WhatsApp business broadcast message - tips & tutorial

In the meantime, the broadcast function is not only available to private individuals, but also to companies with the WhatsApp Business app. This allows you to send the same WhatsApp message to a large number of contacts. Since WhatsApp is perfectly suited as a communication channel for marketing and customer service of companies, you will learn in this article how you can also reach your customers with WhatsApp broadcast messages. We also explain which technical and data protection reasons speak against the use of WhatsApp Broadcast and present you with a suitable alternative.

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What are WhatsApp broadcast messages?

A WhatsApp broadcast message is a message sent by a single WhatsApp user to multiple phone numbers at once. Although it looks to you as the author as if you are communicating in a group, it is not visible to the recipients that the same message has been sent to multiple users. Recipients receive the message in the private chat like a normal direct message. Thus, WhatsApp Broadcast messages are a great way to reach a large number of contacts quickly and easily. WhatsApp Broadcast was originally a feature that was only intended for consumers. In the meantime, it has also been integrated into WhatsApp Business and is thus available for businesses.

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How to send broadcast messages with WhatsApp Business

Sending broadcast messages is straightforward and possible with just a few clicks in the WhatsApp Business app:

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1. open the menu in the WhatsApp Business App

2. select "New Broadcast

3. create a new list of recipients or select an existing broadcast list

4. compose a message

5. send the WhatsApp broadcast message

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Unlike WhatsApp groups, recipients receive broadcast messages in individual chat. Thus, broadcast recipients have no information about other people in the respective broadcast list. Only authors see a small speaker icon in the message. In the web application WhatsApp Web as well as in the WhatsApp desktop app, broadcast messages cannot be sent.

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WhatsApp Business Broadcasting Use Cases

As already described, WhatsApp Broadcasts were originally developed for private individuals and were thus intended for birthday invitations, wedding invitations and Christmas or birthday greetings to acquaintances.

‍Companies can use WhatsApp broadcast messages for customer communication and as newsletter marketing. But beware: This violates both the WhatsApp Business Terms of Use and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

In many industries, certain products and services are in focus at certain times due to seasonal factors. Make your customers aware of this. For example, depending on the industry you work in, remind them about summer sales, tire changes in spring and fall, or Black Friday and Christmas promotions. You can also promote new products in the traditional way. Or make your customers aware when popular and formerly sold-out products are now available again.

Recipients cannot see whether a message was sent via WhatsApp broadcast. Broadcast messages end up in the private chat with the customer. However, a personal salutation like in this screenshot can only be implemented via the newsletter API or with an individually composed direct message.

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Even if you want to make operational information public, this is possible with WhatsApp Broadcast. In case of company vacations, open Sundays and other irregular opening hours, your customers will always be informed. Or you can wish your customers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in December.

As you can see, WhatsApp broadcasts are versatile. Why they are still not recommended and what alternatives there are, we explain in the following bullet point.

Reading tip: How to optimize the conversion rate and prevent the newsletter from being unsubscribed by the recipients, we have described in our article about WhatsApp marketing.

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For legal and technical reasons, WhatsApp broadcasts are not suitable for businesses

‍Even though the broadcast function is available in the WhatsApp Business app, it is not suitable for sending a WhatsApp newsletter to your customers, for example. This has several reasons, both legal and technical. ‍

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Technical limitations of WhatsApp Broadcasts

The broadcast function in the WhatsApp Business app comes with some limitations that restrict its use in the company. For example, the number of contacts to whom a broadcast message can be sent is limited to 256 contacts per broadcast list. To add contacts to a broadcast list, they must first be stored in your contact book. Also, broadcast messages will only be delivered if the recipients have also saved you in their contact book. Otherwise, the message will simply not be delivered. Also, you cannot evaluate your WhatsApp broadcast campaigns in any way. This means that you do not receive the necessary data on your campaign to analyze its benefits and optimization options.

