How to use WhatsApp Business for education, schools and students

Education is no longer confined to the four walls of a classroom. With the rise of online education and digital platforms, it has become a thriving business that's changing how students access and obtain education. 

With that being said, WhatsApp Business has become a must-have communication tool for schools looking to stay connected with students, parents, and staff members effectively. Other than its global reach and real-time capabilities, WhatsApp for education has proven to be effective when it comes to improving administrative workflows.

What is WhatsApp for education?

WhatsApp for education refers to using WhatsApp Business API to facilitate interactions in educational institutions, no matter if it’s for teaching, or marketing for recruitment and providing support to prospective students. 

WhatsApp makes communication between educators or admins and students or parents easier by enabling teachers to share educational materials and homework assignments. Whenever there are new announcements like class cancellations, the administrative department can also reach out to students or parents easily. 

Why schools should use WhatsApp as a communication tool

WhatsApp has over 3 billion active users globally. Educational institutions and schools utilizing this tool will be able to communicate with parents and potential students worldwide. 

After integrating the WhatsApp Business API through an official WhatsApp Business Solution Provider, you will be able to access a myriad of features that can improve the recruitment process and upgrade the user experience.

1. WhatsApp solutions allow schools to build quick, in-depth connections with students

WhatsApp's real-time messaging capabilities allow schools to establish immediate connections with their students. WhatsApp ensures that information is transmitted promptly, whether it's delivering important updates, sending reminders, or addressing urgent concerns. 

Using WhatsApp for schools, you can: 

• Send customized messages to individual students or specific groups

• Tailor messages so that students feel valued and understood 

• Build strong and lasting connections between the school and the student body

2. Higher engagement with WhatsApp for students

Beyond one-way communication, you can use WhatsApp to do interactive engagement with your students. Schools can use features like polls, surveys, and quizzes to make communication more interesting and engaging. 

WhatsApp messages have a high open rate of 98%, which means the chances of students replying to messages from your school are higher than other forms of communication such as email, with an open rate of only 19.7%. 

Email Direct Marketing (EDM) may be effective for other industries, but the success rate is usually based on the target audience. In the educational field, the target audience mainly consists of students from the younger generations with social messaging apps as their preferred communication tools.

3. Reliable business profile for student inquiries

Creating an official WhatsApp Business account for your school allows you to add your school’s name, details, contact number, and address. When students or parents interact with an official account, it gives them a sense of security and authenticity. It would be an added bonus if your account has the blue tick next to your institution’s name to show potential clients and students that your account has been verified and is not a scam account. 

We use WhatsApp to contact our students, but it should not be regarded as merely an announcement board or customer service chatroom. We treat our students as friends, and that’s how we make the students trust AfterSchool.

Ronald Tse

Founder, AfterSchool

Read the full success story of Afterschool and see how they used WhatsApp Business for schools to drive engagement.

Using WhatsApp for education: marketing and recruitment

WhatsApp QR code to collect leads from education fairs

Education fairs and events present an excellent opportunity for educational institutions to collect leads effortlessly using WhatsApp. At these gatherings, your institution can prominently display WhatsApp QR codes linked to your official WhatsApp account or group. 

Potential students and parents who have scanned these WhatsApp QR codes can connect instantly with your institution, even when there are not enough people manning the booth. This simplifies the lead collection process, as attendees express their interest by opting into the WhatsApp group or initiating a conversation. After the event has ended, institutions can continue to nurture these leads by providing them with relevant information and updates.

Discover other ways to obtain WhatsApp opt-ins before you send messages to your contacts.

Besides, once these prospective students scan your WhatsApp QR code and initiate a conversation with your brand, you will get a free-entry point conversation in which the window is open for 72 hours. You can then save costs for your WhatsApp conversations and get a higher ROI in return.

Social media campaigns and click to WhatsApp ads to attract students

Educational institutions can leverage social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to attract students. The marketing team can set up auto replies for comments and chats for all the Facebook and Instagram posts, so that all users with high interest are attended to immediately. 

For example, you can create a Facebook post with an ending CTA that says,

“Comment DM if you’re interested in exploring this YouTuber crash course!”. 

Then, you can automate a keyword-triggered reply and instantly send a direct message to the user’s inbox to follow up. In this case, you can ensure that the leads are attended to while they are still warm and increase the conversion rate in the long run.

You can also create click to WhatsApp ads that feature a clickable button. Prospective students can then click on the ad and get redirected to a WhatsApp chatbot for education customized by you and your team. These ads are an effective means of reaching a broader audience and directing traffic to your WhatsApp Business accounts. 

Interactive and rich media messages on WhatsApp for student engagement

WhatsApp supports a wide range of multimedia formats, including texts, images, videos, and documents such as PDFs and slideshows. You can use these features to provide a rich and engaging communication experience. 

