In a world of paid ads running all over the internet, it becomes tough for smaller businesses to compete with the well-established ones.
As the wise one said, “Today it’s not about getting the traffic — it’s about getting the relevant traffic”, it has become more and more important in today's digital era.
With businesses relying on simple tools like paid ads, or an external agency, it’s time we look for another way, or let’s say How To Generate Leads Using WhatsApp Business Account? - Proven Ways of Getting Better Leads. For inspiration, check out these WhatsApp Marketing Campaign Examples
Today we bring to you the most widely used conversational platform - WhatsApp, which accounts for over 2 Billion users for generating better leads for your brand.Discover the Advantages of WhatsApp Business for effective lead generation
Let’s get into the length and breadth of how a WhatsApp Business Account helps your brand understand more on how to generate leads on WhatsApp
How to use WhatsApp Business for Lead Generation: 5 Easy Ways
What is WhatsApp lead generation?
WhatsApp lead generation refers to getting consumers interested towards your company’s products or services.
WhatsApp lead generation generally involves utilising a WhatsApp Business profile to generate new customer connections - people are interested in using your product or service.
Businesses can generate such new leads either using the WhatsApp Business App or the WhatsApp API.
Simply put - Supposedly you are not able to identify your potential customers, WhatsApp will help you to generate leads and you can work on turning them into paying clients/customers.
While such an approach might seem to be unorthodox or not so efficient to some brands, it offers various advantages worth considering.
Let’s understand them below.
Why Use WhatsApp Business for Lead Generation?
WhatsApp Business provides a personalised, direct communication channel between brands and customers, which is ideal for building relationships and nurturing leads. It allows businesses to engage with potential customers in real time, share rich media (like videos or images), and drive faster conversions.
The benefits of using WhatsApp Business for lead generation include:
- Higher Open Rates: With 98% open rates, your messages are almost guaranteed to be seen.
- Better Engagement: Customers in India prefer WhatsApp for quick, informal communication, making it easier to engage with them.
Automation: Tools like Pragma’s Chatbot help automate conversations, freeing up your team’s time while keeping the lead-generation engine running 24/7.
How can brands use WhatsApp for lead generation?
With emails ending up in spam folders, all the effort you took to build that campaign goes to waste. This even increases the time to build relationships with customers costing time, money and energy for businesses.
But with WhatsApp as a communication channel, with 98% open rates, it’s definitely a better method than email where industry average open rates stand at 15-20%.
With this, let’s understand these below:
Get Traffic from Facebook and Instagram
With WhatsApp being under the Meta family, businesses can connect their Facebook and Instagram pages to WhatsApp - This enables them to direct traffic from other social media platforms to WhatsApp.
Billions of Customers to Target
WhatsApp has over 2 billion users worldwide, which provides businesses with access to a vast and diverse customer base to market their products. This extensive reach can help brands in reaching potential customers across demographics and regions.
Effective Lead Capturing
WhatsApp offers various tools and features for capturing leads efficiently. Businesses can use tools like Pragma’s chatbots, and contact forms to engage with potential customers and collect their information effectively. This ensures that leads are captured accurately and promptly.
These tools will capture leads with information like name and phone number, products they viewed, buying history, etc. for brands to build the best strategies for selling to users.
Flexible Conversations
WhatsApp allows for real-time, and two-way communication with potential customers.
This flexibility enables businesses to have personalised yet interactive conversations, address specific customer inquiries, provide product information, and build relationships.
Such a personal touch can enhance lead nurturing and conversion.
Faster Leads Conversion
With instant messaging on WhatsApp, businesses can engage with leads promptly.
Quick responses to queries and proactive follow-ups can help in the lead conversion process. Additionally, WhatsApp allows sharing of multimedia content, such as product images or videos that can help showcase product offerings and encourage faster decision-making by potential customers.
Generate Leads Using WhatsApp Business: A Step-by-Step Guide
In this section, we will outline how businesses in India can use WhatsApp Business to generate high-quality leads.
1. Optimise Your WhatsApp Business Profile
Start by ensuring that your WhatsApp Business profile is fully optimised. Include:
- Business Name: Ensure your business name is recognisable and matches your branding.
- Contact Information: Provide a phone number, email address, and website link for easy access.
- Business Description: Clearly describe what your business offers to help potential leads understand your services.
2. Create Click-to-Chat Links
WhatsApp’s Click-to-Chat feature allows users to initiate a conversation with your business directly from any digital platform. Here’s how you can leverage it:
- Embed Links on Social Media: Share Click-to-Chat links on your Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn pages to drive traffic from these platforms to WhatsApp.
