Steps to use phone number that has been registered with Whatsapp Business before

To apply for WhatsApp API Verification, you must use a number that does not have an account on any WhatsApp apps.

You can use a phone number that is already registered in the Android, iPhone, or Business application versions of WhatsApp.

However, in order to register this phone number on WhatsApp Business API, you will need to follow the steps below to delete the WhatsApp account associated with that phone number.

Once a phone number is registered on the WhatsApp Business API, it cannot be used for WhatsApp Business or the WhatsApp consumer app. A phone number can be upgraded to the WhatsApp Business API, but not downgraded.

To delete your account
  1. Open WhatsApp.
  2. Tap More options > Settings > Account > Delete my account.
  3. Enter your phone number in full international format and tap DELETE MY ACCOUNT.
  4. Select a reason for why you’re deleting your account in the dropdown.
  5. Tap DELETE MY ACCOUNT.

Deleting your account will:

  • Delete your account from WhatsApp.
  • Erase your message history.
  • Delete you from all of your WhatsApp groups.
  • Delete your backup.

Information from Official WhatsApp documentations:  Phone numbers

Advertisement

What if the ‘Start Verification’ button is greyed?

What would you do if start verification button greyed out on your Facebook Business Manager?

It’s a very common issue that a lot of businesses are facing before applying for Facebook Business Verification.

To apply for WhatsApp Business API, it is must to have your Facebook Business Account verified.

But things turn the table when you see the ‘Start Verification’ button under ‘Business Info’ is greyed out and you can not click on it.

Facebook business verification greyed out can be fixed with a small workaround.

Just follow these steps:

  • Log into Facebook Developer and click “Set Up” on any of the apps. That should generate an App ID (found in the top header). Copy-paste the App ID and now navigate back to the Business Settings page, on the left side menu: Business Account > Accounts > App.
  • Enter/paste your App ID and refresh the page.
  • Now you should be able to see the button activate in the Security Settings page. Click verify to continue the process.
    If still, your business verification greyed out, Let us know.

What documents are required for Facebook Business Verification?

You’ll need to provide one of the following documents to verify your business: OrganizationsIf you’re a registered business or organization, please provide one of the following:

  •  Government-issued company or corporate registration.
  •  Company tax revenue document (for example, a corporate tax return or tax-exempt certificate).
  •  Official articles of incorporation or association.

Sole proprietorsIf you’re a registered sole proprietor and operate your business by yourself, please submit one of the document types listed below:

  •  A government registration document. This document must confirm that you are a sole proprietor.
  •  Company tax filing document.

If you’re not a registered business or sole proprietor, please submit the requested ID below:

  •  Proof of ID. This must be a valid government-issued identification document that includes a photograph, preferably a passport.
  •  Proof of address. Note that your document must clearly show the address you registered with Facebook, must be in effect and must be no more than 6 months old. Acceptable proof can include your:
    • Utility bill.
    • Bank statement.
    • Credit card statement.
    • Company tax filings documents.

Please note that the image of your document must be clear, in color, and show the whole document. The document submitted cannot be expired or altered in any way.

What are the steps to get Facebook Business Verification?

Pre-requisites: You must have valid business documents for business verification. To find the list of applicable documents, please visit this link: What documents are required for Facebook Business Verification?

Go to Security Center, and click Start Verification in the Business Verification section.

Note: The Start Verification button will be greyed out unless your business needs access to certain features. If the ‘Start Verification’ button is greyed out, please follow this guide:What if the ‘Start Verification’ button is greyed?

  1. Enter Business Details
    Enter your business details and click Next.
    The business information you provide during the business verification process will become publicly visible if your Page has a large U.S. audience or runs ads about social issues, elections or politics in the U.S.
  2. Select Your Business
    Select the correct business from the list or select None of these match if your business is not displayed.
    If you select None of these match, disregard steps 3-5 and learn how to Upload Official Documents to complete the verification process.
  3. Confirm Your Business Details
    Select a phone number that you have access to from the dropdown menu and click Next.
  4. Get a Verification Code
    Choose to receive the verification code on your business phone number via a text message or a phone call or via email. The phone number option may not be available in all countries.
    Or verify your domain
    If your domain is already verified, click Use Domain Verification. If not, complete the domain verification process then return to the Security Center and select Continue.
  5. Enter Verification Code (not applicable if you use domain verification)
    Enter your verification code. Click Submit.

If you receive confirmation that your business is verified, you’re all set! You may not receive confirmation right away. If you don’t receive confirmation right away, you’ll receive a notification when the review is complete. You can also check your status in Security Center.

Get approved for 
WhatsApp Business APIs
in under a week without setup fee

Here’s what you need to get started

1. Verified Facebook Business Manager ID
(a) Don’t have a Facebook Business Manager?  Create Now
(b) Facebook Business Manager not verified?  Verify Now

2. Mobile Number
(a) Mobile number must not have an active WhatsApp account.
(b) Want to delete the WhatsApp account with the number?  Learn how to delete

3. Display Name
(a) Display Name must have a clear relation with the business.
(b) Display Name must adhere to WhatsApp Display Name Guidelines.  Read Guidelines

Project Management Approach to Launching a Good Referral Program

Over the last 12 months I’ve launched 30+ referral programs, mostly for Y Combinator backed startups. What I learned is that 9/10 founders are launching their referral programs for the first time and unfortunately don’t have a great framework to work with

The internet is littered with articles like ’10 things to launch a successful referral program” — and none of it is actionable advice. It’s mostly generic statements that are very obviously true but aren’t actionable or specific enough to be helpful, stuff like “use Tracking to optimize it” or “have clear marketing goals in mind”.

