WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. So if you are running a business, it makes sense to create a WhatsApp business account that makes it way easier to connect with your potential or existing customer.
In this WhatsApp marketing tutorial, we are going to show you how to create a WhatsApp Business account. We are also going to show you what business features you have when you are using the WhatsApp business app.
How to download the WhatsApp Business app?
First, it is important to highlight that you need to download a separate app for your WhatsApp business account that is separate from the app you use for your personal WhatsApp messages to be able to create a WhatsApp business account,
This is how you can download the WhatsApp Business app:
- Open the Google Play store and App store
- Search for WhatsApp Business or click on these links:
- Install the WhatsApp Business app
How to create a WhatsApp business account?
Here is how to create a WhatsApp business profile:
- Open the WhatsApp Business app once you installed it.
- Click on ‘Agree and Continue’
- Add your phone number so WhatsApp can verify it. Then click on ‘Next’.
- Enter the 6-digit code you have received to verify your number.
- Add the name and the category of your business.
- You can also add your business address and a description.
- Then you can also create a WhatsApp Catalog or skip this step for now.
Now, your WhatsApp Business account is created. You can start sending messages or continue setting up your WhatsApp account.
If you prefer to watch a video tutorial on how to create a WhatsApp Business Account, check out this vidoe tutorial:
Can’t create a WhatsApp Business Account
If you are struggling to create the WhatsApp Business account, there are two main reasons why you might be struggling with it:
- Someone else has already created a WhatsApp account with this phone number.
- The name of your business doesn’t comply with WhatsApp Account name requirements. You can learn more about these naming guidelines here: https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/account-and-profile/about-creating-a-business-name/
Set up a WhatsApp Business Account
To continue setting up the WhatsApp business profile:
- Click on the three dots in the top right corner
- Select Business Tools
Here you can set up many useful WhatsApp Business features. Let’s see what you can set up or customize.
Customize WhatsApp business profile
Here you can do the following:
- edit the name of your WhatsApp Business account
- Add a description to your business profile
- Edit the WhatsApp business category you have added previously
- Add the business address
- Add the business hours of your business
- add a business email
- Add multiple websites of your business
- You can also add products to your WhatsApp catalog
- Edit the About section of you WhatsApp business profile
Setup a WhatsApp Catalog
You can also create a WhatsApp Catalog that allows you add products or services to the WhatsApp profile.
For each product or service you can add:
- name of the product or the service
- price of the products or the service (optional)
- description of the products or the service (optional)
Create WhatsApp Greeting Messages
You can also create Greeting Messages for your WhatsApp business account.
These WhatsApp Greeting Messages will be sent when someone contacts you the first time or after 14 days of inactivity.
Turn on WhatsApp Away Messages
You can also create and customize a WhatsApp Away message.
These away messages will be sent out when you are not on your phone, so the customer can be sure that at least they will receive a message even if not immediately.
Create WhatsApp Quick Replies
You can also set up WhatsApp Quick Replies that can make replying to WhatsApp messages way faster.
WhatsApp Quick replies are basically keyboard shortcuts that you can use to add templated replies to certain questions or queries.
WhatsApp Business Labels
If you want to do so, you can also add labels to your WhatsApp messages.
These WhatsApp message labels can help you to differentiate between WhatsApp conversation types so it also makes it easier for you and your team to answer them and search for conversations later.
Run WhatsApp Ads
You can also create WhatsApp ads within the WhatsApp business app. You can start running ads starting from an item from your WhatsApp catalog or from uploading a photo or video.
Although you can set up WhatsApp campaigns from your app as well, this has limited functionality, so we would rather recommend setting up a WhatsApp Ads campaign from your Facebook Ads Manager.
Connect WhatsApp with other Facebook products
You can also link the WhatsApp business profile with other Facebook (Meta) products.
You can find separate tutorials about these here:
- Connect WhatsApp account to Facebook page
- Link WhatsApp business account with Instagram
- Add WhatsApp business account to Facebook Business Manager
Share WhatsApp Short link
You can also share a unique link to your WhatsApp business profile. So if people click on the link, they can start messaging your WhatsApp account right away in the app.
You can also share a QR code that will also take the customers to your WhatsApp account and prospective customers can start messaging you right away.
