WhatsApp rolled out a new update a few days back and the standout feature was channels. Now channels are not a new thing they always existed on Telegram and have helped many creators, influencers, and businesses create a community and engage with their audiences more effectively. Let’s further explore how you can use the WhatsApp channel feature.
Before heading further let’s learn how to create a WhatsApp channel
How to create a WhatsApp channel?
Step 1: Make sure you update your application on the Play Store.
Step 2: Open WhatsApp then navigate to the Updates Tab. You’ll find it in the center.
Step 3: Below the stories, you’ll see the channels.
Step 4: Click on the plus sign and you’ll be able to create a channel.
Remember you’ll be only able to create WhatsApp channels if the new feature is available to you.
How WhatsApp channel can help businesses?
- Share Updates: You can share or broadcast important updates to a large audience.
- Marketing And Promotions: Businesses can use channels to put up promotions, offers, sales, or brand deals.
- Catalog Sharing: channels can be used to share product details, It can be useful for B2B businesses to share their product catalog.
- Gather Data: surveys/polls can be used to get valuable insights from consumers to create an effective marketing campaign.
- Total Control: as most channels have one-way communication it is easy to control the content that is shared on the channels.
- Diverse Content Type: Photos, videos, emojis, GIFs, Audios content, you can share all these types of content.
- Customer Engagement: Users/customers can express their feedback using various emojis available to them.
What are the best practices for WhatsApp channels?
- Quality Content: Create quality content that users find relevant and engaging.
- Consistent Tone of Branding: Make sure your brand voice and content is constant throughout to build brand recognition
- Frequency: Don’t just spam your channel always be mindful before sending messages.
- Fix Timing: Send updates at a particular time so that your audiences will know when the next updates are coming.
- CTA: Try including a clear call to action for users.
- Experiment: play with message format, and content type to know what type of content and format is best for your audience.
Conclusion
Overall, WhatsApp channels hold significant value for creators, businesses, and influencers to increase their reach and audience engagement. This feature is already available in other messaging platforms like Telegram, still, its advent on WhatsApp creates new opportunities for marketing and communication.
The process of creating a channel is also pretty easy if the feature is available in your region. If the brand follows the best practices then there’s a lot to leverage from this feature. Experimenting will help you know your true audience so don’t shy about that.
