Source: Chatarmin, Q2 2023
WhatsApp broadcasts are only GDPR compliant when using the "WhatsApp Business Platform". Here is an overview of Chatarmin's tech infrastructure that ensures GDPR compliance:
Is WhatsApp DSGVO compliant? At Chatarmin, the answer is YES.
Send to us via WhatsApp "DSGVO" to get an updated opinion on the DSGVO compliance of the WhatsApp Business Platform.
We have written enough about the differences between the "different WhatsApp Business options ". Feel free to read up if you are not yet familiar with this. This article only gives you a brief overview and summary in table form:
| --------- | WhatsApp Business App | WhatsApp Business Premium | WhatsApp Business Platform |
|---|
| Monthly Costs | Free | Free | €99.00 + META Costs |
| Free Conversations | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| GDPR compliance | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Automations and Journeys | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Support Agents and Ticketing | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| WhatsApp mobile app | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Dashboards and Analytics | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Custom Logins and 2FA | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Documentation and Segments | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| API Integrations | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| WhatsApp Desktop Users | 4 | 10 | Infinite |
| Multi-Messenger | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Klaviyo WhatsApp Integration | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Shopify WhatsApp Integration | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Shopware WhatsApp Integration | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
So if you're looking for
- automations
- system integrations
- personalisation
- segmentation
- documentation
- GDPR-compliance
and Co. and have no more than 1,000 or 2,000 WhatsApp leads in your database, we recommend using the conventional WhatsApp business app, which has its greatest advantage in that it is free. If you insist on any or all of the above features, feel free to book your consultation call with #teamarmin:
Unique features & advantages of the WhatsApp newsletter
So what makes the WhatsApp newsletter so unique and desirable? In a world of 300 billion emails a day, competitive media buying budgets on social media, and an increasingly jaded advertising-indifferent society, it's getting harder and harder to convince end consumers of your company's vision and mission. Reaching them at all is hard enough. WhatsApp broadcast offers the following advantages that other marketing channels simply cannot:
- Everybody uses WhatsApp, young and old alike
- WhatsApp is used 10 times a day and more
- You are in the natural environment of your end customers
- You can build hyper-personalised and system-integrated automations
- Favourable CPL's and CPO's
- Ability to acquire new customers and retention marketing
So you see: the areas of application along the entire customer journey are manifold and unique. Here are a few practical examples of how our customers use WhatsApp:
for new customer acquisition:
- Offline lead generation via QR code scan / promotion case
- Online lead generation via ads and organics
- giveaways
- Influencer Collabos
- Mobile & desktop pop-up lead generation
- Organic Signup Links
- Organic Campaign with Chatstart Link
- Abandoned Checkout Recovery Automation
as a retention marketing channel:
- Abandoned Checkout Recovery
- Order Paid / Postpurchase Flows
- Order Shipped / Shipping Information
- Support & Sales
- Campaigns & Newsletters
- Early Access
- Secret Drops
- Exclusive Access
Depending on which step of the customer journey your lead, deal, or end customer is in, you can either automate this via WhatsApp or manually based on
address, (re-)target and service them. The perfect retention marketing mix consists of:
- Email Marketing
- WhatsApp marketing
- Direct Mailings
- (App)
- (SMS/Messenger)
...and due to the costs of the respective communication channels also in exactly this order.
Let's now turn to a comparison with the marketing channel that comes closest to the WhatsApp broadcast: email marketing.
In comparison: WhatsApp broadcast & Email newsletter, the advantages and disadvantages
Let's take another look at the typical WhatsApp newsletter KPIs, in comparison to email:
| KPI | WA Out-Performance |
|---|
| Opening Rate | +400% |
| Click Rate | +2,000% |
| Conversion Rate | +1.000% |
| RPR | +97% |
The two channels are nevertheless complementary to each other, and alone due to our unique Klaviyo integration complementary, not competitive. Let's look at use cases of the two channels:
| Use Case | Email | WhatsApp |
|---|
| Leadgen | ✅ | ✅ |
| Lead Conversion | ✅ | ✅ |
| Retargeting-Automations | ✅ | ✅ |
| Campaigns & Newsletters | ✅ | ✅ |
| Mobile-First | ❌ | ✅ |
| Early Access & Secret Drops | ❌ | ✅ |
| Fast Messaging | ❌ | ✅ |
You should now already have a good feeling for the "CRM Power Duo" Email & WhatsApp. Falls du noch Fragen hast, lass dich gerne von unserem Team beraten:
Then you know what to do and know your next steps on the way to your WhatsApp newsletter.
