How to Use WhatsApp Status for Marketing: A Complete Guide

WhatsApp is not just a tool for personal interaction; it can also be leveraged as a digital marketing tool. The WhatsApp status feature is visible to anyone who saves your contact information. That provides you with numerous opportunities to promote your business. But how to use WhatsApp status for marketing?

In this blog, we will cover everything you need to know about posting WhatsApp status for promotions and marketing. You can explore everything from use cases and ideal size to best practices and common mistakes to avoid. Also, find on-theme template designs for various purposes.

What is WhatsApp Status and WhatsApp Business Status

You may have noticed the feature in WhatsApp that lets users post photos, videos, GIFs, text, or links that disappear after 24 hours. That’s WhatsApp status, and it’s only visible to the contacts saved in your phone.

But WhatsApp business status is a bit different. To use it, you need a WhatsApp business account. It’s pretty useful for brands and businesses, as customers and contacts who have saved your business number can see your updates. Here is a creative WhatsApp status example that helps the company stay on their customers’ minds.

Between the two, WhatsApp Business status helps businesses build stronger connections with customers in a more informal, visual, and real-time manner. Especially the swipe-up feature that enables you to get instant leads and responses from your customers. 

Types of WhatsApp Status 

There are various ways to post your WhatsApp story. These are:

• Photos and Videos: Share moments and updates about your business. 
• Text Updates: Share your thoughts or information with plain text. 
• GIFs: Add animated reactions or visuals to your status. 
• Voice Status: Record and share short voice messages up to 60 seconds long. 

Size of WhatsApp Status

If you don’t want your pictures and videos to get cropped or blurred, it’s obvious to ask ‘What is WhatsApp status size?’ So, let’s see what they are:

WhatsApp Status Image Size

• Recommended size: 1080 x 1920 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 9:16 
• Maximum file size: 5 MB 
• Format: JPG, PNG

WhatsApp Status Video Size

• Recommended size: 1080 x 1920 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Maximum file size: 16 MB
• Video duration: 30 seconds for videos and 6 seconds for GIFs
• Format: MP4

Safe Area for WhatsApp Status

To avoid cropping of your images and text, leave approximately 250 pixels of space at the top and bottom of the image. 

Why Use WhatsApp Status for Marketing

When used strategically, the WhatsApp status feature can help you reach your customers. That gives you more reasons to use it. Here are some reasons to use WhatsApp status for marketing purposes.

WhatsApp Stories Help with High Reach and Engagement

Over 1.5 billion users visit the Updates tab daily to check the status. That gives you more opportunities to get noticed, leading to significant brand discovery and engagement rates.

WhatsApp Status Advertising is Cost-Effective 

WhatsApp is a free medium where you don’t incur any additional advertising charges. On that note, you can market however you want without even worrying about the algorithms restricting your reach. 

WhatsApp Status is Best for Creating Urgency

The 24-hour visibility limit can help create a sense of urgency. You can post about limited-time offers, flash sales, and event announcements, aligning with the WhatsApp status format. Further, it encourages your audience to take action before they miss the opportunity.

Personalized Connection and Direct Conversation

WhatsApp status is visible only to people who have your contact saved, making it a more personal way to naturally foster relationships. The best part is that it helps real-time engagement, allowing your audience to respond instantly through direct messaging.

WhatsApp Stories Offer Content Variety

WhatsApp allows you to post a status in various formats. You can post photos, videos, text, voice recordings, or GIFs. Using these, you can easily experiment with the content types. You can provide updates about the latest offers or post videos of behind-the-scenes content; there are endless possibilities.

How to Use WhatsApp Status for Marketing

Now that you know all about the benefits of WhatsApp status marketing, how to advertise on WhatsApp status? Here are a few ways you can leverage WhatsApp marketing for your business.

Showcase Products and Services with WhatsApp Status Marketing

While showcasing your products and services, you can either post images or videos. While doing so, highlight the benefits with eye-catching visuals. Even if you use text, keep it concise and engaging for easy reading and comprehension.

