WhatsApp is one of the most used communication channels worldwide. With everything going faster nowadays, many people prefer to receive marketing communications over WhatsApp to avoid overcrowding their email inboxes and to access short and quick information. WhatsApp in Automation on Brevo allows you to avoid manual work and missed opportunities by automating the sending of your marketing WhatsApp messages to target and engage contacts who prefer communications over WhatsApp.
Which WhatsApp messages can I send with automation?
Automation allows you to automate repetitive tasks related to marketing activities. The tasks are automated in response to pre-defined trigger conditions, which usually correspond to your contacts' attributes or actions that they take on your website, for example. An automation usually consists of 3 steps:
|
Entry point Contact enters the automation based on predefined criteria |
Actions or conditions Contact move through the steps of the automation |
Restart or exit conditions Contact automatically restarts or exits the automation based on predefined criteria |
With WhatsApp in Automations, you can automate the sending of your WhatsApp messages for different purposes:
| Entry point | Condition | Action | |
|
Abandoned cart |
Website activity > An event happens > cart_updated (track event) |
Add a delay | Send a WhatsApp message |
|
Product purchase |
Website activity > An event happens > order_completed (track event) |
||
|
Welcome message |
Contact details > Contact is added to a list |
||
|
Anniversary Date |
Contact details > Anniversary |
To learn how to insert transactional parameters in your WhatsApp templates to send customized transactional WhatsApp automations, check our dedicated article Customize your WhatsApp messages using transactional parameters.
Before you start
- Link your WhatsApp Business account to Brevo through the embedded signup.
- Verify your WhatsApp Business account.
- Purchase WhatsApp credits to send WhatsApp messages through automations. You will be charged at the rate of a marketing WhatsApp message.
- Ensure you have correctly collected your contacts' consent for WhatsApp messages.
- If you are unfamiliar with marketing automation in Brevo, check our dedicated articles Introduction to Marketing Automation.
🎨 Part 1: Create a WhatsApp template
Create WhatsApp templates to integrate into your automations, such as welcome or anniversary messages or abandoned carts. For our use case, we created a welcome message:
Meta has to approve your WhatsApp templates before they can be used in automations. Most of the time, it will only take a few minutes for Meta AI to approve your message. However, in some cases, Meta will need to manually review your message before approving or rejecting it. This manual review can take up to 24 hours. Once Meta approves your message, you'll receive a notification in Brevo, as well as an email.
🔁 Part 2: Create your automation
Step 1: Create an automation
Once your WhatsApp message is created and approved by Meta, you can start using it in your automation. For our use case, we will create an automation similar to the Welcome Message pre-configured one but with the Send a WhatsApp message action:
- Go to Automations and click Create an automation.
- Choose the automation editor you want to use:
The new automation editor opens. If needed, rename your automation from the top-left corner to easily recognize it in the list:
- In the right panel, enter a relevant name for your automation to easily recognize it in the list.
- Optional: Enter a description of your automation.
- Choose if you want to allow your contacts to enter the automation more than once. This option can be enabled for product purchase or marketing activity automations.
However, for our use case, we only want contacts to enter the automation once since it is a welcome message sent only when they subscribe. - Click Create automation.
You can now choose your triggers, rules, and actions to activate your automation ⬇️.
Step 2: Choose an entry point for your automation
Add an entry point to your automation that will trigger the sending of your WhatsApp message. For our use case, the entry point for the welcome message automation is Contact added to a list so that once a contact is added to the selected list, they enter the automation.
➡️ To learn more about the different entry points, check our dedicated article:
- [New automation editor] Available triggers, actions, and rules in an automation
- [Classic automation editor] Available entry points, actions, and conditions in an automation.
Depending on the automation editor version you are using, the procedure can differ. Click the tab corresponding to your version:
- From the Triggers tab, browse the different triggers and drag and drop the one you want to add to the canvas. In this use case, Contact added to list. The Contact added to list settings open in the side panel.
- From the List dropdown, select which list(s) should trigger the automation. Anytime a contact is added to the selected list(s), they will enter the automation.
- Click Save.
- Click Add an entry point.
- Select the entry point to your automation. For our use case, click Contact Details > A contact is added to a list.
-
Select from the drop-down the contact list to which your WhatsApp contacts are added when they subscribe to your WhatsApp marketing communications.
❗️ ImportantIf you collected your contacts' consent for different message categories, remember to create different entry points for each contact list to which your WhatsApp contacts are added. - Click OK.
Once you choose your entry point, you can add a condition that will trigger the sending of the WhatsApp message ⬇️.
(Optional) Step 3: Add a condition to your automation
Add a rule to the triggering of your action in the automation:
- Add a time delay between the moment when your contact enters the automation and the action.
- Apply conditional split (If/Else) to divide the automation into 2 branches: one branch for yes, the other for no.
- Create an A/B Split to separate your contacts in a 50:50 ratio to follow path A or path B.
- Wait until an event happens before triggering the action.
