The use of instant messaging apps has risen significantly in recent years, and this trend is set to continue. Statista predicts that the total number of mobile messaging app users will grow from 3.02 billion in 2021 to 3.51 billion by 2025.
Over 41 million messages are sent every minute using messaging apps such as SMS, Viber, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Moreover, 68% of consumers prefer to contact brands via messaging apps.
This is great news for businesses, particularly as mobile instant messaging allows for real-time contact with customers and fast responses - both of which help to improve customer satisfaction and retention.
This article explores one of the best messaging apps for mobile marketing: Viber. Read on to learn how your business can leverage this powerful tool to engage your customers.
About Viber
More than 1 billion people worldwide use Viber, a free instant messaging app that allows people to connect through audio and video calls, group chats, messages, and stickers. It works over an internet connection and supports Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls.
What is Viber marketing?
Businesses can use Viber Business Messages to promote their products or services through marketing messages, stickers, adverts, and 'Communities'. The tool is also useful for answering customer queries, providing support, and sending transactional notifications.
The key things to know about Viber Business Messages
Viber Business Messages can only be sent to users who've opted in to receive your Viber campaigns. When you set up an official business account, the Viber team will verify it, and a 'blue tick' will appear next to your company name and logo. This reassures customers they can trust messages coming from your brand.
Here are the main features available with Viber Business Messages:
One-on-one texts: for conversational messaging with customers.
Bulk texting: with Viber's 'Broadcast Lists', you can send the exact same message to multiple Viber contacts without having to add them to a group chat.
VoIP calls: enables free calls to Viber users over the internet.
Personalisation: by connecting your CRM to Viber and making use of customer data insights, you can send highly targeted content that'll help build stronger relationships and lead to more sales.
Media sharing: photos, videos and stickers can easily be shared with customers to pique their interest.
Group chats: have interactive discussions with up to 250 customers in one group.
Communities: have conversations with an unlimited number of customers to gain feedback, answer questions and promote something new.
Live chat: communicate with customers in real-time and set up automated chatbots to provide 24/7 support.
Feedback gathering: send polls and surveys easily with a two-way messaging session that logs customers' answers.
Payments: customers can set up digital wallets linked to their Viber accounts, making the payments process seamless.
Viber for Business requires you to use an approved partner such as Messente. We'll set up your verified Viber business messaging account hassle-free and advise you on getting started.
Viber pricing depends on the destination country and whether you send a promotional or transaction message. For example, with Messente, it costs 0.013 € to send a Viber marketing message to the United States and 0.0081 € to send a transactional message to the same location.
Why choose Viber Business Messages?
Viber Business Messages offers plenty of benefits for companies wanting to take their mobile marketing strategy to the next level. Here are six of them:
1. Simplifies your customer communication needs with one single channel
Viber is an all-in-one channel that goes beyond the 160-character limit of SMS. Viber supports messages, audio and video calls, and media sharing. You can even make calls to customers who don't have a Viber account via the 'Viber Out' feature, which uses VoIP calling over the internet (note that a charge may apply, depending on your service provider).
2. Benefit from a growing userbase
More than a billion people use Viber in 190 countries (the app is available in 40 languages). This is a highly connected, active audience that engages in over 70 million in-app interactions per hour.
When you sign up for Viber marketing, you'll get access to app usage trends and statistics, such as users per region or country.
3. Carry out one-to-one conversations
Viber makes it easy to personalise each conversation with individual customers so they feel valued. Two-way messaging lets customers initiate contact, ask questions, and communicate with you back and forth. You can also send bulk Viber messages to multiple customers simultaneously without losing that sense of personalisation.
4. Easy to use
Viber has a clean, simple interface that's intuitive and easy to navigate. No technical skills or training courses are needed to use the app; it's a plug-and-play solution that marketing managers, customer service agents and customers can use immediately.
5. Guaranteed delivery
Viber provides updates on message delivery status in real-time so you can quickly check delivery and open rates. In the event of delivery failure or delay, Viber offers SMS as a backup. (SMS works over a cellular connection meaning your messages will get delivered even if your customers don't have internet access).
