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Create a WhatsApp template

Imagine having the ability to create and design a message once and use it countless times, all while maintaining the personalized touch that your contacts appreciate. That's the power of a WhatsApp template!

Create and submit your WhatsApp template to Meta for approval in advance to ensure it will be ready when you need to use it for your automations or launch a WhatsApp campaign.

❓ What is the difference between a WhatsApp template and a WhatsApp campaign?

A WhatsApp template is a pre-approved and reusable WhatsApp message simplifies your communication workflow. Instead of creating a new message from scratch each time, you can use one message for your WhatsApp campaigns or automations. For example, WhatsApp templates can be used to send welcome, birthday, or feedback messages, but also one-time, impactful communications such as exclusive Black Friday offers or exciting Summer sales.

WhatsApp templates can be personalized with variables that automatically adapt to your contacts' attributes such as their first name, email address, or birthday.

  whatsapp_welcome-message-template_EN-US.png

A WhatsApp campaign is the process of sending out a WhatsApp template to a group of recipients. You decide who receives your WhatsApp template, when they receive it, and the phone number it is sent from.

When you create a WhatsApp campaign from Brevo and choose to create the message content from scratch, it is automatically transformed into a WhatsApp template for future use. WhatsApp templates require approval from Meta to prevent any spamming of contacts and ensure high-quality communication. 

Before you start

  • Make sure you've already linked your WhatsApp Business account to Brevo. To learn more, check our dedicated article Link your WhatsApp Business account to Brevo .
  • To be able to send your WhatsApp campaigns without the daily sending limit, make sure your WhatsApp Business account has been verified. To learn more, check our dedicated article Get your WhatsApp Business account verified.
  • To learn the best practices to create WhatsApp messages, check our dedicated article Best practices for WhatsApp messages .
  • Brevo strictly prohibits the sending of passwords in readable format or methods that allow recipients to access password-protected content or content requiring authentication such as auto-login links.

📄 Create a WhatsApp template 

🛠️ Step 1: Set up your WhatsApp template settings

  1. In your Brevo account, go to Campaigns > Templates > WhatsApp.
  2. Click Create a template.
  3. Choose a name for your template (up to 60 characters). This name will only be visible to you, not to your recipients. It will help you easily spot your template in your WhatsApp template listing page.
  4. Choose the type of content for this template according to its purpose:
    📢 Marketing template
    • WhatsApp campaigns to promote products, offers, or other advertisements that increase awareness and engagement.
    • Automations to serve marketing strategies such as welcome or anniversary messages 
    🛠️ Utility template

    Transactional messages to send account, shipping, and order updates, alerts, or any other important information based on an action that the contact performed. 

    ❗️ Important
    To create a WhatsApp template to restart a conversation over Conversations, check our dedicated article Reply to WhatsApp messages with Conversations.
  5. Select the language in which you are going to write your template message.
    We currently support more than 60 languages. This setting can be changed later if necessary.
  6. In the WhatsApp Business account drop-down, select the WhatsApp phone number under your WhatsApp Business account that should be used to submit the WhatsApp template for approval.
    ❗️ Important
    Once your WhatsApp template is approved by Meta, only this phone number will be authorized to send this WhatsApp template. 
  7. Click Start.
    wa_setup-wa-template-settings_EN-US.png

🧑‍🎨 Step 2: Design your WhatsApp template in the editor

This step requires the most work and creativity but has the biggest payoff: this is where you design your WhatsApp template content.

You will be able to add: 

👤 Header (Optional)

Toggle the Header option to provide additional information to your contacts.

wa_header-toggle_EN-US.png

Your header can either be:

🔤 Text 🎦 Media
Up to 45 characters.
❗️ Important
New lines, formatting characters, emojis, and asterisks are not allowed in the header. 
Insert variables to go further in the personalization of your text and replace them with your contacts' attributes when sending the campaign:
  1. Click Variable 👤. The Insert a variable side panel opens.
  2. Choose the attribute you want to use in the Contact attribute drop-down list.
    For example, if the FIRSTNAME attribute of one of your contacts is Patrick, the FIRSTNAME placeholder will be replaced by Patrick.
  3. In the Value if empty field, enter a default value to insert if your contact's attribute is empty.
  4. Click Save.
    WA_header-variable_EN-US.gif
    ❗️ Important
    Ensure that the maximum number of characters is not exceeded once the variable is replaced by your contact's attributes. If your text header exceeds 60 characters, your campaign won't be sent. We suggest you use short header text to avoid any campaign sending failures.
👕 Body

