Email marketing agency and WhatsApp follow-up for every lead

What email and WhatsApp marketing includes

Email and WhatsApp marketing covers replying to new leads, following up until they book, and staying in touch with customers who have agreed to hear from you. Done well, it turns enquiries you have already paid for into bookings and brings past customers back. Complete WhatsApp marketing services and email programmes include:

• WhatsApp Business setup: a complete business profile, catalogue, quick replies and greeting messages, and the official WhatsApp Business Platform when your volume needs automation.
• Instant lead replies: an automatic WhatsApp message and email the moment someone fills a website form or an ad lead form.
• Nurture sequences: a planned set of messages that answer common doubts and remind people to book.
• Broadcasts and newsletters: offers, updates and useful advice sent only to contacts who opted in.
• CRM and tracking: one place for every lead, its source and its stage, with reports on replies, bookings and revenue.

What it should not include: bought contact lists, messages to people who never agreed to hear from you, or bulk senders built on unofficial versions of WhatsApp. These can get your number banned and push your emails into spam folders.

Two free tools help here: the WhatsApp link generator makes a click-to-chat link and QR code for your website and ads, and the SPF and DMARC checker shows whether your domain is set up to help your emails reach the inbox.

What a good follow-up sequence looks like

A good follow-up sequence replies instantly, gives one clear next step and keeps going for a few days until the lead books or asks you to stop. Here is the shape we use for most service businesses, adjusted for how long your buyers take to decide:

1. Lead arrives: someone fills a form on your site, submits a Meta or Google lead form, or taps a click-to-WhatsApp ad. The lead lands in your CRM with its source recorded.
2. Instant WhatsApp reply: within moments, they get a short message that uses their name, confirms what they asked about and offers a booking link or a time to call. Your team gets an alert at the same time.
3. Email with detail: the same day, an email covers what a chat message cannot: what happens on the first visit, directions, packages if you share them and answers to common questions.
4. Reminder: if there is no booking after a day or two, a polite reminder on WhatsApp or email answers one common doubt and repeats the next step. Your team also gets a task to call.
5. Booked: once the lead books, the sales messages stop and confirmation and appointment reminders take over. If they never book, the sequence ends, and they receive your occasional newsletter only if they opted in to it.

Three rules keep a sequence useful. Every message has one purpose. Every message makes it easy to reply or opt out. The sequence stops the moment the person books, replies or says no. A sales reminder that arrives after someone has already paid makes your business look careless.

Follow-ups look different by industry: site-visit reminders for real estate projects, and admission enquiry follow-ups for schools.

WhatsApp or email: which one should you use?

Use WhatsApp for speed and email for depth, and most businesses need both. WhatsApp suits instant replies, appointment reminders, quick questions and short offers, because it is where many Indian customers already talk to businesses. Email suits longer content: detailed guides, newsletters, invoices and follow-ups for B2B buyers who decide over weeks.

Within WhatsApp there is a second choice:

• WhatsApp Business App: free, runs on a phone and suits small teams handling chats by hand. It offers a business profile, catalogue, labels, quick replies, and greeting and away messages.
• WhatsApp Business Platform: the official route for automation at scale, often called the API. It connects WhatsApp to your CRM and forms and sends approved templates to opted-in contacts. Meta charges for some messages sent on the platform.

We usually start a business on the app and move to the platform once lead volume or team size makes manual replies too slow.

The rules: opt-in, approved templates and opt-out

Every contact must agree to hear from you, WhatsApp messages you start must use approved templates, and every marketing message must make opting out easy. These rules protect your number and your email domain.

• Opt-in: WhatsApp’s business policy requires people to opt in before you message them. We add a clear consent line to your forms and record when and where each person agreed.
• Approved templates: on the WhatsApp Business Platform, any message you send outside the 24-hour window after a person’s last message must use a template Meta has approved. That includes the first reply to a website form lead. Once the person replies, you can chat freely within that window.
• Opt-out: every marketing message tells people how to stop receiving them, and opt-outs are honoured straight away in the CRM.
• Quality: if many people block or report your messages, Meta can lower your number’s quality rating and limit how many people you can reach.
• Email authentication: Gmail and Yahoo expect bulk senders to authenticate their domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC and to offer one-click unsubscribe.

India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 also puts consent at the centre of how businesses use personal data. Clean consent records make every one of these rules simpler to follow.

How email and WhatsApp marketing services are priced

The cost depends on how many lead sources, sequences and broadcasts you need, plus software and messaging charges that sit outside the agency fee. The main factors are:

• Setup work: how many forms, ad accounts and lead sources need to connect to your CRM.
• Sequences: how many journeys you need, such as new leads, abandoned carts, renewals and past customers.
• Content: how often you send newsletters and broadcasts, and whether they need design.
• Software and messaging: CRM and email software subscriptions, and Meta’s charges for template messages on the WhatsApp Business Platform, which depend on the message type and how many you send.

We set software up in your name, so you own the accounts and the data. Every free growth audit from 93Digital ends with a fixed monthly quote for our work, with software costs listed separately.

How long until email and WhatsApp marketing shows results?

Instant replies can help from the week they go live, and the rest builds over two to three months. Fast replies change what happens to leads you are already getting, so they are usually the first thing we launch.

1. Weeks 1 to 2: audit, WhatsApp and email setup, CRM connection and testing.
2. Weeks 3 to 4: instant replies and the first follow-up sequence go live for new leads.
3. Months 2 to 3: nurture, re-engagement and broadcasts are added, and messages are rewritten based on replies and bookings.
4. Month 3 onward: your opted-in list grows, and each broadcast reaches more people who want to hear from you.

How to choose a WhatsApp marketing company or email marketing agency

Choose a partner that starts with your lead flow, follows the platform rules and reports bookings and revenue. Ask these questions before you sign:

• How will you collect opt-in? They should explain consent on forms, ads and chats before talking about broadcasts.
• Do you use the official WhatsApp Business Platform? Bulk senders built on unofficial apps can get your number banned.
• Who owns the accounts and the contact list? Your WhatsApp number, email domain, CRM and data should stay in your name.
• What will you report? Replies, bookings and revenue tell you far more than sends and open rates.
• When do sequences stop? The right answer is when the person books, replies or opts out.

Red flags include offers to message lakhs of numbers, contact lists for sale, and anyone who cannot explain how message templates get approved.

A simple test: fill in your own website form tonight and note how long it takes to hear back. If the answer is hours, fix that before anything else. The 30-minute call in our free growth audit covers your three biggest fixes, and for many businesses this is one of them.

Want to know who you would work with? Read about the 93Digital team and how we run every channel together.