How To Use WhatsApp for Lead Generation and Sales Prospecting

Whatsapp is one of the most popular global mobile messenger apps with approximately 1.6 billion monthly active users. (Statista)

Despite its good standing in the social network sphere, Whatsapp still faced controversies on security concerns, malware threats, and spam.

Recently, it stopped working on millions of older smartphones and iPhones, specifically Android 2.3.7 and iOS versions 8 and below in order to protect the security of its users as these operating systems don’t receive new security updates from Google and Apple which could put user data privacy at risk.

The issues brought fear to many users but were not enough reasons for the Facebook-owned messaging platform leader to decelerate on the messaging apps runway.

In fact, it has even become stronger, joining other top messaging platforms that marketers leverage for lead-generation campaigns.

Prospecting

The lead generation landscape has widely evolved with technology. From what used to be a voice-dependent approach, it has become a multi-channel, multi-touch tactic, incorporating email, mobile, website, and chat, to reach and engage potential customers.

And among these channels, chat stands out to be the best. It enables organizations to communicate with their target audience through personalized messaging and engage prospects in ways they are most convenient without the hassle of disrupting them from work, meetings, and personal engagements.

In countries considered to be centers of trade and industry, like Singapore, Whatsapp is the most popular among other app providers. Out of its 5.75 million population, 4 million are mobile users which are largely comprised of people from the business sector. This shows how Whatsapp has become a significant tool for business in Singapore as well as in other countries.

Whatsapp sends around 65 billion messages per day, and a large fraction of this number is messages sent by marketers who connect with prospects, speak to potential leads, or schedule work meetings.

It has made doing business much easier than calling and sending emails. By getting real-time replies from prospects and maximizing the calling hours of target decision-makers, marketers are able to connect with the right prospect at the right time, save time by prioritizing contacts who are open to discussion, and mitigate useless efforts on negative contacts.

Qualification

Lead qualification is an essential part of lead generation because it will not only help determine whether or not a prospect is the right candidate to benefit from your product or service but save you time and effort. However, knowing how to do it and using the right tools to qualify a lead could affect your bottom line.

Communication is key. Before you can engage prospects, you need to establish a conversational relationship with them first in order to know more about them and cater to their needs. Know which tools and channels your prospects mostly use like who among them are using email, who are most reachable via mobile, or do they prefer chat over other channels. This will help you determine how and where to establish communication with them and become knowledgeable about their purchase habits.

Prospects can scale up your inbound traffic, but they will never freely give you the data needed to score who among them is worth pursuing through the sales funnel, such as company size, annual revenue, budget, etc. unless you gain their trust and respect. And one way to do that is to communicate with them in ways that are most convenient without disrupting them from other important routines.

Among B2B messaging apps, Whatsapp has become widely used by marketers. It has 300 million daily active users worldwide. (99Firms.com)

But, what’s more interesting about the chat platform which makes it stand out among others is that it gives marketers a great opportunity to address prospects’ needs by answering their queries in real-time either via chat or call and sharing with them valuable content like brochures, images, or newsletters.

Once prospects are fully engaged, you will be able to gather all the essential data needed to qualify them.

Conversion

Not all qualified leads are sales-ready. Some are hot and ready to fly out of the nurturing pan, others are warm and may require more time to mature, while others could go cold and may be best to keep in view for a while.

But, regardless of the type, all leads deserve to be nurtured. This means that you have to keep the conversation going. But then again, in ways and channels, these prospects are most reachable and convenient to communicate.

New tools and tactics come up every day, but you have to carefully decide which of those best share your business goals and objectives, and help you build a strong and lasting engagement with your potential customers.

After qualifying a lead, determine the appropriate follow-up steps to take: which channel to use, how often you should reach out, and what type of content you should share to properly nurture them until they become sales-ready.

Choose the best content distribution channel that provides you a wider avenue to nurture these leads: send appointment reminders, follow up on the previous conversation, or offer new and better deals, are some of the ways to direct leads through the conversion path.

In Singapore, Whatsapp is the most popular chat platform.

93% of Singaporeans use the internet on a daily basis. 75% of them use it actively on their smartphone for social networking activities, and 73% specifically use Whatsapp. (Messengerpeople)

Whatsapp business platform, in particular, is packed with features that businesses of all types and sizes can leverage which include:

Availability of your target’s Business Profile like store hours, business address, email ids, website links, contact details, and brief business description.
Smart Replies and Messaging. These are short quick replies like “thank you” or simple customized greetings that you may automate when you’re away.
Labels that you may assign to active chats for easy filtering of conversations.
Vital Messaging Stats which provides insight on how many messages were sent, successfully delivered, and read by clients.
Whatsapp Web which allows you to access your Whatsapp account on other devices.
Whatsapp API which enables enterprises to reach customers from around the world.

Utilize QR Codes

With WhatsApp QR Codes, acquiring leads and converting those leads into sales is a breeze. As a result, you must build your own WhatsApp QR code. To lead your potential clients to the WhatsApp Bot, the QR code must include the appropriate commands. This QR code will be supported with images of the items or services.

By scanning your QR code, a client is sent to your landing page, where they may examine the goods or services you’re selling. Some firms additionally include printed adverts with QR codes so that customers may learn more about your product and use your WhatsApp Bot to complete the transaction.

Leveraging the right chat platform, like Whatsapp, along with other useful channels for your lead generation campaigns will streamline all your efforts from prospecting to qualification, and down to conversion, without the hassle of having your prospects wandering on different channels.

However, if you’re facing challenges or seeking to optimize your lead generation channels, partnering with a trusted lead generation services provider like Callbox is a smart choice.

As a leading B2B lead generation service provider in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region since 2004, Callbox specializes in multi-channel marketing. Leverage our multi-touch multi-channel strategy and AI-powered tools, to reach, acquire, and follow up with their target prospects for your business and convert them into clients.

Boost your business growth with quality leads from the right channels. Partner with us!