The global D2C industry is growing exponentially.  A study by Statista shows that, in 2022, 64% of users directly purchased from D2C brands worldwide.

‍Ever wondered why popular D2C brands are obsessed on learning how to create a community in WhatsApp Business?

Community Marketing is one of the most potent ways to develop a strong customer relationship and scale this growth further. And this brings us to today’s topic of discussion: How to Build a WhatsApp Business Community? - A Step-by-Step Guide

‍How to Build a WhatsApp Business Community? - A Step-by-Step Guide

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With a global user base of over 2.78 billion, WhatsApp is among the most trusted platforms for building a D2C community. 

‍WhatsApp launched the WhatsApp Business Community feature in November 2022, and is already a massive success. Popular sportswear brand Nike recently positioned itself as a D2C brand and grew its sales by 39% in 2021. Nike leveraged WhatsApp’s community feature to scale customer engagement. Nike’s marketing team created an exclusive group called “Sneakers Inside” to release new product updates and behind the scene stories with customers. 

‍Now the question is - why is WhatsApp THE IDEAL platform for building a community for D2C brands? 

‍If you are a Direct To Consumer brand yet to figure out how to use the WhatsApp community, this guide is for you. 

What is a WhatsApp Business Community? 

A WhatsApp Business community is a unified place where users can host multiple group chats under the same roof. Admins can do the following to keep their WhatsApp communities active and customers engaged: 

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• Post latest announcements 
• Conduct polls to collect customers’ feedback 
• Inviting new users through QR codes 
• Managing multiple admins 
• Sharing large media files 

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In other words, a WhatsApp community is a dedicated, centralised page for D2C brands where your target customers can join upon request, discuss specific topics related to your offerings and add new potential users. It is key to building a loyal customer brand. 

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(Here’s a quick guide to all the must-have technologies for D2C brands)

How does it work? Top features of WhatsApp Business Community for D2C brands 

Now that you have understood what is community in WhatsApp, it’s important that you make full use of this WhatsApp Business community, D2C brands must be aware of some of its top features. Here are some of the valuable features that you can use: 

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1. Share large files  

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WhatsApp typically has a file size limit of 16MB as it compresses the media files before sharing them with the recipients. When it comes to videos, you can share videos of a duration between 90 seconds to 3 minutes. This can be a limitation for D2C brands as they must share various media files to keep their customers engaged. 

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Luckily, with the WhatsApp Business community, you can share media files of up to 2GB. Sharing longer videos, high-resolution images are no longer a challenge. 

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2. Video calling

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For each group within a WhatsApp community, admins can conduct video calls with up to 32 participants. This is again an excellent way for D2C brands to make new product announcements, share product tutorials and more. 

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However, groups generally have more than 32 participants; in that case, the best you can do is manually select the participants. 

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3. Auto-created announcement group 

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For every new WhatsApp Business community, there is an auto-created “Announcement” group. D2C brands can make the most of this group as it is accessible to all group members of your community. 

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A mike icon distinguishes this group and can accommodate up to 5000 members at a time. You can use this group to post major business updates, feature updates, the latest offers, loyalty programs and so on. 

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     5. Admin’s powers 

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The creator or admin of a WhatsApp Business community has a lot of superpowers. Here are a few: 

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• An admin can create the community, add new and existing groups, and appoint new admins from multiple locations to manage the different groups or downgrade existing admins to members if required. 

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• Any admin appointed by the primary admin can never remove the primary admin from the community. 

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• Admins can add and remove participants from the groups. They can delete any message from group participants that might cause a violation of community terms and conditions. 

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     6. Make the most of polls 

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Running polls in WhatsApp communities is one of the most innovative features businesses can leverage. You can use polls to collect customers’ opinions on product feedback, pricing, interest in new products etc. 

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Adding a poll is easy. All you have to do is click on “+” > “Poll” like below: 

Here is the step-by-step guide to creating a community on WhatsApp 

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Understanding How to create a community in WhatsApp business is simple. Follow the below steps: 

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Step 1: Create a community

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• Click on Menu in the top right corner of your WhatsApp chat list or click on New Chat > New Community. 

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• Now enter a few details like - the name of the community, description and icon. You can also add an image/logo that represents your brand and add emojis to make it fun. 

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• Now you will find the Chats tab residing. Click on the green arrow to add an existing group to your community or create a new group. 

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Step 2: Add groups

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• Now that your community is built click Create New Group or Add Existing Group. 