Create a WhatsApp newsletter: This is how it works!
All you need to create your WhatsApp newsletter is a phone number. Next, you need to decide if you want to work with what type of WhatsApp business account. In the case of the WhatsApp Business app, you only need:
- A Smartphone
- The WhatsApp Business App
and just like that you can switch from the inferior “WhatsApp Private App” to the "WhatsApp Business App and are “ready to go”!
The differences between WhatsApp Business App and WhatsApp Business Platform are system integrativity, personalisability, segmentability, scalability and GDRPR compliance.
If you decide to work with Chatarmin and WhatsApp Business Platform, you will need:
- a phone number that you no longer need on WhatsApp Business or Private (can also be a landline number!).
- an excerpt from the commercial register or proof of registration in the commercial register
- a payment function for Chatarmin as well as the chargeable WhatsApp Business Platform
- access and admin rights for your Facebook Business Account
- 30 minutes for technical onboarding with us.
After you have made this decision in favour of the WhatsApp Business Platform and Chatarmin, you can book your onboarding with us here or continue reading this article.
Step by step guide to your WhatsApp newsletter
Here are your five steps to a WhatsApp broadcast for your business.
- create your Chatarmin account together with us
- request verification of your Chatarmin account
- import your existing customer leads with phone number
- set up your passive lead gen setup with our help
- start with your first WhatsApp newsletters
So, in a few minutes, together with our help, you will get a fully functional "WABA" (WhatsApp Business Account), the most powerful WhatsApp marketing tool in the world, as well as personal customer support from our Solutions Managers in the shared Slack Connect Channel.
Chatarmin Dashboard Analytics & Overview - This is what your Chatarmin account looks like as it scales.
You're welcome! We look forward to scaling your WhatsApp newsletter together.
WhatsApp Newsletter Best Practices including spreadsheet and linking.
We wrote an extensive blogpost on WhatsApp Marketing Best Practices. So here we summarise for you again the most important points to make your WhatsApp newsletter a success in any case.
Here is an overview of WhatsApp newsletter best practices:
Short, concise, infrequent, and highly relevant messaging is the key to success with the WhatsApp newsletter.
To get an even better practical feel for WhatsApp newsletters, feel free to find some WhatsApp newsletter examples from our clients here. Feel free to contact us to explore even more examples, case studies and use cases.
An excerpt from Chatarmin's customer reviews with successful WhatsApp newsletters_0923.
At Chatarmin, we don't just recommend highly relevant, short, and appropriately concise messaging. No, even small details like emojis, buttons, CTAs or assets are A/B tested by our clients via Chatarmin ChatGPT feedback integration.
This also includes choosing the right photo asset:
| Format | Advantage | Disadvantage |
|---|
| Square | Safe option, ideal preview | Takes up a lot of space in message |
| Portrait | Centered focus, asset has priority | Takes up a lot of space in message |
| Landscape format | Previewed in full, message has space | Small image preview |
So you see, WhatsApp marketing and your WhatsApp newsletter can mean a lot of work and kappa. But it doesn't have to, eCommerce is doing absolute pioneering work here. Other sectors such as the hotel industry and retail take a more relaxed approach. Use cases here are "last minute offers" as well as the "digital flyer" ("handout"), which correspond to generic WhatsApp broadcast use cases that are sometimes segmented and sent to the entire WhatsApp list of customers.
