WhatsApp does not allow businesses to spam messages. You can only send WhatsApp message templates 24 hours from the last text sent by the customer. In this article we will understand in detail regarding the message templates from knowing what they, are to creating them, to learning how to best use them.
WhatsApp message templates are pre-approved messages with Quick reply, Call-to-action buttons, media headers and customizable Placeholders. WhatsApp only allows you to reply to your customers last message after 24 hours with a message template in order to avoid spamming and to refrain businesses from messaging customers anytime they want.
What are the different categories and Use cases?
There are certain use cases of message templates that are approved by WhatsApp. They are:
Auto-Reply : Sends replies to customers when you are away.
Account Update : Sends updates regarding any changes to customers accounts.
Payment Update : Sends payment related message.
Alert Update : Sends notifications regarding important updates or news.
Appointment Update : Sends message regarding confirmation or reminders of appointment.
Issue Resolution : Respond to customers queries or feedbacks.
Personal Finance Update : Send notifications regarding customers personal finances.
Reservation Update : Sends message regarding confirmation or reminders of reservation.
Shipping Update : Notify customers when their products are shipped.
Ticket Update : Send information regarding their tickets.
One Time Passwords : Send customers OTPs to secure their accounts.
WhatsApp Template Message : Know the rules
Content Rules :
There are four types of messages that WhatsApp doesn’t allow businesses to send their customers:
No threatening content.
No data collection.
No contests or quizzes.
Transactional content only.
Formatting Rules :
WhatsApp Template Messages cannot contain Upper Case characters. It can only contain lowercase alphanumeric characters and underscores. No special characters or spaces are allowed.
Character limit is 1024 characters. This includes letters, numbers, emojis and special characters.
It cannot contain more than 4 consecutive spaces.
Make sure whatever media you attach to your WhatsApp template message, it follow the size limitations. Only PDFs are allowed for uploading a document type file in your templates.
Requirements of WhatsApp Message Templates:
A WhatsApp message template must be approved before it can be used to start a conversation.
To start a business-initiated conversation a customer must have opted-in to receive messages from your business.
How to create a WhatsApp Message Template?
WhatsApp message templates can be created using WhatsApp manager. Alternatively, you can also use your WhatsApp Business Account – Message Templates endpoint to create them.
To access the WhatsApp Manager:
Go to the Apps Panel and select your app to load it in the App Dashboard.
Click the WhatsApp product in the menu on the left.
In the Get Started panel, scroll down to Step 5 and click see the Overview page.
Once you are in WhatsApp Manager > Overview:
Mouseover the suitcase icon (Account tools) and click Message templates.
If you have multiple WhatsApp Business Accounts, use the dropdown menu in the top-right corner to select the account whose templates you want to manage.
Click the Create template button and fill out the form. Be sure to use the + Add variable button to insert placeholders for any variable content you will supply whenever you send the template.
Click Add Sample to add sample values to your template. This is optional, but highly recommended. See Samples.
Click Submit to submit your template for approval.
Tips for creating Templates:
If you are not sure regarding how should you frame a WhatsApp message template, take a simple and repetitive approach. Send it for approval and tweak the message based on results.
If you need to write a template to re-open the 24-hour window, we suggest starting with some mention of the previous thread.
Use friendly tones and emojis to make it more user friendly. It is observed that users respond well to emojis.
Insert Link in your templates:
You may send URLs in a template, e.g., “Thanks for contacting us : know more about us on ‘wyz.com’. If you have a WhatsApp Business Account, recipients will see a link preview in the message.
Get your Message Approved:
Once you have created your template you can submit it for approval. It can take up to 24 hours for an approval decision to be made. Once a decision has been made, you will be notified on WhatsApp Manager or an email will be sent to your business manager admins. If your message template is approved, it’s status will be set to Active – Quality pending and you can begin sending it to customers. If it is rejected, you can edit it and resubmit for approval, or appeal the decision.
Reasons WhatsApp Message Templates Get Rejected
Your Message Template Asks For Sensitive Information
You Didn’t Get the Formatting Right
Your Message Template Has Spelling or Grammatical Errors
Your Message Template Has Floating Placeholders
Your Message Template Is Too Generic
Your Message Template Name Is Unclear
You Chose the Wrong Category
The Chosen Language Didn’t Match the Content
You’ve Exceeded the Number of Message Templates Allowed
Edit your message template:
Message templates can be edited on either WhatsApp Manager or Message Template endpoint. Do note that if you edit your template and resubmit it for approval, it’s status will be changed to ‘In Review’ and you cannot send it to your customers until it’s status is set to ‘Active’.
