How to click-to-chat in WhatsApp: 7 easy ways to grow WhatsApp subscribers

Need to grow your WhatsApp audience? It's easier than you think – especially if you already have a loyal customer base. Here are 5 simple ways to get customers to click to chat in WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is no longer just an app for family and friends. Now it's a vibrant space where brands and customers can interact.

It's exciting times for brands tired of low response rates in email marketing and increasingly expensive ads. Not to mention the disappearance of third-party cookies. 

But if you're starting off with WhatsApp marketing, how do you get customers into your WhatsApp chat so you can start interacting with them? 

With these "click-to-chat" methods you can start 100,000s of WhatsApp conversations fast, in just 1 click.

How can customers get in to your WhatsApp chat? 

First, where do customers come from to enter your WhatsApp Business account?

The main places customers can enter your WhatsApp chat are: website, email, social media, ads, social media and offline.

You'll always need to give customers a "wa.me" link at all of these entry points, which will take the form of either:

• A link they can tap (known as a wa.me link) on their phones or desktops 
• A QR code they can scan on their phones

Here's how to get the most customers possible into your WhatsApp chat.

7 click-to-chat WhatsApp methods to get customers into chat

Here are the main techniques the brands that use the charles platform use to get their customers into their WhatsApp chat: 

1. Website popups

It's likely you have 100,000s of people, if not millions, visiting your site every month. While they're browsing, ask them to join you in WhatsApp.

To do this, you create popups or chat bubbles in the charles platform. We call them Chat-ins.

These widgets can be added to any page on your website to enable customers to click to chat in WhatsApp directly from your website.

Typically, they offer a discount and are present on every page or only on some pages – or even as exit intent popups.

Top tips:

• Brand your popups to keep them looking professional and ease any concerns about your brand sending people to an external app like WhatsApp (you can add branding in the charles platform)
• Theme your popups to seasonal and sales events for higher conversion to WhatsApp
• Offer WhatsApp popups on mobile and email popups on desktop for a more intuitive opt-in journey 
• Offer a 10-20% discount when people sign up to your "WhatsApp newsletter" or updates – we find that 20% works much better

A website popup example for our customer Pferdegold

2. Thank you page box

This is a non-intrusive but very powerful way to grow WhatsApp subscribers.

After a purchase, a customer will see your thank you page on your website. With the charles platform, you can create a thank you page box that encourages them to opt in to your WhatsApp chat.

Usually, brands offer an incentive or delivery updates via WhatsApp. Or both.

The power of WhatsApp delivery updates

Customers love getting delivery updates in WhatsApp, and after a purchase they're generally in a good mood. So this is the perfect time to offer them something useful like delivery updates.

Or of course you can offer other options like entry to your loyalty program, a small additional free gift or a small discount on their next purchase. 

Create thank you page WhatsApp opt-ins that adapt for mobile (example on the left) and desktop (example on the right) webpages. If you choose to offer WhatsApp delivery updates, you can ask for a marketing opt-in later on in WhatsApp.

3. Emails 

Email marketing is still high on most marketers lists. So it's likely you already have a large email following.

As emails are mostly free to send, this is a great place to ask for a WhatsApp opt-in. As usual, offer a discount or incentive. You can also create an email as part a current wider creative campaign to ask for a WhatsApp opt-in.

Will WhatsApp marketing replace email marketing?

See our article: email vs WhatsApp marketing, which is best?

4. WhatsApp customer service

Thanks to our WhatsApp service integrations with Zendesk, Gorgias and more, you can extend your WhatsApp marketing efforts to customer service.

Once someone has had their question successfully answered, you can trigger an opt-in flow to get permission to send marketing communications

WhatsApp service messages that come in through charles can be directed to your Zendesk or other customer service platform – ask for a marketing opt-in, or even a review, after you've solved their issue

5. Social media

Social media is perhaps the most powerful way to get customers into your WhatsApp chat.

Many of our customers use seasonal campaigns and product launches to encourage WhatsApp opt-ins.

All you need to do is add your wa.me link to your posts and stories on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn or other social media platform. Your WhatsApp Channel can also be a useful place to share your wa.me link and start conversations with people (as WhatsApp Channels is 1 to many).

You can also add the link to your profile and pin stories linking to your WhatsApp chat.

And you can get very creative. For example, our customer, Katjes, had great success earning 1,000s of WhatsApp opt-ins with a "click-to-chat" campaign that asked people to guess the number of sweets in a jar.

6. Click-to-chat WhatsApp ads on Instagram and Facebook 

Meta realizes the power of growing your WhatsApp audience. After all, it charges a fee per WhatsApp conversation. So the more conversations you have, the better.

Click-to-WhatsApp Ads are a great way to seamlessly lead users from platforms like Facebook or Instagram to a direct chat on WhatsApp. This direct channel allows businesses to respond to individual requests and offer personalised service.

Plus, WhatsApp conversations started with click-to-message ads are free. Win-win.