So, I wanted to give you a clear cut & dry playbook for what you should do to get your referral program to work. In this 2 part series, I’m sharing my project management approach to getting your referral program to work.

  • Part 0: Variables you should measure=> things you should fix

a discussion of which variables you should track and measure, and what actions you should take to improve each of those parts

  • Part 1: Promoting your referral program

what you should do if your referral program awareness or participation are low. this part of the referral program is so important that I feel like it deserves a separate article

  • Part 2: Increasing participation of your referral program

what you should do if customers know of your referral program but aren’t using it

  • Part 3: Deliverability of your channels

if you’re using email as a referral channel, you need to measure open rate => referral program emails tend to end up in spam

  • Part 4: Conversion rates of your referral offers

Part 0: What you should be measuring and what you should be fixing

I like to divide up the referral program into 4 distinct measurable conversion points so that we can better optimize each step separately. Referral programs are complex — there are multiple different levers we can pull to optimize — let’s focus on each one methodically.

  1. Measure % of your active users that have seen your referral program. If this number is low, work on visibility and promoting it (Part 1)
  2. Measure number of invites sent per each of your users that has seen your referral program. If this number is low, you should work on adding clarity and creating urgency (Part 2)
  3. If you’re using email, you need to measure open rates. If this number is close to 0, you’re likely ending up in spam (Part 3)
  4. Measure % of referral links clicked/emails or messages opened. If this number is low, you can improve messaging + add multiple follow up points (Part 4)

Fortunately with referral programs, we have a lot of opportunities to track — we can track views, invites generated, emails open and links clicked, and sign ups.

I’ll assume you have a referral program set up and that you’re tracking these. With that said, we will diagnose what you should measure and how to make that number go up

Part 1: Promoting your referral program

Low View Count← Improve Visibility

Top of the funnel we have visibility of your referral programs, i.e. out of all of your active users, how many have seen your referral program. This is measured by the percentage of your users that generates unique views of your referral program page.

This differs widely amongst startups — the more frequently your users engage with your platform’s website/app, the higher this should be. If your users are engaged with your platform on at least a weekly basis, you should aim for 100% of your active users.

Here is where you should place your referral program to improve this number:

  • Admin dashboard/personal cabinet
  • Credit replenishment/billing section
  • Checkout order confirmation
  • Right after sign up, offer them a premium feature

It also works if you place your referral program in multiple places. Avoid — placing it on a separate page, with just a “refer a friend” item on your navigation menu bar and hoping people will see and click it.

If you don’t want to place the whole referral screen on your main admin dashboard, you can at least place a big bold banner that leads traffic to it.

Other ways to promote:

  • newsletter outreach
  • support chat/onboarding process — closing out your intercom with “btw are you aware we have a referral program? would you be down to check it out?” especially if the ticket had successful outcome
  • organize events around it: time bound your referral campaign to one month while launching, offer an outsized reward for the top referral spot. Afterwards say “hey, we received so much interest from the community that we decided to open up our referral program permanently”

Part 2: Increasing participation of your referral program

if you’re getting lots of visibility on your program, but not a lot of participation, here is what you can do:

  1. Adding urgency to share (tricky to accomplish, amazing results)
  2. Improve your messaging (easy to do, decent results)
  3. Make it easier to generate a share (easy to do, decent results)

Adding urgency to share

Fix — master the art of aligning customer’s urgency with yours. First, identify typical flows your users take that are urgent to them.

best example: they’re out of credits they need it to complete an action. usually it goes like…oh no, I’m out of credits …*clicks on buy points*….*sees an opportunity to get few points for free for just inviting a few friends*….goes for it.

Another great example: they just tried doing something that’s normally reserved for users of a higher subscription tier…for example, they’re using tinder, they want to use the “boost” feature, they hit on that button, but they can’t -> they’re not tinder gold member… here, you can offer them a limited use of this premium feature in exchange for a few successful referrals

These work really well because you’re building on top of customer’s urgency that is already there, and channeling that towards your referral program

Your messaging is not super clear/confusing
Fix: being explicit about how/when they’ll get the reward is what you should aim for. A/B testing different messaging works BUT don’t overdo it — from what I’ve seen, this is very low efficiency per time spent on it, you’re much better off changing something fundamental like in the previous section. providing a table like the one below helps, it sort of shows your users…look I’m on top of my referral program, we are counting all of the referrals generated, don’t worry…and we are tracking when your friends convert

Make it easier to generate a share

if you don’t have these yet, you must add 2-click share channels: email, sms, WhatsApp etc etc

don’t just leave them with copy to clipboard, but instead offer them a few more items on the line

 Bonus: a table like this helps your customer get immediate feedback — “oh great my referral was counted!”. showing them their referral is actively tracked increases the probability of multiple shares + bonus if you check for deliverability & ask the to retype the email address


Part 3: Deliverability of your channels

Emails opens are low ← fix SPAM

If you’re doing well in (1) and (2), but you have a super low number of email opens (hint: you should DEFINITELY be measuring email opens and link clicks), there is a really good chance you’re going into SPAM. This is why you should measure email opens — if you see that number close to 0%, you know it’s got to be in SPAM.

How to solve this issue:

  • run email address verification before sending those emails. there is always a percentage of users who will mistype their friends emails. gmail will punish you for undeliverable emails as it thinks it’s happening because you’re buying old emails lists from someone. there are API’s that will handle this for you on the fly. if the result returns “undeliverable” to you, ask your user to retype that email
  • unsubscribe link is a MUST
  • use less images and html, more plain text, and keep it simple

If your open rates are OKAY but not great, one more thing:

  • subject line — include the sender’s name there