In much of South-East Asia, WhatsApp is where business conversations happen. Outreach Asia can send first messages there, but only where the business has invited WhatsApp contact or you have recorded its permission. A mobile number found in a map listing is not an opt-in.
Link WhatsApp
Open Settings → Channels. Under How do you want to connect? there are two options.
Scan a code with your phone. This links the app as a device on your normal WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business account. It is not an official Meta connection, so you may occasionally need to scan again.
- Select Show code.
- On your phone, open WhatsApp, then Settings, then Linked devices, then Link a device.
- Scan the code within three minutes and keep the page open until it says Linked.
WhatsApp Business API. For the official Meta connection, enter your Phone number ID and Access token and select Connect. First messages then use a Meta-approved plain-text template. Your account manager can help with the setup.
Under Use for outreach, make sure WhatsApp outreach is switched on, then Save outreach channels. Your daily message allowance is shared between email and WhatsApp.
When a company may be messaged
Two checks apply before any WhatsApp message is written.
- The number must be a mobile. Landlines and numbers whose type is unclear are held. With the scan-code connection, the number must also have been confirmed on WhatsApp recently.
- There must be permission. Either the business publishes that same number for WhatsApp contact on its own website (a wa.me link, a WhatsApp chat link or a chat widget), shown as Published on their website for WhatsApp contact with a See page link; or you record where and when they agreed, for example “WhatsApp opt-in on our enquiry form, 19 Sep 2026”, and select Save permission.
In our research so far, about 4 in 10 lead websites published a WhatsApp number or chat link.
Recording permission is your confirmation that it exists. Only record permission you can show. This is general information, not legal advice.
WhatsApp-first plans
When WhatsApp is connected, a company whose website publishes a confirmed WhatsApp mobile is automatically contacted on WhatsApp first, unless your default plan is Email only or you have already chosen a plan for that company. The email follows after the delay in your plan (2 hours, 1 day or 2 days) if there has been no reply. The delay counts from when the WhatsApp message was accepted, and the email only sends while reply monitoring is working.
You can change the plan for any company in Review drafts. A missing mobile number never quietly switches a company to email; it waits until you change its plan.
What the message looks like
Every first WhatsApp contact follows the same short, friendly pattern, sent as three separate messages:
- “Hello! This is your name from your company, what your company is.”
- “We have your offer and we are looking for who the campaign wants.”
- “Just checking if you are open for the next step?”
For example: “Hello! This is Wilson from Le Yao Ju, a frozen food manufacturer from China.” · “We have heat-and-serve fried rice, dim sum and frozen desserts and we are looking for distributors in Malaysia.” · “Just checking if you are open for a look at our partner info pack?”
- The blanks are filled from your approved statements and the campaign, and the finished message is checked like an email. Text only: no links and no attachments.
- The messages go a few seconds apart, with “typing…” shown in between. If the company asks to stop before the last one goes, the rest are not sent.
- The draft waits for the same 24-hour review as an email. What they’ll see shows each message as a separate bubble, and you can edit the wording: each paragraph is sent as its own message.
With the WhatsApp Business API, Meta’s approved template is sent as one message instead.
Replies and opt-outs
A WhatsApp reply appears in Conversations next to the messages you sent, marked WhatsApp. It is sorted like an email reply (interested, question, not now, wrong person and so on), and you are told about it by the bell and on Telegram.
- A person’s reply marks the company as replied and stops all further outreach on both channels.
- A reply asking to stop adds the company to the do-not-contact list at once.
- An automatic greeting or away message, such as “Thank you for contacting us, we will reply soon”, is shown in the thread as Automatic message. It is not counted as a reply, so outreach, including an email follow-up, carries on. A message that arrives within seconds, or reads like a greeting and arrives within a few minutes, is treated this way.
With Answer simple replies for me switched on in Settings → Automation, interested, objection and wrong-person replies on WhatsApp get a short answer automatically, from your linked WhatsApp, a few minutes after they arrive. It is written from your approved statements and checked first. It can include your website, and if they ask where we got their number, it says plainly that it is the number they publish for business enquiries. The conversation shows it with the note Automatic answer sent on WhatsApp.
Unclear and not-now replies, opt-outs and any answer that fails a check always wait for you. To answer by hand, select Suggest an answer, then Send on WhatsApp, or Copy answer to send it from your phone yourself. A WhatsApp reply is never answered by email.
Need help with something not covered here? Email wilson@communication21.com or use Help & glossary in the app.