How can i use whatsapp to promote my business

10 WhatsApp Tips and Tricks to Market Your Leisure Activity • Regiondo

Do you have WhatsApp?

I’m sure a customer has asked you that before and your answer was (probably) yes. Indeed, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app out right now. With 1.5 billion active users a month, it’s the biggest messaging platform, ahead of Facebook Messenger by more than 200 million users. As a leisure activity business, you understand the significance of being engaged on platforms where your customers are active and where you can stand out. WhatsApp is one of those platforms.

This article will show you why WhatsApp is an important component of your marketing strategy and provide you with 10 tips and tricks on how to use it effectively to reach your audience.

Let’s get started.

Why Should WhatsApp Be Part of Your Marketing Strategy?

WhatsApp’s power as an instant messaging app is well known around the world. However, most businesses fail to realize the platform’s growing power as a marketing channel.

WhatsApp is part of the Facebook family, along with Instagram – it was purchased for $19 billion in 2014. When Facebook rolled out Snapchat’s stories feature to Instagram, they also rolled it out to WhatsApp and gave the app its first social feature.

In addition, to quickly emerging as a social media network, a Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism survey found that a large number of countries view WhatsApp as a trusted source of news.

WhatsApp indeed recognizes its current power and future potential to be a powerhouse for marketers. They even made an announcement about their plans to turn WhatsApp into a more functional marketing platform.

Building A Campaign on WhatsApp

It might be a good idea for you to start planning a WhatsApp marketing campaign now.

Here’s why.

There is no barrier to entry on WhatsApp: all you need is a smartphone. And there is plenty you can do on it to market your business. For example, you can:

● Use it as a messaging app to send event updates and exclusive offers.
● Send multimedia content.
● Use it to survey and get customer data.
● Record your data and messages by backing them up to Google Drive.

Are you convinced yet? If so, one of the first things you need to do before you start building your marketing campaign on WhatsApp is to stop thinking of it as a messaging app. Think of it like any other marketing platform like Facebook, where you can post messages and statuses. There are three main ways you can use it as part of an effective marketing strategy:

1. Broadcast Messages
Using the broadcast messaging feature, you can send a single message to multiple people on your contact list. Think of it as an SMS marketing campaign. However, WhatsApp currently only allows you to send to 256 contacts per message.

2. WhatsApp Status
If you’re already using Instagram and Snapchat stories, you are probably familiar with how the status feature works in WhatsApp. Using it, you can post videos and images to engage your audience with your brand for 24 hours. After 24 hours, your stories delete themselves.

3. WhatsApp Text Status
This feature was temporarily removed from the app when the Status feature went live. It allows you to put up a text status to broadcast discount codes, invite your audience to have conversations with you and any other call to action you want to make.

Now that you know why you should use WhatsApp to market your leisure activity business, here at 10 tips and tricks on how you can effectively use it to reach your target audience.

1. Create Broadcast Lists

You should create lists that are related to specific topics or audience segments. Once the lists are prepared you can send one-way communications that are specifically tailored to increase engagement, just like you do on Twitter.

You can include offers, links, or invitations in your messages. For example, if you are having an event or launch that will interest your audience, broadcast lists are the way to go.

Let’s assume you are a leisure and spa business. Then your audience will be interested in anniversary celebrations, summer and bank holidays. So you can use those opportunities to send them broadcast messages.

2. Use Group Chat

Group messages are shared with members of a group, and also include responses from group participants. That comes in handy when you need to conduct focus groups or market research before launching a product or service.

The group feature is also the best way for you to grant exclusivity to specific customer groups. It is also a way to encourage your customers to interact with one another and perhaps introduce other existing customers to try a new service or product that they’ve never tried before.

WhatsApp group chat provides benefits for both you and your customer: Your customers can easily interact with you and one another and you can easily connect to an international audience.

3. Offer Customer Service on WhatsApp

Providing immediate customer service is a luxury for many small businesses, particularly leisure activity ones. However, WhatsApp can help you and your staff to answer and address customer queries quickly.

