Whatsteam marketing

WhatsTeam for Marketing

WhatsApp is the highest-engagement channel most marketers have access to — open rates above 90%, click-through rates 2-5× email. The recipes below keep those rates without triggering Meta's policy enforcement (template suspension, WABA blocks, customer reports).

When to use

• The user mentions marketing, growth, acquisition, retention, lifecycle, CRM, newsletters, promos, referral, loyalty.
• They want to broadcast to a segmented audience or run a campaign.
• They need opt-in collection for WABA Marketing.
• They ask about A/B testing, template variants, performance metrics.
• They want a referral program or viral loop over WhatsApp.

For purely transactional sends (order updates, alerts), use whatsteam-messaging or the relevant industry skill. For inbound qualification, see whatsteam-sales-bot.

Prerequisites

• whatsteam-setup complete.
• A CRM or contact database with at least: phone, name, opt-in status + timestamp + source, segmentation attributes (last purchase, language, tier, …).
• For WABA: APPROVED Marketing templates in each target language. Marketing templates are stricter than Utility — Meta rejects vague or pushy copy.
• A documented opt-in source (checkbox at checkout, web form, in-store sign-up, manual import with provenance).

The compliance baseline (read this first)

WhatsApp marketing is permissioned. If you skip the rules below, Meta will suspend your templates or your WABA.

1. Explicit opt-in. Pre-checked boxes don't count. The user must actively check.
2. Provenance trail. Store optInAt, optInSource (URL, page, IP), and the exact wording shown.
3. Easy opt-out. STOP / UNSUBSCRIBE / BAJA in any reply must immediately suppress that contact globally.
4. Frequency cap. No more than 1 Marketing template per contact per 24h, ideally 1 per week.
5. Template-only Marketing. Marketing content cannot be free-form outside the 24h window. Build templates and send templates.
6. Honesty. Don't disguise Marketing as Utility. Templates are categorized at approval time — misuse triggers rejection.

Recipes

Recipe 1 — Opt-in collection

"Add a WhatsApp opt-in checkbox to checkout and store everything we'll need for compliance."

At checkout (or any signup form):

<label>
  <input type="checkbox" name="wa_optin" required>
  I want to receive offers and updates from {{brand}} on WhatsApp.
  I can opt out anytime by replying STOP.
</label>

Backend:

on checkout.completed:
  if form.wa_optin == true:
    save_optin(
      phone=customer.phone,
      optInAt=now,
      optInSource=form.url,
      optInIP=request.ip,
      optInLanguage=request.language,
      optInWording="..."  # store the exact text shown
    )

Audit-ready: if Meta or a regulator asks, you can produce the trail per contact.

Recipe 2 — Segmented broadcast

1. Segment: customers WHERE
   optInValid AND
   country='ES' AND
   last_purchase_at > 30d ago AND
   total_spend_lifetime > €100
2. Pick template: "summer_sale_es" (APPROVED, Marketing, es)
3. manage_whatsapp_campaigns create + start
4. Cap to ≤1 marketing template per contact per 7 days

Send during local 11am-12pm weekdays (best response window for B2C in EU/LATAM). Avoid early morning, lunchtime in some markets, late evening.

Recipe 3 — Re-engagement (dormant)

weekly_job:
  dormant = contacts where last_purchase_at between 90 and 365 days ago
            AND optInValid
            AND no_marketing_sent_in_last_30d
  for c in dormant:
    pick template by language + tier
    send with personalized voucher: VOUCHER_{{c.id}}_{{now}}
    label chat "campaign:winback-2026q2"

Measure incremental revenue vs control group (10% holdout, no winback message). If lift < 5%, the segment isn't worth re-engaging.

Recipe 4 — Referral program

"Customers who refer a friend get €10 credit. The friend gets €10 off first purchase."

1. Generate a unique referral code per customer (deterministic from customer.id).
2. send template "referral_invite":
   "Hi {{name}}, share {{brand}} with friends! Your code: {{REFCODE}}
    Each friend gets €10 off. You earn €10 when they buy."
   button: "Share on WhatsApp" → opens wa.me with prefilled message
   # NOTE: a wa.me link is a client-side share (the customer's own WhatsApp opens
   # with text pre-filled) — it is NOT an API send and does not go through WhatsTeam.

