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Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'd like us to look at how to leverage WhatsApp for lead generation. I think it's a good topic to move on to next, especially since the last 2-3 days I've been devoted to the topic of lead generation. Now, this is your first time of listening to the podcast. Lead generation is just the arts, the craft, the science of trying to get leads so that you can chase after now a lead. The way that I like to look at it is anyone who has done something in the past or who has done something right now.
They've raised their hand. They've done something to show that they might be interested in your product or your service. And these are the best kind of people to run after because you can spend time chasing after people in general, and you might get some business, but your chances go up when you're able to get people to take some sort of action, to do some sort of thing, to raise their hand in some particular way, to say that they might be interested in your product or your service.
And then these are the best kind of people to chase down. So if this is your first time of listening to the podcast, after you're done listening to this episode, go back, listen to three episodes. You see how we went in some more depth about what lead generation is and the kind of lead generation tactics that you can do online or offline. Basically anything that is going to get people to raise their hand to show that they are interested.
We did a case study in the last episode, I think, where we used a fictional female entrepreneur in Nigeria named Priya who is in the street wear and sneaker business. And if I remember correctly, I think the model that we came up with for Pre was exclusively online. And then I think in two or three episodes before that we handled. This was also another fictional case. We didn't flesh it out, but someone who was trying to sell bags, shoes, books, you know,
things like that for children in primary school. And of course someone was taken off of a real life scenario where someone approached me after I picked up my kids from school and handed me a flyer. So whether it is handing people Flyers and then someone DMS, you can see that the person who has sent you Adm or an Instagram message or whatever off of the flyer is a lead because the person might potentially be interested.
It doesn't mean that they are going to buy, but chances go up, you know, if you're paying attention to people that you have gotten and through these sorts of avenues. So whether it's physical, using a flyer or online using Instagram or any of the other tactics that we discussed for Pre in the last episode anyway, you'll get the gist. So you want to improve the odds that you're going to do business with someone then run after leads.
So that's why lead generation is a really important thing to pay attention to. So yeah, So like I said, we're going to look at how we can leverage WhatsApp for lead generation purposes. Now, before I begin, I'd like to say that WhatsApp generally is underutilized for business purposes because the average person just uses it for social relationships. You know, you're trying to shoot your shot, You're trying to get a boyfriend or a girlfriend, or you're trying to keep in touch with your parents.
You know, I'm not saying that that's bad. You know, keeping it up with your parents and trying to improve your love life is a really, really worthy goal. Because without family and without community, no matter the amount of money that we have, we're going to live very sad lives. So social relationships are absolutely important. So please keep in touch with Mumsy and Popsy and also try and shoot your shot. Get yourself a boyfriend,
girlfriend, you know. Who knows, maybe 2024 might be the year that you get settled down and get married and stuff like that. So by all means use it for social purposes. So. But the point I'm trying to make is that the average person is only paying attention to social relationships, humorous broadcasts. This is what this influencer did. You won't believe this happened. You send that video or you say how fried chicken can cause breast cancer.
You you send that video, you send this post and all those sorts of things. Then for gossip and complaining, you know Uncle so and so did this Auntie so and so did this. You won't believe that President Tiniboo bought this today or President Tiniboo did this or he travelled here or he travelled there, you know those sorts of things. So that's what the average person uses WhatsApp for. And because of that it is under utilized because WhatsApp has lots of business features.
I mean even if we go outside of this whole thing of lead generation, there are lots of business features that are available on WhatsApp business. That's if you have the business and feature in the first place. Now to be honest, I was one of those people who ignored WhatsApp Business for a very long time because I figured I already have a WhatsApp handle. I already use it for business. Why should I possibly, I mean, why bother switching over to WhatsApp Business?
But eventually for my friends who are using it, I got to see some of the extra features that were on there. Like you can create a dedicated profile when you're on WhatsApp Business, you can't do that on your business WhatsApp. Sorry on your regular WhatsApp. Cause for the regular WhatsApp, you have your name, you have a profile photo, but then on the business WhatsApp the profile features that are quite extensive. So this profile photo, yes, but then you can also put up a catalog of products or services that you offer along with prices.
So you can put up your profile picture or your business logo and then see that you are a wedding photographer and then put up a catalog saying that silver package 250K, bronze package 400K, gold package 500K, Silver package package 800K. That is something you can do on the business profile that you cannot do on a regular WhatsApp profile. So the catalog is there, the images is there, the price are there. You can put external web links.
You can put a link to your podcast like I do. You can put a link to your online store if you have an online store like create in our example yesterday. If she decides to use WhatsApp for business purposes, you can have a link to our online store so that you can look at her WhatsApp handle. Click to the online store, go there and buy your favorite shoe. And then she of course should be able to send you the links from her catalogue straight to you.
If you are interested in buying one of her shoes, can put up a link to your website. You can use auto response messages that people use. You know when you send a message at midnight and then there's a response that says, you know, Ike Chuku and Sons wedding Photography is currently asleep. We'll get back to you in the morning, you know, that sort of thing. But I also use it with caution though. Well, anyway, I've already done lots of podcast episodes on the best way to use auto response messages, so I'm not going to go into that whole spiel here about how people are just being lazy and you're better off just responding promptly as soon as you see the message.
So rather than have an auto response message that says Okajuku wedding photography is closed at the moment, how about when you wake up in the morning and you see the message Just respond as promptly as possible and, you know, get a move on? Because I've noticed that lots of people who use auto response messages kind of kind of go to sleep because there's something with the message there. So they assume that things are already being handled.