Since WhatsApp features multimedia messaging, you can provide personalized customer service by using text, audio, or video. You can even provide live-video help or tutorials on WhatsApp, which will further streamline the customer support process for both you and your customers.

Also, remember that WhatsApp has a desktop application. So if you are using other customer support software on your desktop, you can easily merge the two and provide even faster customer service.

4. Get Feedback

Instead of calling customers for feedback, consider sending questions to your customer list via WhatsApp. Especially since the open rate for WhatsApp messages is 70 percent. It is marketing research at its optimum and it is also free.

When you receive the feedback, you can directly respond to their requests within the app and improve on the products or services that you offer.

And don’t just stick to traditional questionnaires. Develop entertaining and creative ones that are both a reflection of your brand and also enable you to interact with your customers in a non-intrusive way.

Since their feedback is of great value to you, you can reward them with coupons to encourage brand loyalty, and as part of a customer retention strategy.

5. Personalize Communication

If you’re doing WhatsApp marketing correctly, your groups will continue to grow. And as they grow, you can personalize your interaction with customers by directly communicating with them on the platform – one-on-one.

This is particularly helpful to small businesses because direct interaction with their customers makes it much easier for customers to directly message them if they need a specific product, have questions, or need customer support.

6. Call Your Customers

In addition to interacting and marketing to your customers via messaging, you should directly engage with them via phone calls.

For example, when you get a customer request (perhaps someone is interested in talking to a salesperson or simply wants more information), you can respond right away, within the app, by calling them.

7. Use WhatsApp Statuses to Share Promotions and Flash Sales

The new WhatsApp Status Update feature enables you to widely share special promotional codes for customers to redeem at your business.

You can use the instant photo and location feature to distribute the promotion codes to let everyone in your groups know about the special promotions you are running.

This can be a two to three-hour flash sale or one-day event to drive traffic or create buzz. If you have success with it, you can keep it exclusive to WhatsApp.

8. Partner with Complementary Businesses and Influencers

When you collaborate with businesses that offer complementary services or influencers in your space, you are increasing your audience and the number of WhatsApp groups you belong to. The partners do not need to be in your industry; the goal to become part of more conversations across various WhatsApp groups.

Even if people in other groups are not interested in your products or services, they might mention your brand in other groups or social channels; and those within their circle, who are interested in your business, will find you.

9. Create Quality Content

Yes, even on WhatsApp. Just as quality content is important for your site, it is also important for messaging in WhatsApp.

In WhatsApp, your messages need to be short and powerful. But you don’t have to worry as much about the length as you do on Twitter, but every single word should count. Your style and word choices should resonate with your audience or you’ll risk seeing very little engagement. Keep it simple, engaging, and focus on the benefits for your customers.

10. Use Third-Party Analytics

Just as with any marketing campaign, the most important part is analytics. You need to track and analyze your traffic so you can fine-tune and optimize your campaigns.
There are many thirds party apps and software that provide WhatsApp analytics.

Tracking software like Google Analytics can provide WhatsApp analytics data to help you optimize your social media strategy and fine-tune your strategies for reaching the right audiences.

Conclusion

Just as WhatsApp continues to evolve from a messaging app into another social media platform, so will your marketing efforts. We recommend that you start incorporating it into your marketing strategy today. Not only because it is a versatile platform that you can use to distribute files, videos, images, and texts about your products and services. But also because it is a free way to spread the word about your brand; and to better understand your customers’ needs so you can serve them better in the future.

The key is to measure your interactions and ensure that each message you send provides value. Track your analytics and keep optimizing your campaigns.

How to Use WhatsApp for Business: Tips and Tools

While you’ve probably already included platforms like Twitter and Facebook in your social media strategy, WhatsApp could be equally as important to your brand.

That’s right: WhatsApp isn’t just for texting your coworkers or video chatting with your family in a different city. It can be used for business, too.

