How to Use WhatsApp to Generate More Interest and Leads

WhatsApp profiles for businesses offer a number of features that increase the lines of communication between customers and businesses. This helps in attracting and generating more interest in your brand, as well as more leads for your marketing and sales team to work with. Here’s how...

WhatsApp is the world’s most used messaging app. Businesses are using it for its ability to put you in direct contact with your customers through one-on-one interactions. Let’s look at the stats before we dive into the specifics of how to use this app to generate more leads:

The messaging app has over 2 billion users
More than 100 billion messages are daily
Over 60 languages are supported

Using WhatsApp to Generate More Interest

By increasing communication channels, you are giving your customers more ways to reach you. More options mean they can engage in a way that is most comfortable to them, and for many, a text beats a call or email. It’s a direct line that creates one of the quickest responses which is very attractive to today’s customers.

Businesses account on WhatsApp provide more chance for visibility. By posting a Story, you can share reminders with your contacts which then triggers interest and starts the customer journey. You are also able to share relevant messages with segmented contacts to tailor your communication with them and encourage an ongoing relationship.

Finally, by integrating WhatsApp with your CRM, you can manage all of your conversations with ease and keep the data on record to create a better understanding of each customer and what their needs are. It also makes it easy for people to share content with their contacts via the app.

How to Generate More Leads Using WhatsApp

First things first, consider all of the contacts you engage with via WhatsApp leads. They may be existing leads or new ones altogether. See, this app is not merely for customer convenience but can be seen and used as a tool for understanding your customers better and improving the relationships you have with them.

When it comes to generating leads, you cannot just message people. Users are protected in that way, and therefore you need to create interest among your audience to engage with you. In short, they need to take the first step in messaging you.

WhatsApp’s rules allow for promotional content to be sent to the customer once this conversation begins within the first 24 hours. Thereafter, information relating to the query and one additional promo message can be sent.

These measures are put in place to protect the customer and ensure that they aren’t bombarded with marketing materials. It is imperative that the above is known and adhered to for a successful strategy for WhatsApp Business users.

So, how can we use WhatsApp to generate leads?

Share your profile

It may seem obvious, but once you have a verified WhatsApp Business account, you need to ensure you’re sharing your details for increased awareness. Have it visible on your site and include it in other communicative material, such as your email signature. You don’t have to share your number, you can simplify it by sharing your unique QR code.

You can share your WhatsApp details via:

Your website (click-to-chat widgets)
Social media profiles
Paid adverts
Email signatures

Pro tip: Ensure you are using effective calls to action.

Make use of automation

WhatsApp Business makes message automation easy. You can create various shortcuts that are appropriate to your business, ensuring that you’re messaging efficiently. This also creates an improved sense of customer service and shows the customer that your brand is professional through your consistency in responses. It also makes the goal of responding to messages within 24-hours a realistic target.

There are a number of tools that can help you build your own chatbot. These require no coding and often include templates which you can then customize accordingly. Alternatively, check out WhatsApp Business API. Here’s some more info:

“The WhatsApp Business API allows medium and large businesses to communicate with their customers at scale. Using the API, businesses can connect thousands of agents and bots to interact with customers programmatically and manually. Additionally, the API can be integrated with numerous backend systems, such as CRM and marketing platforms.”

To find out more about this, click here.

In Summary

Don’t forget while WhatsApp is a highly effective tool to generate leads, it is just as important to focus on nurturing leads through the app (by engaging in long-term relationships through conversation), and lead conversions (as it can be used for sales or directing traffic to your site). What are you waiting for? Unleash the many opportunities that WhatsApp presents for business. It all begins with generating more interest in your brand.