The WhatsApp Trap: How Nigerian Entrepreneurs Are Losing Customers.

Some of you Nigerian business people are trying to use WhatsApp for business but your WhatsApp game is totally totally wrong and that's the reason why I'm making today's episode. So yes, apologies for those of you who do not like WhatsApp episodes. Don't worry, I'm going to be brief. This is another one of these WhatsApp episodes and unfortunately, I'm going to keep making them so long as I keep running into people who are using WhatsApp for business but doing it in the wrong way.

Also, apologies because I'm making today's recording out-of-the-box. I'm in church because my kids are having cactus and classes, so I'm just in the parking lot trying to get some work done. So back to what I said, some Nigerian business people are using WhatsApp wrongly because I'm currently talking to a business person. I'm not going to use his name so that I don't embarrass him. But just in case you're listening to this episode, well,

he's not a listener of the podcast, but just in case in the future you listen to the episode and you're wondering, is it me? Yes, boss, it is you if you're that guy in Abuja. So he's a business person and he's involved in a couple of businesses. And if you've been listening to my podcast for any length of time, you already know that that's a problem. And I'm not sure why it's a problem. So he's one business person and he's involved, first of all, in real estate and he wants to make a lot of money from real estate.

However, he's also involved in affiliate marketing. Then he's also involved in commodities trading, you know, like gold and precious metals. Then he wants to get involved in trading forex. Let's repeat. I'm beginning to find out now as I track with more people in Niger that, you know, this is not an anomaly, it's a pattern. You know, people believe that all multiple sources of income are good. And so because of that, they're trying to do 345 different things.

You don't realize that you're spreading yourself too thin. You're not giving yourself the room, you're not trying to give, you're not giving yourself the grace to be able to build something into one stand alone revenue stream first before you start looking for other things. So you find Nigerian business people doing 23456789 different things. So let me repeat, this guy is a business person. He's based in Abuja and he's in real estate confirmed.

Then he's also in affiliate marketing confirmed. Then he also does commodities trading precious metals confirmed. Then the one that he wants to do in the future is he now wants to add trading in forex and trading in currency. Now for those of you who are like this shop and who are trying to use WhatsApp to promote your business, this is the problem. You're doing so many businesses. There's only one WhatsApp business handle.

I don't know if you can have 3456 different WhatsApp business pages, but for now, this only has one WhatsApp business page. Now the question is, what are you going to optimize that page, that WhatsApp business profile, what will you optimize it around? You put it there that you're a real estate professional, you put it there that you're an affiliate marketer. You put it there that you're a commodities trader. How are you going to optimize that handle when it comes to catalog?

Your product catalog is going to be a mishmash of everything. It's going to be photo, photographs of real estate development complexes in Abuja. You're going to have some stuff there about you're trying to attract clients for affiliate marketing. Then I don't even know how sharp what I'm just trying to say is, OK, picture this, this is your WhatsApp handle now. And I say optimize your WhatsApp business profile. What are you going to optimize it around?

It will be easier if you just pick one thing and then you optimize your WhatsApp business profile around. By the way, when I say optimize, I just mean make your profile look sweet so that when somebody sees it, they will know that oh, this is what this guy is into. This thing seems attractive. I want to learn some more. Maybe I should click on something. Maybe I should send him Adm to find out how much or how more, you know, does he deliver to Sokoto or whatever.

So when I say optimize your WhatsApp business profile, that's what I mean. Optimize your profile, make it look sweet, make it look nice, make it look attractive. Let somebody see, let them understand, let them be drawn in and let them click on something or let them send you a message. In clicking on something and in sending you a message, the chances that you're going to start having business conversations with people that will turn into a sale will increase.

So if you're in real estate, you're in affiliate marketing, you're in commodities trading, then you want to do forex, you are not using your WhatsApp business profile effectively. If you're trying to promote these four services on WhatsApp business, build it around one thing. That way you're going to be able to, you're going to be able to have more consistent messaging because this because if you're using your WhatsApp business profile, the assumption is that you're going to be sending messages to people from time to time, you're going to have a very scattered effect.

If on Monday you send somebody messages real estate, on Tuesday you send somebody messages affiliate marketing, on Wednesday you send somebody messages commodities trading, on Thursday you send somebody's mess somebody messages forex trading, and then on Friday you send somebody messages on, you know who knows what else. Your messaging is inconsistent. Because your messaging is inconsistent, it's hard to remember. People can't remember.