WhatsApp Business was created specifically with small business owners in mind. It can help you connect with your customers and support them with immediate, personalized customer service.

If you’ve never considered adding a WhatsApp Business account into your brand’s social strategy, we’ll explore why that might be a good idea.

What is WhatsApp?

8 WhatsApp stats you probably didn’t know

How to use WhatsApp for business

4 great uses of WhatsApp for business

4 useful Whatsapp business tools

Bonus: Download our free WhatsApp for Customer Care guide to get more pointers on how to use WhatsApp Business to get higher conversion rates, better customer experience, lower costs, and higher customer satisfaction.

What is WhatsApp?

WhatsApp is a messaging app, like Facebook Messenger or We Chat.

The mobile app uses the phone’s Internet connection to let you communicate with other WhatsApp users, making it an affordable alternative to international calling or texting.

WhatsApp was an independent messenger company when it launched in 2009, but Facebook acquired it in 2014. As of 2021, it is still owned by Facebook.

People use WhatsApp for business or personal use because:

It’s free. The only charges you might get are data roaming charges.
It’s reliable. As long as you’re connected to wi-fi or have mobile data, you can use WhatsApp to communicate with users all over the world.
It’s widely available. There are WhatsApp users in 180 different countries.
It’s not just about texting. You can use WhatsApp for voice messages, calls and video calls, as well as sharing photos, videos, documents, or your location.

8 WhatsApp stats you probably didn’t know

The numbers speak for themselves.

1. WhatsApp is the most popular mobile messenger app in the world

2 billion people worldwide use WhatsApp at least once per month.

This places WhatsApp ahead of other popular messenger apps: Facebook Messenger with 1.3 billion users and WeChat with 1.2 billion users.

Source: Statista

2. WhatsApp is the third most-used social media network in the world

It’s behind only Facebook and YouTube for worldwide popularity.

Source: Hootsuite

3. 58% of WhatsApp users use the app more than once each day

In fact, in the USA, the average person uses it 143 times a month.

4. As of 2019, WhatsApp had more than half a billion daily active users

That’s an increase from 450 million at the end of 2018.

5. Most of WhatsApp’s new users in 2020 are in the USA

Following the States, the countries with the most WhatsApp downloads in 2020 were Brazil, the United Kingdom, India, then Mexico.

Source: Statista

6. 27% of American WhatsApp users are ages 26 to 35

Source: Statista

7. WhatsApp mostly is used to keep in contact with friends and family

That’s why 82% of Americans use the app. Other popular reasons include strengthening a professional network (13%) and getting entertainment (10%).

8. The most WhatsApp calls ever made was New Year’s Eve 2020

A record 1.4 billion video and voice calls were made using WhatsApp on December 31, 2020.

How to use WhatsApp for business

While only 4% of American WhatsApp users downloaded the app to follow brands or companies, there is still huge value in using WhatsApp for your business.

WhatsApp Business was built specifically with the small business owner in mind and offers specialized solutions that can help you connect with your customers.

To get started, you need a WhatsApp Business account. If you don’t have one yet, follow these simple step-by-step instructions.

How to create a WhatsApp Business account

1. Download the WhatsApp Business app for Android or iPhone

Find the app on the App Store or Google Play, or download it via WhatsApp’s site.

2. Agree to the terms and conditions

3. Enter your business’s phone number

4. Fill in your details

After you enter your phone number, you will automatically be directed to this page. Fill in the essential details like your business name, add a profile picture and select a category that best describes your business.

Get the guide now!

5. Learn more about the WhatsApp business tools

In the next step, you can learn about setting up a product catalog for your ecommerce or automated messaging.

You can also skip the tutorial and go straight to settings.

Before you move on to advanced features like automated messaging, make sure to add more information about your business. You can manage addresses, hours and websites in the Business Profile category in settings.

6. Now, start connecting with your customers

That’s it! Now that you know how to create a WhatsApp account for your business, you can start using the messenger app to communicate with customers.

