Growing Your Business with WhatsApp Business

Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishma Aidi. I'm the host of the podcast making today's recording at home. So expect to hear some noise in the background because everyone is home and the kids are watching TV in the living room. Now the goal of the podcast is solving business problems. So if you have issues with customers, issues with marketing, issues with your side hustle, or if you feel like something is holding your business back, then this is the show for you.

Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of your choice. And if you'd love to connect, you can call SMS or WhatsApp Me on 08064662140. Today on the show we are going to look at WhatsApp business and how you can use that to grow your business, obviously. So this one is the follow up or the final wrap to the public emergency episode I made yesterday about Google business profiles since I happened to mention it on the air on my radio show on Radio Maria 91.3

FM in Abuja. So I happened to mention that and it turns out that lots of people are unaware of these things that are available. They're free, they're already on our phones. So I figured let me just go ahead and lend some more publicity to these things. So yesterday's episode was about Google My Business, Sorry, Google Business profiles. So if you haven't heard of that, listen to it and find out free ways that you can make yourself available online, easier to be found, make it easy to engage with your potential customers,

make it easier for people to find you not just in search, but also in Google Maps. So those were the sorts of things that yesterday's episode was devoted to. So now today I'm going to be looking at WhatsApp business because there's some people who don't know what's up. You know, they just see the logo on somebody else's WhatsApp and they're like, oh, OK, this guy's using WhatsApp business account, but what is it? They don't know.

How does it work? They don't know. Can I use it? They don't know. Do I qualify? They don't know. Is it free? How much does it cost? They don't know. So what's our business? First of all, it's a separate app by itself. That's one thing I didn't know because I noticed the WhatsApp business thing and I just assumed that, you know, you could fool around within the normal WhatsApp app and you know, something will happen. But then eventually someone told me that it's a separate app, you have to download it.

And at first I was scared because I was wondering if I did this my WhatsApp, then I now go and download this WhatsApp business thing. Like what's going to happen? Am I going to excuse me? I'm going to lose my messages. I don't know, just look like a very big step at the time, but looking back now, I can see that I was getting worried over nothing really. So you just install this new app. WhatsApp business? It looks like the same WhatsApp that you are already using.

And by the way, The thing is free, so you're not going to have to pay any money. So excuse me. So yeah, that's it. I just found the app and I downloaded it. I can't remember if it's whether like if you have the normal apps WhatsApp, you have to like upgrade or something or you have to reinstall any. For me, I think what I did was I reinstalled and I still use the same phone number that I had. And it allows you to communicate with your customers in a very business friendly way because the normal WhatsApp that you have is limited.

Well, maybe you've been enjoying it so far. So don't you don't realize that it's limited, but WhatsApp business is business friendly. It allows you to communicate like how how I put it, like how it can allow you to form activity as if you're a big business. Like this whole thing of using automated response messages, trying to flag different messages. Oh, but for me, the main reason why I tell people to use Google My Business is because it allows you to put a, a catalog on your WhatsApp.

And I think there are lots of people who really need that for, for their businesses. In fact, the reason why I started discussing WhatsApp business was because there's someone who called in on the radio show and she she's in the business of small shops and she wanted to see how she can use WhatsApp to make more money. And so Step 1 is like, I know WhatsApp business. She said she is. So I said, Step 2, let me see your WhatsApp business handle.

And let's be sure that everything is properly optimized so that you can use it as a business tool. And by the time I checked her catalog, she only had three items there on catalog. So I had to tell her that no, you know what this is, this is, it's not good. It's all satisfactory. No, no, no, like you can't be a caterer and say you only have three items on your, on your catalog. So what I did was I went to Google Gemini, that's the AI

tool I like to use. And I asked what are the kind of services that, you know, small shops, people, caterers in Abuja, you know, what are the kind of services that they provide? And then he gave me a long list and I'll copy that list. And I sent it to her back and I said, take this list. And what you're going to do is you're going to create a catalog that is in line with all these things. If there's any service here that you've ever done before, go and list it in your catalog.

