WhatsApp Broadcast Messages – What They Are and How to Use Them to Supercharge Your Customer Service

For all companies today, success hinges on how well they connect with customers digitally. And there’s no better way to forge direct, one-to-one relationships virtually with customers than by interacting with them on WhatsApp – an app that’s become part of their daily lives. Customer-centric companies are already marking their presence on WhatsApp to capitalize on its huge user base (a whopping 2 billion MAUs). They are using the WhatsApp Business API to reach out to hundreds and thousands of customers anywhere and anytime with lightning speed to share information on product launches, price drops, holiday season deals as well as for retargeting, cross-selling, upselling, making urgent announcements, sharing greetings, service updates, newsletters, and more. And they are doing this by leveraging WhatsApp for Business’s broadcast messaging capabilities.

What are WhatsApp Broadcast Messages?

Broadcasts are business-initiated, templatized messages that a company can send to hundreds of thousands of customers simultaneously to boost customer engagement and hopefully get them to take a desired action. They can be sent to customers who are yet to message you. These templates need to be approved by WhatsApp before you can start using them. They can be only text based or contain images, videos, dynamic links, and CTAs. They are usually used for marketing purposes but can also be used to share important updates and announcements. Many industries including retail, healthcare, education, automotive, banking, FMCG, HORECA, and real estate use broadcasts to engage their customers.

Difference Between Broadcasts Using WhatsApp Business App and WhatsApp Business Platform

What is the WhatsApp Business Platform (API)?

When WhatsApp’s parent company Meta started allowing businesses to communicate with customers via its WhatsApp Business Platform (API) in 2018, many customer-focused companies jumped at the opportunity looking to capitalize on its massive user base (over 2 billion!). Ever since, the number of brands using the WhatsApp Business API is steadily growing – and with good reason. The WhatsApp Business API can personalize marketing messages at scale, automate responses, share transaction-related alerts and other important notifications, offer discounts, share customized product catalogues, provide loyalty program status updates, collect feedback, and answer customer questions. The API can easily integrate with a company’s legacy system like the CRM, ticketing systems, and others. With the WhatsApp Business API, you can message your customers even if they do not have your number saved in their contact list.

How to Access the WhatsApp Business Platform?

When WhatsApp’s parent company Meta started allowing businesses to communicate with customers via its WhatsApp Business Platform (API) in 2018, many customer-focused companies jumped at the opportunity looking to capitalize on its massive user base (over 2 billion!). Ever since, the number of brands using the WhatsApp Business API is steadily growing – and with good reason. The WhatsApp Business API can personalize marketing messages at scale, automate responses, share transaction-related alerts and other important notifications, offer discounts, share customized product catalogues, provide loyalty program status updates, collect feedback, and answer customer questions. The API can easily integrate with a company’s legacy system like the CRM, ticketing systems, and others. With the WhatsApp Business API, you can message your customers even if they do not have your number saved in their contact list.

What About the Price Structure of the WhatsApp Business Platform?

Now you might be thinking about the WhatsApp Business API price structure. Is having a WhatsApp Business Account free or a paid service? Well, it has a conversation-based pricing model. A conversation includes all messages delivered in a 24-hour session. The cost per conversation varies by country or region. WhatsApp has four categories of conversations – Service, Utility, Authentication, and Marketing – with each category being priced differently. Service conversations, initiated by users, are eligible for 1,000 free conversations each month. The other three categories of conversations, initiated by the business, are not eligible for these free-tier conversations. Also, all the conversations initiated by customers through ‘Click-to-WhatsApp’ ads on Facebook and Instagram are free of charge.

Boxes to be Ticked Off Before Sending a Broadcast

Before you send a broadcast, there are certain things you need to be mindful of:

You need to have a verified official WhatsApp Business account to establish brand authenticity with your customers.

You need customer opt-ins, meaning your customers are clearly aware and consent to receiving broadcast messages from you.

You need to go through WhatsApp’s policies and features on their official website from time to time to see what is allowed, what is not. Any inappropriate content can be banned by WhatsApp.

WhatsApp only allows businesses to share pre-approved template messages. You need to have at least one registered template and a customer template created based on it (more on templates later).

You need to create an audience with all required tags and variables. This is not mandatory but preferable.

Are There Any Limits to Sending Broadcast Messages?