But an auto response message doesn't mean that things are getting handled because of your bride sends you a message at 11:59 and of course you are sleep business closed. I mean that's normal. If you see another response message saying we'll get back to you, business is currently closed. We'll get back to you during regular working hours tomorrow. But then you're now lazy because this auto response message is there, so you don't, you know,
you forget, you get back to higher four days, five days or something. I mean, that is not good business practice. So in my own opinion, let's take it easy with this auto response messages. For those of you that do overkill because there are some business people that I'm trying to have a conversation with, I send one message, it's an auto response. How best can we serve you? And then I copy and paste, I send it again, the person responds and then I send another message me.
By that time the person has gone away and then it's another auto response message saying welcome to Sophia's massage parlor something, something, something. How best can I serve you? I mean it's annoying because I sent you the first message, that's the response that I got. I copied and pasted. Then you responded and then I sent and then you're not there. And then another message. How can we help you? It's it's really annoying.
I mean, put yourself in your customers shoes then let's see what else. OK, business features for WhatsApp. Then you can also run Facebook and Instagram advertisements now from your WhatsApp profile. This is not something I've done myself, but I've been getting the messages from WhatsApp. I haven't seen people use it but just know that the feature is there if you have a WhatsApp business profile. So there are lots of features to harness for business when it comes to WhatsApp.
And this is me. I'm not a WhatsApp specialist, but this is me just fooling around on my own. And these are some of the many ideas and different ways that you can use WhatsApp for business purposes. So if we're going to use WhatsApp for lead generation, wait, wait, let me talk about lead capture first. OK, I'm assuming that we now know the definition of a lead. That is a contact detail, someone that you can chase after later on because they have done something in the past or they've done something now to show that they might be interested in your product or service.
So if you're using WhatsApp for lead generation, part of the function that you can use it for is lead capture. And of course, lead capture like it sounds means you get some contact detail that you can use to chase after people that you can use to follow up later. So one of the ways that people do that is they put this website chat widget, you know, their websites that instead of that place where you have contact and then the right phone number and the right e-mail and things like that, you just have that WhatsApp logo.
You click on it and then voila, you go straight into the person's inbox. So then you're unable to ask the business person directly, Do you have this in size 6? Do you have this in size 5? How much does it cost? Do you deliver to Enugu? How much is delivery charge for sending to Kaduna? You know, those sorts of things so that people can hit you up directly in WhatsApp. So that website chat widget, you can put that up. That can be part of your lead capture.
You have that on your website that is also. It's also possible to do that from Instagram, but I think on Instagram it's a link. I think it's a link anyway that you just click. There's a way that you integrate it to the message thing so that when you hit message instead of going to SMS. Hmm. OK, so I'm a little confused. Well, 'cause it's not a feature that I've used in a very long time, but just know that that feature exists, that from your Instagram business handle, there will be a link there so that people can click and they'll be able to send you WhatsApp chat messages directly.
Then OK, I've mentioned the Click to WhatsApp ads. You run advertisements from your WhatsApp so that people click on them and then it sends you, it sends them rather straight to your WhatsApp inbox so that you guys can have conversations. And those advertisements are going to be floating about on Facebook and Instagram. So you see how we can use that for lead capture people who are interested. So instead of doing that whole thing where there's a form and you say enter your phone number here, enter your e-mail address here, people just click once and then they have access to you in your inbox and then you guys are chatting.
Then there's also AQR codes. I saw this one at the British Council event. People who are interested and wanted to be registered for a certain thing. There was a QR code that was given to us because we were the ones who are providing media services, live streaming. So we streamed the logo up on the screen. So if you were interested, all you had to do was whip out your smartphone, get your QR code scanner, and then you flip on that thing and the link would be there and you click on that.
It will take you someplace out to some website. And the possibility, of course, that you scan on that and then it sends you to a WhatsApp number where you can get more information and then more direction. So let me see. OK, we've done over 10 minutes and I've noticed that I've been doing too many 30 minute episodes. So what I'll do is I'll keep the rest of the things that I wanted to talk about to tomorrow about how we can use WhatsApp to build relationships and trust, and then also using WhatsApp in the commercial context.
But I hope this has been able to give you guys of an idea that if you're one of the regular people who is looking for boyfriends and girlfriends, keeping in touch with Mumsy and Popsy and uncles and aunties and sending humorous broadcasts or complaining about the president and the state of the economy, this is all that you're using WhatsApp for. I hope this has been able to show you that there are lots of other things that you could be using WhatsApp for.
So please get in and experiment and see how you can use WhatsApp to grow your business. So that by the end of 2024, WhatsApp might have helped us get a husband or a wife and help us to build better relationships with our mums and dads. And it will also give us the opportunity to vent about the president and how he's mismanaging the economy. If you're one of the people who think so, there are lots of people who think he's doing a good job and he's actually doing good for the economy, that these are just growing pains.
So if you're one of those people, you can also praise him as well. But bottom line is we can get all these social benefits, but we can also use WhatsApp to grow our businesses as well. So that's all for today, folks. Remember to connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of my name from the link. We're currently listening to this episode. Subscribe as well, then also connect with me on WhatsApp.
The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys on the next episode where we will continue discussing the numerous ways that we can use WhatsApp to build your businesses.