Go on snap picture, go on pool price, put it up. You said no problem. Two days later I should go back in touch with me. When I opened it, I was like, hey, this is this is it, this is it. It was more like, you know, 1215 items, everything properly done. You know, so Bonds had his own line items, small shops is online items, Jollof rice is online item, a Gucci is online item. You know, Fufu Amala, their online items, everything separate with picture with price as this is more like it.

Now this is something you can do on what's our business that you can do on the regular. What's our profile? There's nothing you will do on your regular WhatsApp that will allow you to start pictures and put descriptions and put price and put everything so that when somebody come straight to your handle and they click on it and the thing opens, they be able to see that oh, you're a caterer and these are the services you provide.

You have fisherman soup, you have hunter soup, you have orphan Salah, you have orphan already, You have orphan Benway, you have orphan Abuja, you have orphan everything. So those are the advantages. So once our business has lots of features that allow you to communicate in a much more professional manner, automating messages, sorting out messages. Although the average amount opinion, the average Niger person has gotten too heavy-handed when it comes to automating.

They want to be automating messages up and down. You don't know how to do it, you're causing frustration with your customers. So in my own opinion, lean back on automating messages and take advantage of the sorting message capabilities because it allows, it allows you to sort messages. You can tag people. Is this person a new customer? Is this person a return customer? Has this person paid? Is payment pending? So it's a helpful thing to do when you can open your WhatsApp box, you see the labels on them and you decide that OK, all those people that is payment pending, let me answer them first.

Or all those people that are new customers, let me answer them first. So take advantage of the sorting message capabilities. Well, by the way, if you really know how to do that, I mean, hit me up, let me know. Because to be honest, I don't even use the sorting message capabilities. I didn't even know that you could solve messages until about last month. I just discovered it by error because I saw a tab at the top that will say all messages,

unread messages, and you know, something, something messages. And then I clicked on unread. And then he just pulled all the messages that I hadn't read and brought everything to the top. And I was like, wow, this is magic. And then when my sister-in-law came to the house now I told her, look, I've discovered something game changer is why I showed me. I showed her. She's like, this has been around for a very long time now.

Now he's been here. It's just that you didn't know how to use it. So there are lots of people that are already using sorting message features on WhatsApp business. So if you know how to do this thing, if you're a pro, let's say you've already been using it for like 2-3 years, you know, hit me up, send me a message on WhatsApp. It'll be nice to chat so I can come back here, make another podcast episode and say that I spoke to somebody who is already a dawn when it comes to doing these things.

And these are the tips that they gave me. So excuse me. OK, sorry about that. I'm coming down with a cold, so I had to go clear my sinuses. Let me irritate you guys. All right, so where was I? So automated messages, sorting messages. So that's something that's available on WhatsApp Business. Now WhatsApp Business allows you to create a business profile where you have your business name, your address, the category that you're in.

So like my listener of the show who called in, who does small chops. So I guess for her category will be events. I'll be, I think will be events, I'll be restaurants or so. Anyway, she'll collect you, select the category, then you're also going to be able to put your e-mail address up in your WhatsApp business. You'll put a link to your website, put a link to your Instagram handle, put a compelling business description.

So you see, these are things that you can do on your WhatsApp, on WhatsApp business that you couldn't do if you had ordinary WhatsApp. So back before I had done my own WhatsApp business handle, people would have to ask me what do you do? But now it's different. I mean, some people still ask me what do you do? Like one guy sent me a message this morning. I've responded to the guy. But people who are a little bit more savvy, all they do is once they see your hand and they see there's WhatsApp business, they will just click on your profile.

From profile, they will just, yeah, do click on your profile. Then from profile, they will see everything description, you know about everything, all the information that you put there. So people who are really savvy don't have to ask me what do you do? Because while they're chatting with me, they can just click and see what services that I provide. Although to be honest, I think I need to update my own self. I mean, look at me, I'm preaching about optimizing what's our business.

Meanwhile, excuse me. Meanwhile, I don't think I've updated my own in maybe the last one year or so. So after this, I'll go check then let's see what are the features. OK, Hey, catalog. So like I said, catalog, that's the best. Showcase your product, showcase or services. Use photos, use videos. OK, no, no videos. Use photos, use descriptions. Then what? Our business also has some e-commerce features because I noticed that it has a shopping cart, but I don't know anything about that.