For our use case, after a contact enters the automation, we want to wait 2 or 3 minutes before receiving the welcome WhatsApp message. This helps make the interaction feel less automated.
➡️ To learn more about the different conditions and how to use them, check our dedicated article:
- [New automation editor] Available triggers, actions, and rules in an automation
- [Classic automation editor] Available entry points, actions, and conditions in an automation.
Depending on the automation editor version you are using, the procedure can differ. Click the tab corresponding to your version:
- Click the Rules tab.
- Drag and drop the Time delay rule under your trigger in the canvas. The Time delay settings open in the side panel.
- Enter the delay you want your contacts to wait for before receiving your welcome email. In this use case, add 2 under Minutes.
- Click Save.
- Click the + icon under your entry point.
- From the Condition list, click Add a delay.
- Choose the period to wait for between the moment your contact enters the automation and the sending of the WhatsApp message.
For our use case, we want our contacts to receive the WhatsApp message 2 minutes after their subscription. - Click OK.
Step 4: Select the WhatsApp template you want to send
It is now time to choose which WhatsApp template you want to automate!
Meta has to approve your WhatsApp templates before they can be used in automations. Most of the time, it will only take a few minutes for Meta AI to approve your message. However, in some cases, Meta will need to manually review your message before approving or rejecting it. This manual review can take up to 24 hours. Once Meta approves your message, you'll receive a notification in Brevo, as well as an email.
Depending on the automation editor version you are using, the procedure can differ. Click the tab corresponding to your version:
- Click the Actions tab.
- Under the Messaging section, drag and drop the Send a WhatsApp message action in the canvas. The Send a WhatsApp message settings open in the side panel.
- If you connected different WhatsApp phone numbers to Brevo, select the one you want to use to send your WhatsApp welcome message from the WhatsApp Business account list.
- Click Select template. A modal with all your approved WhatsApp templates opens.
- Browse your list of WhatsApp templates and click Use under the name of the WhatsApp template you want to use.
- (Optional) Choose a sending time to avoid sending your automated WhatsApp messages at night or during the weekend. If your contact enters the automation during an unauthorized time, your WhatsApp message will be sent during the next available time slot.
- Activate the Set up when to send the WhatsApp option.
- Uncheck the days on which you do not want your WhatsApp message to be sent. In our example, Saturday and Sunday.
- Select the time frame during which your WhatsApp message can be sent. You can add different time slots for each day by clicking the + plus icon. In our example, the time slot will be between 9AM and 6PM every day.
- By default, the time zone selected is the one set on your account. However, you can change it if needed.
- Click Save.
- Click the + icon under your entry point or condition if you added one.
- From the Action list, click Send a WhatsApp message.
- If you have several WhatsApp Business accounts connected to Brevo, select the one you want to use to send your WhatsApp welcome message.
- From the drop-down list, choose the WhatsApp template you want to use for this automation or create a WhatsApp template. For our use case, we will choose the Welcome message template created during step 1.
- Click OK.
Your automation is now ready! Test it before activating it ⬇️.
🧪 Part 3: Test your automation
Testing your automation is optional. However, we highly recommend running some tests before activating your automation to ensure that it is working as expected.
Depending on the automation editor version you are using, the procedure can differ. Click the tab corresponding to your version:
➡️ To learn how to test your WhatsApp messages sent with the new automation editor, check our dedicated article Test messages sent from an automation.
- If you do not have an email address field in your sign-up form for WhatsApp, add one for the test phase. You can remove the email address field once the test phase is done.
- Click the
flask icon at the top-right of your screen.
- Enter the email address you want to use to test your automation.
- Optional: Check the Skip 'Wait For' steps box to skip the Add a delay or Wait until steps.
- Click DONE.
- Perform the action that allows your contacts to enter your automation.
In our use case, we want our contacts to enter the automation when they are added to the WhatsApp general subscription list. Fill in your sign-up form for WhatsApp messages and enter your test email address.
✅ Part 4: Activate your automation
Once the setup of your automation is done, activate it to run tests and allow contacts to receive your WhatsApp messages.
Click Activate the automation at the top-right of your screen.
Congratulations! 🎉 Now, every time a contact enters your automation, they will receive your WhatsApp message without any manual action from your side. Enjoy your free time!
❓FAQs
If you do not have enough WhatsApp credits or reached your sending limit while your automation is active, your automation will be triggered, but your WhatsApp message will not be sent to contacts who enter it. Ensure you always have a minimum of WhatsApp credits and increase your sending limit so that a maximum of your contacts can enter your automation and receive your WhatsApp messages.
The statistics of your WhatsApp automations are not accessible from the WhatsApp campaign page. To access the statistics of your WhatsApp automations, either click:
-
Automation > Logs > Name of your automation.
❗️ ImportantDue to Meta limitations, we cannot display the number of sent WhatsApp messages in the logs. To view the number of sent WhatsApp messages, go to your automation statistics instead👇. - The
stats icon within the automation, or
-
Automation > Name of your automation > More actions
> See all statistics.
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