7 steps to launch your WhatsApp marketing campaign

WhatsApp messages' open rate is X10 higher than emails and SMS. Yet, the WhatsApp Business app poses many restrictions for medium and large e-commerce businesses. WhatsApp API provides excellent marketing automation solutions and allows unlimited customer outreach.

WhatsApp API needs a third-party WhatsApp marketing software and requires payment and specific terms of use.

Follow these steps to launch your first WhatsApp marketing campaign on Kartly.

1 Create your WhatsApp API account

Creating a WhatsApp API account is the first step to using the solution. Formerly, you would have to rely on a Business Solution Provider to host your WhatsApp number on their servers. Recently, Meta started offering hosting services on their servers. We recommend you opt for the second option because it’s less expensive as it eliminates BSP fees and grants you access to updates on the spot.

When creating your account, make sure you add a payment method, link it to your Kartly account, and edit settings as necessary.

2 Verify your Facebook business manager

Once you get your WhatsApp account set and verified and the messaging solution in place, you can start sending marketing messages to your clients immediately. However, you can only send 250 messages per day. To scale outreach, you must verify your Facebook business manager.

To verify your manager, you need to submit a few documents as proof, such as a utility bill and business registration certificate. The process is done online directly from the business settings and usually doesn’t take long.

3 Activate your WhatsApp marketing software

WhatsApp API is not a self-sufficient platform like the business app. It is an API key that needs to be integrated with a messaging solution, the Kartly platform. Kartly is your ideal conversation management software to be your user interface for customer service and marketing campaigns.

The platform offers the following features and capabilities:

• A chatbot builder
• An agent console to manage and organize conversations
• A reports feature
• A campaigns backend
• Integration with CRMs and other systems required for automation

Kartly offers a fair pricing system. But you will also need to consider WhatsApp API fees. You will be charged per message and country of destination. The great win is that WhatsApp offers 1000 free messages per month.

Now you are all set actually to start sending bulk WhatsApp messages.

4 Create your message templates

Customer outreach on WhatsApp is a comprehensive effort that spans customer service, marketing, and transactional exchange. Both marketing and transactional conversations must be templated. Keep a close eye on the following; we will walk you through the exact steps for creating a template:

• 1 Go to Account settings from your Kartly platform
• 2 Click WhatsApp Templates > 3 Create a Template

• 4 Fill in the template name, language, category, and template usage
• 7 Fill in the header(optional): either text or media. We recommend media as videos and images have more impact and are attention-grabbing. Plus the body and footer.
• 8 Add a CTA button or quick reply buttons

• 9 Add an example of the media you will use
• 10 Preview your template and 11 Submit

Templates have three ratings, low, medium, or high. Make sure you keep high ratings by adhering to WhatsApp's business messaging policy because templates rating will affect your phone status and messaging tiers.

We recommend creating multiple templates for different usages to have a message ready even if you forget a scheduled campaign.

5 Segment your customer database

One of the reasons WhatsApp has significant ROIs is that it encourages sending marketing messages only to opt-in leads. You must build a genuine customer database by distributing opt-in forms across channels. You can deploy several touchpoints on your social media accounts, website, and offline and encourage leads to explicitly sign up to receive messages from your business.

Next, you must segment your lists to ensure that you only send relevant content to the right, engaged leads. The best practice is to study and segment your database regularly. Whenever you have new subscribers, you can add them to the existing groups easily. WhatsApp API’s integration with CRMs should render the process effortless.

Consider the following metrics when you are segmenting your list:

• Demographics
• Language
• Location
• Browsing history/ keyword search
• Last visited item/ last purchased item
• Average price per item
• Average order size
• Abandoned card/ abandoned card value
• Profile

You can create an Ideal Customer Profile depending on your target market and what products or services. Your customer persona might change according to the campaigns you have planned. Therefore, make sure you align your message and offer to your exact audience.

Next, import the groups you create to your messaging platform. Follow these steps:

• Choose 1 contacts from your Kartly platform
• 2 Click Create or upload contacts> 3 Upload CSV

• 4 Select the CSV file from your laptop

• 5 Click Confirm mapping if the numbers are correct > Next

• 6 Create a group
• 7 Use the country code formatter if all numbers are from the same country, otherwise, leave it empty
• 8 Confirm opt-in status and specify the number they opted into

• Import the list
  

Dividing your list and importing groups to your messaging platform will help you optimize sending campaigns.

6 Send your WhatsApp campaign

Congratulations! The hard part is over; all that is left now is to broadcast your message. WhatsApp API offers scalable messaging tiers. You can start with 250 messages during the unverified trial and before verifying your Facebook business manager. After verification, you can level up the tiers weekly, as you respect the terms of use and maintain high messaging quality and phone status. For example, if your number is blocked frequently and your messages are low or medium quality, your status will change to ‘flagged.’ You have to improve your message quality for the status to return to normal within a week; otherwise, there will be messaging limit restrictions.

You can send a campaign in no time with the Kartly platform. If you have checked all the items above, it’s time to specify your goal and hit send. Follow these steps:

• 1 click on Campaigns from Kartly platform> 2 New outbound campaign

• 3 Name your campaign> 4 click Launch campaign manager

• Click next step
• 5 Select a group> next step

• 6 Choose a template

• 7 Add an artwork and 8 fill in the custom field

• 9 Manage replies: either assign your bot or customize a flow

‍

• 10 Review your template

• 11 Send or schedule for later

7 Track performance

Broadcasting bulk WhatsApp messages is not the end of the road. You still have things to do and metrics to track.

After you send a campaign, continue to monitor the performance of your message from the platform’s reports. BusincessChat offers campaign reports where you can understand the status and response to your outreach messages.

From the campaigns section on the platform, you can see an overview of the status of all your campaigns. Clicking on one of them will open another window with more details on that specific campaign.

The report will show you the number of messages delivered, replies bounced and failed messages, and more.

Sending bulk WhatsApp messages can be very simple and straightforward; you just need to familiarize yourself with the steps and customize and standardize the process. Following these steps will gear you to success.

‍