So I'll probably do some more research about that. Or if you've already been using WhatsApp business e-commerce features, you know, send me a message. I'll leave my phone number at the beginning and at the end of every episode. So send me a message. Let me know how you've been using WhatsApp. WhatsApp e-commerce features so that I can come over here and share the good stuff with the people on the podcast. Then OK, what's our business allows you to label chats.

I really serve that so you can label it new contact, new customer, payment pending, order complete and on is good. Once you label the order complete, you can wake up tomorrow and look at every single customer. The thing that shows what I complete deal with those people first. So this allows for easy tracking and the easy follow up with your customers. Then before I even got to all this fancy, fancy stuff, and to be honest, the main reason why I

wanted to create my WhatsApp business was because I wanted people to be able to click through and get into my WhatsApp inbox no matter where they were. And WhatsApp Business allowed you to do that because it allows you to create a short link, sorry, excuse me. So it allows to create a short link that you can share on your social media. And that is the thing that I enjoyed the most, especially while I was in my event photography phase.

I would have that link and I pasted it on my Instagram. I pasted it on my Google My Business profile and I can't remember where else I pasted it again. But bottom line is somebody could come to my Instagram handle and they could just click on that link and direct, they'll be my WhatsApp inbox and then we'll start chatting. Are you available December 28th? I'm getting married in my degree, blah, blah, blah. You know, we're having conversation live straight because I put the WhatsApp link on my Instagram handle.

So excuse me. So if you haven't done that and if you're going to do it, please, especially the short link, take the short link, share it everywhere, Put it on your website, put it on Instagram, put it on your TikTok, put it on your everything so that if anybody's looking at you online and they're feeling you and they want to chat with you, you are just a click away. They don't have to store your number before they chat with you.

They don't have to save it. They just click on that link straight there in the inbox. You guys already start talking. So if you don't do anything else, what's our business? Do these two things please catalog, create your catalog, showcase your product, take pictures, describe them put the well, if some of you are afraid of putting price, so if you're afraid of putting price no problem. You can put it there without putting the price.

So use the catalog features. Then also make sure you use this short link feature. Use it well. In fact, I've seen some shops in Abuja that what they do is they use leave the the right, the short link, they paste it somewhere like on the payment counter so that customers who want to be in touch with them can just type in that short link and then start gisting with them immediately. Then some other people, what they do is they generate QR

codes and then they leave it somewhere in the shop so that the customer can just scan it and then start sending them WhatsApp messages directly. But take advantage of all these things, especially catalog, Nigerian businesses, please catalog, take advantage of it. Short link. I repeat, when you download WhatsApp business, the main thing you should go to straight for Nigerian businesses is #1 catalog #2 short link. All the other stuff you can figure out, figure that out later.

So excuse me then, OK. Of course, you have to optimize your handle. Sorry, optimize your handle. So when I say optimize and then like I've said over here on the podcast, every time you hear me say optimize, I just mean make it look sweet, make you look desirable, make yourself look appealing, make people want to talk to you. So take a nice photo, professional photo if you can. But if you can't, no mobile phone photo is OK.

Just make sure you stand in a bright place. Maybe the wall behind you is is is clear, no clutter. And then take that picture. Just manage for now. If you don't want it to be on photo, it can be the logo of your business. And lots of people who do that, like, let's say you are in Getty Agenti and Sons and you run a store. Yeah, Getty Agenti and Sons. And then you run a store. Instead of putting up your face, you know, Madame in Kitchi, but somebody has designed the logo for you, you just put your logo there as profile picture.

You know, it's all right. It's it's a good practice, at least in this part of the world. In Nigeria, that's one practice that people are doing. So you put up your logo in the profile, then make sure you have a clear description. So just like yesterday when I was talking about Google business profiles, it doesn't make sense if you do Sharma to just write Sharma in your business description. We're trying to write something that is going to be appealing.