How to create click-to-message WhatsApp ads

If you already have a WhatsApp Business account or work with the WhatsApp Business Platform, you can link your account to your Facebook/Instagram page.

Now you can set up click-to-WhatsApp ads from Facebook or Instagram via Meta Ads Manager.

In Ads Manager, you need to specify the objective of your campaign: traffic, engagement and sales.

The settings change depending on the target with which you want to place your advert. You can find out more here.

Facebook click-to-WhatsApp ads work well

Instagram ads can also be set up in the Ads Manager. Make sure that you have selected Instagram for the placements. See more here.

Click-to-WhatsApp ad from Instagram

7. QR codes 

This isn't strictly a "click" to chat method. It's more: "scan to chat."

Use WhatsApp QR codes to get many customers into WhatsApp from offline places like:

• In-store posters
• Out-of-home advertising
• Flyers
• Packaging (including your parcels)
• TV ads

And of course you can use them online too. Add them to your website or use them in emails to allow customers to quickly WhatsApp you.

This works especially well when people are looking at your comms on their desktop and may find it easier to get in touch with you or sign up to your marketing updates using their smartphone.

Try out an automated WhatsApp flow made with charles

Customer example: How Barò Cosmetics gained 50,000 WhatsApp opt-ins with charles' click-to-chat

Barò Cosmetics is a natural cosmetics manufacturer from Italy that sells a large proportion of its products via WhatsApp. They wanted to get going fast with WhatsApp and grow their WhatsApp audience as quickly as possible.

Barò Cosmetics collected 50,000 opt-ins in the first 90 days with charles – through website popups, chat bubbles and the offer of delivery tracking on the thank you page

Through the Chat-ins on the charles platform, Barò Cosmetics collected 50,000 opt-ins in a GDPR-compliant way in a very short time, i.e. permission to send WhatsApp campaigns to 50,000 customers directly on their mobile phones – sitting alongside friends and family.

You can easily create website popups and chat bubbles using the charles Campaigns feature

How to set up click-to-chat for WhatsApp

If you're a medium to large business, you'll need a WhatsApp marketing platform from a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider like charles.

Your provider will set up your WhatsApp Business account and phone number for you. They will also advise you (or at least they should) on how to get customers into your WhatsApp chat fast.

If you're a small business, then you can simply use the WhatsApp Business app.

How to generate a WhatsApp (wa.me) link

If you use our platform, you don't need to worry about setting up a WhatsApp Business number or creating WhatsApp links. charles will take care of all this for you.

However, you can always create a WhatsApp link yourself. You can do this in 2 ways:

1. Use a WhatsApp link generator like ours to create a link or QR code leading to your WhatsApp chat automatically
2. Create a WhatsApp link yourself

1. Use a WhatsApp link generator

All you need to do is enter your number, write your pre-filled message and generate your link and QR code. You can also insert emojis into the ready-made message for the true WhatsApp experience.

Then share it far and wide using the methods above.

With our WhatsApp link generator you can create your click-to-chat instantly

2. Create your own wa.me link

Or, you can make your own wa.me link. With the wa.me domain as the root of a URL, you can build links that lead directly to your WhatsApp channel with a mouse click (or tap). 

You can always build this link according to the following formula:

https://wa.me/<Telefonnummer>

Where <phone number> is a complete phone number in international format. For the phone number, you must omit zeros, brackets, spaces and hyphens and only enter your country code and the digits of your phone number after the slash.

Right: https://wa.me/49XXXXXXXXXX

Wrong: https://wa.me/+0049-(XXX)XXXXXXX

If you want to add a prewritten message to the link, you can do it like this:

https://wa.me/<phone-number>?text=<pre-written-message>

Important: While the "?text=" part always remains the same, you must always use this spelling for the <prefabricatedMessage> part:

https://wa.me/1XXXXXXXXXX?text=I%20am%20interested%20in%20the%20new%20collection

The space is always replaced with a "%20" in this URL-encoded notation 

When a user clicks on the link, they'll be taken to the chat with you with your pre-written message:

You write the message, and when customers send this to you on WhatsApp, it triggers an opt-in flow in the charles platform to gain GDPR permissions

A pre-written message is particularly useful for users of the WhatsApp Business Platform (formerly also API) because they can use it as a trigger for an automated chat flow. 

To sum up: all routes click to WhatsApp

WhatsApp opens many doors for improved communication and interaction. "Click-to-chat" is the key that unlocks them.

From website popups to service integration, social media to click-to-message ads – there are many possibilities.

It's best to use several methods, or even all of them, to constantly grow your audience and maximize your revenue potential in WhatsApp. The key to success with click-to-chat is to keep monitoring and analyzing results, and testing options, to see what works for you and your customers.

With the closeness you create, you not only improve customer loyalty and brand awareness, but also increase sales. 

Any questions about click-to-chat for WhatsApp? Just ask.

With 5 years' experience in WhatsApp marketing, we can help you understand how to build your WhatsApp audience fast.

Give us some details and we'll get back to you soon.