There are several ways to highlight the benefits. You can post pictures with listicles of your services, before-and-after transformations, demos, sneak peeks, and more.

To illustrate, here is an eye-pleasing design from Business WhatsApp Status Templates, suitable for listing services.

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Announce Offers and Discounts in WhatsApp Status

WhatsApp status is the perfect space to create a sense of urgency around your special deals. Whether it’s a flash sale, limited-time discount, or exclusive coupon code, posting it on Status ensures your audience sees it instantly.  

To make it even more exciting, consider posting countdowns and product demos. Since viewers can reply directly, it encourages quick action and makes conversions seamless. Here is a template example with a limited-time offer for a food business.

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Share Behind-the-Scenes Content on WhatsApp Status

Giving your audience a glimpse into what happens behind the scenes is a powerful way to humanize your brand. Whether it’s your team brainstorming ideas, packing customer orders, preparing for a launch, or celebrating small wins, these candid moments build relatability and trust.

For that, you don’t even need polished or well-executed videos. Your behind-the-scenes should feel raw and authentic to make your audience connect with you on a personal level.

Educate Customers with WhatsApp Stories

Educational and value-driven content helps you establish your brand authority and expertise. But what should I post on WhatsApp status? To do that, you can post quick tips, FAQs, industry insights, etc. You can also post mini video tutorials to make your status more engaging. When posting educational content, remember to avoid being overly promotional. 

Promote Events and Updates with WhatsApp Status Marketing

WhatsApp status also offers a quick way to inform your audience about the latest updates or any upcoming events. You can build excitement by sharing teaser clips, countdowns, and sneak peeks leading up to the event. The best part is that it opens the door for quick sign-ups, inquiries, or direct engagement, making your event promotions more impactful.

You can post about anything, whether it’s a webinar, in-store promotion, product launch, or community event. With WhatsApp status, you can post timely reminders to create a buzz around your events. Here is a template design from Webinar WhatsApp Status Templates to promote events.

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Post Customer Testimonials and Reviews in WhatsApp Status

Customer reviews and testimonials help you earn the trust of your potential customers instantly. Sharing customer testimonials, positive feedback, or success stories on your WhatsApp status helps potential buyers see the real value of your products or services.

On that note, you can share testimonials as screenshots, short videos, or quick quotes. Since WhatsApp status adds a personal touch to your viewers, it directly influences their purchasing decisions.

Post Hiring Announcements and Recruitment Campaigns

When you post hiring announcements on WhatsApp status, you get a lot of chances for quick inquiries and DMs. When designing for such announcements, ensure that the design appears professional and polished. If there is excess information, break it into two or three slides and post multiple status slides.

Also, clearly highlight the job title, key responsibilities, location, company name, required skills, and CTA. You can also include various brand elements, website details, and contact information. For better understanding, here is an example of a clean and professional design from Hiring WhatsApp Status Templates.

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Cross-Promote Other Channels in Status on WhatsApp

If you want to drive traffic to other platforms, you can leverage WhatsApp status. You can share links to your Instagram posts, YouTube videos, blog articles, or even newsletters to expand your audience reach. Moreover, you can get creative by posting a quick teaser or preview with a call-to-action to watch the full video on another platform.

For inspiration, here is a WhatsApp status design promoting a podcast.

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Best Practices for WhatsApp Status Marketing Strategy

So far, you have explored the use cases for posting on WhatsApp status. Now, let’s take a look at some quick tips for marketing strategy on WhatsApp.

Segment Your WhatsApp Status Audience

WhatsApp status settings allow you to filter your audience with options like ‘Only share with’, ‘My contacts except’. You can use these options to display updates only to relevant contacts when posting hiring opportunities or special offers.

Leverage WhatsApp Business Status Features with CTAs

The best part about a WhatsApp Business status is that you can use it as a marketing tool to drive people to check out your catalog, website, or any other particular post. You can create visual CTAs (calls-to-action) in the design or text overlays, such as “Reply to this status,” “Read More,” or “Tap to order.”, adding a link to the different pages.

Here is an eye-catching template with a CTA. 