They can't peg you anywhere. In their mind, they don't know exactly what it is that you stand for, and because they don't know what it is that you stand for, you're going to be hard to refer. Nobody's going to want to refer you because nobody knows exactly what it is that you do. In your own mind, you think it is clear that what you do is real estate, affiliate marketing, commodities trading, and currency trading. In your mind, it's clear, but for someone who is on the receiving end of seeing different kinds of posts every day, receiving different kinds of messages from you, it is not clear exactly what it is that you do.

And unfortunately, in this part of the world, people only refer when they feel confident that you know what it is that you do. If somebody wants to, let's say now my mom, she wants to enter into commodities trading. Do you think I'm going to give this guy's number to my mom? No, he's not focused. He's all over the place. The average Nigerian, if they want to enter into currency trading, forex trading, they will look for the person who seems to be a currency, a forex trading specialist.

They will not talk to the person who does forex and currency but once in a while does commodities and who also does real estate and who also is into affiliate marketing. Please make life easy for yourself. Pick a lane, pick a struggle when it comes to business, pick a lane first. Let the things stand. You will diversify later. So become a real estate guru or a mogul first. Then when the real estate business is standing strong, you have team members in place, you have standard operation procedures in place, you have frameworks in in place.

The business does not need you. The thing is running on its own. Then you can start becoming a commodities trader and that's a separate line of business that you will build and it will become strong. Then when you build a business that does not require you to be there 247 and the commodities trading business is standing strong, then you will now move into affiliate marketing. When that one is now standing strong, then you will now move into forex trading.

Then when the four or the five of them are standing strong, people will now be introducing you as Odo go so, so, so and so owner of ABC Group of companies. That's how you do it. You don't start as owner group of companies. You start as you build 1, you build 1, you build 1. After you're successful, people will now start introducing you as chief, so, so, so and so owner of group of companies. That's how it works. So now what?

They didn't start with cement and trading and fuel and ports and spaghetti and no, it was one after another after another. Now people introduce him and say don't go to chairman or head of Dango TE group of companies. That is how it is done. Pick one thing, pick a struggle, make your life easy, please. Also, if you're going to use WhatsApp for business, they have a WhatsApp business profile and you build it around one thing.

It'll be easier to consistently ask for the sale. You can't be sending people messages every single sale. I beg Bros buy from me. But today you're selling real estate, tomorrow you send messages, I beg buy from me. It's affiliate marketing. Then Thursday you send another set of messages, I beg buy from me or attend a meeting. The meeting is now about commodities trading. How do you think you're going to be able to get people to buy from you?

Pick one thing, optimize your WhatsApp business profile around that thing. Your messaging will be more consistent. It will be easier. People remember you easier. They will know what it is you do, They'll categorize you in their minds. It'll be easy to refer, and you'll be able to ask for the sale much more consistently. Now here's also another thing that this guy is doing that is kind of confusing. Well, not confusing for me, but trust me, it's confusing for other people.

Now, this guy says he's into real estate, he's into affiliate marketing, he's into commodities trading. Then he also wants to get involved in forex trading. However, these are the daily messages that he sends. I just scroll through my phone just to pick the last couple. He sends daily messages around Scripture. He has sent me messages, broadcast messages, of course. So he's broadcasting to people around End Times from the Book of Revelations.

Then he's also sending messages around diligence from the book of Proverbs. Then he's also sending messages around destiny and around prosperity gospel from the book of Deuteronomy. Then he's also sending messages from Pastor WF Kumui. Let me repeat, this is somebody who is a business person in Nigeria who says he's into real estate, affiliate marketing, commodities trading. He wants to enter into forex trading, but the messages that he sends every single day are around the end times Book of Revelations, diligence from the book of Proverbs, Manifesting Your Destiny from the book of Deuteronomy, and then messages from Pastor WF Kumi.

And he's also sending people to Pastor WF Kumi's Facebook page. Is this how to use your WhatsApp for business? A lot of you listening to this podcast right now are currently doing the same thing that this guy is doing. And by the way, these daily messages are also listed all solicited just means I no send you. I didn't ask you. I didn't ask for it. So whether you like it or not, you're receiving messages from this guy every single day if you're on this contact list.

Now, what most people do with unsolicited messages, they ignore, or they spam, or they move the person to archive, or they block. Either way, you are hampering what is called deliverability. Durability just means that you're sending messages and you hope that people will see the message. You hope that people will read the message. You hope that people will take action on the message. That's why you're sending business messages.

Now, if you're sending messages and people are ignoring you, which means they know they see you again, like you're just in a mental haze when they just see your name, you know, they just scroll on by or they click on spam and then they report you to WhatsApp as spam. You don't know, but WhatsApp is getting the message that you're spam. Then they move you into archive. That means you're not even showing up in their inbox at all at all.

