Case of a distributor of construction equipment: increased revenue by 37% due to customer segmentation and mailings in WhatsApp Business API

The company supplies construction equipment from China:

• Machines for working with fittings;
• Road equipment;
• Compressor equipment.

Works with large construction and trading organizations. Sales were primarily made through sales representatives and telephone calls. The company has set a goal to develop an additional sales channel – WhatsApp newsletters.

What we did to solve the problem

Uploaded to CRM and segmented the customer base

The customer database was downloaded from 1C and loaded into CRM. Managers manually filled out customer cards and divided them into 5 categories based on annual sales:

• A – over 10 million;
• B – 7-10 million;
• C – 4-7 million;
• D – 2-4 million;
• E – up to 2 million.

Also, each client was assigned a segment depending on what category of goods interests him.

For example:

Company 1: annual turnover over 10 million rubles. The main direction is machines for working with reinforcement. A secondary area is equipment for working with concrete (internal vibrators, concrete heating).

Company 2: annual turnover 8-10 million rubles. The main direction is equipment for road work (slabs, joint cutters, jackhammers).

Replaced email with newsletter in WhatsApp Business API

Previously, newsletters about promotions and new arrivals were done via email, with the following results:

The company employs 13 managers, each with an average of 700-1000 contacts in their database. The average order cost is 70,000-100,000 rubles.

Using the ChatApp service, we integrated WhatsApp Business API with CRM. The company has been accredited on Facebook and has approved mailing templates.

Messages were sent in 4 cases:

1. At the beginning of the season, when new products are introduced to the market.

Customers will learn the technical specifications and retail prices of products. This allows you to select the necessary products in advance and place them on the site.

2. When the container arrives in Russia

Customers can pre-book goods, receive advance payment and assign equipment to customers.

3. When unloading the container to the warehouse

Such mailings are received by clients who have warehouses in those regions where unloading occurs.

4. Sale of leftovers from the warehouse at the end of the season

Customers are offered to purchase goods with a 10% discount.

Problem: open rate increased 3 times, but conversion to order decreased

“The company management was furious! We spent so much time, effort, and money on agreeing on templates and sending them out, but the result was such a failure. We started to sort out the situation”, Ivan Albychev, Inter-M.

Managers collected feedback from clients. It turned out that most people were used to communicating by phone or email, and received WhatsApp messages from an unfamiliar number with distrust.

Solution: we told clients by phone and email about the new communication channel – WhatsApp

Managers explained that now each client will receive newsletters only about those product categories that interest him. It took 3 weeks to notify clients.

Repeated the mailing to WABA — conversion increased 3 times

Result: revenue increased by 37% on average

Revenue was measured during the high demand season — from April to September, and compared with the same period last year, when mailings were done only by email.

Customers received information only on those products that interested them, in a convenient communication channel. As a result, each segment began to buy more.