The Dos and Don'ts of WhatsApp For Business

Businesses around the world are already actively using WhatsApp to chat with customers. Ads that click through to WhatsApp will make it even easier to start conversations. Let's look at what's allowed and what's not on this new platform. 

The WhatsApp Business app was built with the small business owner in mind. With the free-to-download app, businesses can interact with customers easily by using tools to automate and quickly respond to messages. The WhatsApp Business API allows large businesses and brands to send messages to customers efficiently and at scale. After creating a profile, businesses can provide responsive customer care and send timely, one-way notifications.

Covered in this article

What To Do With WhatsApp For Business
What Not to Do with WhatsApp For Business
Why You Need WhatsApp For Business Right Now

What To Do With WhatsApp For Business

You can use WhatsApp Business to offer support to your customers or to notify or alert them. Some of the most common use cases are:

• Alerting your customers about travel itinerary changes, system outages, and other location-targeted information
• Notifying your customers regarding their orders or deliveries, appointment reminders, payment processing, etc.
• Providing support to your customers through in-depth conversations. By being available on WhatsApp, you are easily reachable for your customers at any time, and your support agents can improve troubleshooting and shorten ticket lifespans
• Engaging with leads more actively by building alerts to notify your sales team of new activity.

What Not to Do with WhatsApp For Business

You are not allowed to send any marketing traffic or other subscription-style content over the WhatsApp Business API. Please bear in mind that the following business verticals are not allowed either:

• Adult content
• Alcohol
• Animal sales, including live animals, livestock, or any parts of animals
• Currency
• Dating
• Defense
• Digital subscription and digital content
• Drugs or related products
• Gambling
• Tobacco
• Weapons, ammunition, explosives

Why You Need WhatsApp For Business Right Now

Simply put, WhatsApp Business allows companies to safely and securely message their customers directly within the WhatsApp messaging platform. One advantage over SMS is that WhatsApp is tied directly to a single phone number and provides a branded business profile rather than a string of digits.

Common Ground

Ever been left wondering: Just what can WhatsApp Business do for my customers in terms of convenience? You need only to let the data tell the story.

First off, here are some general numbers.

• Three out of every four customers get annoyed at not being able to respond or act on a text message they receive.
• 43% of customers have taken it upon themselves to text a business.
• Nearly six in ten customers prefer not to have to communicate with businesses via a separate app.

And here’s how that ties into WhatsApp.

• 2.7 billion people worldwide use WhatsApp every month.
• Over 175 million people text a WhatsApp Business account daily.

The numbers say it all. 

The demand for increased communication with businesses via text messaging is there. And with WhatsApp as the leading messaging app globally, there’s no better platform on which to be.

By reaching out to your customers on WhatsApp, a platform that they’re much more likely to be on than any other, you’re meeting them in a territory that they’re familiar with.

This makes things convenient for them as it keeps them from having to switch back and forth between different channels to communicate with your business.

A World Of Multimedia Capabilities

One of the benefits of WhatsApp Business for customers lies in the multimedia options the app offers.

Text aside, images, videos, and attachments in various formats (.pdf, .docx, .apk, etc.) – even location and contact sharing – can be sent via WhatsApp.

This opens up a world of customer service possibilities as communication is no longer restricted to just text limitations.

Delivery en route? Share its location with your customer. Do they need a receipt? Send it over in .pdf. Want to browse the product from a different angle? Take a photo and send it through.

That’s all done on WhatsApp.

The availability of interactive messages on WhatsApp Business also helps to keep communication swift. 

For instance, with the tap of a call-to-action, which you can include in the interactive messages, customers can be informed of a product that’s been restocked and redirected to the product page itself. With deliveries, they can also open up a website on which they can track their purchased product.