- Add to Website: Include the link on your website’s product pages, blog posts, or contact forms. This allows visitors to reach out instantly while exploring your site.
- Incorporate into Ads: If you're running paid campaigns, link the ads directly to a WhatsApp chat, encouraging potential leads to engage immediately.
3. Use QR Codes for Easy Access
WhatsApp’s QR code feature simplifies the process of initiating a conversation. Here’s how to integrate it:
- Place on Physical Materials: Add the QR code to business cards, brochures, or flyers to enable quick access to your WhatsApp profile.
- Include in Emails: Attach the QR code to your email campaigns, making it easier for recipients to reach out without typing out a phone number.
- Print Media Integration: Include the QR code in newspaper ads or posters to capture leads from offline campaigns.
4. Implement Automated Responses
Automating responses helps you engage with leads instantly, even outside business hours. Consider setting up:
- Welcome Messages: Greet new customers with a warm welcome message as soon as they initiate a conversation.
- FAQs: Automate answers to frequently asked questions (like product availability, shipping policies, or payment methods) to save time.
- Lead Capture: Use chatbots to ask for details like name, email, or phone number, allowing you to capture lead information seamlessly.
5. Label Leads for Segmentation
WhatsApp Business allows you to label contacts, making it easier to segment leads based on their level of interest or the product they’re enquiring about. For example:
- New Leads: For first-time inquiries.
- Hot Leads: For potential clients who show strong intent to purchase.
- Returning Customers: For repeat buyers, allowing for tailored upsell strategies.
6. Engage Through WhatsApp Groups
In India, WhatsApp Groups are a popular way to share updates and interact with potential customers. Create targeted groups for:
- Product Launches: Announce new product releases or updates.
- Exclusive Offers: Share time-sensitive offers or discounts with group members.
Community Building: Foster relationships by offering value through informative content, such as guides, tips, or industry insights.
5 Tips to Generate Leads with WhatsApp for Business
With those being the benefits and details about Lead Generation through WhatsApp, let us now help you with some basic and important tips that can help you generate better quality and quantity leads.
Click-to-Chat
Utilising the WhatsApp Business feature known as "Click-to-Chat," which offers a link that directs users to a WhatsApp chat window with your business.
Many industries, including in the D2C segment like food and beverage, automobile dealerships, medical equipment manufacturers, insurance companies, etc. use this link to connect better potential leads.
You can obtain this link simply from your WhatsApp Business settings under the Business Tool menu.
QR Code Scanning for Chat
Beyond the short link, WhatsApp also offers a QR code that can be shared as an image via WhatsApp or email, or incorporated into print materials.
This QR code allows customers to scan and initiate a WhatsApp conversation with your business. This is a useful tool as research indicates that customers prefer messaging on WhatsApp to connect with businesses rather than making phone calls.
To access this QR code, go to the "View QR Code" section within the Short Link screen, and it can be integrated into brochures, pamphlets, or newspaper advertisements.
WhatsApp Lead Management
It's crucial to recognise that leads generated through WhatsApp are highly valuable, as these individuals have displayed trust in your business by initiating communication through their mediums.
WhatsApp Business offers basic lead management with customisable labels.
However, for businesses in specific sectors, implementing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is recommended. A CRM can efficiently capture new inquiries from WhatsApp and integrate them into your sales process.
Pragma's CRM integration efficiently manages instant inquiries about orders, payments, and FAQs. It also proves highly effective in real-time optimised marketing with customers.
Meaning, that brands have access to a real-time dashboard that gives access to individual customer data, campaign success rates etc. based on consumer segments, locations, and more.
Pragma Omnichannel CRM integration
Prompt Responses:
Timely responses to customer inquiries on WhatsApp are important.
Customers appreciate businesses that engage promptly and efficiently. Set clear response time goals to maintain a high level of customer satisfaction and to increase the likelihood of lead conversion.
Automated Responses:
Consider implementing automated responses and chatbots on WhatsApp. These tools can handle routine queries, provide instant information, and even schedule appointments, allowing your business to engage with leads 24/7 and enhance the overall customer experience.
A WhatsApp Chatbot gets seamlessly integrated into your Whatsapp Business account via a platform like Pragma. With Pragma, you can create unlimited chatbots across WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram for all possible scenarios like order status, payment issues, returns etc.
How to get WhatsApp Business leads?
Let’s now understand a few strategies that businesses have used on WhatsApp to generate leads.
Getting WhatsApp Business Leads from Your Website
The most simple way to encourage more individuals to initiate conversations with your business is to ensure that they can effortlessly start chatting with you while exploring your website.
Visitors come to your online store with various intentions, such as:
- Making purchases
- Seeking information - Blogs
- Queries on Product/Payment
- Some may simply be browsing.