What are the different statuses you might find your messages in?
In Review : It indicated that your message template is still under review. It can take up to 24hours for messages to be reviewed.
Rejected : It means that your message template does not follow WhatsApp’s guidelines or it’s quality is not up to standard hence it has been rejected.
Active – Quality pending : It indicated that your message has been approved by WhatsApp and they are waiting for customer feedback.
Active – High Quality : It means that your message is active and has received no negative feedback.
Active – Medium Quality : Indicates that your message template has received some negative feedbacks and may be paused or disabled soon.
Active – Low Quality : Your message template has received negative feedback from multiple customers and hence is in the danger of being paused or disabled. It is advised you solve the issues that the customers are reporting.
Paused : The WhatsApp message template has been paused due to recurring negative feedbacks. You cannot send this message template to your customers anymore.
Disabled : Your WhatsApp message template has been disabled and hence cannot be sent anymore.
Appeal Requested : Indicates that an appeal has been requested.
Always monitor your status changes:
Your message template’s status can change automatically, you will be notified on your WhatsApp manager or via email. You are allowed to send message templates to customers once your template receive ‘Active’ status. Whenever you change your template messages, the status of your messages will change.
Understand the Quality Ratings:
An ‘Active’ message template is categorized into four quality type. The quality type of the WhatsApp message template is highlighted next to the ‘Active’ status. The four types are:
Active – Quality pending (highlighted in green)
Active – High quality (highlighted in green)
Active – Medium quality (highlighted in yellow)
Active – Low quality (highlighted in red)
You can send your message templates if its in ‘Active’ status, it does not matter if it’s of the highest or lowest quality. The quality of message template is decided on the basis of customer feedbacks.
When are your WhatsApp Message Templates Paused?
Your WhatsApp message templates are paused once they reach the lowest quality. It will be automatically paused for a certain time period to protect the quality rating of phone numbers that have used the templates. The pausing durations are:
First Instance : Paused for 3 hours.
Second Instance : Paused for 6 hours.
Third Instance : Disabled.
WhatsApp does not allow businesses to send their message templates when they are paused. You can edit your message templates to make sure it’s better than last message and resubmit it for approval. Remember when you submit it for approval it’s status will change to ‘In Review’ and you still cannot send your message templates until it is re-approved.
You will notified when your WhatsApp message templates are paused either on WhatsApp Manager or via email.
How do you appeal any decision?
You can appeal the decision if your submission is rejected. You must include a sample in your appeals. Follow these steps to appeal any decision on WhatsApp Manager:
Go to Account tools and select Message templates.
If you have multiple business accounts, from the top-right corner dropdown menu select the account you want to proceed with.
Select the message template you would like to edit.
Edit the template’s content.
Click the Add Sample button and add sample variable values and images.
Click Submit.
Your appeal will be reviewed and you will be notified of the decision withing 24hours.
Benefits of using WhatsApp Message Templates
Let us now see some of the benefits of WhatsApp Message Template.
1. Saving time :
WhatsApp message templates helps to save time by allowing businesses to send quickly pre-written messages to customers instead of writing new messages each time.
2. Effective Messaging :
WhatsApp message templates allows you to send the right messages to customers when needed. It can be a payment or order confirmation, shipping information, cart abandonment reminders etc. It helps in improving your customer service.
3. Improving customer service
The template feature helps businesses respond to customer inquiries quickly and efficiently, which can improve customer satisfaction.
With WhatsApp message templates you can avoid spamming your customers with sending them all the information on one go and also helps in preventing sending useless information to customers.
5. Greater reach and impact:
It allows businesses to quickly and easily send messages to many customers, which can increase reach and impact.
6. Personalized Content :
You can include dynamic localized information, personalize them using customer details and connect better with customers.
7 . Keep the conversations going with useful messages beyond the 24 hour window:
WhatsApp allows you to message customers after a 24 hours service window. You can send customers useful messages after this 24 hours window to keep the customers involved and engaged.
Limitations
Till now it is very evident that WhatsApp message templates can help businesses improve customer service, increase efficiency, and enhance their marketing efforts. But it also have few limitations discuss below ;
Limited customization
Poor analytics and tracking capabilities
Lack of automation
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