and the conversion rate and business sales increase by 25-40%.