4 great uses of WhatsApp for business

So, why should you use WhatsApp as a business owner? Here are 4 things the app might help you with.

Elevate your customer service

With a WhatsApp Business account, you can make your social media customer service more efficient and personal.

On top of serving as a channel for direct messaging, WhatsApp Business has several tools that you can use to elevate communication with customers:

Quick Replies. Save answers to commonly asked questions as templates and set up shortcuts. This will give you back the time you would spend typing out the answers to repeating questions. And, your customers will get their questions answered faster.

Labels. Use labels to organize and categorize users and messages. This will help you sort messages by urgency and recognize returning customers. You can use pre-programmed labels or create new ones that make sense for your business.

Away Messages and Greeting Messages. Set up these automated messages so your customer gets a response immediately, even if you’re unable to respond. This is a great way to set expectations for response times if a customer reaches out outside of your business hours.

On top of all this, it’s simply easy and affordable to communicate with international customers via WhatsApp Business.

Showcase your products in a catalog

You can think of WhatsApp Business’s catalog tool as a mobile storefront. It lets your customers browse your products without leaving the app.

This tool is useful for highlighting new products, seasonal collections or bestsellers.

Here are a few key facts about the catalog:

You can upload a maximum of 500 products or services.
Each product or service can include a title, price, description, product code and link to the product on your website.
Each product has an image.
You can share links from the catalog in WhatsApp conversations.

Communicate with colleagues or employees

WhatsApp Business isn’t just for communicating with customers. It’s also a useful way to stay in touch with employees. In fact, messenger apps like WhatsApp are used by 79% of professionals for communication at work.

Source: Digital 2020

The group chat feature lets you message with up to 256 people at one time. It’s possible to send PDFs and other documents over WhatsApp business. Files can be up to 100MB.

Network with other professionals

Finally, you use WhatsApp to communicate with others in your industry. The app’s video call tool can be used in a professional networking capacity, just like Zoom or Skype.

You can even sync WhatsApp Business with your desktop, so those professional networking calls can be done from your office computer rather than your phone.

4 useful Whatsapp business tools

Sparkcentral by Hootsuite

Sparkcentral makes customer service conversations a breeze. It’s an automated messaging platform, ideal for managing high volumes of messages.

Sparkcentral offers chatbots and AI solutions that help businesses automate customer service across social platforms — all in one dashboard. It works with WhatsApp, as well as Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Instagram and more.

Scan this QR code to start chatting with a Sparkcentral representative on WhatsApp, and find out more about what it can do, right now:

WhatsAuto

WhatsAuto is another solution you can use to build better auto-replies. WhatsAuto lets you create a chatbot, schedule auto-replies and easily turn auto-replies on and off.

Source: Google Play

Cleanup for Business WhatsApp

Download this business tool if you don’t want to spend time manually deleting old files off of WhatsApp. Cleanup makes cleaning up WhatsApp Business easy — you can select multiple files at once and quickly delete old images, videos, audio files, notes and profile pictures. The app works offline, too.

Status Saver For WhatsApp Scan

This app makes managing your business’s WhatsApp contact list easy. Use it to import WhatsApp contacts into your iPhone, merge duplicate contacts and connect with someone on WhatsApp without adding them as an official contact.

So, there you have it! Now you know why WhatsApp could be a great tool for your business. Don’t forget: messenger apps like WhatsApp Business are great ways to elevate customer service, and improve communication with both your customers and your team.

Save time building an efficient customer support system on social media with Hootsuite. Respond to questions and complaints, create tickets from social conversations, and work with chatbots all from one dashboard. Try it free today.

Get Started

Manage every customer inquiry on a single platform with Sparkcentral. Never miss a message, improve customer satisfaction, and save time. See it in action.

Chat with us

we create a company profile and set up advertising - Marketing on vc.ru

Let's figure out how to start a business to communicate with potential customers and attract new ones in WhatsApp. Below is a step-by-step guide from ppc.world on how to set up a company business profile, create ads in Ads Manager with a link to WhatsApp, as well as a tip on how to create a newsletter on behalf of a brand in the messenger.