You need to be mindful that there is a limit on the number of messages you can send within a rolling 24-hour period. There are different messaging tiers – all new WhatsApp Business API accounts start with 1K unique customers, and then go up to 10K, 100K, and an unlimited number of unique customers based on their phone number status and phone number quality rating, and how often they initiate conversations with unique customers. You become eligible for higher tiers as you reach your current tier limits and if you maintain a high quality rating.

What to Know About WhatsApp Templates for Broadcast?

WhatsApp is very particular about not irritating its customer base with ad hoc messages. So it strictly controls what categories of messages businesses can share with customers. It only allows sending of pre-approved templates which can be personalized through the use of placeholders. Placeholders can be default ones like first and last names, but can be customized further as per the needs of the business. The templates can have image, videos, and dynamic links to make them more visually appealing. Broadcast messages are usually about offering special deals, general announcements, etc.

Businesses can check the status of their templates to see if they are approved, rejected, pending, paused, or disabled. If templates are rejected, they can be edited and resubmitted for approval again. Templates that are active can be be disabled automatically based on customer feedback. Once disabled, a template cannot be sent in a template message until its quality rating has improved or it no longer violates WhatsApp’s policies.

How to Send a Broadcast?

A broadcast can be created and shared with a few simple steps. First, you need to import all contacts to whom you would like to send the message from your contacts list into edna product solution. Next, you need to segment your contacts into different groups based on certain parameters such as their age, location, past purchases, likes, etc. and then select the group you would like to target. This will help you share messages with a group that actually finds them relevant, rather than blasting the same generic message to all your contacts. Once your list is ready, you need to customize the message from WhatsApp’s predesigned message templates as per your campaign’s goals. Templated messages have placeholders where you can personalize the message by adding details such as the customer’s name, etc. You need to choose a name for the broadcast and also optimize the sending speed and specify the period till which sending the message will be valid. You can also set a cascade, whereby your message will be delivered via a fallback channel, such as SMS, in case it fails to deliver on WhatsApp. Once your broadcast campaign is ready, you can send it or save it and schedule it for a later date and time.

Best Practices to Make Your WhatsApp Broadcasts Successful

While collecting user opt-ins, make sure your users clearly understand that they are opting in to receive broadcasts from your business. Instead of using a general opt-in message, clearly tell them what they stand to gain by receiving broadcasts from you. This will ensure you share broadcasts only with users who want to receive them.

Make it simple and easy for customers to unsubscribe in case they want to. If the process is too complicated, they may not bother to unsubscribe and later report you for sharing unwanted messages. This can reduce your WhatsApp quality rating to ‘low’, which any business wants to avoid at all costs.

Never share sensitive personal information with users. Stick to sharing only non-personal content to protect your recipients’ privacy. Also avoid sending messages that ask customers to share sensitive information, such as their full-length card numbers, financial account numbers, national identification numbers, etc. Also, never share abusive or threatening content.

Always personalize your messages. Ad hoc promotional messages that are not relevant for users are an annoyance and can frustrate users or provoke them to block your number. It’s vital to share personalized messages that your users will actually find valuable and appealing.

Share rich, visually appealing content such as images, videos, and even dynamic links (when necessary) to make your messages more engaging. Craft your messages in a clear, concise way with an actionable CTA.

Ideally use multiple numbers for different business units or use cases to reduce risks of customers complaining about a single number.

Time your messages well. Do not send too many messages too frequently – your customers will be overwhelmed and simply ignore them or worse, report them. The optimal frequency varies from company to company, so you must carry out your own research based on your marketing goals, the customer’s behavior, and the kind of content you are sharing and decide on the frequency accordingly.

Send timely messages that haven’t passed their sell-by date. Sometimes, businesses send messages too late. Users click on them are disappointed to note that the discount is not available or is about to end. This is very annoying for users, and they might react by blocking the number, which is not good for businesses. So make sure you send messages in a timely manner.

How to Know If Your Broadcast Campaigns Are Working?

You can review how effective your broadcasts are by analyzing general statistics that are made available for all broadcasts. You can check the status of your broadcasts – whether they are in-progress, canceled, and finished broadcasts. You can also view delivery reports, i.e., the total number of the clients that received the broadcast, those that read the message, and those that didn’t receive any messages. All details about messages sent via a broadcast: their date, time, status, detailed content, etc. are also stored. With regard to delivery posts, using WhatsApp broadcasts is better than using broadcasts on SMS, because the SMS channel does not allow gathering data on the number of read messages.