In this article:
- What are the benefits of WhatsApp Business for your company?
- WhatsApp Business App vs. WhatsApp Business API
- How to get access to the WhatsApp Business API
- What can you do with the WhatsApp API?
- Can I build a chatbot on WhatsApp Business?
- How do I get a WhatsApp Business account for my company?
- How do I get the verification / official business account (green tick) on WhatsApp?
- What data protection aspects do I have to consider when using WhatsApp?
WhatsApp offers two compelling solutions for enterprises, "WhatsApp for Business" and the "WhatsApp Business Platform". In this article, you'll learn everything you need to know about WhatsApp Business for your company: how it works, what it costs, what benefits it has to offer, and whether you should use the WhatsApp Business App or the WhatsApp Business Platform.
Communicating through WhatsApp can be confusing because the messenger offers several versions of the service. There's the regular WhatsApp messenger app for private usage, but for companies there are actually two business solutions. One is the "WhatsApp Business App", a free service specifically for small businesses. The other one is the enterprise version called "WhatsApp Business API" (officially called: WhatsApp Business Platform) which offers professional tools, scalability, and data compliance for medium and large companies.
In this guide, we'll look in more detail at the WhatsApp ecosystem, the different business solutions, and at the pros and cons of the different versions.
What are the benefits of WhatsApp Business for your company?
WhatsApp has over two billion users worldwide, and about 175 million people contact a business on WhatsApp every day. In countries like India, Brazil, or the UK, WhatsApp is the number one communication channel.
But besides reaching a large audience, WhatsApp has many benefits for businesses as well.
- Best ROI: WhatsApp messages have open rates over 90% and click-through-rates of 35% — no other channel gets you such a great return on marketing money spent!
- More cost-efficient: Automations, such as templates and chatbots on WhatsApp allow you to automate about 80% of FAQs, and save time and money. And: you save the costs for expensive call centers and old CRM systems.
- More repeat customers: WhatsApp achieves the highest Net Promoter Score and can reduce churn by 50%!
So, the question really isn't why you should be on WhatsApp, but rather: how!
WhatsApp Business App vs. WhatsApp Business API
If you want to leverage one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, WhatsApp, there's no way around WhatsApp Business.
We all know the "WhatsApp app" from our private communications with our friends and family. However, there are also business versions of the messenger se