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Post Consistently but Not Excessively

Regular posting helps your brand to stay top-of-mind. However, if you excessively post on WhatsApp status, your audience may perceive you as spammy. That’s why you should keep your statuses updated 2-5 times a day. Also, spread posts across the day instead of dumping all at once.

Post Your WhatsApp Status In Active Hours

Posting at the right time on WhatsApp status requires some hit and error. Typically, the most common peak hours are in the morning (7–9 AM), during lunch (1–2 PM), and in the evenings (7–10 PM). However, for the best results, test and track when your audience is most responsive.

Track WhatsApp Status Content Performance & Optimize

Tracking status content is not just about checking the right time. It’s also helpful in tracking what works for your business. For that, check which statuses generate more views, replies, and conversions. You can also refine your approach based on content types by asking questions like-

• Do videos perform better than images?
• Which offers spark replies?

Maintain Authenticity and Privacy 

Excessive promotional postings can be perceived as spam. The worst part is, your viewers can block or mute your WhatsApp status if they feel spammed. That’s why we balance value-driven, fun, and community-based content with promotional ones. 

Also, WhatsApp is a more intimate and trust-driven platform. Before posting any screenshots of customer chats or testimonials, obtain explicit consent and blur names or photos if necessary. 

Why Strong Visual Design Matters in WhatsApp Status Marketing

The world has shifted entirely to digital-first media, making visuals the most powerful way to capture attention. Even in text-only designs, typography, colors, alignment, and balance decide how engaging the content feels. 

Visuals aren’t just instant attention-grabbers; instead, they also communicate your message in seconds. To illustrate, here are two examples of WhatsApp status designs. You can clearly see how the design on the right instantly grabs your attention due to its effective visual hierarchy.

Bright colors, sharp contrast, and explicit imagery help your WhatsApp status stand out in a sea of personal posts, unlike cluttered, text-heavy, and low-quality graphics that turn them away.

That’s why adopting a visual-first approach for WhatsApp status is no longer optional; it’s the key to driving engagement and leaving a lasting impression.

Best Practices for WhatsApp Status Design

Now you know that design is a crucial part of advertising on WhatsApp status. For the best results, consider the following best design practices. 

Make Your WhatsApp Status Content Easy to Digest

Since your audience will view the status on a small screen, it’s best to keep it concise, engaging, and visually appealing. For that, you can use infographics, product shots, mini tutorials, and quick promos. Also, try to avoid long text blocks, as viewers tend to swipe quickly.

Furthermore, avoid clutter and use ample whitespace for clarity. You can easily maintain it if you focus on only one idea at a time for every status. To illustrate, here is an example with a clean layout and organized text.

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Incorporate Strong Visual Branding in WhatsApp Stories

Maintaining consistency with branding is a crucial part of brand recall. That’s why it’s essential to stick to a consistent visual style, including brand colors, fonts, and logo, so viewers recognize your brand instantly. On that note, you should also strive to maintain a consistent tone that aligns with your brand personality and target audience.

Use Attention-Grabbing and High-Quality Visuals 

High-quality visuals are the soul of digital advertising. Even for WhatsApp stories marketing, you need visuals that convey your message instantly. If you are using an image for WhatsApp status, ensure that it aligns well with your text content without getting cropped or blurred.

For videos, you need to make the first 3 seconds count as viewers decide fast whether to swipe away. Apart from that, you can also experiment with GIFs, animations, or creative typography in design. For inspiration, consider this example, which features visually appealing elements.

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Optimize Your WhatsApp Status Size

Optimizing the WhatsApp status size is crucial if you want to get your message across. For that, you need to keep the recommended size within 1080 x 1920 pixels, with an ideal file size for both images and videos. Additionally, keep the essential elements within the safe zone, which is the center of the WhatsApp status image.

Use Interactive and Storytelling Elements in WhatsApp Status

To create a visual story, you can post multiple WhatsApp story slides in a logical sequence. You can also make a strong first slide hook and lead your viewers to subsequent slides. These story arcs can be problem-solution oriented or teasers-benefits-CTA types.

