When WhatsApp Business came about, businesses using it were not allowed to send promotional and marketing messages to their customers. Only transactional templates, such as payment confirmation or shipment tracking, were allowed. That all changed in September 2021 when WhatsApp introduced a new category of templates called ‘Marketing’. Ever since, businesses have been allowed to send promotions, new product launch announcements, and similar messages to their customers.

This article discusses what promotional WhatsApp message templates are, their benefits, their examples, and the best practices and guidelines to follow when creating and using them.

What Are Promotional WhatsApp Message Templates? #

Promotional message templates are messages that promote and market your business’s products and services. They are about discounts, new product launch announcements and promotions. They can be in different formats like text, video, image or a document, and can contain interactive options like buttons that recipients can click. Here is what a promotional message template with interactive buttons looks like:

If you’d like to learn how to create a message template from your WhatsApp Manager, please read our blog, How to Make Sure WhatsApp Approves Your Message Template. If you are using Rasayel and want to create your templates from Rasayel, please read The Complete Guide to WhatsApp Message Templates for Your Business.

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The Benefits of Promotional WhatsApp Messages #

Easy and Cost-effective Way to Promote #

Regardless of what industry you are in, promotional WhatsApp messages are a simple and cost-effective way for you to increase sales. Let’s say you’ve launched a new product and would like to tell your customers about it. You can create an interactive message template with information about your new product with buttons that direct the recipients to your website. From there, they can see more details about it and follow the steps to make a purchase. Since you are communicating your promotion with your customers on WhatsApp, they have a chance to reply to your message, ask you questions, and get their answers at their fingertips. 

Here is an example of a promotional message template about a product launch:

Hello {{1}}, It is summertime, which means our summer sales are back! 🤩 We are offering up to 30% discount on selected items. Follow this link to view the items on sale. If you have any questions, feel free to ask us. Happy shopping! ☺️

Run Marketing Campaigns on People’s Favorite Communication App #

WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app worldwide, with almost 2 billion users. You can send promotional messages as part of a marketing campaign on WhatsApp to make yourself visible in front of a vast audience and increase sales.

If you are using the WhatsApp Business app to talk to your customers, you are able to broadcast your promotional message to up to 256 contacts. Your contacts receive your message as long as they have your number saved on their phones.

If you’d like to send your promotional messages to a larger audience, you need to use WhatsApp Business API with a customer communication platform like Rasayel. With Rasayel, you can broadcast your message to an unlimited number of customers who’ve given consent to receive messages from you over WhatsApp. For messages that have placeholders for variables, Rasayel dynamically fills these placeholders to match the information for each contact before the message gets sent in a broadcast. 

If you’d like to learn about how to run marketing campaigns with Rasayel, please check out our article How to Send Bulk Messaging on WhatsApp?

Increased Visibility and Better Sales Opportunities #

As the most popular messaging app worldwide, people tend to check their WhatsApp more often than SMS or email inbox. Email and SMS marketing are two popular ways for businesses to promote their products. There are not many restrictions in place for what businesses cannot do when they promote their products on them. As a result, many people’s email and SMS inboxes are full of spammy marketing and promotional messages. Needless to say that a vast majority of them go unread. On the contrary, WhatsApp prevents businesses from spamming their recipients’ inboxes with its approval-based template messages and opt-in policy. Because of that, WhatsApp users do not receive many marketing messages and so any given promotional message has a higher chance of being read by the recipients.

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Types of Promotional WhatsApp Messages  #

The following list is an example of the types of WhatsApp message templates. There are other types that you can create for your business based on your needs.

Abandoned cart #

If you have an online store, it can happen quite often to see a potential customer has put items in their shopping cart and later abandon it before checking out. There are a number of possible reasons for this. For example, they reached the final step and saw that your shipping cost was too high for them. Or maybe they saw a similar product on a competitor’s website that was cheaper and decided to go ahead with that. Or maybe they faced a technical problem when making the payment.

Regardless of the reason for their cart abandonment, it is always a good idea to check in with your customer and offer assistance to finish their purchase. You can send them a simple reminder about their abandoned cart and ask how you could help them. You can also offer them discounts on your shipping or the products. 

Here are some examples:

Hello {{1}}, We just noticed that you have an abandoned cart in our online store. Is there any way we could assist you with finishing your purchase?
- I need assistance.
- No, thanks.

Hello {{1}}, We noticed that you had not completed your shopping at our store. Get a 30% discount off your selected items in the next 24 hours. To claim the discount, click here and finish your shopping. Have a lovely day!

Product Launch #

Hello {{1}}, We have some exciting news! 🥳 We just launched our {{2}}. Our customers requested it many times, and now the wait is finally over. Head over to our website and check it out for yourself. We hope you like it. 🤩

Hi {{1}}, We have just launched our {{2}} 😍 and we’re giving early access to our current customers before we make it public. Would you like to check it out for yourself?
- I like to know more.
- Remind me later.