6. Global reach on a budget
Viber marketing offers an affordable pricing structure that's cheaper than several other marketing channels and methods (e.g., online ads and printed advertising). You can reach a global audience no matter where your business and target audience are based.
Tips for a successful Viber marketing strategy
There are some things to do when setting up your Viber business account that'll help you get the best out of your Viber marketing campaigns.
1. Focus on branding
Complete your Viber business profile fully by including your logo, company name, website, contact address and phone number. You can even create unique, branded sticker packs to build and reinforce your brand identity.
Every Viber business message should reflect your brand voice in terms of tone and language. For example, if your brand personality is witty and casual, your Viber campaigns should be too.
2. Discover the different Viber campaigns and features
While you might initially be interested in Viber marketing messages, there are other message types and features to take advantage of to streamline and enhance customer communications. Explore the following:
Promotional messages: use to engage customers with special offers, coupons, discounts, new product information, and more.
Transactional notifications: keep customers informed about their purchases through order confirmations, delivery alerts and refund confirmations. You can also use transactional notifications for appointment reminders and changes and other important alerts.
Conversational messages: have one-to-one chats with customers on a more personal level.
Audience segmentation: group your audience into specific demographics or according to customer journey stage for optimal campaign performance.
Group chats, Communities, and Broadcast Lists: whether you want to send a bulk one-way promotional message or have discussions in small or large groups, Viber has your needs covered.
Channels: a great way to share interesting and valuable content with a large audience via one-way communication. Channel subscribers can't see other subscribers (except admins), offering maximum privacy.
3. Integrate Viber into your CRM for advanced analytics
By integrating your CRM into Viber, you can utilise customer insights for better campaign targeting and dig deep into analytics to improve the performance of your Viber marketing campaigns.
Monitoring campaign performance is essential to see what's working and what isn't. But before you start, define your goals (objectives) and set KPIs (metrics). Here's a basic example:
Goal:
Double online sales revenue in 12 months by increasing customer order values by 10% and improving customer retention by 20%.
KPIs:
Average transaction size.
Upsell/cross-sell rates.
Number of total orders.
You'll use your KPIs as an indicator to track whether your goals are on track.
4. Set up chatbots
Setting up automated workflows for communication improves the overall customer experience and has substantial time-saving benefits for you or your team.
Viber's chatbot lets you respond to customers on autopilot. It's ideal for onboarding, sending real-time updates, answering common FAQs, and streamlining bulk messaging (while still keeping the content personal). It can even be used to take orders and receive payments via the Viber app.
Setting up a Viber chatbot is simple - it's a case of creating a chatbot account, configuring the logic of the chatbot through Viber's API, and then making your chatbot searchable (which Viber's team can help with). Alternatively, Messente can help you build your chatbot.
5. Run Viber ads
Viber offers two main types of advertising solutions: ad placements and custom sticker packs. With placements, you can set up targeting for specific audiences and choose from multiple formats to suit your brand's needs, e.g., native, display, or video.
Sticker packs can be static, animated, and animated with audio. Each is easily sharable by customers (helping to boost your brand's visibility organically). They're also a fun way to encourage customers to subscribe to your channel or join your community.
How much do Viber ads cost?
Viber placement ads (and sticker ads) work on a CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) payment model. The exact CPM price depends on the country where the adverts are shown. You'll need to pay an additional 25% on top of the CPM cost if you're targeting users who make Viber calls in multiple countries. Discover Viber's advertising solutions.
Launch your first Viber campaign with Messente
Messaging apps are commonplace in society today, with many different audiences using them. Viber stands out for being a complete platform that simplifies your customer communication needs.
Using Viber, you can send promotional, transactional and conversational messages, create a business community and customer groups, and publish valuable content on your own channel to further grow your audience.
With CRM integration, it's possible to send highly targeted, personalised campaigns that increase customer retention and lifetime value. And by setting up automated chatbots, you can respond to customers more effectively than ever before.
Ready to try Viber for Business? Talk to our experts today.