If you want to make a brochure, remember to optimize it for mobile viewing and ensure that it is shareable via messaging apps. You can also choose to use the WhatsApp catalog feature to showcase the courses available for the year.

WhatsApp Business for schools also offer interactive messages equipped with WhatsApp chat buttons for your institution to easily collect information and provide students with a convenient way to access specific information or services. 

For instance, before the fair, you can send a message to gauge the interest of students visiting your booth at a specific education fair with simple “Yes” and “No” buttons. 

After or during the fair, you can send a message with buttons like "Course Schedule," "Admissions Information," and "Campus Events" to your students. They can simply click on the relevant button to retrieve the information they need without typing out queries. This self-service approach saves time and encourages students to explore available resources.

Nurture leads to boost student recruitment

Collecting leads is only the first step. The real challenge for schools and universities lies in nurturing these potential students until they are ready to enroll. 

With WhatsApp Business for education, institutions can create personalized, ongoing conversations that guide students through the decision-making process from their initial inquiry to course registration.

Since WhatsApp messages feel conversational and direct, the contacts gathered from websites and social media campaigns can be used for your WhatsApp broadcast campaign. 

Taking the example from before, assuming that your school or educational institution will be attending an event, you can send a WhatsApp message in bulk with personalized criteria:

Hi [student name]! We’re excited for the 2026 education fair and we hope you are too 🤗

We’d like to invite you to visit our booth at [booth number] and claim your free student pack from us! Are you interested?

With these variables, you no longer have to edit the message one by one to make potential students and parents feel welcomed. 

Using WhatsApp for education: service and support for students

Send WhatsApp bulk messages to students for timely updates

WhatsApp's bulk messaging feature is indispensable for schools and institutions when disseminating critical information to a large group of students simultaneously. 

Imagine this, your institution is facing some technical difficulties and teachers are unable to conduct classes online. How would you inform all students of the sudden cancellation? 

Copying and pasting the same message and sending it individually to each student can be extremely time-consuming. This is where WhatsApp Broadcast comes in. 

WhatsApp Broadcast can be used to send out bulk messages to a list of recipients in one go:

• Timely updates

• Announcements

• Exam schedules and changes

• Safety alerts about school closure

Tip: When choosing WhatsApp software for universities and institutions, it is important to take note of the providers’ WhatsApp messaging limit. Consider the platform’s scalability to avoid the trouble of migrating data when you scale your education business in the future.

Automatically answer students’ FAQs via AI agents for education 

On the basic level, many educational institutions implement automated WhatsApp chatbot for education to provide quick answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs). Students can access information about registration, course details, deadlines, and other essential matters at any time. 

To offer premium student support, schools can take automation a step further with AI agents for education. Unlike basic chatbots that rely solely on pre-set rules, AI agents can understand intent, context, and natural language. 

With the secure data you upload and safe access to the necessary details, these AI agents can deliver accurate, human-like responses in real time. Your human agents can then focus on attending to frustrated parents with more complicated issues with a higher efficiency. 

No matter if it’s a WhatsApp chatbot or AI agents for education, the automation you customize can reduce the burden on support staff, ensure consistent responses, and allow students to get the information they need without delay.

Omnichannel live chat to offer 24/7 support for students

Need more than WhatsApp for education? Your schools and educational institutions can also utilize an omnichannel live chat to provide round-the-clock assistance to students. This ensures that students have access to support whenever, wherever they require it, irrespective of the time zone or their schedules. This strategy involves integrating various communication channels, such as WhatsApp, Instagram DM, Facebook Messenger, and more, into a unified platform.

You can also use live chat through WhatsApp Business for schools to provide a more interactive and immediate support experience for students. With this live chat, you can maintain a centralized record of student interactions while facilitating better tracking and follow-up on student inquiries, ultimately leading to improved student satisfaction and retention.

With SleekFlow, we've made communicating with applicants easier, more convenient, and highly efficient. We no longer need to juggle a multitude of inquiries at once, particularly during DSE results period, when we are flooded with queries via WhatsApp, email, and phone.

Connie Chan

Admissions Manager

Explore Shue Yan University’s use case and see how they manage student admission using WhatsApp software for universities.

Display names of admissions officers using an official WhatsApp Business account

In a world full of phishing and online scams, chatting with an unknown number can be scary. With the WhatsApp Business API, you can rest assured that this won’t be a problem. 

Once you integrate WhatsApp API solutions for the education industry, the name of your school or educational institution can be shown on your official WhatsApp Business account, even if they have not saved your number.

Using an official provider like SleekFlow, you can also display the name of your admin or agent in the WhatsApp chat when communicating with a prospective student. Parents and students would then be more comfortable interacting with your institution and gain trust in the information that is shared on the platform.

