How to manage WhatsApp leads effectively?

Adding your WhatsApp number to the website would help you convert the anonymous site visitors into verified leads. But what next? In this article, we will discuss how to make the best use of the customer contacts received through WhatsApp.

In our previous article, we have tried to answer the following relevant questions:

1. Why should businesses offer their customers WhatsApp to communicate?
2. Even after adding the WhatsApp number on their website, why do many businesses still don’t get enough leads?
3. How can Tiny Plug help these businesses through it’s WhatsApp Click-to-chat widget?

Adding Tiny Plug on your site can remove the delay and friction between customers visiting your website and contacting you on WhatsApp. But once you get those precious contact numbers, what’s the way ahead? How do you ensure that your first impression meets their expectations and they keep coming back to you?

Here are some useful tips that can help you manage your WhatsApp leads effectively. The best part is- these are simple and free of cost.

WhatsApp for Business

If you are a business and want to use WhatsApp for communication, getting WhatsApp for business can prove to be the best decision for the following reasons:

1. Additional features: WhatsApp for Business offers many additional features that can help businesses optimize their communication with customers.
2. Seamless interaction: WhatsApp business accounts can communicate seamlessly with personal WhatsApp accounts.
3. Free of cost: Businesses can get their WhatsApp business accounts free of cost.

5 ways you can make most out of your WhatsApp Business Account

#1 Setting up a Greeting Message

What is a greeting message?

The greeting message is a preset message that would be sent to people who would contact your WhatsApp Business Account for the first time. It is triggered as soon as a person sends his first message to your account.

Why should you set up a WhatsApp greeting message?

1. When using a WhatsApp for communication, people often expect a quick reply.
2. l It is professional and polite to start a conversation with a welcome message. Standardizing this message and automating it helps the business save the effort to type it every time.
3. If you have some important information (would see some examples in the section below) to be shared with your customer, WhatsApp greeting message would play an important role.

What are the things you should consider while designing a greeting message on WhatsApp?

1. Greeting message would serve as the first impression on your potential customer hence following things are important to be considered:
2. l Determine your objective of using WhatsApp for communication. Your WhatsApp greeting message should always be aligned to your objective (refer to examples in the section below).
3. l Greeting message should be brief and clear.
4. l The tone of the message should be warm and professional.
5. l In case you have a pre-filled message and an away message too, following would be the sequence: pre-filled message, greeting message followed by away message. Hence, you have to be careful while crafting these messages.

Example of a greeting message

In the above example, the objective of using WhatsApp is to book appointments for Asha Clinic. The message is pre-filled accordingly and the greeting message in a reply here serves two purposes:

1. Welcomes the customers
2. Conveys an important business-related information

How to set up a greeting message on WhatsApp?

Here is a guide that would help you set up a WhatsApp greeting message.

#2 Setting up an Away Message when you are offline

What is an away message?

An away message is an auto-reply that would be sent to your customer the first time he messages while you are away.

Why should you set up a WhatsApp away message?

One of the most important expectations of a customer while using WhatsApp is a quick reply. For outside of office hours or in case you are offline and unable to answer immediately, it’s a good practice to set the expectations right.

1. Let your customer know that you would not be able to reply immediately.
2. Tell your customer by when he can expect a reply from you.

What are the things you should consider while designing an away message on WhatsApp?

Setting up an away message is as important as setting up a greeting message. While designing an away message, take care of the following:

1. Away message should be brief and clear.
2. The tone of the message should be warm and professional.
3. If possible, mention by what time you would be able to reply to the customer.
4. While creating an away message, consider the content of the greeting message. Try to maintain the same tone and style.

Example of an away message

How to set up an away message on WhatsApp?

Here is a guide that would help you set up a WhatsApp away message.

#3 Label your contacts

What does labeling contacts mean?

You can categorize your contacts using labels on WhatsApp. It not only helps you manage your contacts in a better way but also helps in taking bulk actions like broadcasting.

Why should you label your contacts?

Labeling your contacts can help in the following ways:

1. To keep a track of your contacts and manage them.
2. To take bulk actions like sending a broadcast

What are the things you should consider while labeling your WhatsApp contacts?

Labeling your contacts in the right way can minimize your efforts and reduce duplication of work. Make sure to plan out your labeling strategy before labeling- the objective of labeling, categorization, and the number of labels, etc.

Examples of WhatsApp labeling

You can label your contacts in multiple ways, some of the most commonly used labels are:

1. Based on the purchase funnel: This is one of the most common labeling strategies. Some examples of the labels are:

For a graphic designing company, the following can be various labels

a. Enquiry

b. Sales

c. Under Execution

d. Customer Service

2. Based on products/services: This labeling strategy is useful for companies that have multiple products. Some examples of the labels are:

For a graphic designing company, the following can be various labels

a. Logo Designing

b. Facebook Banner Ad

c. Visiting Cards

d. Infographic

How to label contacts on WhatsApp?

Here is a guide that would help you labeling your contacts on WhatsApp.

#4 Broadcast messages on WhatsApp

What does broadcasting mean?

In WhatsApp parlance, broadcasting means sending bulk messages to a list. There are two things that you must know about broadcasting:

1. One broadcasting list can consist of a maximum 256 contacts. However, you can create another broadcast list if you want to send more messages.
2. For anyone to receive your broadcast, they must have saved your WhatsApp number in their address book.

Why should you broadcast?

Broadcasting is a very good option for you because:

1. You can keep your customers engaged by sending them relevant information, latest updates, deals and offer details.
2. Instead of adding your contacts to a group and jeopardizing their security and privacy, you can now send the message to a list like an email marketing campaign.
3. Since the customers have to save your number to receive broadcasts, your messages would reach only to the interested customers hence, removing the chances of spamming.

What are the things you should consider while broadcasting?

Keep the following in mind while creating your broadcasting message:

1. Don’t spam. Determine an optimum frequency for broadcasting messages.
2. Send relevant information only. If required, label your contacts and customize your message based on the target audience.
3. Keep it short and crisp. If you want to send out a long message or content, put it on your blog and share the link.

How to broadcast?

Here is a guide that would help you broadcast on WhatsApp

#5 Use Quick Replies

What are quick replies?

Quick replies are pre-typed messages that can be populated in the chat by using slash followed by corresponding keywords.

Why should you use quick replies?

If you are using WhatsApp Business account then using quick replies is highly recommended for the following reasons:

1. It saves a lot of time and effort in typing.
2. Customers get faster replies.

What are the things you should consider while designing quick replies?

While designing quick replies, consider the following:

1. Plan your quick replies. WhatsApp allows you to create as many as 50 quick replies so it is important to prioritize which type of replies are used the most.
2. Make sure your quick replies are short and crisp.
3. Use relevant keywords to identify quick replies.

How to set up quick replies?

Here is a guide that would help you set up quick replies on WhatsApp

Would you like to know more? Check out our blog

We have compiled a set of articles that would help you get to know Tiny Plug more and provide a ready reckoner that would help you make the best use of Tiny Plug. You would also find some useful posts on effectively designing your messages and user experience.

If you have a query, you can reach out to us at Help@TinyPlug.io or leave a reply in the comments section below. We would get back to you with a solution as fast as we can.