Promotional Offers #

Hello {{1}}, It is summertime, which means our summer sales are back! 🤩 We are offering up to 30% discount on selected items. Follow this link to view the items on sale. If you have any questions, feel free to ask us. Happy shopping! ☺️

Hi there {{1}}, Our end-of-year sale has already started! 🥳 Get up to 50% discount on our products before they run out! Follow this link to have a quick look at the discounted items. Happy shopping!

Restocked Products #

Hello {{1}}, The wait is over! 🥳 Our {{2}} are back on the shelves, and you can now buy them from our online store. Here is the link to check them out. Have a lovely day!

Hello {{1}}, Exciting news! 🥳 We’ve just restocked our {{2}} since it was requested many times. You can check it out here. Have a great day!

Early Access #

Hello {{1}}, Thanks for being our customer ♥️ We have just launched a new feature called {{2}}, and we are giving early access to our loyal customers. Follow this link to enjoy your early access. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Hi there {{1}}, We love having you as our customer ♥️ As a thank you for your loyalty, we’d like to offer you early access to our new tool. We call it {{2}}. Would you like to have a tour?
- Yes
- No

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Best Practices for Writing Promotional Message Templates #

While you are allowed to send promotional and marketing messages to your customers, you must follow specific practices when doing so to be able to continue using WhatsApp for your business.

Receive Opt-in from Customers in Advance #

Before you send any message to your customers out of the 24-hour customer service window, you must have consent from them that they would like to receive messages from you over WhatsApp. WhatsApp’s promotional message templates are no exception to this rule. Please read Meta’s official guidelines on how to receive opt-in from your customers. Only send messages to those who have given you permission to contact them over WhatsApp.

Comply with WhatsApp’s Commerce Policy #

All of your transactions, including all messages and media related to your goods or services, such as any descriptions, prices, fees, taxes, and/or any required legal disclosures, must comply with WhatsApp’s Commerce Policy.

Comply with WhatsApp’s Business Policy #

Make sure your messages follow WhatsApp’s Business Policy. For instance, you may not mislead your customers about the nature of your business and products or spam them with messages. As a rule of thumb, we suggest that your messages be relevant to the customers, in the right context, and sent in a timely manner. For example, if your message is about an abandoned cart, only those customers that do have an abandoned cart should receive your message and they must receive it soon after the cart is abandoned. It would not make sense for a customer to receive an abandoned cart alert message one month after they left it. If you are offering promotions and running a campaign over WhatsApp, send your promotional message only once. If customers are spammed with messages about the same promotion, they might block and report your business, which can result in having your approved message template paused or disabled, and possibly having your business account blocked by WhatsApp.

Give Customers an Opt-out Option in Your Messages #

Even if customers have originally given you consent to receive messages from you over WhatsApp, they should still have the option to opt out anytime they want. If customers are no longer interested in receiving messages from your business, by giving them an opt-out option, you reduce your chances of getting blocked and reported. It is also important that once they opt out, you honor their request and do not send them messages again. 

Personalize Your Message #

You can use placeholders for variables like customers’ names and other identifiers to personalize your message. You can also divide your audience into different segments and craft a tailored message for each customer segment to make your messages more personalized. For example, let’s say that you run a fashion business and your customers include plus-sized people, slim people, and people in between. You can create separate message templates about your promotions for each customer segment:

For plus-sized customers:

Hello {{1}}, It is summertime, which means our summer sales are back! 🤩 We are offering up to 30% discount on selected items, including plus-sized ones. Follow this link to view the items on sale. Happy shopping! ☺️

For slim customers:

Hello {{1}}, It is summertime, which means our summer sales are back! 🤩 We are offering up to 30% discount on selected items, including XXS small sizes. Follow this link to view the items on sale. Happy shopping! ☺️

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Final Thoughts #

With the availability of a new category of Marketing for WhatsApp message templates, you can take advantage of the popularity of WhatsApp and promote your products and services to your customers in a fast and cost-effective way. Your templates must be approved by WhatsApp in advance and your customers must opt-in to receiving messages from you. In addition, you must send your messages in the right context and only when it is relevant to the customers receiving them. This prevents your templates from being paused or disabled and prevents your account from being blocked by WhatsApp. 

Further Reading #

How to Make Sure WhatsApp Approves Your Message Templates

23 Best WhatsApp-Approved Message Templates for Your eCommerce Business

27 WhatsApp-Approved Message Templates to Get You Started on WhatsApp

The Complete Guide to WhatsApp Message Templates for Your Business

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About the author

Niloofar Kavousi

Niloofar helps the team in marketing and partnerships. She has worked in startups and large enterprises and lived in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. When she’s not working, she enjoys socializing, doing reformer and getting lost in nature.