In this article, you will learn how to create a WhatsApp link that can automatically display a message in the WhatsApp application. This can help users by providing a template message, so they don't need to bother writing a sentence again when contacting you. Before starting this step, make sure the phone number is already registered as a WhatsApp account.
Here is the format that will be used as a WhatsApp link containing a message.
https://wa.me/(phone number)?text=(encode text)
For example:
https://wa.me/08231231412?text=Hello%20my%20name%20is%20nadine
Adding a Phone Number
To add a phone number, you can add it after the wa.me slash as in the example above. Note that if you only add the phone number without encoded text, the link will still direct to the intended WhatsApp phone number but without any message content.
Adding Text
To include text after the number like the link above, there are 2 ways you can use here. First, you can write it yourself manually, second, you can use a web tool to create the text.
First Method
You can create text that will automatically appear when the user clicks the WhatsApp link. In this text, there are two things you need to know: how to add spaces and line breaks.
Space: To add spaces in the text you want to create, use %20. For example, if you want to write 'Hello, how are you?', it will become 'Hello,%20how%20are%20you?'.
Line break: To add line breaks in the text, use %0A. For example, if you want to write like this:
'Hello Nadine. How are you?'
You can write it like this 'Hello%20Nadine,%0Ahow%20are%20you?'
These two pre-texts are the most basic and easiest to understand. There are many different pre-texts because if you use symbols like question marks (?) or exclamation marks (!) and so on, they have different pre-texts. If you want to add symbols, you can try the second method.
Second Method
You can use a third-party web tool as listed below. This method can be an alternative if you want an easier process of creating pre-text without manually writing like the first method. Here are the steps:
You can access the Encode website to create a message.
Create the message you want, then click the 'Encode' button.
Copy the encoded code, then paste it after the (=) symbol as in the example link above.
Here, the WhatsApp link created will automatically direct to your WhatsApp number, along with the message that was created earlier. You can use this link in the Email marketing button, or on your Page button so that when someone sees it and wants to contact you, it will make it easier for them to communicate with you.