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Legal limitations of WhatsApp broadcasts: GDPR

‍On the legal side, there are also a few reasons why WhatsApp broadcast messages do not qualify as WhatsApp newsletters. First and foremost, this is because you have to use the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business app to send broadcast messages. Both of them are not fully compliant with the GDPR. In addition, the WhatsApp terms of use also do not provide for WhatsApp to be used for online marketing in this way. There it says: "Our products are not intended for bulk or automated messaging." However, there is no really clear answer to the question of whether sending newsletters via the broadcast function is permitted, at least on the part of WhatsApp.

With regard to the General Data Protection Regulation, there are several points in which the use of WhatsApp Broadcasts in online marketing is not compatible with it. Firstly, the standard version of WhatsApp does not conclude an order processing agreement (AV agreement). Second, the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business app accesses all contact data on the user's device. Personal and business contacts cannot be cleanly separated. Thus, it is also possible that WhatsApp accesses contacts that do not use WhatsApp themselves. Third, the unencrypted cloud backups of WhatsApp chats pose a GDPR problem. Even if all WhatsApp chats - and therefore also broadcast messages - are encrypted end-to-end, this protection does not apply to cloud backups. Furthermore, you have to obtain a corresponding marketing opt-in from every user you want to send marketing messages to. However, the WhatsApp Business app does not let you automate this process, nor does it offer built-in opt-in management. Manually, it's a difficult and often tedious task to collect and manage customers' opt-ins.

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Here's how to do it right: Send WhatsApp newsletters via the API in compliance with GDPR

‍Naturally, there is also a way for you as a company to send WhatsApp newsletters for marketing purposes. Including all features like automatic opt-in management and comprehensive analytics. And all this 100% GDPR. How does this work? With the WhatsApp Business API, WhatsApp provides companies with a separate interface to integrate WhatsApp into corporate communications in conjunction with a WhatsApp Business Partner.

With WhatsApp Newsletter, unlike WhatsApp Broadcast, you can also send automated messages. In addition to birthday messages and individual product suggestions based on recent purchases, there are countless other application examples.

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The advantages of WhatsApp newsletters via the API are many. In addition to compliance with the legal framework (GDPR), you prevent your WhatsApp Business account from being blocked by Meta. After all, this can happen quickly in the event of a breach of the WhatsApp terms of use, such as mass WhatsApp broadcast messages to customers. WhatsApp newsletters via API, on the other hand, reach your customers 100% of the time - regardless of whether the recipients have your phone number stored in their contact book or not. Also, as described earlier, you can send messages to unlimited recipients, not just 256 contacts as with WhatsApp Broadcast. WhatsApp newsletters are also fully automatable. So you can send fully automated order confirmations, invoices, birthday greetings, personalized product recommendations, shipping confirmations and quite a few other messages to your customers and automatically insert the customer's name and other information with message templates. Thus, you can increase customer satisfaction, sales and customer lifetime value.

Reading tip: In our article "How to WhatsApp Newsletter - How companies can start their own WhatsApp marketing campaigns" you can learn all the details about WhatsApp newsletters.

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WhatsApp newsletter with Mateo

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Mateo offers a comprehensive service in WhatsApp marketing. The service portfolio ranges from setting up the WhatsApp API to individual tips for collecting opt-ins, maintaining customer data and creating newsletters to in-depth analyses. A fully comprehensive service that is customized to your company.

Mateo's software also offers customizable message templates that can be used to create WhatsApp newsletters in just a few clicks. With Mateo's centralized inbox, where customer requests from different communication channels can be centrally bundled and efficiently processed, it's easy to optimize customer communication with Mateo. Furthermore, the integration of numerous other tools into our software solution reduces your workload in customer service. With Mateo, customer communication and marketing can be 100% GDPR compliant.

Simply make a free consultation appointment to find out all the details. With Mateo and the WhatsApp newsletter your company starts into the new marketing age.

WhatsApp business broadcast messages tutorial and tips - and WhatsApp API newsletters benefits comparison.