Regardless of their purpose, you have a valuable opportunity to connect with them.
The optimal way to engage with your customers is by adding a WhatsApp Business chat button to your website.
By clicking this button, customers can easily contact your team, who can then provide them with the solutions they seek. Initiating a conversation on WhatsApp also grants you immediate access to the customer's phone number, facilitating further communication.
Lead generation through WhatsApp or other social networks like Facebook
Social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, offer excellent avenues for acquiring new leads.
When posting content on these platforms, ensure you include a WhatsApp chat button alongside information about your company and its products.
This empowers customers to initiate conversations with your team, guiding them toward potential sales opportunities.
Creating New Leads through Paid Advertising
The third approach revolves around crafting paid advertisements that feature a great CTA that prompts users to initiate a chat.
Redirecting prospective customers from a paid advertisement to a WhatsApp chat can incentivise them to progress through the sales funnel and get closer to making a conversion.
Can I Generate Leads from WhatsApp in 2025?
Yes, WhatsApp is expected to remain a dominant communication tool for businesses well into 2025. The following strategies will help you continue generating leads effectively:
- Leverage WhatsApp Business API: Upgrade to the API for enhanced scalability, allowing you to send bulk messages, automate conversations, and gather analytics on your lead-generation campaigns.
- Interactive Content: Share interactive content such as polls, videos, and product demos to engage potential leads.
Retargeting Campaigns: Use WhatsApp to retarget customers who showed interest in your product or service but didn’t convert. Tailor your follow-up messages to entice them back.
WhatsApp Lead Generation Guidelines to Follow in 2025
To make the most of WhatsApp for lead generation, it’s essential to stay updated with WhatsApp’s evolving guidelines. Here are some best practices for 2025:
1. Consent and Opt-in
Ensure you have obtained clear consent from your customers before messaging them. Use opt-in forms on your website or social media to build a compliant lead list.
2. Personalisation at Scale
Leverage WhatsApp's personalisation features by addressing each customer by name and tailoring your messages based on previous interactions. Use automation tools like chatbots to create personalised experiences without manual intervention.
3. Optimise for Mobile Experience
WhatsApp is a mobile-first platform, so ensure your lead-generation strategy is optimised for smartphones. This includes concise messaging, easy-to-read content, and mobile-friendly links.
4. Be Transparent
In all your communication, be transparent about why you're reaching out. Inform leads about what they can expect from your messages (e.g., updates, offers) and give them an easy way to opt out if they wish.
Best Practices for WhatsApp Lead Generation
We hope by now you will have realised the importance of lead generation through WhatsApp as a channel.
Now, we want to talk about some of the practices that the team at Pragma has used to simplify the lead-generation process for our products.
Remember these can be specific to a product, but if tweaked in the correct form, these can work well for your business too.
Utilise Labels for Lead Segmentation
Employing labels to categorise incoming leads when a new contact reaches out.
By using labels, businesses can organise leads into distinct groups based on:
- Geographical location
- The product they are interested in
- Priority
- Language
- The channel they came from, etc.
This facilitates targeted communication with contacts through promotional broadcast messages, ultimately enhancing the effectiveness of lead-generation efforts.
Set Expectations with Automated Responses
Businesses can proactively manage customer expectations by sending automated welcome messages to new customers and away messages for leads who reach out outside of regular business hours.
This helps align WhatsApp users' expectations with the business's response times, ensuring a smoother interaction.
Enhance Response Efficiency with Quick Replies
To streamline responses and reduce the repetitive nature of answering common questions, businesses can utilise the quick reply feature.
This feature allows them to create predefined responses for frequently asked questions, enabling sales representatives to respond promptly and efficiently.
How can Pragma help you manage leads from WhatsApp?
Optimise WhatsApp Business Profile
It's interesting to note that all the features we talked about in the above sections can be easily managed by a WhatsApp Chatbot - interacting with customers, segmenting leads, automating messages, providing analytical insights on users, etc.
With your requirements to Generate Leads via WhatsApp, Pragma’s Chatbot can:
- Automate over 75% of Support
- 3X Customer Experience
- Boost Support Team's Productivity by 2x
- Focused Buying Experience
- Improve Conversions
With WhatsApp chatbots being a game-changer product for businesses, platforms like Pragma have made it even easier to help you create your chatbot.
Whether you are a D2C brand, an e-commerce business, or a service provider, integrating a WhatsApp chatbot into your strategy can significantly benefit your operations and customer satisfaction.
How about we help your sales team to hit the targets for this quarter?
Talk to our experts for a customised solution that can maximise your sales funnel
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