I'll be alluring that will cause other people to want to learn some more or to engage with us in a conversation. So let your description about your business and your product be clear. Then let's see what else the lady that I was advising on that's from the radio show, my advice to her was when it came to business description. So of course I was wondering what should she say about business subscription? Excuse me. So the question I asked her,

what do customers say about you? She's I say, oh, customers say I'm this, they say I'm this, I say I'm that. I say, OK, good. All these things you said, that is your business subscription, because when you can't think of what to say to promote your business, it makes sense to think about what your USP is your unique selling. What's the P stand for? Again, unique selling, something I can't remember. So any you think about your proposition, your unique selling proposition or your UVP, your unique value proposition.

So you try to figure out your USP or your UVP and then use that as your description. So like in my own case, brides told me that I was extremely professional. One bride in particular said I was a the only wedding venue that she never had to worry about. So yeah, in my own case, now be it extremely professional and time bound wedding photographer. In fact, I've been described as the wedding vendor. You never have to worry about,

you know, something like that. You know, if I had time, I would sit down and think of something more elegant. But you put something like that on your, on your business description, you can see that you're giving a compelling reason for why people have to reach out to you. So instead of doing something generic, just be asking yourself or be asking your customers. You know how Jesus Christ said, who do, who do people say I am?

And then people say, Oh, you are Elijah, you are this, you are this boy, you, who do you say I am? It's the same thing when I ask your customer, you say customer, you say, yes, Mr. Vendor, say, who do people say that I am? And they say, oh, people say that you're, you know, you're this, you're this, you're that. They ask them, who do you say I am? And then they will tell you whatever they say, go and put that as your business description because what your customers tell you actually is the main reason why people like doing business with you.

Or sorry about the noise in the background. I let the kids eat in the living room, so my oldest is just vacuuming the floor. So that's what all that noise is about. And I'm so sorry. These are some of the adventures or disadvantages or advantages of podcasting live and direct in the field. Then let's see what else. OK, Yeah. Describe your business. OK, then you have to put your full complete business details. You know, the hours you work,

when are you open the business address? Of course. Put your e-mail, put your website. OK. I've already mentioned creating a product catalog. Make sure your photos are clean, please. Those of us who work from home are big. It's a problem that I see. You know, you take a picture of your product, but then in the back they can see your baby stroller or they can see, you know that rack that we have where you hang your baby clothes?

You can see that thing in the background. No, no, no, no, no, no, please, before you take the picture, like you don't need any fantasy equipment before you take the picture, Just go ahead and clean up some things in the background. Remove the baby rack, remove the baby chair, remove all those things. Take the chair, push it to the edge of the wall, close to the window, so that the only thing that is in the background is just the wall.

You know, Later on, when you can afford to have a professional photographer, no problem. But for now, just make sure that the place is well lit, make sure that there's no clutter, and make sure that there's nothing in the background. That's just what you need for now. So please, photos, photos, photos. They should be clean, clean, a big clean. Too many pictures, our photos are dirty, the light is not there, pictures not sharp.

When you look in the back, you can see all kinds of things in the background, you know. Yeah, a lot of us are working from home. Excuse me? So yeah, a lot of us are working from home. But people don't need to. They don't need to know about our life like that. No need. Then there's some people I noticed who steal photos from online. See my own opinion. Like, stop it. Don't, don't go to your competitor. Don't go to some other person's place and then steal the photo and then put it there.

It gives a very wrong vibe because in fact, when people start to Lance with you, when they start to interact, they will now know that clearly this person stole these pictures from somewhere because this guy as I'm seeing him or this babe as me and her are interacting, they're not capable of this quality of service. So don't go and steal. Just be humble for now. Take your mobile phone, clean the background and then just try your best to take the photo as it is rather than you going online, you go and steal photos from Amazon and then at the end of the day, it's creating.

Excuse me, you will now create mismatched expectations because you know how on Amazon. You know how those photos are taken now professional, you know and everything. So you go and steal those kinds of photos. That is the kind of service that people provide. But if you're just starting out running your retail business or your, excuse me, or your catering business, you know, from home, you know, at that level of service yet don't create mismatched expectations.

Just be honest with the level of where you are for now is OK, It's OK. Yes, branding and packaging and and all that jazz, but do not go and steal anybody else's photos. Take your phone, take an honest photo. And I've given you a very, very simple background. No background. Very simple guideline. Anybody can do this. Open your window, separate the curtain. You have small chops. Or let's say you sell perfume. Take the perfume, put it on a table.

