WhatsApp delivers a plain message only to people who wrote to you in the last 24 hours. To reach last month’s customers, a campaign must send a message template that Meta has approved.
- Create the template in Channels › Message Templates and wait until it’s approved. Utility is for updates the customer expects; anything promotional is Marketing.
- Open Customers › Campaigns and press New broadcast.
- Under Send from account pick the WhatsApp number. The WhatsApp template box appears.
- Choose the template. The list shows that number’s approved templates, with language and category.
- For each variable — {{1}}, {{2}}… — choose what fills it: The person's first name, The person's full name, Your business name, or This text (then type it). The preview below shows the result.
- Set the Audience filters, press Preview recipients, then Save draft or Send now.
Example for Harbour Car Rental: a Marketing template “Hi {{1}}, spring rates are here — 15% off weekly rentals until 30 April. Reply BOOK to reserve.”, with {{1}} set to the person’s first name.
Good to know
- WhatsApp charges for each template it delivers.
- With a Marketing template, people who stopped marketing messages in WhatsApp are skipped — and so is anyone who asked not to be messaged.
- A fixed text left empty stops the campaign from saving. When a first name is unknown, “there” is used.
- Without a template, people outside the 24-hour window are listed under See who and why with the reason, and nothing is sent to them.
- The template’s words fill the Message template box and can’t be edited there.
- More on templates: miragechat.io/help/whatsapp-message-templates/