Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that his technology company, Meta, now partners with software giant Salesforce might not have come as a surprise. Preceding the announcement there had been apparent indications that such a partnership was imminent. Notably, Marc Benioff, the chair and co-CEO of Salesforce, has expressed interest in social media platforms, particularly Twitter. In a short interview with CNN’s Poppy Harlow, Benioff disclosed his intention of buying Twitter if the ball was in his court. Indeed, in his remarks, the Chair of software giant Salesforce believes Twitter, a giant microblogging company, remains ‘the most un-monetized brand.’
While Marc Benioff’s interest in Twitter might be informed by his desire for more profits, his company’s partnership with Meta’s Whatsapp puts another foot forward in the race. According to a
Now, it’s longer news that a CRM giant and a social media giant have initiated a partnership. However, the question is, what does this partnership portend? What will be the fate of e-commerce websites? Let’s start by dissecting the power that Meta’s Whatsapp wields.
What is the role of Whatsapp in today’s business?
Whatsapp, a giant messaging platform, has emerged as a force in today’s business. According to a data report by
Right from 2019, Facebook (now Meta) and its products have been the focal point of business management for small business owners. In 2019, a
Now Meta's WhatsApp has improved its commercial services. Today, Whatsapp Business gives two options to users; Whatsapp Business for regular business owners and Whatsapp Business API for large businesses. Without a doubt, the critical features of WhatsApp Business include automated responses, message statistics, a business catalog, and other business-enhancing features. On the other hand, Whatsapp Business API is a more complex business solution. It helps large businesses take control of their businesses with its unique features.
Why Businesses Prioritize Conversational Commerce Now
In today’s world of digital transformation and unlimited choices, it is no surprise that more businesses prioritize their consumer relationship through conversational commerce to ensure consumer retention. Conversational commerce is a way of interacting with your customers more like having a conversation than the traditional, impersonal exchange of goods for money using messaging apps. It's a way to create relationships with your customers by making them feel heard and important.
Lately, personalized interactions have become the demand of consumers. In fact, according to a report by
Without a doubt, the customer journey is a critical part of business operations. The customer journey refers to the path a customer takes from first discovering your company to becoming a loyal repeat customer. Indeed, when there is a poor link between lead generation and lead conversion, lead retention becomes a considerable problem that affects business growth. For instance, according to
Therefore, a business owner needs to understand where along this path customers are having trouble and what they can do to make their experience more seamless. This seamless, personalized interaction is what Whatsapp Business does to businesses. Certainly, a business’s understanding of how customers interact with the brand at every stage of their relationship will help businesses create better products, better marketing campaigns, and better sales tactics.
Is Salesforce a true force?
Headquartered in San Francisco, Salesforce is a reputable cloud-based software platform that helps businesses manage customer relationships, automate workflows and organize data. The platform is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) system by companies across all industries, including automotive, retail, and financial services. A leading CRM platform that has maintained the top position over the years. In fact, the recent surge in the adoption of cloud-based services has made Salesforce a formidable force in the comity of CRM service providers.
As a matter of fact, the company accounts for over 150,000 companies using its platform. In fact, the United States has the highest percentage of its companies using CRM, at 62.1%. Below is a chart of the percentage of users by sector in the US.
Source: infoclutch.com
A recent
Salesforce(Largest CRM Platform) x Whatsapp(Social Media Giant): the end of e-commerce websites?
On the 20th of September, Mark Zuckerberg announced on his Facebook account that his company now partners with the CRM giant Salesforce. In his announcement, he disclosed that all businesses that use Salesforce’s platform could use Whatsapp Business messages to answer customer questions, run marketing campaigns and sell directly in chat. This means Whatsapp will embed Salesforce Customer 360, a suite of customer engagement applications that help businesses connect with their customers in an omnichannel way, to promote seamless communication through the Whatsapp Business API. Without a doubt, for such a partnership to form between two giants, there is no other word to describe it than ‘grand.’ Yes, it is grand.
Source: Facebook.com
The new integration will allow businesses to manage customer relationships and deliver real-time marketing campaigns. As the world of e-commerce moves towards providing instant solutions, Salesforce is not slumbering. Recently, the company announced the Salesforce Genie. The company dubs the Salesforce Genie
Real-time means you can instantly act on information; it's a crucial part of doing business in the 21st century. Suppose a case you need to ransack an eCommerce website for a product you have been looking at buying, or the customer service agent sucks at communicating while you describe your needs. You will quickly go for another option with quicker, real-time answers. Certainly, as a business owner, your customers are constantly connected to the internet and their mobile devices, which means they're also interacting with other businesses online all the time. You need to be able to respond to their needs quickly and efficiently if you want to win them over.
Undoubtedly, the market is saturated, and it's getting harder for companies to stand out from their competitors. Hence the most loyal customers find convenience, value, and emotional engagement in brands. Direct marketing has become the order, and Whatsapp API provides this business solution for more business growth. Ultimately, with its partnership with Salesforce, they will be a force in digital marketing–that which could threaten the subscription to creating e-commerce websites soon.
Growth Marketing Strategies To Leverage The Partnership
According to Zach Boyette, a Forbes Council member and Co-founder of Galactic Fed, a growth marketing agency, the next frontier of marketing is growth marketing. He disclosed this in a
- Business Automation
Business automation is an integral part of having a successful business. It can be the difference between thriving and falling apart. Business automation streamlines your business so it runs more smoothly and efficiently. Automating your business allows you to focus on what’s important: growing your company. The best way to automate your business is by using programs that already exist in the cloud so that you can get started right away. Ultimately, you can leverage this partnership for this growth marketing strategy.
- Optimized Onboarding Process
A well-optimized onboarding process is crucial in ensuring that your new customers are successful with your product and continue to use it. Your users are going to have a lot of questions, so you need to make sure you're prepared to answer them. You don't want to miss out on opportunities to convert those new users into long-term customers. Evidently, the seamless interaction you need here is one of the core goals of the Salesforce-Meta partnership.
- Lead Retention
Lead retention is a process that involves keeping leads, which are potential customers. Lead retention aims to ensure the company can engage with customers throughout their purchase journey and deliver a consistent brand experience. With the Salesforce-Meta partnership, lead retention is made more accessible.
- A/B Testing
A/B Testing is showing different versions of a page or ad to different sets of people and comparing the results. It’s used to determine which version is most successful, so you can make changes to optimize it. With more third-party data, your A/B can be more efficient. Since the Salesforce-Meta partnership will use data-driven decisions to meet customers’ needs, it won’t be a bad idea to leverage the partnership.
- Omnichannel
Omnichannel marketing is a technique that combines multiple channels to reach customers. It is often used by businesses that want to increase customer engagement and brand loyalty. The idea behind omnichannel is to provide an experience consistent across all these different channels so that customers don't have to learn a new way of interacting with the business based on what channel they're using at any given time. Ultimately, business owners can leverage the partnership as it includes initiatives such as the Salesforce Genie and cloud API.
Conclusion
Conversational commerce is taking a new wave and the adoption of new technologies alongside new operating models is a necessity for businesses who care about their growth. The growth in internet use, e-commerce, and digital transformation has fostered new demands from customers. These demands are highly personalized experiences which the coming together of the CRM giant Salesforce and social media giant Meta seeks to find instant solutions to. Ultimately, it's now up to businesses to choose growth marketing strategies that suit their needs to leverage the partnership. As the saying goes, if you snooze, you lose.