Or they block you, they report you to WhatsApp. Can't you say that you're hurting your deliverability? People are not seeing your messages, They are not reading your messages. And so when you want them to take a course of action from a business point of view, when you want them to book a consultation with you, when you want them to buy from you, when you're trying to notify them about your promotions, they are not seeing your messages.

You are severely hampering your deliverability. This is a bad way to stay top of mind by sending unsolicited messages that are not even concerned with what you say your main business purposes. Lots of you are making this mistake. Stop it today. You are confusing your contacts and this is a bad way to stay top of mind if you're going to be sending daily messages. Your positioning or your messaging should be around some core ideas that you want to be associated with.

So if you want to be an apostle for Christ, optimize your profile accordingly and make sure that your messaging is centred around that. Let people expect that from you. Try to get a certain level of buy in, maybe even create a WhatsApp channel or something so that people who want to opt in can opt in, and then you will be effective as an apostle for Christ. Don't start by saying you're a business person. You don't even select one kind of business and then you're trying to send messages every day because you're trying to talk about the end times.

You're not being effective for Christ. You're not making progress for yourself. You're not making progress. You're neither here nor there. So what core ideas you want to be associated with for the purpose of this podcast, I'm assuming that want to be associated with making money. So let's say that he wants to use this for let's pick Elaine, let's pick real estate. So optimizing the profile means, of course, you know, a nice profile picture or maybe even a logo for the real estate company that he works for.

Then in the catalog, you're going to have nice pictures around real estate development. What are they called? Projects that are currently available, you know under your your company projects that you guys are currently working on, projects that have been completed, how much it costs, how you know people can click through to start a conversation with you or something like that. So the profile, sorry, the catalog is looking all nice.

Then what you do is you send messaging to keep you top of mind, but the messaging will be around real estate. By the way, don't be sending on solicited messages, but assuming you're going to be sending on solicited messages, it will be better that you're sending messages around, for instance, how you can use real estate as an investment tool or how you can use real estate to acquire wealth. At least you're sending those kinds of messages every day.

People know how to categorize you. They know how to slot you. If anybody thinks oh I want to move house, I want to buy a house or want to sell a plot of land, they will think of you. You can also send messages about how to avoid land 419 in case you want to buy land in Abuja or buy land in Lagos or buy land in wherever. Messages like that, people will know that look, anything will concern land that they should call you first because you are the guy.

You can also be dropping messages about the different kinds of facilities, you know, maybe federal government programs for instance, that help you to acquire real estate easy. Like under this current government, they have this thing under the Ministry of Finance that has a real estate investment trust that is open to, it's supposed to be for low income earners, you know, so if you're in real estate, these are the kind of messages you're sending every single day.

People now know that you are the real estate specialist and when there is anything that is real estate related where people want to buy land, they want to sell land, they want to buy a house, they want to sell house, they want anything property related. If this is the kind of messages that you're sending, people know that you're the very guy and then they reach out to you. So this is one way that lots of business owners are using WhatsApp for business, but the wrong way in Nigeria or Ghana or South Africa or Mexico or wherever, you know, it's a universal problem.

So and then let me stop here so that this profile as a profile so that this podcast episode doesn't become unduly lengthy. Now, if you're trying to use WhatsApp for business, excuse me, and you're not sure if you're doing it right or you're looking for ways to overcome some of these mistakes, then call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 0806462140. Let's see if we can sort your business out right now.

If some of you are scared because I sound expensive, that is not a problem. I'm actually moderately priced. But even then, I answer questions for free. It's just that if you want free coaching, free advice, I will answer one question and one question only. So feel free reach out 08064662140. But please, pick a lane, pick one thing, optimize your WhatsApp business profile around that thing. Don't send optimized, sorry.

Don't send unsolicited messages. Look for a certain level of buy in. Maybe even create a WhatsApp channel so that people who are interested can be put there. Then your daily messaging should be around core ideas that are related to this chief business thing that you want to do. Now, if you don't want to be your WhatsApp business page should be for business. You want to be for something else. You want it to be for Christ.

You want to be a missionary. It's the same thing as well. Optimize your WhatsApp business page around your faith in Jesus Christ. Then don't select sorry, don't send unsolicited messages. Create a WhatsApp channel, put people there and then every single day you cannot be sending messages about the end times that the end of the world is here. Or this is how you should make money from Book of Deuteronomy, or This is why you should go to dub Pastor WF Kumi's church.

So that's it and that's all. Remember, reach me, call me, connect with me, send me a text message, send me a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. Thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you also on the episode.