WhatsApp Marketing in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman

WhatsApp marketing in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman works the same way as in the rest of the Gulf: short, personal messages to customers who agreed to hear from you, sent in working hours on a Sunday-to-Thursday week, in the language each customer uses with you. The differences between the four countries are in the details: the clock, the holidays, the data rules and the number formats. This guide gives a table for each country, the timing for Ramadan and national days, how to format numbers for +974, +965, +973 and +968, and English templates you can adapt.

The short answer

1. Message only people who gave you their number and expect to hear from you.
2. Send between about 9 am and 1 pm, Sunday to Thursday, on each country's own clock.
3. Write in the language the customer uses with you: English suits most business contacts, Arabic many consumers.
4. Move to the evening during Ramadan, and pause on Eid and national days.
5. Store every number with its country code, and send from a number with a full business profile.

What is different about WhatsApp marketing in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman?

The four countries share a lot: a Sunday-to-Thursday working week, a Friday-and-Saturday weekend, eight-digit mobile numbers, a large expatriate workforce that does business in English, and a habit of using WhatsApp for work as much as for family. Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain also share one time zone; Oman is one hour ahead. The differences are the holidays, the data rules, the regulator for commercial messages, and how far Arabic is expected in a first message. These are small markets where word travels, and WhatsApp can limit accounts that many people block or report, so message people who expect you.

Country by country: week, timing, language and rules

One table per country. This is general information, not legal advice; check the current rules for the country you send to.

Qatar (+974)

Kuwait (+965)

Bahrain (+973)

Oman (+968)

When should you send around Ramadan, Eid and national days?

Ramadan falls about eleven days earlier each year, so check the dates before you plan a quarter. Offices work shorter hours during the month, and the phone comes out after iftar, the evening meal that breaks the fast. Plan it like this:

1. Send business messages between 10 am and noon, when offices are open and attention is fresh.
2. Send consumer offers after about 9 pm, when families have eaten and are looking at their phones.
3. Keep the tone quiet: a greeting, something useful, no countdown.
4. Pause campaigns for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and send a greeting without an offer instead.
5. Treat national days the same way. A short greeting is welcome; a sale is not.
6. Expect slow replies in July and August, when many families travel.

Our guide to Ramadan, Eid and holiday campaigns has wording for each season.

How do you format numbers for +974, +965, +973 and +968?

Numbers from listings, business cards and old spreadsheets arrive in every shape. A mobile number in all four countries has eight digits after the country code, which makes cleaning easy:

1. Keep the raw number in one column and build the clean one in the next.
2. Remove spaces, brackets and hyphens.
3. Remove a leading 00 or plus sign, then the country code if it is already there, then any leading zero.
4. Check that eight digits remain. Mobiles usually begin with 3, 5, 6 or 7 in Qatar, with 5, 6 or 9 in Kuwait, with 3 or 6 in Bahrain and with 7 or 9 in Oman; anything else is probably a landline.
5. Add the code for the country the contact is in, not the country you are in.

In Excel, with the raw number in A2 and a Qatar list, this formula strips spaces and hyphens, keeps the last eight digits and adds the code:

="+974"&RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",""),"-",""),8)

Change +974 to +965, +973 or +968 for the other lists, and keep one sheet per country so the codes never get mixed.

English templates for the four countries

Write to a business in English unless the contact wrote to you in Arabic. Keep the first message short and specific to the city, and never open with a sale.

Hi {{first_name|there}}, this is {{your_name}} from {{company}} in Doha. We supply {{product}} to restaurants in West Bay and The Pearl. Would it help to see our current list for {{business_name}}?

Hi {{first_name|there}}, Ramadan greetings from all of us at {{company}}. Our hours this month are {{hours}}, and we deliver across {{city}} every evening. Reply here if you need anything.

Hi {{first_name|there}}, happy National Day from {{company}}. We are closed on {{date}} and back on {{next_day}}. Thank you for working with us this year.

Hi {{first_name|there}}, following up on the {{service}} quote for {{business_name}}. I can start the week of {{date}} if that suits. Shall I hold it?

A worked example: say you supply commercial kitchen equipment from Doha and want to reach restaurant managers in all four countries. You have 900 numbers from past enquiries and trade shows, each stored with its country code. You split them into four groups by code, schedule the campaign for 10 am in each contact's own time zone, so Muscat gets it an hour after Doha by the clock on your wall, and leave the Oman group out on 18 November. The first message, in English, asks one question about their current supplier. For building a list of businesses across the four countries, see our GCC lead generation guide.

Where Nitro fits

Nitro is WhatsApp campaign software for Windows that sends from your own WhatsApp numbers, linked the way WhatsApp Web is. When you import a list from Excel or CSV, you set a default country so numbers without a code get the right one, landlines are skipped, and the rows that need fixing can be downloaded and corrected. Groups and tags keep Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman apart, and a check shows which numbers are on WhatsApp.

The schedule sends in each contact's own time zone, so one campaign reaches Doha, Kuwait City, Manama and Muscat at the same local hour, and sending hours keep messages out of the evening unless you choose it on purpose during Ramadan. Personal fields fill the name and the city, messages can be in any language, and replies from every number come to one inbox.

One honest limit: sending stops while the PC sleeps, so an evening Ramadan campaign needs the PC awake and plugged in until the last message has gone.

Frequently asked questions

Is WhatsApp marketing allowed in Qatar?

Yes, to people who agreed to receive your messages. Qatar's data protection law expects consent for direct marketing and a way to withdraw it, and the telecom regulator has rules on commercial messages, so include your business name and a stop line. This is general information, not legal advice; check the current rules for the country you send to.

What is the best time to send WhatsApp messages in Kuwait?

Late morning, Sunday to Thursday, for business contacts. Retail customers in Kuwait shop late, so an offer for consumers can go out after 5 pm, and after 9 pm during Ramadan. Avoid Friday altogether.

Should I write in Arabic or English in Bahrain and Oman?

Follow the customer. In Bahrain, English is common in business and most managers reply in it. In Oman, Arabic is the first language across the country and a message to a local consumer reads better in Arabic, while business contacts in Muscat usually accept English.

Can one WhatsApp marketing campaign cover Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman?

Yes, if every number has its country code, the schedule follows each contact's time zone, and the message does not name the wrong city. Oman is one hour ahead of the other three and the national days differ, so check the calendar for all four before you set the date.

Next step

Open your contact list today, add the country code to every Gulf number and split the sheet by country. When you are ready to send one campaign across the four countries from your own numbers, by each contact's clock, see Nitro.