Remove everything from the table. Remove your your phone from it. Remove your Bible, remove your keypad, remove your battery, your power bank. Remove everything then clean the table, wipe it because sometimes you don't realize that you know when you are eating rice this morning the oil staying the table. So wipe it table down. You now move the table next to the window. The reason why you want that is so that good light, good natural nice sunlight can fall on your on the thing that you want to photograph.

You know if the window is close to the wall. Now take that table and put it as close to the edge of the wall as possible so that the only background people will see will just be a blank wall. And please select the side of your house where the children they write on the wall. OK, because that will be professional. So for now, that is an OK way to start. Keep fooling around. Eventually you get some pictures that you like.

If you don't like what you're seeing, ask someone to help you or go on YouTube. Maybe you can just type tips for how to take pictures of my products using mobile phone or something like that and then come up with some good stuff. It's OK to start like that for now. Please do not steal images from people online. Then once you have a WhatsApp business, please promote the hell out of your WhatsApp presence like I told you now,

short link, put it everywhere. Put the short link everywhere. Put it on your Instagram, put it on your TikTok, put it on your website, put it on the QR code. Put the QR code on the business card. Put it everywhere so that somebody can take your business card. They look at the back, they see QR code, they scan the QR code and they end up directly in your WhatsApp inbox. No need for the person to start trying to store your number and all what not before they send you a message.

Put that short link everywhere, everywhere. I told you that in Abuja, people are already putting the short link right need on a paper or cardboard and put it in the storefront and put the QR code. Do the same thing everywhere. Then there's also another opportunity to promote your WhatsApp business because on the regular WhatsApp you can't advertise your business, but on WhatsApp business you can now advertise. It's not something that I have tried before, so I have no idea.

For those of you who've been whatsapping, sorry, who've been advertising on WhatsApp business, you know, hit me up, let me know so I can come over here and share the experience for other people to learn. So WhatsApp advertisements, you can advertise now. I hear that you can do it either from WhatsApp or you can do it from your Facebook as a Facebook advertising manager or something. You don't. Zuckerberg has bought it all.

So Zuckerberg owns Facebook, Zuckerberg owns WhatsApp, and Zuckerberg owns Instagram. So the three of them are connected. So yeah, there's WhatsApp advertisements, but like I said, I haven't done that. So I don't know how it works. If you've done it, if you know how it works. I give my phone number at the beginning, at the end of every episode. So hit me up, connect with me, let's chat, let me see how you've been using it and let me come back and show the people over here that OK, this is how somebody else is using WhatsApp Business.

So from all the stuff that I've said so far, you can see that WhatsApp Business is a very, very versatile tool. And I think we'll give you benefits even if you're not using up to half of it. Because to be honest, I mean, I'm not using up to half of it. The only thing I'm doing is just short link. I share the short link everywhere and then messages. That's all that's all me. I'm doing catalog actually even where I create a catalog self and you know, correct catalog so that people can see all the services that Ioffer.

So it's there. There are lots of features. Whether they will work for your business or not really is up to you. What you choose to adopt, what you choose to implement. So that's it. So that's the end of my emergency episode. If it's your first time of listening to the podcast and you like this WhatsApp Business 1 and you've never heard of Google Business Profile, then of course, listen to the other episode, the one I did yesterday.

And remember, it's not just about listening, it's about doing. If you listen to today's episode, you listen to yesterday's episode because I'm recording this one on Sunday. You had better decide Monday morning 9:00 This is what I'm going to implement. There's no point in knowing and knowing and knowing and acquiring knowledge from for for nothing if we're not going to apply something. So start today. If what you have is the regular WhatsApp and you like some of the stuff you've had, then if I,

you don't have to wait for tomorrow. As soon as you finish listening to this podcast, go to WhatsApp, install WhatsApp business, start playing around with the thing. Just start. These tools are here, they are free, they are just one click away and they're here to make our businesses better. So that's it and that's all for today. Remember, if you'd love to connect, then call, SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Thanks for your time and attention.

I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or in your speakers. And don't worry, hopefully next time I'll be feeling a lot better so I don't have to keep stifling into the microphone. So I'll catch you guys.