3. on new_order with referral code:
   credit_referrer(REFCODE.owner, €10)
   send_whatsapp_message to referrer:
     "🎉 Tu amigo {{friendName}} acaba de comprar. €10 a tu cuenta."

The friend-to-friend share via WhatsApp is the highest-converting growth loop most B2C brands have. Make the share message default-good (image + brand-aligned copy).

Recipe 5 — A/B test a template

Build two template variants (same name + suffix, both APPROVED):

• promo_summer_v1_es — value-first headline
• promo_summer_v2_es — urgency-first headline

1. Split audience 50/50 by hash(contact.id) mod 2.
2. Create two campaigns, one template each, same schedule, same segment.
3. After 48h, compare:
   - read rate
   - reply rate
   - click-through (via shortened links with per-variant UTM)
   - conversion (via your e-commerce backend)
4. Keep the winner, archive the loser, iterate.

Document each test in a "growth log" spreadsheet: hypothesis, variants, metric, result, ship-or-kill decision.

Recipe 6 — Opt-out enforcement

on message:in:new where body matches /^(STOP|UNSUBSCRIBE|BAJA|CANCELAR)$/i:
  CRM.markOptedOut(chat.contact.phone)
  exclude from all future Marketing campaigns
  send_whatsapp_message:
    "✅ Has cancelado las comunicaciones de marketing.
     Solo recibirás mensajes transaccionales (pedidos, soporte).
     Para reactivar, responde RESUME."
  label chat "opted-out"
  ack 200

Mirror the opt-out flag to every system (CRM, e-commerce platform, email tool). Re-opt-in requires the same explicit consent.

Recipe 7 — Loyalty tier nudges

Use lifecycle triggers to push the customer up the tier ladder:

weekly_job:
  for c in customers:
    if c.spend_this_year between (c.tier.threshold * 0.8) and c.tier.threshold:
      send_whatsapp_message:
        template "tier_nudge"
        variables: [firstName, currentTier, nextTier, spendNeeded, perksOfNextTier]

Loyalty pushes work because they're personally relevant — not a blanket promo. Don't run them on contacts with no realistic shot at the next tier (would erode trust).

Recipe 8 — Growth-loop measurement

Every campaign should answer:

Metric	Target (B2C, EU)	How to measure
Delivery rate	> 95%	manage_whatsapp_campaigns stats.delivered / total
Read rate	> 80%	stats.read / stats.delivered
Reply rate	3-10%	stats.replied / stats.delivered
Click-through	5-15%	UTM'd short links in template
Conversion	1-5%	E-commerce attribution window 7d
Opt-out rate	< 0.5%	Newly opted-out / campaign size

Anything below half of target = template / segment / timing problem. Stop and iterate, don't scale.

Anti-patterns

• Buying or scraping phone lists. Fastest way to a WABA ban. Build opt-in from day one.
• Same template every week. Customers tune out. Rotate variants, test new angles.
• No frequency cap. Even with opt-in, >2 messages/week per contact kills engagement.
• Treating WhatsApp like email. Email tolerates more frequency and longer copy. WhatsApp wants short, punchy, personal.
• Marketing template that looks like Utility. Meta categorizes templates at approval. Trying to slip Marketing under a Utility template gets the template rejected on review.
• No segmentation. A blanket promo to everyone has lower lift than a small, targeted one to the right segment. Cohort everything.
• Ignoring time zone. Sending at "1pm" globally = 3am for some recipients. Use contact's locale.
• No control group. Without a holdout, you can't tell if a campaign moved the needle or if it would have happened anyway.

See also

• whatsteam-campaigns — the capability under all these recipes (audience build, scheduling, stats, opt-out flow).
• whatsteam-messaging — template / media construction details.
• whatsteam-webhooks — driving opt-out enforcement and reply-based loops.
• whatsteam-contacts — managing the audience database.
• WhatsTeam marketing playbook: https://whats.team/blog/maximize-your-marketing-with-whatsteam-campaigns-no-coding-required
• n8n marketing automation: https://github.com/whatsteam/n8n-whatsteam