If you want to go digital in marketing, then it is very crucial to have your Business WhatsApp up and running so that you can take the maximum benefits of your Digital Dukaan.
When we speak Digital Dukaan, we visualize the complete business transaction or at least the sales part occurring via a digital mode of communication which may comprise of Social Media, Website, Email, Telephone, SMS, WhatsApp, Zoom or any other digital medium of communication.
For us as an agency digital marketing is not just limited to have lead generation being done using Facebook or Google. We believe it is very crucial to have a strong line of communication post the lead generation is done.
So before you start to market on social media, please ensure that you have your Business WhatsApp fully updated and functional.
Important Links for Business WhatsApp:
Download links:
The signup process is the same as regular WhatsApp Messenger.
Once you have signed up on Business WhatsApp then you can explore the below-shown features. Some of the below-shown features are also there in regular WhatsApp Messenger. Surprisingly, the UPI payment option is available in regular WhatsApp messenger but it is not there yet in Business WhatsApp.
You can upload your business details using the Business Tools option available in the menu of your Business WhatsApp application.
We will talk in detail about:
Business Profile
Catalogue
Away Message
Greeting Message
Quick replies
Labels
Short Link
Business Profile
This is the space for your Corporate Identity. Have it perfectly filled.
Full Name (No smileys, nicknames, etc please)
Business Name
Category of Business (Choose from the available options)
Address with Location on Maps
Working Hours
Email Id
Website
Mobile Number is already loaded in the WhatsApp account as your unique identification. Hence not present in this space.
Catalogue
You can list your products or services in this space. The best part is you can share your product/service directly as a message.
Enlist your different products/services, put a brief description of the same, putting price is optional.
Currently, categorization is not there in the catalogue but we will soon see the same progressively.
If you see the top right corner there is a symbol of the hyperlink, You can create a direct link to your catalogue which you can share at multiple promotional locations. Prospect customers can directly come to this point and explore available products/services along with corresponding photographs.
Catalogue Link
As you can see from the image my catalog link is https://wa.me/c/919825242242
Similarly, we can have our direct message short link which we will discuss later. https://wa.me/919825242242
You can see in the below images how the product appears in the WhatsApp account of the person to whom you send your catalog or product.
It is important to write in brief about your business so that whenever someone lands up in your catalog he or she can get an idea about what your company is.
Click to Chat Feature of WhatsApp
This space is to have a short link for directly connecting with you on WhatsApp. If someone wants to directly message you without saving your number in their contacts then this becomes the easiest way.
One of the most under-used features of WhatsApp.
Recently WhatsApp has updated this short link. If you want to publish a short link in such a way that your mobile number is not scrapped by bots, then you can use the link masked by a key as shown in the screenshot.
You can embed a customized message as well in the short link.
For more details you can refer to this link:
wa.me/919825242242 is the shortest format of Click to chat.
Another option is to have a customized message embedded in the URL. You can see the screenshot, when you will click on the link it will open the window with a pre-typed message. This is the best way to generate leads for the right product. You can put links on your website and redirect people to WhatsApp. When you will receive a unique response, you can track which product brought you the final conversion on the call to action button.
I have embedded the custom message in this link from my Business WhatsApp application:
https://wa.me/message/G324WFMQ7C6LK1
Another way is to type the message in the below URL:
Replace your mobile number and message. %20 = space in the coding language.
Run the link and test it before publishing it.
You can convert the above long URL into a short one using Bit.ly
Product/service Shared as a message
It is a great feature to share your products/services as a message in WhatsApp itself. You can directly close orders from Business WhatsApp and complete your business transaction.
We will discuss various other tools of Business WhatsApp which can help us to quickly communicate with our prospective clients.
Short link QR
We spend aggressively in bringing calls to our business mobile number or walk-ins to our showroom.
We have often got a lot of inquiries from customers to give them a solution for Bulk WhatsApp messaging. WhatsApp is a sequential messaging platform and it strictly does not allow bulk messaging in order to avoid spamming on its platform.
WhatsApp has made strict rules in using the Broadcast functionality as well.
So it is best to develop WhatsApp subscription just like we used to have email subscriptions in the past.
Scan QR is a fantastic way to bring visitors to your Digital Dukaan. You can use this to make someone start a WhatsApp chat with you.
Use this on your social media, print communication, printed catalogs, visiting cards, roster book of your BNI chapter, and so on.
Away Message
Use this feature of the Away Message to notify your customer when you are not online.
You can keep the setting of sending this message only outside business hours as well.
The problem with this functionality right now is that it sends this response even in the Groups where you are a member which results in unnecessary spamming when someone tags you in the group.