14,966 views

WhatsApp is an instant messaging service between users online.

Messenger allows you to send text, audio and video messages, images, electronic documents, and also supports voice and video calls. It automatically syncs your contact list with your phone's phone book. This is possible due to the fact that all users are registered by their phone number.

Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014 and made the service free in 2016.

The company has two apps, WhatsApp Messenger and WhatsApp Business, which can only be used on the same device if they have two different phone numbers. The first application is intended for ordinary users, individuals, the second - for businesses. At the same time, people will be able to communicate with businesses in the WhatsApp Messenger available to them.

What is the difference between a business profile and a standard one:

Messages from a verified business profile come with a special designation — a green star next to the company name. So users can distinguish them from messages from a regular phone number;
business profile allows users to learn more about the company: address, website, email, categories of goods or services that it provides;
only for a business profile there is a desktop version, which is convenient for communicating with users;
creation of automatic messages is available: greetings, reminders, as well as setting up quick answers to user questions;
for business, a statistics section has been added to analyze the effectiveness of mailings.

Important! A WhatsApp business profile can be registered as a regular company business account, as well as a verified or official one. The last status is provided by the system itself and marks the profile with a green checkmark. Verified business accounts are marked with a gray question mark in their profile. In this case, the system checked that the phone number of the account matches the company number on the site.

How to create a WhatsApp business profile

Let's walk through the steps of how to get a company profile in WhatsApp.

Download and install the WhatsApp Business application on a mobile device or web version on a computer.

1. Fill out the company profile . Let's enter the name, type, activity, business description and address. WhatsApp interface: filling out a profile You can use the 192x192 logo for the profile picture, and information from the website or Facebook page for the business description.

If you later need to change the information, click on the three dots in the upper right corner and select "Settings" - "Business Settings" - "Company Profile" - "Edit". Here you can also add opening hours, website and email, and links to the company's social networks. Don't forget to save your changes. Whatsapp interface: add address

Add product categories.

Set up automatic messages. Open the menu again (three dots) in the upper right corner. In the drop-down list, select "Settings" - "Business Settings". At the bottom there is a "Message management" section where you can create several types of messages:

2. Fill out the company profile . Enter the name, type, activity, description of the business and address.

A 192×192 logo can be used for a profile picture, and information from a website or Facebook page can be used to describe a business.

3. Add product categories.

4. Set up automatic messages. Open the menu again (three dots) in the upper right corner. In the drop-down list, select "Settings" - "Business Settings". At the bottom there is a "Message management" section where you can create several types of messages:

Out of office . Set up users to receive auto-replies while you're not available, such as when the store is closed. Messages can be scheduled on time.

Welcome messages are shown to users who have written for the first time or have been inactive for more than 14 days.

Quick answers . A business owner can make communication with users faster and more efficient by preparing message templates and linking them to keywords.

Set up labels to organize your correspondence. This feature is indispensable if you expect a large flow of messages from customers.
In the menu in the upper right corner, select "Shortcuts". You can create up to 20 shortcuts.

In the future, you can add a label to a specific message or an entire chat. To do this, you need to press and hold on a message or chat, then select "Chat Shortcut".

6. Business owner can get business profile short link to share with customers for WhatsApp chat. It is available in the section "Settings" - "Business settings" - "Short link".
You can also create a message template here, which will be available for editing to clients after clicking on a short link.

In addition, statistics are available to the owner in the same main menu in the "Settings" - "Business settings" - "Statistics" section.

How to set up targeted ads in Ads Manager with a transition to WhatsApp

To create ads in Ads Manager that go to WhatsApp, you will need a previously created in-app business profile and a Facebook ad account.

In the "Campaigns" section, select "Create".

To create ads that link to a WhatsApp campaign, select the Messages objective.