How do my customers sign up for a WhatsApp newsletter? WhatsApp lead gen in practice
As described in our "WhatsApp to acquire new customers blog post", you can collect WhatsApp leads in different ways to scale your WhatsApp list. Let's analyse the most important and common lead gen use cases via WhatsApp:
- Organic lead gen: Place the chat start link as a QR code or link anywhere you have created a welcome journey that you want your leads to go through.
- Organic lead enrichment: The "WhatsApp first lead case" has the 100% mobile phone number effect, which means that you guarantee a high quality of leads right from the start. Especially for high value leads this is invaluable as you can also engage your customers in phone calls, so reliably reach them sooner or later actually. At Chatarmin we have integrated API's so that even welcome flow queries such as the customer's email address deliver 100% perfect data quality.
- Chat start ads: Click-to-WhatsApp ads guarantee favourable CPLs on Facebook and Instagram. META gives you the first 72h conversation with your fresh leads here.
- Influencer Leadgen: From now on, wrap up your givaways not only via social media, but directly via WhatsApp.
In all these use cases, the user journey is always the same. The customer clicks on the chat start link, which takes them to an automated welcome journey that you have already created in Chatarmin's UI/UX-friendly flow builder.
QR Code Leadgen via WhatsApp, BAUHAUS Austria
The above example "BAUHAUS Austria" shows how such a chat start link can look like as a QR code. Here is the corresponding chat start link if you are reading this blog post on your mobile phone or tablet.
Bonus: Initial existing customer activation
At Chatarmin, we always recommend our clients to "quickly validate" WhatsApp as a communication channel with their target group. This way, concerns and objections such as "Is this what my customers want?" or "I don't want to get on my customers' nerves" can be quickly refuted with data and facts. This is how it works to validate your WhatsApp broadcast:
- filter your existing customer database - in your shop system or email marketing CRM - for contacts with telephone numbers.
- send us the export so that we can filter it for mobile phone numbers
- import this export into Chatarmin
- we extract the historical history of your leads from your shop and CRM infrastructure
- segment your leads on CLTV, recency, frequency and other criteria to individually segment your critical customer cohorts
- send your first WhatsApp newsletter via Chatarmin!
It's that easy! Our customers are satisfied. Listen to some of their voices:
"Why should I pay €1,500.00 a month for exactly the same functions somewhere else? - Michael K., CRM Lead Omos-Media
”We took a close look at the WhatsApp newsletter tools market. For us, Chatarmin offers all critical features, a Klaviyo and Shopify integration, and an attractive price/performance ratio. - Leoni H., CRM Lead 7-figure Beverage Brand
"Better than Mailchimp and Klaviyo.” - Francesca S., Head of Marketing 7-figure Toothbrush Brand
Unsure of exactly how to proceed? Book your free WhatsApp consultation with our first employee, WhatsApp specialists, who look after our key accounts including 9-figure-Shopify&Klaviyo-D2C brands:
WhatsApp Newsletter Use Cases: Be aware of this!
Always make sure not to become too generic with the "WhatsApp Newsletter". If you are unsure whether your campaign is important enough for a WhatsApp campaign, it is not. Furthermore, the WhatsApp Business Platform is chargeable. and along the way, email and WhatsApp broadcasts are also operationally managed from a single source.
Make sure that you don't spam your end customers, only send out segmented or personalised WhatsApp newsletters at irregular intervals, namely when it's really important. This way, your WhatsApp newsletter is guaranteed to be a success.
The five best WhatsApp newsletters: The best current practical examples for WhatsApp newsletters.
Here you will find a detailed analysis of the best WhatsApp newsletters in the DACH region. We're just giving you a brief overview here of what they have in common:
There are as already listed in detail in the article, some WhatsApp Marketing Best Practices These are:
- Low frequency
- High relevance
- Opt-Out possibility
- Less is More
- Always A/B Test
- Question: "Is it really important enough?
The following criteria are also met by the five best WhatsApp newsletters in the DACH region:
- Frequency: A WhatsApp newsletter must be sent at least several times a year.
- Relevance: The WhatsApp marketing channel must represent a relevant marketing or sales channel for the respective company.
