Your CRM Has Thousands of Email Addresses. How Many WhatsApp Numbers Does It Have?

Email is dying. Your customers have already moved on. The question is: has your business?

Let's be honest about something most marketers already know but few are willing to say out loud. Email open rates are in freefall. Inboxes are overflowing. Spam filters are getting more aggressive by the month. And yet, businesses keep pouring time and money into email campaigns, clinging to a channel that peaked over a decade ago.

Meanwhile, there's a messaging app sitting on virtually every customer's phone that gets a 98% open rate. You already know which one.

The numbers don't lie

WhatsApp has over 2 billion active users worldwide. In the UK alone, it's the dominant messaging platform across every age group. It's where people talk to their families, coordinate with friends, and increasingly, where they expect to interact with businesses.

Compare that to email. The average office worker receives well over 100 emails per day. Most marketing emails never get opened. Of those that do, only a fraction lead to any meaningful action. We've trained an entire generation to ignore their inbox, and the next generation barely uses email at all outside of work.

Email isn't just underperforming. For customer communication, it's becoming irrelevant.

The WhatsApp gap in your CRM

Here's the uncomfortable truth that nobody in the CRM world is talking about. Open your HubSpot, your Salesforce, your Zoho, whatever platform you use, and look at your contact records. You'll find thousands of email addresses, perhaps a handful of office phone numbers, and almost certainly no WhatsApp numbers at all.

This isn't a minor data gap. It's a strategic blind spot.

Your CRM is built around a channel your customers are ignoring, and it has no data for the channel they actually use every single day. You can't message customers on WhatsApp if you don't have their mobile number. You can't build WhatsApp automations if your CRM doesn't capture mobile numbers as a standard field. And you certainly can't take advantage of WhatsApp Business features if your company hasn't even set up a Business WhatsApp account.

Most businesses don't even have a WhatsApp Business number

This might be the most surprising part. Despite WhatsApp being the world's most popular messaging platform, a huge number of businesses still don't have a WhatsApp Business presence. No verified business profile. No automated replies. No way for customers to reach them on the platform they use most.

Think about that for a moment. Your customers are on WhatsApp right now. They'd happily message your business there. But you haven't given them the option.

It's the equivalent of having a shop on the high street with no front door. The footfall is there. The intent is there. But there's no way in.

Collecting mobile numbers needs to become a priority

If WhatsApp is the future of customer communication (and the data strongly suggests it is), then collecting mobile numbers needs to be as fundamental to your marketing strategy as collecting email addresses has been for the past twenty years.

Every form on your website, every lead magnet, every event registration should be capturing a mobile number alongside an email address. Not as an afterthought buried at the bottom of a form, but as a primary field.

This shift requires a change in mindset. For years, the email address has been the golden ticket of lead generation. It's time to recognise that the mobile number, specifically a WhatsApp-enabled mobile number, is now equally valuable. Arguably more so.

From forms to flows: making WhatsApp conversational

Collecting a mobile number is only the first step. What you do with it matters far more.

This is where Flowella comes in. Flowella bridges the gap between your existing forms and WhatsApp, transforming static form submissions into interactive WhatsApp Flows. Whether you're using HubSpot Forms, Google Forms, Typeform, or SurveyMonkey, Flowella converts those form experiences into engaging WhatsApp conversations that feel natural to your customers.

Imagine a potential student filling out an enquiry form for your college. Instead of receiving a generic email response that sits unread in their inbox, they're guided through an interactive WhatsApp conversation that answers their questions, qualifies their interest, and books them onto an open day. All within the app they're already using dozens of times a day.

That's not a hypothetical. That's what Flowella does, and it integrates directly with HubSpot so every interaction is tracked, every contact is updated, and every conversation feeds your CRM with the data your sales and marketing teams actually need.

The integration your CRM has been missing

HubSpot is a powerful platform, but like most CRMs, it was built in the era of email. Its workflows, sequences, and automation tools are heavily geared towards email communication. WhatsApp has been something of an afterthought.

Flowella changes that. By connecting WhatsApp Business directly to HubSpot, Flowella gives you the ability to:

• Engage leads on WhatsApp the moment they submit a form, while their interest is at its peak
• Run interactive WhatsApp Flows that qualify, nurture, and convert leads without manual effort
• Sync every conversation back to HubSpot, keeping your CRM data rich and your reporting accurate
• Replace low-performing email sequences with WhatsApp messages that actually get read and responded to

It's not about abandoning email entirely. There are still use cases where email works. But for time-sensitive communication, lead engagement, customer support, and conversational marketing, WhatsApp is simply a better channel. And Flowella makes it easy to get started.

What you should do today

If you've read this far, here are three things you can act on right now:

First, set up a WhatsApp Business account. If your business doesn't have one yet, this is overdue. It's free to get started, and it immediately gives your customers a way to reach you on the platform they prefer.

Second, start collecting mobile numbers. Audit your forms, your landing pages, and your lead capture processes. Make mobile number a required or prominently placed field. Your future WhatsApp strategy depends on having this data.

Third, explore how Flowella can connect your forms to WhatsApp. If you're already using HubSpot, the integration is straightforward and the impact on engagement rates is significant. Visit flowella.io to see how it works.

The bottom line

The businesses that thrive over the next five years won't be the ones sending the most emails. They'll be the ones meeting customers where they already are. And right now, that's WhatsApp.

Your CRM is full of email addresses for a channel that's losing relevance by the day. It's time to start filling it with mobile numbers for the channel that's already won.

Flowella converts your existing forms into interactive WhatsApp Flows, with direct HubSpot integration. Learn more at flowella.io