Campaign level

Set the campaign name and budget. You can also choose A/B testing here if you want to determine the most effective creative from several. Nothing else needs to be changed.

At the ad group level

WhatsApp ads are shown only to people over 18 years old, this is configured in the account by default.

1. In the "Destination for messages" section, select WhatsApp Business and then the campaign page . If you have not linked it to WhatsApp Business before, you can do it now by clicking on the appropriate button below and entering the phone number linked to your business profile.

2. Determine the audience for advertising . Here you can create a new audience or use a previously created one. But for one ad group, use one audience, it's easier to analyze performance.

You can target ads to a custom audience based on a list of customers.

Another option is to select the audience manually, for this we set: places (locals, travelers, recent visitors or all people), age, gender and, if necessary, languages and connections to your page to select people, in some way associated with her.

Important! If you sell only to residents of St. Petersburg, select "Locals" in "Places" and "Russian" in languages. Otherwise, the ad will be shown to visitors or tourists for whom the offer is irrelevant.

In addition, fine-grained targeting is available to the advertiser, which allows you to include people with specific interests, demographics, and behaviors in the audience. Here you can exclude a group of people.

Detailed targeting can be expanded. This way the system will show ads to more people: distribute the budget between the selected and wider audiences, and during the course of the campaign, direct the money to the audience that brings the highest results at the lowest cost.

Read more about targeting options in Facebook ads in our material.

3. Set placements. For this, automatic placements are available, which are recommended to more advertisers and allow you to reach more users in all Facebook applications and services (feeds, stories, in-stream, messages, in articles, apps and websites). Also, the advertiser can edit placements, exclude ineffective ones.

Important! The Audience Network placement is unavailable for ads with a link to WhatsApp.

To show ads only on Instagram or the Facebook app, select the "Edit placements" option.

4. Set budget and schedule . Here you will need to specify the event for which the system optimizes the ad group. Only Replies are available for the Posts target.

Set the display schedule and additional parameters - the spending limit for the ad group and the option in which you will pay for advertising. For the Posts goal, only Impression is available.

Ad level

1. Name the ad , and select the Facebook page or Instagram account that will represent the brand in the ad. To use an Instagram account, you first need to link a page to it.

2. Select the format.

3. Add images or videos to the ad.

4. Enter the ad text, title and description.

Let's see how the ad will look on the available placements.

5. Choose how to track conversions and set URL parameters.

The advertiser can set up tracking using:

Facebook pixel, which will allow you to study the actions of users on the site to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising;
application events that allow you to track user actions in the application (for example, installation or purchase), create audiences for targeting;
offline conversions that help track transactions in the store and across other offline channels after Facebook users have viewed or interacted with ads.

By setting URL parameters in Ads Manager, you can determine the source of ad traffic and which ads are driving conversions. The advertiser will be able to study statistics by URL parameters. For example, which link users clicked to go to an ad page or website.

Facebook Ads is now set up, we are sending it for moderation.

How to create a bulk WhatsApp

In the messenger, you can send mailings only to phone numbers with payment for each message. But the advertiser has the opportunity to communicate with the user for free and send ads within 24 hours if the recipient is the first to write or reply to a message from the mailing list.

The feature is only available for business profiles, so you need to install WhatsApp Business Messenger or WhatsApp Business API. With the first one, you will be able to collect user requests, respond to them, send automatic responses if a person clicks on the specified buttons, and send mass mailings to 256 subscribers.

WhatsApp Business API is a service that allows you to connect external systems to your WhatsApp account. Provides additional solutions, for example, the ability to connect from multiple computers using the same phone number without using WhatsApp Web, as well as mass mailings to an unlimited number of users and connecting a channel to CRM.

Why WhatsApp is better than SMS:

It is possible to add an image to the message. Pictures are saved in the users album, even if the message is deleted.
Can be targeted by age, gender, location, interests, etc.
Links in messages allow the company to track clicks on them.

To create a mailing list, you will need to add contacts to a mailing list. Then select "New mailing list", add users and enter the text of the message.

