Conversational Messaging is 2022’s biggest growth hack for your startup

One of the key areas of focus for a startup is customer/user acquisition. Traditionally startups have relied on digital media like websites and mobile apps and digital marketing channels like search, display and social, to find and nurture new customers. Most of these channels are 1-way, in that, your startup is “pushing” ads and notifications to your target audience. What if you could have personalized 2-way conversations, at scale, with each individual in your target audience? That’s possible with conversational messaging

Conversational messaging can help your startup engage with customers and users where they already are - the messaging app. This needs no visit to the website or the download of a mobile app. You are engaging with them, the way they would with friends and family.

Consider these statistics -

175 million

Consumers message a business on WhatsApp every day (Source: WhatsApp)

You can manage the complete buying experience for your startup with WhatsApp Commerce

90%

Of Instagram users follow at least one business (Source: Instagram)

You can enable product discovery, commerce and support using Instagram API

50%

Of businesses plan to spend more on chatbots than mobile apps (Source: Gartner)

You can automate and create personalized consumer experiences with AI-powered chatbots on any messaging app

98%

The Open Rate on WhatsApp and other messaging apps vs. 20% on e-mail

How can your startup leverage Conversational Messaging for growth?

Conversational Messaging can help your startup in 3 areas - Marketing, Commerce and Support. Let’s look at each of these.

Conversational Marketing - Gain your prospect’s trust, be like a friend or family member

Conversational Marketing helps you take your customers through the marketing funnel through a series of personalized conversational experiences, on messaging apps like WhatsApp, Instagram and others

1. Marketing Entry Points - Make any digital or physical entry point a conversation starter with QR codes or URLs, be it a website, app storefront, billboard, product package or digital ad.

2. Marketing Chatbots on WhatsApp, Instagram - Starting with an entry point, lead generation, lead nurturing and lead conversion can become frictionless with AI-powered branded bots on WhatsApp, Instagram and any messaging app, taking prospects on a journey

3. Use A2P Messaging - For small and large databases, send rich media messages on WhatsApp, Instagram and any messaging app to start automated 2-way conversations

4. Outdoor Media - If you run advertising campaigns leveraging outdoor media networks, QR-code enabled chatbots can convert physical surfaces into conversational interfaces

5. Integrations - Integrate messaging with your CRM, ORM, Social Media and Marketing Automation systems or native tools your startups use

Conversational Commerce - A mobile storefront for your startup

Conversational Commerce helps your startup generate more revenue by taking your customers on a conversational journey through the purchasing process, through which customers could discover products order, pay and track these orders within a messaging app like WhatsApp or Instagram

1. Commerce Entry Points - Make any digital or physical entry point a commerce entry point with QR codes or URLs

2. WhatsApp Commerce - Move your product catalog on WhatsApp using the WhatsApp Commerce feature

3. Product Discovery - Send product catalog messages or single product messages to your database on WhatsApp and start a 2-way conversation with them

4. 1-Click Payments within messaging apps - Collect payments within the messaging app once your customer checks out and is ready to pay

5. Integrate your messaging app with leading POS and Payment gateways including UPI

Conversational Support - 24x7 personal assistant to your customers

Conversational Support helps you create a 24x7 support channel for your customers so that routine and complex queries can be handled efficiently and live agents are brought in sparingly. This helps your startup maintain customer experience while keeping support costs low

1. Start Support Chats on WhatsApp, Instagram - Activate a support chat when a customer calls a toll-free number or leaves a (good/bad) comment on social media. Send links to customers proactively to activate support chats on WhatsApp, Instagram or any other messaging app

2. Support Chatbots - Build them on WhatsApp, Instagram and other apps to handle FAQs and complex queries, advanced queries with context changes

3. WhatsApp-based Customer Support Tool - Such tools can help you set up and scale up customer support on WhatsApp. They support multiple agents, have intuitive chat screens, support user onboarding and management and also help in creating pre-determined auto-responses to common queries. At any point, a live agent handover is possible.

4. Handover to single and multiple agents - This is an important aspect of conversational support where, depending on the volume, a query gets routed to a single agent or multiple agents based on a routing logic. Single and multiple agent dashboards can be used.

We want to help your startup grow exponentially with conversational messaging and have a special offer for you. Click here to apply.

A Startup that became a Unicorn through the power of conversational messaging

Gupshup was one of the first players in the messaging space, recognizing a need in the market as early as 2005. Within a year, it had launched an SMS-based social network that grew to 70 million users. Since then, Gupshup has extended its range of solutions, with messaging for enterprises and a chatbot platform. They then partnered with WhatsApp and leading handset OEMs to provide enhanced messaging and then moved on to launch their own IP messaging channel in 2020.

Gupshup is now a leader in conversational messaging solutions and provides a single API for messaging, becoming a one-stop-shop for all sorts of messaging needs. Gupshup sends 7 billion messages per month supporting more than 100,000 companies and developers

In April 2021 Gupshup became India's 10th unicorn of the year with a valuation of $1.4 billion. In 2021 alone, Gupshup has raised $340 million through world-renowned investors like Tiger Global, Fidelity Management and Research, Think Investments and others.

"Gupshup is uniquely positioned to win in this market with a differentiated product, a clear and sustainable moat..." - John Curtius, Tiger Global Management.

If you are a startup ready to scale conversations with your customers here is your offer.