Quick Replies
You can save different messages with different keywords or hotkeys.
This is a fantastic feature when you have to share your introduction to someone or a fixed response you can keep it saved in Quick replies and use it whenever needed.
I have my introduction saved in my Quick replies section, I use it whenever I message to someone with whom I am interacting for the 1st time.
Labels
We often have important discussions on WhatsApp with our clients or prospective customers.
At times it is required to follow up with them.
Use labels to save chats/messages and you can later on use them for further action.
You will also see the label mark beside the name of the person in the chat window as well.
Starred Messages
Often your client asks you to send you bank details so that he or she can do the payment in your account and you have to search in your accounts group which eats away a lot of crucial time and energy.
Starred messages feature was introduced to solve these challenges.
You may use this feature to Star mark certain important messages like your GSTIN certificate, bank details, address of your office, and so on.
You can directly forward this message from the Starred messages section itself.
Pin Chat
You can see the symbol of the top three chats in the screenshot.
WhatsApp allows you to pin up to 3 chats to the top.
I use this feature to pin my company's team group, price list, etc
We have various new updates that are to be shared by the entire sales team to their prospective clients.
You may use this also to keep something on top priority. For instance you have a deadline to meet and you do not want to miss any important message coming in that group, you can pin it to the top and ensure you do not miss the messages coming in the same.
Status
WhatsApp Status is one of the strongest marketing tools for your Digital Dukaan. Kindly make a habit of updating a new update daily on your status to intimate your contacts about your latest success stories.
A status remains for 24 hours and gets removed automatically after 24 hours.
This is one of the most engaging spaces of WhatsApp. People often browse this space to know about the latest updates of their contacts.
A friend enjoying a vacation at a nice hill station, a new product launch by someone, an event announcement, a positive thought, a joke, a delicious food item made by your cousin, and so on.
You will find these things in the Status area of WhatsApp.
I strongly recommend using it for communicating the latest success stories of your business. You can put a photo of a recently completed site or a new product which you have introduced. I strongly believe you will generate a lot of good inquiries from your existing customers. This is the best way to upsell or retain clients.
Often people use the Broadcast feature to message to many people. I believe that should be done when it is a piece of reasonably big size news which you want to inform everyone. Do not send Good Morning message to everyone daily using the broadcast feature. It will lead to blocking by many people and you will end up losing audience of your message.
Status is the perfect space to intimate everyone about your daily updates. It is optional to view it and those who are really interested will be exploring the Status part and responding to you.
You can use the Text tool to update a Text Status.
You can change the color of the background, change the font style, and add emoticons here.
You can even upload image or videos as status.
There is a time limit when it comes to putting videos in status so whenever you are uploading a long video you will observe only allowed time limit of video will go on the status.
You can see who and how many people have viewed your status. You can use this feature to observe who is following your updates and develop stronger communication with them.
Chat Backup
At times, you find people worried when they lose their chats on WhatsApp. WhatsApp has become so common for communication that a lot of important business communication occurs on WhatsApp.
You can export the chats from Chat history and save it on your email.
Also, it is strongly recommended to have the chat backup daily over Google Drive. Ensure you have enough space available on Google Drive.
When you change your phone, simply restore the backup from your Google Drive and you will be as good as you were in the previous phone.
So that was all about various features available on Business WhatsApp. Some of the above features like chat backup or status are also available on regular WhatsApp.
If you are using a regular WhatsApp Messenger app then you can use the UPI payment functionality available for Indian users in the same.
Switch to Business WhatsApp if you have a lot of business communication to be done using your WhatsApp account, It will look more professional.
Also, you may see chatbots on WhatsApp from Green ticked WhatsApp accounts. These are verified business accounts. WhatsApp will verify your business account if you have a very large volume of communication going on from your Business WhatsApp Account. Usually, larges size companies get this sooner than others because of their volume and it is important to do so to avoid spamming by providing a verified badge to the same.
Please note there is no shortcut to getting a verified badge on Business WhatsApp. There is no agency that can do this. So please do not fall prey to such scammers.
Kindly please be patient and keep your Business WhatsApp rightly updated. You may get verified if the volume of messages is large and you have not been blocked or reported spam by people.
So this was my sharing on the usage of Business WhatsApp. Kindly share some other tips and hacks if you are using in the comment. For eg: Some people make a group with themselves and keep personal notes in the same.
To know more about Digital Dukaan, Click Here. For the pricing and plans of the Consultancy for Digital Marketing: Click Here.
Stay tuned for our next blog on the features of WhatsApp Cart.
Image Courtesy: My own (Palak Madhwani) WhatsApp Account's Screenshots, Business WhatsApp official website, and Wix.com library.