Mass mailing of information and service messages is allowed only after connecting one of the two services listed above, and mass mailing of advertising is prohibited in principle. WhatsApp monitors accounts that violate the rules and bans the phone numbers from which the message is sent. So you can lose the logs of correspondence with customers.

Read more about launching mailing lists in messengers in our material on chatbots and auto funnels.

Conclusion

WhatsApp is not yet able to provide paid advertising opportunities for businesses, but the service has its advantages. The lack of competition allows brands to stand out on WhatsApp and communicate directly with users.

Do not forget that the basis of the messenger is messaging. Make sure your company has all the necessary resources to manage chats with users.

Read more about online advertising at ppc.world.

How to use WhatsApp for business?

Igor Volkov

Updated by February 27, 2021

Loading. ..

Contents:
1. WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Business API: what are they, what are the differences and why do you need it?
2. 5 ways to implement WhatsApp in your business
3. How to create a business profile?
4. How to set up communication with clients?
5. How to analyze the results?

Businessmen who missed the beginning of the Facebook era in 2007 still regret it - the social network daily generates millions for those who were the first to start their business on the platform. In 2019, the era of WhatsApp has come - and the world is again divided into "early birds" who will collect the cream, and those who will regret the missed opportunities.

If you're looking to get the most powerful channel to connect with your customers, we recommend that you bookmark this material - we've put together the most comprehensive guide to implementing and using WhatsApp for business.

WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Business API: what is it, what is the difference and why do you need it?

WhatsApp Business products - WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Business API are business chat applications designed to communicate with customers, send them important notifications and build loyalty in real time.

WhatsApp Business is designed for small businesses and is available on Android, iOS and PC. WhatsApp Business API is a solution for large businesses that requires access through the official form.

As of April 2019, the application unites 1.5 billion. users. According to a HubSpot survey, 48% of respondents said they prefer using chat to communicate with businesses.

The business version differs from the usual WhatsApp in that:

Instead of a personal profile, you create a business profile with company contact information: name, type of activity, address, phone number, website;
profile administrator has access to application usage statistics: number of sent, delivered, read and received messages;
it is possible to automate communication with customers: save popular replies, schedule welcome messages, mark chats with labels or tags;
business profiles are visually distinct from personal profiles: company profiles with a verified phone number get a gray flag next to the company name, while official profiles of well-known companies get a green checkmark. Submit an application through the form or get access through Webim or Infobip providers Cost Free If the communication is initiated by the client, the company's response is free within 24 hours. If the communication is initiated by a company (mailing, notification), the cost of the message is $0.0477. But if the client responds, the company has 24 hours for a free response.

299

5 Ways to Implement WhatsApp in Your Business

Before embarking on a new marketing communications channel, decide on the purpose of communication.

Basic options:

Fast technical support channel with the ability to send pdf documents, video instructions, pictures, etc. to the client;
the ability to send useful information to customers - payment confirmation, order status, receipts based on transaction results;
advertising on Facebook, where the purpose is to send a message to WhatsApp with subsequent consultation and / or sale;
collecting feedback - in exchange for a discount or a gift, ask customers to scan a QR code that will redirect the user to a chat where they can leave feedback on cooperation and their wishes;
advising existing or potential customers by integrating whatsapp into the sales funnel.

In any case, we recommend promoting and advertising the channel, otherwise there will be no requests. WhatsApp does not support searching for a company within the application, so bring customers to chat from third-party sites using sms and email campaigns, posting a link to the company page on the website, in social networks, etc.

How do I create a business profile?

Step one

Download the app for free from the Google Play Store or the App Store.

Second step

Register a business account using a phone number. We recommend using the official phone number of the company for these purposes - this will make it possible to verify the authenticity of the account and receive the status of “verified account”.

It is important that the number used to register a business account be able to receive both calls and SMS messages. A landline or mobile number is fine, but the free 0-800 line is not.