In addition to these, you can also make your status interactive by using polls, questions, or engagement hooks that encourage your viewers to engage with you. Add links and a strong call to action to guide your audience to take a specific action.

For example, here is a template from Food WhatsApp Status Templates urging users to share their stories with a ‘Swipe Up’ CTA.

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How to Design WhatsApp Status with DocHipo 

After reviewing all the tips and tricks for posting on WhatsApp status for business, let’s create one with DocHipo. With DocHipo, you can easily create a stunning design using professional templates, design assets, and AI tools. To do so, sign up and follow these steps.

1. Choose Your WhatsApp Status Template

As soon as you land on the All Templates Page, search for WhatsApp Status Templates. Furthermore, you can select any specific category, such as business, food, or hiring, to find a suitable template design.

You can scroll through the template designs and hover over them to view a preview. Afterwards, select a template that aligns with your purpose.

2. Customize WhatsApp Status Design

Within the DocHipo editor, you can customize using the design widgets library, which is full of icons, stickers, illustrations, stock images, videos, and more. 

Customizing the Text

Let’s begin with text customization. You can easily create a suitable text copy using the AI Writer option. Simply describe the text you want to make, along with the number of words. Next, select a tone that aligns with your brand from the various options available, such as professional, casual, confident, dramatic, or friendly. 

Within seconds, you have generated text content for your design. Apply the text to the canvas and customize the font, point size, position, color, and other settings.

Learn more about DocHipo AI Writer with this tutorial.

Customizing the Images

Next, you can select a picture from the stock images library or upload the photos of your products, guest speakers, or hosts for the layout. Further, you can remove the background of any image to create a polished look.

Learn more about uploading pictures in DocHipo.

Customizing the Brand Elements

You can further upload your brand assets within the Brand Kit and add elements such as your logo, fonts, and colors.

Explore the Brand Kit feature in DocHipo.

3. Download Your Design

Once you are satisfied with the design, download it in a suitable format and quality for smooth upload.

Learn more about creating WhatsApp status using DocHipo templates with this tutorial.

Mistakes to Avoid with WhatsApp Status Marketing

While thinking about how to use WhatsApp status for marketing purposes, there are a few things you should avoid at all costs. Take a quick look at these common mistakes that people usually overlook.

• Oversharing sensitive personal information, such as addresses or financial details.
• Posting inappropriate content, like offensive language, explicit images, or anything that could make others uncomfortable, as people of all ages use WhatsApp. 
• Overposting with too many updates in a short period
• Neglecting to proofread for spelling and grammar mistakes before posting can make your updates appear unprofessional.
• Uploading video quality below 4K/2K and exceeding the recommended file size.
• Ignoring aspect ratio and quality of content

Wrapping Up

Now you know everything about using WhatsApp status for marketing. We have covered the use cases, standard sizes, best practices, and common mistakes to avoid. Further, you can also post ads through WhatsApp Stories through Meta Ads Manager. If that feels overwhelming, you can start small by posting about your business on WhatsApp’s Status feature.

Crafting an eye-catching and on-brand WhatsApp status for your business is easy with DocHipo. With DocHipo, get on-point designs for various types of use cases requiring minimal customization. Sign up and get started today!

FAQs

How to use WhatsApp status for business?

There are numerous ways to utilize WhatsApp status for business purposes. Here are some of the ideas:

• Showcase products and services
• Announce offers and discounts
• Share behind-the-scenes content
• Educate customers
• Promote events and launches
• Customer testimonials and reviews
• Hiring announcements and recruitment campaigns
• Cross-promote other channels

How to gain more views on WhatsApp status?

Here are a few tips to gain more views on WhatsApp status:

• Keep the WhatsApp status content snackable
• Incorporate strong visual branding
• Use attention-grabbing and high-quality visuals 
• Optimize your WhatsApp status size
• Use interactive and storytelling elements
• Leverage WhatsApp Business Status features with CTAs
• Post consistently but not excessively
• Post your WhatsApp status during active Hours
• Track content performance and optimize