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WhatsApp now allows Indian small businesses to sign up for the Meta Verified badge, enabling them to send personalized messages to customers. According to a joint report by Meta and Bain & Company released in May, India has more than 65 million small businesses, but only about 5 million of them sell products online. The company is looking to make the most of this market opportunity by promoting WhatsApp Business, as the app is used by a majority of Indians for messaging and has become the preferred way for small businesses to connect with customers.
The company said that the Meta Verified subscription will give Whatsapp Business users access to features such as the ability to create personalized WhatsApp pages that can be found on the web, support for multiple devices, and multiple employee accounts. Meta Verified for WhatsApp Business costs around $8 (roughly Rs. 639) per month for Indian users.
In addition to Meta Verified, small businesses using WhatsApp Business can now schedule and send personalized messages to their customers, including appointment reminders, birthday greetings, and sales updates, for less than Rs. 1 per message. Businesses can also include customer names and add personalized CTA buttons.
Last September, Meta launched a professional account verification program on Instagram and Facebook. WhatsApp is also embarking on an initiative called “WhatsApp Business Yatra” (a WhatsApp Business tour in Hindi), via which the company will visit and promote the service in tier-2 and tier-3 cities in the country, aiming to provide in-person training to small businesses.
“As part of this initiative, we will train small businesses in setting up their WhatsApp Business accounts, creating catalogs, educating them on how to set up ads that click to WhatsApp, and much more. "We will also create a resource centre on our website that will act as a quick access point to training materials for these businesses," the company said.
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