• You can now add icons to each group, add individual descriptions, and add participants.  

• To add an existing group to your community, select those specific groups and click on the Green arrow. 

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Once done, click the Green check mark icon again to complete the process. 

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Like WhatsApp groups, communities also have two types of users - admins and users. Admins create and manage the communities while users join, engage and participate in the communities. 

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Here are a few quick pointers for creating a WhatsApp Business community: 

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• The communities have a multi-admin feature and at any point in time, there can be a maximum of 20 admins and up to 5000 members. 

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• Community admins can add up to 50 groups (excluding the announcement group) and a maximum of 5000 members. 

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• The name limit for each community is 100 characters. 

How do I create a community in my WhatsApp Business account?

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If you use WhatsApp Business and want to build a community with your customers, it's important to know how to do it in the app. To create a community, just follow these simple steps.

1. Create a WhatsApp community on iPhone and iOS
2. Tap Menu above your chats list in WhatsApp, or tap the New chat icon -> Tap New community.

3. Enter the community name and description and add an icon.

4. The community name limit is 100 characters.

5. Your description should give members an idea of what the community is about.

6. Add a community icon by clicking the Camera icon. Choose Take photo, Upload photo, Emoji & Sticker, or Search Web to add an image. Once set, the icon will appear next to the community in the Chats tab.

7. Tap the green arrow icon to add existing groups or create a new group.

VOILA!

You can now invite people to this community.

Benefits of WhatsApp communities - Monetising your WhatsApp Business Community

Now that you know how to create a community in WhatsApp Business, it’s time that you understand its monetisation aspects also.

Community group in WhatsApp Business are free and can be a great tool for earning money. Here are a few ways you can make the most of them: 

1. Provide unparalleled support to customers 

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WhatsApp community is a valuable support platform for D2C brands. Admins can use this community to create different support groups for various product lines. 

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For example, if you are a fashion brand, you can create support groups like Men’s, women’s, kid’s, and so on. 

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Large D2C businesses can create location-specific WhatsApp Business communities. By integrating AI-enabled chatbots with your WhatsApp Business Community, D2C brands can offer world-class customer support,  24/7 query resolution, and automate up to 75% of queries to increase the support team’s productivity. 

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Here is an example of how the Indian ticketing brand BookMyShow uses the Community group in WhatsApp Business as a support channel: 

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2. Share launch updates and new feature updates 

The announcement group in any WhatsApp community is the best place to share new product launches and feature updates. It is a cost-effective way to keep everyone in the community informed. 

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Small businesses have been using WhatsApp for fast customer communication for a long time now. However, before the launch of the WhatsApp community, they had to juggle between different groups to inform customers about the latest feature updates. With the announcement channel, this can be a frictionless process. 

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Admins can even launch Q&A sessions and create polls to understand customers' feelings about the latest products and feature updates. The WhatsApp community can make customer communication more interactive. 

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Here is an example of the Indian watch brand Fastrack notifying their customers about sales through the WhatsApp community: 

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3. Community events 

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Community group in WhatsApp Business can help admins organise community events seamlessly. For large enterprises with location-specific communities, it is easier to arrange events with high-intent participants and convert them into leads. As a result, raising awareness becomes easier with WhatsApp. 

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Omnichannel CRM tools can gauge loyal customers from these events, understand their intent-levels and add insights for brands to identify which customers to add to their communities to drive higher ROAS. 

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Brands can arrange occasional events, special discussion sessions, and tutorials with their WhatsApp Business community. 

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4. Post about the latest offers and deals

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For early-stage D2C brands, creating awareness is one of the biggest struggles. Most of these stores don’t have a solid social media presence, and they also don’t have significant traffic on their websites. As a result, despite offering attractive offers and discounts, they don’t get enough customer participation. 

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With the WhatsApp community, brand admins can regularly post the latest offers, deals, coupon codes, and loyalty program details to the relevant groups and encourage the shoppers to act. 

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Here is an example of the Indian D2C brand Ajio promoting the latest deals through the WhatsApp community: 

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5. Share critical notifications 

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WhatsApp Business community is not limited to just product updates. Brands can even promote critical business notifications, security and encryption-related issues through the WhatsApp Business community. 

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By communicating these issues, you can make your customers aware of the challenges or transitions your business is going through and seek their support during difficult phases. 