Allowed to enter the number to which your personal WhatsApp account is linked and turn it into WhatsApp Business. This option was made specifically for small companies, where the owner communicated with customers at first from a personal phone number, but with the scaling of the business, this function was transferred to another employee.

The transformation of a personal account into WhatsApp Business is automatic, you can even transfer the history of conversations with customers to a business account. But it is not possible to convert from a business profile to a personal profile, so we recommend that you still purchase a new phone number, which will become the official phone number of your company.

Third step

Fill in the fields "Company name" and "Type of activity".

Company name must consist of alphanumeric characters from 3 to 256 characters long and must not contain emoticons, symbols, inappropriate punctuation marks or any variations of the word "WhatsApp". Also, you cannot use a person's full name, a common word ("fishing", "shop"), or a place name ("London") as a name.

The type of activity can be selected from the list - at the moment it contains 17 headings, including the general section "Other".

Fourth step

Fill in information about the company. To do this, click on the menu icon and select "Settings" - "Business Settings" - "Company Profile".

Then click on the pencil icon in the upper right corner and fill in all the fields: photo, company address, description - basic services, features of work, benefits from working with you, hours of operation, e-mail, website address. When all fields are filled in, save the changes by selecting the Save button.

Please note that it is recommended that you use your logo as your business profile photo, not a third-party image. The smallest size is 192 pixels by 192 pixels.

If you have not yet developed a corporate identity, we recommend creating a free logo using the Logaster platform - a logo created by yourself will give a better association with a business than a picture from the Internet.

How to brand a channel in WatsApp?

Channel design in corporate style will increase recognition and create an image for your business. Therefore, start creating a logo right now.

Fifth step

Set the current company status.

Statuses - the ability to share with customers up-to-date information about a promotion, discount, special offer, notify about an unplanned change in working hours or delivery conditions.

Status in WhatsApp Business can be an image, a video up to 30 seconds, or a test message valid for 24 hours. To add a status, go to the Status tab and click on the pencil to add a text message, or on the camera icon to add a photo or video message.

How to communicate with clients?

1. Message Management

The first thing to do is to configure the preset messages in the Message Management section. Click on the menu icon and select "Settings" - "Business Settings".

In the "Message management" section, you can:

Prepare a response template for users when the company is "out of office" - after hours or when it is inconvenient to respond to incoming messages;
create a welcome message for those who write to the company for the first time or after inactivity for 14 days;
schedule the texts of frequently sent messages - the so-called "quick replies".

WhatsApp for Business uses quick replies as an FAQ. You prepare the texts of popular messages in advance (“Thank you for your order”, “Office is located at…”, “Store opening hours…”) – and when you need to send a reply, call them using the abbreviations written after the slash.

How it works: in the "Quick Replies" section, click on the green plus sign - you will see the screen for adding a quick response. Write your message - for example, "Thank you for your order." Next, enter an abbreviation no longer than 25 characters, with which you can add a quick answer - for example, "thank you." Now, while communicating with a client, you can type /thank you - and the client will receive a pre-prepared message.

2. Chatbot

With free chatbot builders for WhatsApp, you can create a virtual assistant that will take the load off your technical support or sales department. Programming skills are not needed — online chatbot constructors are tailored for use by “non-programmers”. In just a few hours, you can create a bot that can process an incoming order, accept payment, or book a table in a cafe.

How it works: using third-party services - Chat Helpdesk, SaleBot, chat2desk, etc. — you create a funnel that your client will move through with the help of a bot. The goal of going through the funnel can be to solve a problem, place an order, make a reservation, or pre-order. The user must first send a welcome message to the bot, in response to which the bot will send a programmed response. Then the user will select the appropriate answer from the proposed options, to which the bot will again issue the corresponding programmed answer.

Having reached the end, the person will receive a solution to the problem, and the company will receive a loyal client. But be careful - if a person is not satisfied with the programmed answers, organize the chatbot so that the client has the opportunity to switch to a real person who will solve his problem on an individual basis.