- Best Practices: There are certain Best Practices in WhatsApp marketing that is necessary for a successful and profitable scaling of your WhatsApp marketing activities. All five listed WhatsApp newsletters meet these
- Companies from the DACH region: We have a good view of the WhatsApp marketing market. However, this only applies to our home market, the DACH region. We do not claim to have an overview of WhatsApp marketing activities worldwide. So our selection for the five best WhatsApp marketing newsletters is limited to the DACH region, i.e. Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
We at Chatarmin choose waterdrop® as the company in the DACH region with the best WhatsApp newsletter.
Let's now turn our attention to the cost of the WhatsApp Business Platform as well as Chatarmin.
WhatsApp newsletter costs at a glance
Here is an overview of the "conversation costs" that regulate the global use of the "WhatsApp API", and thereby also automatically define the use cases of your WhatsApp Newsletter:
| End User Prefix | USER-INITIATED CONVERSATION (SERVICE CHAT) | BUSINESS-INITIATED CONVERSATION (TRANSACTION - AUTHENTICATION - MARKETING) |
|---|
| Germany | €0.0679 | €0.0707 - €0.0572 - €0.1131 |
| Austria | €0.0329 | €0.0348 - €0.0313 - €0.0490 |
| Switzerland | €0.0329 | €0.0348 - €0.0313 - €0.0490 |
WhatsApp is therefore comparable to the pricing of SMS, which excludes a double bombardment of end customers by the same content of email and WhatsApp from the outset. This makes integration with your email marketing tool like Klaviyo all the more important, so Chatarmin knows what's happening in email, and vice versa. Here's how you can adhere to our best practices in the retention marketing mix:
- Email
- WhatsApp
- Direct Mailings
Which is also in line with the cost structure of these channels. Accordingly, your focus should be on having a clean and tidy email marketing setup in place before you start with WhatsApp marketing. We will gladly make you an intro with the best retention marketing agencies in the DACH region so that you are in the best hands here.
Overview of the costs of Chatarmin, which are charged separately from the WhatsApp conversation costs.
So you have an overview of all costs for your WhatsApp newsletter, and can make your decision on 100% transparent cost insight. If you want us to calculate the case together, please contact us. We will be happy to prepare an annual financial plan for your WhatsApp newsletter case for you.
Here you will find an overview and analysis of [https://chatarmin.com/en/blog/whatsapp-marketing-software-comparison) as well as their strengths, weaknesses and - if available - their pricing. So, in this final chapter, we only dedicate ourselves to the most important overview in the comparison:
| Price/Month | Surcharge/Conversation | API | Support Case | Marketing Case | Multi-Messenger |
|---|
| chatarmin.com | €99.00+ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| lupiter | ? | ? | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| whatsmojo | ? | ? | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Botsify | €49,00+ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Chatwerk | €69,00+ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Wati | €49.00+ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Verloop | ? | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Gupshup | ? | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Sinch Engage | €199.00+ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| hello-charles | €349.00+ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| trengo | ? | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Chatarmin is bootstrapped, from Austria, lean, agile, and according to our customers has the most user-friendly WhatsApp newsletter tool at an unbeatable price/performance ratio. If you appreciate honest support in a shared Slack connect channel, transparent and fair pricing, as well as unique and reliable CRM and store integrations, you are in good hands with us.
Start your WhatsApp newsletter: NOW!
NOW is the optimal macro-perspective moment to start with your WhatsApp newsletter. Currently, you are an "early-adopter" or "first-mover" in your market.
Currently you are even earlier and faster than your competitors with your WhatsApp newsletter! The market is still young.
Take advantage of this great advantage and be where your competitors are not yet. Reach your customers where it really counts. In their WhatsApp inbox, surrounded by friends and family.
At Chatarmin, we look forward to working with you to set up and scale your WhatApp newsletter!
Thanks for reading! Feel free to book your 25-minute consultation slot directly for the 25-minute WhatsApp sparring session with me, Johannes Mansbart, founder of Chatarmin:
