How to grow your WhatsApp audience fast before Black Friday [6 opt-in ideas]

WhatsApp marketing is a powerful marketing channel. But how do you get subscribers fast? Here are our 6 top tips to get 1,000s of customers into WhatsApp before Black Friday.

If you're a consumer brand looking for a competitive edge this Black Friday, WhatsApp marketing is the ideal solution.

Not only can you expect amazing open rates (90% on average), once a customer is with you on WhatsApp, they tend to stay. With a high relevance, low frequency strategy, it's easy to keep them interested in the long-term – which leads to stable revenue-generation for your brand, and less investment on attracting new customers. You'll also notice how your marketing campaigns will improve customer retention.

But, even if you have the best WhatsApp software on the market, there's one thing missing: phone numbers.

You can't do an amazing Black Friday WhatsApp campaign if you have no WhatsApp contacts.

Here's how to get 1,000s of customers into your channel fast in a GDPR-compliant way.

How big should you grow your WhatsApp audience for success? 

How many people should you get into your WhatsApp channel before Black Friday? 

It depends on your business but we would say you need at least a few 1,000 to be worth the cost.

There are many ways to invite and incentivize customers to grow your WhatsApp Business channel. At charles, they're called Chat-ins.

When should you get started?

You have until October to get started with WhatsApp and grow your channel. But you should start as soon as possible. 

Beforehand, make sure you make a clear strategy that:

Takes into account the following ways to get clients opted in

Ensures compliance with GDPR

Thinks about how you'll keep your audience engaged after Black Friday

After all, WhatsApp is a personal channel and if you only send discounts, you'll lose your customers quite quickly.

Here's where to focus your efforts on getting WhatsApp subscribers before Black Friday:

1. Convert email audience into Whatsapp audience

These people are your customers already. You have their email address, and they expect to hear from you.

Send an email saying, "Hey we're on WhatsApp now, come and say hi!" Add a wa.me link link to send them straight to chat.

Offer a discount or pre-access to offer a further incentive. It's important that you offer something in WhatsApp that they can't get in your email channel.

Set up an automated opt-in flow so you a) reduce your work and b) make sure you're GDPR compliant (more on that later).

2. Add a WhatsApp opt-in on your thank you page

Your thank you page after a purchase is the perfect place to get a WhatsApp opt-in. Customers especially appreciate WhatsApp delivery updates. Afterwards, when they're happy to have received their purchase, you can ask for a marketing opt-in – perhaps together with an additional discount.

You can even consider replacing your email popup on your website with email – or change it depending on whether the customer in on mobile or web.

3. Put posters up in-store with QR codes leading to WhatsApp

Add a QR code and a discount on posters and flyers to get people into WhatsApp.

Put them near checkout and offer a receipt through WhatsApp. Get creative here to catch attention. This can be very effective because you then know a customer's location if they make a purchase with your in-store discount.

4. Add website popups and banners linked to WhatsApp

You could offer exclusive early drops for Black Friday for people who sign up for WhatsApp, for example.

 5. Link social posts to WhatsApp

Post an Instagram story announcing that you're in WhatsApp and offer a discount or a competition when customers sign up for your WhatsApp messages.

You can also get creative like a campaign we devised for our customer, Katjes, where Instagram subscribers had to guess how much candy was in a jar and give an opt-in to enter the competition. 

6. Boost your paid ads and link to WhatsApp

With paid ads, you can target the right people. It could be existing customers or people who match your ideal customer profile (ICP). You can also use your Black Friday campaign creative for these.

And do this soon. The cost of paid ads goes astronomically high right before Black Friday and the holiday season. Now is the time to get people into chat and save ad spend.