Using WhatsApp for education: seamless operations

Integrate WhatsApp for schools with existing CRM systems

Integrating WhatsApp with existing CRM systems such as Salesforce and HubSpot allows a seamless exchange of data. Schools can manage inquiries, admissions, and student interactions more effectively through a centralized platform. In other words, admissions, marketing, and support teams can simultaneously track interactions and maintain a comprehensive communication record. 

In addition, you can also use labels to segment your contacts in your CRM system to differentiate the concerns or queries customers have. These labels can then help automate responses and workflows within the CRM system. 

For example, when a student inquiry is labeled as "Admissions," you can schedule regular follow-up WhatsApp messages with relevant information using a flow builder. It becomes a student management system that saves time and increases efficiency, where students and parents receive timely and accurate responses.

Integrate the official website to sell school merchandise on WhatsApp

Educational institutions can also integrate their official websites with WhatsApp for selling school merchandise to expand revenue streams. Since WhatsApp has many business features such as the WhatsApp catalog, shopping carts, in-chat payment links, and more to help boost sales, it would be easier for students to browse, select, and purchase school-branded products directly through WhatsApp.

WhatsApp API solutions for education industry: use cases and examples

Tutor Circle: managing 30,000 contacts with 60% higher efficiency via WhatsApp for education

Tutor Circle, a HK$8 million internet-based tutoring agency in Hong Kong, connects over 80,000 accredited tutors with students seeking academic and language lessons. 

Using a WhatsApp for education strategy, Tutor Circle manages 1,000 daily inquiries, achieving a 60% increase in efficiency and a 75% reduction in response time:

• Send personalized broadcast messages for promotions and updates

• Automate payment links within WhatsApp for a smoother checkout experience

• Eliminate friction caused by website navigation or payment errors

By moving conversations, payments, and promotions all into WhatsApp, Tutor Circle strengthened customer trust and accelerated conversions without having additional manpower.

Esperia Volleyball Academy: streamlining lead management via WhatsApp software for community colleges

Esperia Volleyball Academy in Dubai uses WhatsApp API solutions for the education industry to manage high engagement across its growing sports programs. With over 117K Instagram followers, the academy receives inquiries daily from parents, players, and partners.

Using click-to-WhatsApp ads, all leads are instantly routed to the right team via a customized automation flow, including for court bookings, class registrations, or partnerships. Key strategies include:

• Automated booking management with WhatsApp chatbots for education and direct booking links

• Smart lead assignment and labelling via integration with Google Sheets + Zapier + SleekFlow (WhatsApp API provider) 

• Consistent engagement through WhatsApp broadcast messages for new classes and offers

By integrating multiple systems, Esperia centralized all inquiries in one inbox. No opportunities were missed and operational efficiency was significantly boosted.

CATS College: driving student recruitment with WhatsApp software for colleges

CATS College, a creative arts and technology institution in Malaysia, has used WhatsApp API to enhance both offline and online student recruitment.

Through QR codes on brochures and chat buttons on its website, students can instantly connect with admission advisors. Using WhatsApp broadcasts with interactive buttons, CATS College reaches thousands of prospective students per campaign, achieving a 10% response rate, 20% higher read rate, and RM50,000 in revenue within 30 days.

Key outcomes include:

• 60% ROI on WhatsApp API solution (SleekFlow)

• 8X improvement in efficiency compared to telemarketing

• Effective lead segmentation based on program interests and financial aid eligibility

With a comprehensive WhatsApp Business for education strategy, CATS College has scaled its recruitment campaigns, maintained meaningful engagement, and increased conversion speed from inquiry to enrollment.

SleekFlow is your best WABA partner. The management and usage fees of SleekFlow are very friendly, as they offer three-tier pricing plans, from the free plan to a Premium plan and a Custom Plan, while everything is all in one.

Goh Doh Hau

VP of Sales and Marketing at CATS College

Why SleekFlow offers one of the best WhatsApp API solutions for the education industry

From universities to tutoring agencies, SleekFlow empowers education providers to streamline communication, automate lead management, and scale student engagement effortlessly, all in one platform.

With SleekFlow, you can:

• Automate student enquiries with AI agents (AgentFlow) that handle FAQs, qualify leads, and escalate complex cases to humans

• Build automated flows with visual charts for bookings, admissions, and follow-ups

• Centralise multi-channel communication across WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook

• Integrate seamlessly with your CRM, website forms, and booking systems

• Run personalised broadcast campaigns to boost recruitment and retention

• Enable in-chat payments for course fees, event registrations, and merchandise

• Track and analyse performance with built-in analytics for smarter decision-making

By combining automation with human interaction, SleekFlow helps educational institutions deliver faster, more personalised, and more effective communication.  

Discover the power of WhatsApp with SleekFlow!
Unleash your full potential with WhatsApp Business API. Your customers are waiting!

Discover the power of WhatsApp with SleekFlow!

Unleash your full potential with WhatsApp Business API. Your customers are waiting!

Learn more