WhatsApp is the utmost popular messaging application in the world. In 2020, its users have increased up to 2 billion actively. This channel may be a must-have for businesses that need to put through with groups in developing countries. For instance, there are 46.2 million monthly WhatsApp users in Pakistan and Turkey.

In any case, the stage is additionally an amazing choice for advancements within the US market as 68 million Americans get to WhatsApp at the slightest once a month.

Over 55% of individuals feel more associated with a brand when they use communication apps.

It makes WhatsApp showcase a bulletproof procedure for building long significant connections with customers.

Keeping up such an association, in turn, makes a difference in a brand’s consumption as customer management is 5 to 25 times cheaper than in-store purchases.

Out of the box, WhatsApp gives businesses a vigorous set of openings for personalization. For instance, you'll send personalized welcome messages, uncommon offers, birthday congrats, and so on. Such an approach keeps customers more locked in with a brand, over 70% of buyers say they lock in as it were with personalized promoting messages.

What makes WhatsApp marketing different from SMS marketing?

SMS is the best way to break through to any kind of market and it is so much more than a fair quick way to reach your customers. It’s an advanced communication channel established in belief, correspondence, and results whereas WhatsApp is an online driven communication platform that uses messaging as the main tool while there are other options that communication can be done through WhatsApp.

Apart from smartphone users using both platforms to exchange emotions, ideas, and information, the way marketing can be done through these two separate platforms can be much different, let’s list down some significant differences in how each channel’s marketing can be done:

	WhatsApp Marketing	SMS Marketing
Need of an extra application	The requirement of the installation of an application and the need for an internet connection can limit and make WhatsApp unreliable, therefore it is a risky marketing method in poor network regions.	All phones, nonetheless of whether it’s a smartphone, come pre-installed with SMS capabilities. This can be free of the phone’s brand or type therefore an instant message can reach a customer at any point.
Features	Unique features like the capacity to share live areas, contact data, and an extension of record sorts from .pdf to .doc boost communication possible outcomes with WhatsApp. Users can moreover put voice and video calls at whatever point needed and inside WhatsApp itself, which suggests that they don’t get to download an isolated app or indeed take off the app to require advantage of these highlights.	Messages can include links to websites but cannot include attached documents or any other attractive and informational findings.
Encrypted Messages	One of the differences between WhatsApp and SMS marketing is that a greater offering focuses on its encryption. As expressed on their site, all messages sent using WhatsApp, counting those sent to and from commerce accounts, are end-to-end scrambled. This implies that as it were the senders and receivers can study (or tune in to) what’s being sent	Customers can often get confused with a legit message from a company or a scam message.

What method is ideal for marketing

An advantage that’s elite to WhatsApp is its visual integration with other well-known apps like Instagram, YouTube, and Netflix. On occasion, when sharing Instagram substance on WhatsApp, the post shows up and appears within the WhatsApp chat rather than having to get directed to Instagram.

This implies that recipients of this message can see and appreciate it quickly without requiring to exit out of WhatsApp and open Instagram or a browser.

Likewise, there are moreover built-in players in WhatsApp for Netflix and YouTube so that recordings from these stages can be shared and observed inside WhatsApp itself when shared, which the SMS category cannot reach.

With everyday things getting digitalized at a fast pace, smart device users are more attached to the online arena than ever before, therefore the primary goal in marketing digitally should be interrupting the online activity of a certain user with an online tool, and WhatsApp can undoubtedly do the part of such a tool.

Conclusion

The question asked at the beginning; will WhatsApp Marketing stab SMS Marketing to a slow death? Undeniably WhatsApp is making the deaths of other communication channels look like an accident, but the most traditional and easiest form of digital communication: SMS still breathes much better compared to the dead, cause of the convenience it gives within the cell phones’ system cannot be matched with any other application, therefore even if SMS is stabbed to death it can still haunt WhatsApp in unexpected ways.

Moreover, the unique abilities of both platforms can have their marketplace as a constant for the next decade, yet the competition between a mobile application and a mobile feature has never been this competitive.