WhatsApp is we all know is one of the most downloaded apps on the Play Store right now. WhatsApp is known for its simple, real-time and reliable messaging service. Apart from its core messaging service, WhatsApp also has released a different version called WhatsApp Business, for small businesses and local startups. If you are someone who just discovered this app or wanted to know how to set up your business account then you are in the right place. Today, we will walk you through everything you need to know about WhatsApp for Business.
As we know, the company released its new version of WhatsApp for business purposes called WhatsApp Business. This out of the box approach was intended to serve as the bridge between small businesses or local enterprises and customers. WhatsApp Business is equipped with some of the best features that you can make use of to set up your business brand on WhatsApp. But before that, let’s understand the importance if setting up your own WhatsApp Business account.
Why Should You Use WhatsApp Business?
Since WhatsApp began to take over all the social media apps, it became important to have set up your WhatsApp for Business account. WhatsApp is flexible and it has easy to use interface. Apart from that, it is relatively easy to set up your business or enterprise on WhatsApp. Customers can also reach out to you in a few clicks and you can solve their queries right away. Being said that, you also get various options such as a Products catalogue, Greeting Message, Away Message and other advanced features.
Benefits of Using WhatsApp Business Account
- Creating a brand value for your business.
- Help your customers to know about your products.
- Create a direct contact relationship through WhatsApp.
- Solve customers’ queries about products and offers.
- Help your customers to find what they are looking with catalog.
How To Set Up WhatsApp for Business Account?
It is actually quite easy to set up your business account. You don’t need to worry about anything. We will walk you through everything you need to set up your WhatsApp for Business.
1. Installing the WhatsApp Business App
First step is to install WhatsApp Business on your phone.
WhatsApp Business App is totally free on both Android & iOS. And you don’t need to pay a single penny to register your business account on it.
If you use Android then you should download the latest version of WhatsApp Business app from Play Store.
On the other hand for Apple iPhone users, head to the Apple App Store and download the WhatsApp Business App.
Create Your Business Profile
Register your mobile number with the WhatsApp for Business and Set up name for your business just like you do on the WhatsApp messanger.
Now so that you have installed and registered on the WhatsApp for Business app on your phone, let’s get started.
Tap on the three dots on the top right corner of the screen then select Business Tools. After that tap on the Business Profile option.
In this section, you can fill up the Business Name, Description, Business Category, Business address & hours, Business email and website URL. You can add multiple website URLs if you wish to do so.
And at last, you get About and Phone number. This is pretty self-explanatory.
Setting Catalog for Your Business
Under the business profile, you will see the catalog page. Under catalog, you can set up your products catalog with Image, Price tag, Description, and the product page link of your website if you are selling it online through eCommerce sites. You can also add Item code for your products so that it customers can search for specific model/ type using unique item code.
Your catalog page should look like this:
Setting Up Automated Preset Messages
WhatsApp Business not only offers you setting up business account but with it also gives you plethora of advanced preset messaging features.
Let’s explore them one by one.
Greeting Message
Turning this feature on, a message will be sent to your customers whenever they send any message in any form. Messages will be sent as soon as someone starts a new conversation with you or after 14 days of inactivity.
You can also set up a custom greeting message for your customers.
Be respectful and shortly talk about your service/ product in one or two lines so that they can stay online and continue chatting with you.
Away Message
Away message is useful when you are offline and can’t have a chat with your customers at the moment.
Keep in mind that, Away message will only be sent when you are offline.
You can also set up a schedule for Away message.
Quick Replies
The quick reply is a great feature and it will help you save time while chatting with your customers.
To create Quick Reply, go to the Quick reply tab and tap on the + button.
You can add Quick replies as much as you want and set up a keyboard shortcut to send messages quickly. You can also set up Custom Keywords to get send Quick replies even faster.
Organize Your Chats & Customers
This is another great feature of WhatsApp Business. This feature will help you manage your chats and customers so that you can reach out to them quickly. It is also useful for sorting your customers into different categories according to your business.
You can add verity of labels to sort your customers into different categories.
For Ex- If you are talking to a new person or customer and he/ she might be interested in your product you can add it to your New customer label.
Other default labels include New order, Pending payment, Paid & Order complete. You can off course add other custom labels according to you.
Promoting and Sharing Your Business Account
We saw multiple options by which you can set up WhatsApp Business profile according to your business. But, setting up account is not enough you might also want to share and connect it with other social media apps to gain even more customers.
Create short link
This will create a short link for your WhatsApp Business account. It is an automatically generated link and it is unique for your business account.
Share this links to your family, friends, social media apps such as Facebook & Instagram. If you run a website, putting this link under contact us through WhatsApp would be a great idea. At last, share your Profile short link with as much as people possible.
Integration with Facebook and Instagram
WhatsApp and Instagram are owned by Facebook. This means that you now have the option to connect your WhatsApp Business account with Facebook and Instagram. This will bring more customers to your Business page from either social apps altogether.
If you have Facebook or Instagram page, we strongly recommend you to connect with each other. This will definitely help you grow your business.
Wrapping Up
So these were all the things you need to set up your business account. Remember setting up your business account on WhatsApp is as much as important as setting business profiles on other apps. WhatsApp is free, easy to use and that’s why its a great way to connect with your customers. We hope, we have helped you enough to set up your WhatsApp for Business account. If you still think we didn’t cover any particular point, you can always post your queries to us. We will try to reach out to you at the earliest. Follow us for more WhatsApp How-to Guides and other latest WhatsApp Mods.