Have you tried ‘Private Chat Marketing’?

Hi, I’m Saurabh👋. I write in-depth analyses on the growth of popular companies. I cover their early-growth strategies, current growth levers, and the business-building lessons we can learn from them.

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Read time: 2 minutes 25 seconds

Your office elevator opens. You take the center space, other four employees take the corners. You slip out your phone and open WhatsApp.

What are the chances that at least one of the other 4 folks peeked into your chat? In my personal experience, more than 80%.

Snooping into private chats creates mad curiosity. So, today, we look at the private chat marketing trend 🔥

When a leaked DM or group chat appears on the feed, we hold our thumb and read.

In 2021, Zomato leaked a group chat to create hype around their birthday month offer which was retweeted and reposted heavily on LinkedIn.

The famous Tanmay Bhat reaction videos, which get an average of 2.5 million views, often feature funny chats. (Getting a staged chat there is another opportunity).

Another example of user-generated private chat that wins brownie brand points is from a Netflix customer service chat screenshot which has over 10k likes and over 400 comments. 

Yet another example comes from Pet Honesty which I found on LinkedIn yesterday 👇

Why it works?

👀 Curiosity: “Leaked” piques interest. People feel it is not meant for public consumption, triggering an urgency to find out more.

🏅Authenticity: Private chats come across as raw, and unpolished - standing out from the usual carefully fine-tuned brand material.

🫣 Controversy: People love discussing drama. The word “accidentally” draws attention.

🗝️Applying Private Chats to your business: A Tactical Guide

First, find if there are any genuine internal threads that you can identify which draw strong emotions. Look at your ticketing responses, slack threads, social media replies, teams, Whatsapp YouTube - any customer touchpoint.

If you don’t find any, consider staging conversations: 

Behind-the-scenes team discussions

Bring people into your world. Stage a conversation between two employees/teams about an upcoming event. Perhaps stage funny internal banter between supply and marketing or the Slack emojis circling onto the upcoming event designs. 

Best for: Upcomng launch or event promotions

Calendar screenshots

Consider a calendar screenshot of a company town hall or a CEO hinting at some new company news. It could also be a restaurant sharing a screenshot of its users booking team lunch at its venue.

Best for: Company news teasers, HR announcements,

Customer Testimonials

Customer service team getting accolades from customers? Turn that conversation into gold on your social media (with permission).

Best for: Building trust

June.so uses the private chat template on their website to show their customer testimonials beautifully.👇  It made me read through all the chats! 

Private chats are contagious. They tap into curiosity, authenticity, and deep emotions to create a buzz around your brand or product.

See you next week! 👋

Saurabh