Add text to the body of your message (up to 950 characters) and personalize it by using emojis or bold, italics, strikethrough formatting, and variables. 

whatsapp-campaign_body_EN-US.gif

Insert variables to go further in the personalization of your text and replace them with your contacts' attributes when sending the campaign:
  1. Click Variable 👤. The Insert a variable side panel opens.
  2. In the Attribute drop-down list, select or create:
    👤 Contact attributes

    Contact attributes such as your recipients' first name or last name.
    For example, if the FIRSTNAME attribute of one of your contacts is Patrick, the FIRSTNAME placeholder will be replaced by Patrick.

    		 wa_body-personalization_EN-US.png
    🛒 Transactional attributes

    Transactional attributes that contain information about the events tracked on your website or provided by your API, such as the total price of your recipient's cart before or after the use of a coupon code. 
    For example, if your recipient purchased 124$ worth of products on your website, the params.total_after_coupon placeholder will be replaced with 124.

    To learn more on how to use transactional attributes in WhatsApp templates, check our dedicated article Customize your WhatsApp messages using transactional parameters. 

    		 wa_transac-parameter_EN-US.gif
  3. In the Value if empty field, enter a default value to insert if your contact's attribute is empty.
  4. Click Save.
❗️ Important
To prevent your WhatsApp campaign from being rejected:
- Never add variable parameters at the beginning or end of your body text,
- Never use only variables in the body,
- Never put two variables next to each other, or 
- Never insert a variable that contains special characters such as #, $, or %.
🔵 Buttons (Optional)

Toggle the Buttons option to add up to 3 quick replies options or 2 call-to-action buttons to your WhatsApp message.

WA_toggle-buttons_EN-US.gif

❗️ Important
You can only add one type of button per message. For example, if you already added quick reply options to your WhatsApp message, you won't be able to add call-to-action buttons.
💬 Quick replies 🖱️ Call-to-actions
Click + Add button to add a:
  • Marketing opt-out reply. This button offers recipients a quick and easy way to unsubscribe from your WhatsApp messages. Once your recipient clicks the button, they are automatically blocklisted from your WhatsApp sending list. We recommend adding the marketing opt-out button to avoid being blocked by your recipients and increase your quality rating.
    In the Footer text field, you can enter clear unsubscribe instructions to guide your recipients. Then, in the Button text field, enter a sentence that clearly lets your recipients know they will unsubscribe by clicking this button, such as Stop promotions.
    whatsapp_optout_EN-US.png
  • Custom reply. Custom replies are useful to give recipients a quick and easy way to answer your message by clicking predefined answers. For example, you could ask your recipients to Confirm or Cancel an appointment thanks to custom reply buttons. In the Button text field, enter the possible answers you want to propose to your recipients.

WA_quick-reply-example_EN-US.gif

💡 Good to know
You can add up to one marketing opt-out button and two custom replies simultaneously. 

Once done with the designing of your WhatsApp template, click Save at the top-right ⬇️.

wa_save-design-template_EN-US.png

✅ Step 3: Submit your message for approval

Now that you have designed your WhatsApp template, you need to submit it for approval to WhatsApp. This step is mandatory. WhatsApp reviews all new messages to make sure they comply with WhatsApp Commerce Policy and Business Policy. To submit your message for approval, click Submit for approval at the top-right ⬇️.

submit-approval_EN-US.png

Most of the time, it will only take a few minutes for WhatsApp AI to approve your message. However, in some cases, WhatsApp will need to manually review your message before approving or rejecting it. This manual review can take up to 24 hours.

Once your message is approved by WhatsApp, you'll receive a notification in Brevo, as well as an email. Your WhatsApp template will appear as Approved in Campaigns > Templates > WhatsApp.

❓What happens if my message is rejected by Meta?

If your message is rejected by Meta, your message will appear as Rejected in Campaigns > Templates > WhatsApp. Connect to your WhatsApp Business Manager account to check the reason for the rejection of your WhatsApp template.

Taking into account that reason, you'll need to edit your template and submit it for approval again.

❗️ Important
Only WhatsApp templates with the Draft or Approved status can be edited. To learn how to edit the content of your rejected WhatsApp template, check our dedicated section Edit a WhatsApp template.

🚀 Step 4: Send your WhatsApp template

Once your WhatsApp template has been approved by Meta, you can use it to send WhatsApp campaigns or create automations. To learn more, check our dedicated articles Create a WhatsApp campaign and Send WhatsApp messages through an automation workflow.

⏭️ What's next?

🤔 Have a question?

If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.

If you’re looking for help with a project using Brevo, we can match you with the right certified Brevo expert partner.

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