Overview

CleverTap offers WhatsApp as a paid add-on, allowing businesses to communicate with their customers effectively and efficiently.

To enable WhatsApp as a communication channel for your organization, you raise a request on [email protected].

Getting Started

To use WhatsApp as a channel for your marketing campaigns and customer journeys, you need access to the WhatsApp Business API.
CleverTap currently supports no-code integration with the following partners:

• Gupshup
• Nexmo
• ValueFirst
• Exotel

If you have access to the WhatsApp Business API through a service provider that is not currently supported by CleverTap, you can use CleverTap's Generic WhatsApp APIs to integrate your service provider with CleverTap.

Alternatively, you can request your service provider to become a supported WhatsApp partner by integrating CleverTap's generic API with their native messaging APIs using middleware.

By enabling your service (check for all such instances) provider with CleverTap, you'll be able to utilize all the features and benefits offered by our platform.

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Using CleverTap BSP

To access the WhatsApp Business API directly through CleverTap, refer to the detailed integration document.

Setup WhatsApp Service Provider

To setup a WhatsApp service provider, perform the following steps:

• From the dashboard, navigate to Settings > Channels > WhatsApp.
• Click + Provider to add a provider.

• Add the WhatsApp service provider's information.
• Click Send Test WhatsApp to check if the provider has been set up correctly and can send WhatsApp messages.

• Click Save

Refer to the following integration guides for more details:

• Adding Gupshup as a provider.
• Adding Nexmo as a provider.
• Adding ValueFirst as a provider.
• Adding Exotel as a provider.

Provider Operations

This section describes the different user actions for the available WhatsApp service providers.

Edit Settings

You can edit the WhatsApp provider settings to update the provider configurations.

Follow the steps to edit provider settings:

• From the CleverTap dashboard, navigate to Settings > Channels > WhatsApp > Providers tab.
• Click the ellipsis next to the provider.
• Select Edit settings from the list. The provider credentials window displays.
• Update the required information.
• Click Send Test WhatsApp (Is this a button, please highlight) to check that the provider is working correctly. (I think a valid screenshot will help better understanding here)
• Click Save.

Archive Service Providers

You can archive any of the current WhatsApp service providers from the settings. Archiving the WhatsApp service provider stops any active Campaigns or Journeys for this provider. The archived provider will not be available for use in the future.

Follow the steps to archive a WhatsApp service provider:

• From the CleverTap dashboard, navigate to Settings > Channels > WhatsApp > Providers (highlight this as well) tab.
• Click the ellipsis next to the provider.
• Select Archive from the list.

Delete Service Providers

You can delete any of the current WhatsApp service providers from the settings. Deleting the WhatsApp service provider will remove all existing data from our system and stop any active Campaigns or Journeys. The deleted provider will not be available for use in the future.

Follow the steps to delete a WhatsApp service provider:

• From the CleverTap dashboard, navigate to Settings > Channels >WhatsApp > Providers tab.
• Click the ellipsis next to the provider.
• Select Delete from the list.

Opt-in Users into WhatsApp

Most people do not like receiving unsolicited messages on WhatsApp. Therefore, it is important for you to explicitly request permission before sending messages to your users on their WhatsApp account.

By default, CleverTap keeps all the profiles opted out of WhatsApp. To opt-in profiles, update the profile using the following code:

"MSG-whatsapp":true

You have the following two ways to opt-in users for WhatsApp:

• Opt-in via updating the user's profile property.
• Opt-in via the API profile update.

Message Templates in WhatsApp

WhatsApp restricts brand-initiated messages (the messages that you send via campaigns) to pre-approved templates. You can fill in the variables in the templates to personalize a message.

For example:

Hello {{1}}, Congratulations on your ticket booking. Here is your ticket number: {{2}}. Please ensure you visit us on {{3}}. Enjoy your experience.

The variables {{1}} or {{2}} or {{3}} can be replaced by a text of your choice. You can use CleverTap's event and profile personalization to personalize the message for your audience.

To set up a message template, follow the steps listed under Sending Message Templates documentation on Facebook.

Configure Message Templates

All your message templates must be approved by WhatsApp. At CleverTap, we help you with the verification. For more information on how to create message templates, refer to the Creating Message Templates documentation by Facebook.

The media message templates allow you to expand the content you can send to the recipients beyond the standard messages. The template is organized primarily into four sections - Header, Body, Footer, and Buttons.

Using this template, you can attach media files (image, video, document, location) within the Header along with the message body.

Additionally, WhatsApp also allows marketers to include CTAs or Quick Reply buttons in the text or media message templates for making the conversations more interactive.

• Call-to-Action (CTAs) — Enables the customer to make a phone call or visit a website.
• Quick Reply — Allows your customer to respond with a simple text message.

Once your interactive message templates have been created and approved, you can use them in notification messages as well as customer service/care messages.

The images below represent different templates that marketers can create for engaging their customers effectively.

After your templates are verified, you can add them in the WhatsApp settings under the Templates tab.

To use WhatsApp with CleverTap, it is important to copy the templates accurately in the settings by performing the following steps:

1. From the dashboard, navigate to Account > Settings > Engage > Channels > WhatsApp.
2. Click one of the Provider names.

3. Navigate to the Templates tab.
4. Click + Template .

5. Now, enter the Namespace for your template.

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Namespace Format

When copying the message templates from the WABA dashboard, use the following format for the namespace: <templatenamespace>:<template_name>. You can find the _Namespace value from the Message templates section on the WABA dashboard as shown in the image below:

Following is an example of Namespace format

6. Copy and save the approved message templates from your WABA dashboard.

7. Click Save Template to save the message template.

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Language Support

• For Vonage (Nexmo), if you don't find the required language support on the CleverTap dashboard, contact our support team to enable the required language for your account.
• Gupshup supports and handles all languages automatically, hence you do not need to add them on the CleverTap dashboard.