WhatsApp Business Communities vs WhatsApp Groups 

Wondering how WhatsApp communities are different from WhatsApp groups? Here are a few quick pointers: 

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How businesses can use WhatsApp communities - Pros and Cons

Before you make a final decision, Pragma has created an exhaustive list of all the pointers that any business can utilise while building their personal WhatsApp Business community:

• Helps D2C brands build a brand through community-driven marketing. You can enhance your brand’s visibility, broaden your outreach and increase the possibilities of word-of-mouth marketing. 

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• A great way to know what customers are thinking and discussing. Through social listening, brands can know their customers’ needs and adjust their promotional strategies accordingly. 

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• WhatsApp community simplifies communicating all the latest product, promotional, and business updates with customers. 

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• WhatsApp community is 100% secured and all messages are end-to-end encrypted. Also, the possibility of spamming is much lesser as users cannot disclose their contact numbers. 

• WhatsApp communities help with interactive messaging through a large emoji library and by enabling large media file sharing. 

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• It is a free community-building platform. 

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Wondering what are the benefits of a WhatsApp Business Account? Here’s everything you should know. 

Some challenges with WhatsApp Business Community are:

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• Community building features are still limited, making WhatsApp Business community less scalable. For brands seeking to build large, cross-border communities, adding only 5000 members is a major challenge. 

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• Video calling is restricted to only 32 members. This is a major roadblock for arranging events and webinars. 

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Grow your WhatsApp Business Community with Pragma

How can you go that extra mile with your WhatsApp Community? 

‍Right from knowing what is community in WhatsApp to its features and benefits, it’s time that you build an automated yet powerful WhatsApp community that is highly interactive and responsive. Automation simplifies customer communication to a large extent and helps you to build a loyal customer base. 

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A great way to grow your WhatsApp Business community is by adding automation. With a D2C operating system like Pragma, brands can make customer communication more interactive and gain a competitive advantage. 

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With Pragma, businesses can leverage their WhatsApp communities in the following manner: 

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• Help you identify high-intent customers through their purchase data and provide insights on which customers are more likely to purchase so brands can add them to their WhatsApp communities 
• Simplify bulk messaging and cross-group posting 
• Run automated drip campaigns and make the most of WhatsApp 
• Showcase your products to your target audiences through attractive catalogs 
• Take customer experience to the next level by 24/7 support 

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Hopefully, now you have a detailed idea of WhatsApp Business Community, steps to build your first community, and ways to make the most of it. With these strategies mentioned above, you can leverage your WhatsApp community and grow it to achieve exponential growth in your business. 

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FAQs 

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Can I use the WhatsApp community through WhatsApp Business? 

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The WhatsApp Community feature is still under testing for WhatsApp Business. However, it is expected to be added to WhatsApp Business pretty soon. For now, this feature is available only for personal WhatsApp accounts. 

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Why do I need WhatsApp Community? 

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D2C brands can make the most of WhatsApp communities for activities like providing support, promoting new products, sharing the latest updates, posting announcements, conducting polls, etc. It is a great way to engage customers and upsell new products. 

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Are WhatsApp communities private? 

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Yes, conversations within a WhatsApp community are end-to-end encrypted. There are no privacy issues with the WhatsApp community. Businesses can easily protect sensitive data and encourage customers to communicate seamlessly in WhatsApp communities without worrying about critical information. 

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What is the member limit in a WhatsApp Community? 

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The maximum number of members in a WhatsApp community is 5000. 

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How can my customers join a WhatsApp Community? 

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Customers can join a D2C WhatsApp Business community by sending a message to the provided number, subscribing to updates, and engaging with the brand's content. Or admins can directly add them. 

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Why should D2C brands replace WhatsApp Groups with Communities? 

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D2C brands should replace WhatsApp Groups with Communities for better organization, engagement analytics, privacy control, and scalable interactions, enhancing customer relationships and personalized experiences. 

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Can anyone join a WhatsApp Community? 

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WhatsApp Communities typically require an invitation or opt-in from the brand. While accessible to anyone, joining involves subscribing through a provided number or link. This ensures that participants willingly engage, enabling focused communication and tailored interactions within the community's context. 

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Is WhatsApp Community free to join?  

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Yes, joining and participating in a WhatsApp community is generally free. Standard data charges may apply depending on your mobile carrier and plan.

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Are WhatsApp Communities visible to everyone? 

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No, WhatsApp Communities are private and not visible to everyone. Only members who have joined the community can see its content and interactions. This ensures a secure and exclusive space for focused communication between the brand and its community members.