How to submit a New WhatsApp Template Message?
To submit a new template message, follow the below steps:
Open Template Message Section
Go to Manage 👉 Template Message and click on the “+ New” button on the top right corner.
There are various details to be added while submitting a new template message from the Template Message dashboard.
As soon as the Template Message is submitted, it directly goes to WhatsApp for approval and the Status of the message changes to PENDING.
If the Template Message complies with the WhatsApp policies and rules, it gets APPROVED, otherwise it gets REJECTED.
2. Customize the Template Message
Following are the fields and the format of the input text –
1. Template Category
There are various template categories according to the different use cases of WhatsApp Template Messages.
Given the pricing updates coming to WhatsApp API starting June 1, 2023, templates in AiSensy will now be classified under Utility, Authentication & Marketing.
Utility - Transaction-focused messages used to confirm/ cancel a transaction or a subscription.
Authentication - OTPs & login code messages used to authenticate a user.
Marketing - All messages that relate to a business's products & services (except for transactional messages)
2. Template Type
This defines the type of WhatsApp template message you want to send. The different types are TEXT, IMAGE, VIDEO & FILE.
You cannot just send images. You must add text along with the images, videos, or files you want to send.
Once the template message gets approved, you will be asked to attach a relevant media file to your users while broadcasting. The sample media file is for the approval process and informing WhatsApp of the kind of media file that will be sent by the business.
Please note that the media file needs to be sent along with some text. It is not like you can send only Images, Files, or Videos. TEXT is mandatory because, based on Text, WhatsApp Approves or Rejects a template message.
3. Template Language
You can choose the language of your WhatsApp template message from all the global languages and vernacular as well.
For each template message, you can only pick one language.
4. Template Name
Keep the Template Name the SAME as Template Label. Just make a few changes like writing the initial letter Small and replacing the white space with an Underscore. For example, account_update, otp_verification etc.
FORMAT – The template name can only be in lowercase alphanumeric characters and underscores. Special characters and white spaces are not allowed.
5. Template Format
The template format is your WhatsApp template message content. Write down the template message that you want to send to users after getting approved by WhatsApp.
The template message can have various dynamic values that are specific and unique to every user such as Name, OTP Number, Order ID, Payment Links etc.
These dynamic values are depicted by {{1}}, {{2}}, {{3}} and so on and so forth. If there are multiple dynamic values in a template message, it should always start with {{1}}, the next {{2}}, the next {{3}}…{{n}}.
WhatsApp Template message has the same formatting rules as normal WhatsApp. Here are a few you must know:
If you want to make some text bold - put asterisks (*) at the start and end of the phrase (*Text*).
Underscores for Italics (_Text_).
Tide for Strikethrough (~strikethroughText~)
To make a text evenly spaced or monospaced, place three backticks on both sides of the text (```text```)
FORMAT – The template message should not be more than 1024 characters.
Example –Hey {{1}},
Thank you for being a valued customer of AiSensy.
We are offering you an "XYZ200" E Gift voucher of Rs 500/- redeemable on all the products. After filling in the Template Format, you need to give a sample value to the template parameters.
6. Add Interactive Actions to make messages more actionable: If there are no interactive actions required, simply choose None. You can either add "CTAs" or a "Quick Replies" to a WhatsApp Template Message. You can't have both in one Template Message.
Call to Actions: There are 2 types of Call to Action buttons namely URL and Phone Number. A template message can have a URL or a Phone Number or a URL & a Phone Number both as CTA. You can not have two CTAs of the same type with a template message.
a) URL as Call to Action – After choosing the URL as the action type, you have to write the Button Title that appears as the clickable button and Button Value is the redirection link.
b) Phone Number as Call to Action – After choosing the Phone Number as the action type, you have to write the Button Title that appears as the clickable button and the Button Value is the Phone Number.
Note that the Phone Number must be written along with the country code without the plus (+) sign. If the number is submitted without the country code, it violates the format and gets rejected by WhatsApp.
Quick Replies: These interactive action buttons are the user response buttons. This means if the user clicks on these buttons, the text in the buttons becomes the user’s message.
There can be a maximum of 3 Quick Replies that can be sent with a template message (limitation by Facebook itself) and can have a maximum of 20 characters.
The WhatsApp template messages with the Quick Reply buttons can be used to take feedback from the customers or to make customers choose between two or more given options.
7. Submit Template Message for Approval
8. Sync with WhatsApp to know the approval status
WhatsApp Template Messages typically take 1 minute - to 24 hours to get approved!
After submitting template messages, hit the "sync with WhatsApp" button to update the status of the Template Message after submitting.
If it still doesn't show, refresh the tab once & then check the approval status.
Hope this was helpful!
For further queries, please contact us at support@callhippo.com