You will be able to decide when WhatsApp is the right first channel and write a first message that respects the reader.
Your phone buzzes on a Sunday evening. It is a WhatsApp message from a number you do not know: "Hi dear, are you looking to grow your wealth? I have an exclusive opportunity to share." You did not give this person your number, you have no idea who they are, and the message has landed in the same app as your family group and your closest friends. It feels less like an email from a stranger and more like a stranger at your door.
That reaction is why WhatsApp needs more care than any other prospecting channel. In Singapore it is how many people talk to the people closest to them, which makes it powerful for warm contacts and intrusive for cold ones. This lesson covers when to use it first, what to write, and the rules to check.
Email has a work feel, and most people expect messages from strangers to turn up there. LinkedIn exists for professional contact in the first place. WhatsApp is where people chat with their partner, their parents and their friends, often on the same screen they glance at during dinner.
A cold message there skips the usual distance. It shows up with the same sound and the same notification as a message from their mother. Even a polite, well-written first message can feel like an intrusion, simply because of where it arrives. A clumsy one, like the example above, can make someone block you and remember your name for the wrong reasons.
So the starting point is not "how do I write a good WhatsApp message" but "should this first message be on WhatsApp at all?"
Use WhatsApp for first contact in two situations.
The first is when the person gave you their number for that purpose. A founder at an event who says "WhatsApp me the details" has told you which channel to use. An enquiry form that asks for a preferred contact method, where they chose WhatsApp, counts too. This fits the purpose principle from lesson 5.2, PDPA basics for prospecting: consent, purpose and records: they gave you the number for this kind of contact.
The second is when a mutual contact introduced you and the person agreed to hear from you. If Siti tells Nadia that Darren will message her, and Nadia says that is fine, a WhatsApp message from Darren is one she is waiting for. Better still, a group chat that Siti starts with both of them, then leaves, makes the introduction visible.
Outside those two situations, start somewhere else: email, a LinkedIn note, or a call where the Do Not Call rules allow it. You can move to WhatsApp later, once the person has said they prefer it.
WhatsApp messages go to Singapore phone numbers, and they raise the same questions as any marketing message: consent, purpose and the Do Not Call rules. How the PDPA's Do Not Call provisions and other rules apply to messaging apps is something the PDPC publishes guidance on, and that guidance can change. Read the PDPC's current guidance before you use WhatsApp for any marketing message, rather than relying on what a colleague says is fine.
Until you have done that, the safe habit is to treat a marketing message on WhatsApp with the same care as a call or text from lesson 5.1, What the Do Not Call Registry covers and how to check it: hold clear consent, or check before you send. Never add people to a broadcast list or group without their agreement.
When WhatsApp is the right channel, the first message has four parts, in this order. Who you are. How you got their number. Why you are writing. One question.
Darren's message to Nadia reads: "Hi Nadia, this is Darren, Siti's friend from school. She passed me your number and said you'd be okay with a message. I'm a financial adviser and she mentioned you'd been wondering whether your cover still fits now the baby's here. Would a short call one evening next week be useful, or would you rather I send a few questions first?"
It is longer than a chat message between friends, which is fine for a first contact. Nadia would otherwise wonder who this is, how he got her number and what he wants, and the message settles all of that before she has to ask. There is a single question at the end, and nothing attached: no link, brochure or voice note.
Avoid the habits that make WhatsApp prospecting feel like spam: exclamation-heavy openers, unsolicited voice notes, forwarded promotional images, and messages at night or on weekends unless the person has said that suits them. If someone does not reply, do not send three more. Module 6 covers how to space follow-ups across channels.
The decision is rarely the same for everyone on your list. Mei's list has founders who gave her their number at an event and said to WhatsApp them, founders she found through job ads, and founders introduced by her point-of-sale contact. Only the first and third groups get a WhatsApp first message. The middle group gets an email.
In the activity below you will write a WhatsApp first message for a warm introduction, then decide for three leads on your list whether WhatsApp is the right first channel.
Write a WhatsApp first message for a warm introduction and decide, for three leads on your list, whether WhatsApp is the right first channel.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).