Are you looking for high click-through rates and an efficient way to spread breaking news? Read how BQ Prime used WhatsApp to do exactly that... and ended up adding 225,000 subscribers in the process.
If you want to reach a massive amount of people with your content in India, WhatsApp is the right channel for you! India isn't only the country with the largest number of WhatsApp users, Indians also simply love to use WhatsApp for everything... from booking an Uber to verifying their IDs to buying a new EV!
That's why it wasn't a difficult decision for BQ Prime, India's premier multi-platform business and financial news media company, to start using WhatsApp to grow their readership. We talked with Ankit Dikshit, Head of Products and Subscription Business at BQ Prime about the company's strategy, execution, and insights into using WhatsApp as a broadcasting tool.
Using WhatsApp broadcasts is easy; finding the right platform is the hard part
Sinch Engage: Tell us about your journey that started in 2018 of pushing WhatsApp as a communication tool and how you chose the right platform!
Ankit Dikshit: Business news in India are a cluttered and non-integrated realm. Yet, readers of this genre have busier schedules and a higher than average need for crisp and curated content.
After conducting extensive research, we discovered that WhatsApp is more than just a personal messaging application for our consumers. It's a tool that's fully integrated into their daily life. We thought that WhatsApp would work perfectly as a content distribution platform reaching out directly to our readers.
WhatsApp Business hadn't been launched yet when we wanted to launch this new service. Even if it had been, its limited features wouldn't have been sufficient for our need to interact with a large audience of hundreds of thousands of readers. On the WhatsApp Business App, you can only reach out to 256 unique users per broadcast list.
We were therefore exploring different professional solutions. After evaluating a few solutions and testing them thoroughly, we found Sinch Engage to be the strongest solution provider.
With Sinch Engage, you can scale your marketing campaigns on messaging apps easier and faster.
Skyrocketing readership with WhatsApp
What goals did you set for the BQ Prime WhatsApp channel, and how are the results so far?
As per our projections, we targeted 100,000 users with the launch, and we achieved that. At present, the community has grown to over 225,000 active users enjoying curated news, stock bots and much more – they can receive everything directly through WhatsApp.
How has your community developed so far? Do your users like the WhatsApp service?
We have an ever-growing community of 225,000 active users who are a significant part of our news consumption. Many of these users read over 30 news articles per month. A large subset of our audience uses stock bots and news bots to make faster business decisions.
For BQ Prime, WhatsApp delivers impressive CTRs
How and for what kind of content do you use your WhatsApp channel? Is there any special or exclusive content that attracts extremely high click-through rates (CTRs) or above average feedback?
BQ Prime launched India’s first business news messenger service for decision makers and executives on the go. The BQ Prime WhatsApp channel (back then under the name of Bloomberg Quint) was the first of its kind in the Indian market.
The service offers content from comprehensive daily coverage of global and domestic business news, to updates about market movements and insights from the country’s most influential corporate leaders.
Our users show the most interest in the latest stock market updates, business news and opinion pieces. WhatsApp also works well for the breaking news category, and news that impacts key business decisions tends to have the highest click through rates.
In your opinion, what are the biggest differences between messenger apps like WhatsApp on the one hand and social media, e-mail or apps on the other? Which advantages do you see in WhatsApp marketing?
The two are different types of media and fulfill different needs. The majority of users use messenger apps more frequently than e-mails or apps. In cases where you want to reach out to them with an urgency factor, and you want a higher likelihood that they read your message, instant messaging apps are the best medium today.
Read how influencer platform stylink reaches a 90% open rate with their marketing messages through iMessage.
How do you think instant messaging marketing will affect the Indian and international markets? Will there be some major changes? Or will things will stay as they are? Are some channels going to switch positions in terms of importance?
The future is bright for marketing on messaging apps. Users spend a significant amount of time on these platforms. Messenger apps have become essential for reaching out quickly and reducing turnaround time. It's convenient, easy to get started, and just one click away. Brands are also starting to reach out to users over messenger apps to offer various services, as well as products.
Users from different geographic areas may be using different chat apps, but all are using one or the other. WhatsApp has done well in India, while China is fixated on WeChat. Overall, the usage rate for these platforms is rising, and the ecosystem is growing rapidly.
What are your future plans with your WhatsApp service on the Sinch Engage platform?
The overall array of features is amazing and the system is quite open for customization. Sinch Engage is a great integration for the BQ Prime Experience Module.
Get more out of messaging apps for your business, with Sinch Engage, your all-in-one messaging platform for marketing, sales, and customer service.
