Sweesh helps you to send different types of WhatsApp messages to your contacts. In order to prevent spam, WhatsApp has introduced rules around the types of messages that businesses are allowed to send to contacts, and when they are allowed to send them. We call these business initiated messages. Let’s start with the basics.
- Template Messages are initiated by a business in order to start a conversation with a customer or contact outside of the 24 hour reply window.
- Each Template Messages incurs a charge by Facebook. Facebook has a published rate card for such messages and these vary per country.
There are two types of messages when using WhatsApp for business communications.
- Templates - Pre-formatted and non-editable messages approved by WhatsApp
- Free-form - Standard free-flowing messages which support all media types
In this article we will focus only on Templates message types.
Message Templates
These are standard messages which have been formatted to be reused when needing to send the same messaging, for example, a transactional notification or promotion.
Template messages can also contain variables or parameters to personalize the message to the specific contact. Using variable parameters are highly recommended by WhatsApp as they increase your WhatsApp number's quality rating.
They are designed to reduce the likelihood of users perceiving them as spam on WhatsApp.
Templates can provide additional information over media included in the header, and can also be made interactive by registering buttons as part of the message content. See anatomy of a template message below.
Parts of a Template Message
Templated messages sections can include any of the following content items or fields:
- Header - Text up to 60 characters, or image, video, or document (optional)
- Body - Text up to 1024 characters
- Footer - Text only up to 20 characters (optional)
- Buttons - Up to 3 buttons, text only each containing up to 20 characters
A template message can be simple text only. It is not compulsory to make use of an image for the header and does not require buttons.
If you are going to use Sweesh to send outbound campaigns, you must prepare and register your message templates to submit for approval to Facebook. Templates messages must be aligned with WhatsApp's business and commerce policies.
Header
Headers are optional and can include the following types of media:
- Image
- Document
- Video
- Text (up to 60 characters, can include 1 placeholder)
Body
Body content is required and is a text field only. Body text can contain up to 1024 characters and can be registered as plain text, or text with placeholders.
Footer
Footers are optional and are a text field only. Footers can contain up to 60 characters. This is a good place to put in any Opt-Out options you might need.
Buttons
Buttons are optional and templates can only contain one or the other button type. Button text can be up to 20 characters. The following button types are available:
- Quick replies - You can have up to three quick reply buttons per message. Predefined replies and flexible payload.
- Call-to-action - You can have up to two call-to-action buttons per message one of each action. Supported actions are call a phone number and visit a website.
Text
Send a plain text message in the form of text to your contacts. You can send text in any of the following formats:
- Bold (*using asterisks*)
- Italic (_using underscores_)
- Strikethrough (~using tildes~)
- Code (```using three backticks```)
Messages can contain up to 4096 characters per free-form message. Text limitations vary on the relevant sections in templates. You can also include emojis in text messages.
URL character counts are also included in message length limits. Make sure to keep text messages and URLs within the character limit.
Attach Media
Documents
Send PDF documents to customers/employees/members. Documents should have names in the form of text, up to 240 characters. If no name is given, WhatsApp will assign one.
You can send the following document file types:
Document file sizes can be up to 5MB.
Images
Send images to customers/employees/members. You can also send messages in the form of an image and caption together. Image captions can be up to 3000 characters long.
The following image types are supported:
- JPG
- JPEG
- PNG
Image sizes can be up to 5MB.
Audio
Send audio messages to customers/employees/members. The following audio types are supported:
- MP4
Audio file sizes can be up to 5MB.
Video
Send messages with video content to customers/employees/members. You can also send messages in the form of a video and captions together. Video captions can be up to 3000 characters long.
The following video types are supported:
- MP4
Video sizes can be up to 5MB.
Getting stuck and need some help? Contact us on support@chatinc.com
Sweesh is the only platform that enables you to send, track and report on bulk WhatsApp marketing messages. A web-based platform that needs no special development or integrations to get started. Use WhatsApp to connect with targeted audiences like employees, students, clients and customers. Sweesh helps you to easily create and submit WhatsApp template messages for approval, send reminders and notifications, and attach documents, videos and images. Create segmented contact lists to reach targeted audiences and use WhatsApp to increase brand awareness, personalize customer experience and deliver on all your marketing and communication needs.
Learn more by visiting our website - https://www.getsweesh.com/ and See Sweesh in action by booking a demo https://www.getsweesh.com/request-a-demo or get in touch with one of our Product Specialists - sales@chatinc.com
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