As businesses increasingly leverage WhatsApp as a powerful communication channel, the creation of well-crafted templates becomes paramount. Templates not only ensure compliance with WhatsApp guidelines but also provide a structured framework for delivering messages that resonate with your audience. This documentation aims to provide you with the following information:

• Best Practices: Understand the fundamental principles that govern successful WhatsApp template creation, including clarity, relevance, and compliance.
• Template Categories: Explore different template categories, such as Marketing, Limited-Utility, and Authentication, each tailored to meet specific communication needs.
• Template Types: Explore different template types, such as Basic, Limited Time Offers (LTOs), and Carousel, each tailored to meet specific communication needs.
• Creation Steps: Step-by-step instructions for crafting templates in CleverTap, ensuring you can seamlessly implement your messaging strategy.
• FAQs: Find answers to common queries that WhatsApp customers often encounter while using WhatsApp for marketing.

Best Practices for WhatsApp Template

Creating effective WhatsApp templates requires adherence to certain guidelines. To increase the likelihood of approval and ensure impactful communication, follow these best practices

• Keep it Concise: Keep your template text brief and focused for clear and effective communication.
• Eliminate Errors: Avoid grammatical and spelling mistakes to prevent rejection and maintain professionalism.
• Avoid Mix of Languages: Use a single language within a template for consistency and clarity.
• Choose Appropriate Message Category: Align the template's goal with the selected message category for better categorization and understanding.
• Use Placeholders for Template Personalization: Contextualize template content with placeholders for relevance. For example: "Hey {{1}}, You've been pre-approved for our credit card! Enjoy an introductory offer of {{2}} via your personalized link: {{3}}."
• Easy Opt-out Steps: Clearly state how end-users can opt out of WhatsApp notifications, ensuring a smooth and respectful opt-out process.
• Avoid Promoting Forbidden Business Verticals: Steer clear of promoting forbidden business verticals to prevent template rejection and potential account bans.
• Formatting Rules: Adhere to guidelines on naming, size, and text formatting for template compliance and approval.

WhatsApp Template Categories

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Template Category Selection

CleverTap BSP (Whatsapp Direct) users can select categories during template creation for Meta review, ensuring content alignment. This feature is specific to CleverTap BSP.
However, for external providers, template creation occurs in their dashboards. Hence, template category selection is not available during template replication in the CleverTap dashboard for external providers.

WhatsApp templates come in various categories, each serving specific communication needs. Understanding these categories and their ideal use cases is crucial for effective messaging.

Marketing Categories

Marketing templates are the most flexible templates provided by WhatsApp. They can enable businesses to achieve a wide range of goals, from generating awareness to driving sales and more.

• Awareness:
  Business Goal: Introduce new products or services.
  Example Template: "Diwali is around the corner! Join us at {{1}} on October 24 to celebrate with friends and family. For more details about our event, click {{2}}."
• Sales:
  Business Goal: Promote general offers, coupons, or sales events.
  Example Template: "Upgrade to our Premium cabin to enjoy more benefits, like additional legroom and priority boarding. Click {{1}} or log into our app to upgrade."
• Retargeting:
  Business Goal Re-engage customers who visit your website or app.
  Example Template: "You left items in your cart! Don’t worry, we saved them for you. Click here to checkout now: {{1}}."

Utility Categories

Utility templates are triggered by a user action or request. They must include details about the active or ongoing transaction, account, subscription, or interaction to which they relate. For example, an order confirmation must contain an order number.

• Opt-In Management on WhatsApp:
  Business Goal: Confirm opt-in or opt-out preferences.
  Example Template: "Hey {{1}}, Thank you for confirming your opt-out preference. You will no longer receive messages from us on WhatsApp."
• Order Management:
  Business Goal: Confirm, update, or cancel orders with specific details.
  Example Template: "Hooray! Your package from order {{1}} is on its way. Your tracking number is {{2}} and expected delivery date is {{3}}."
• Account Alerts or Updates:
  Business Goal: Send important account updates and alerts.
  Example Template: "Reminder: Your monthly payment for your subscription to {{1}} will be billed on {{2}} to the card you have saved on file."
• Feedback Surveys:
  Business Goal: Collect feedback on orders or interactions.
  Example Template: "Hey {{1}}, Your feedback ensures we continually improve. Please click here {{1}} to share your thoughts on your recent visit to our {{2}} location. Thank you in advance! "

Support for Authentication Templates

Currently, CleverTap does not support WhatsApp Authentication Templates. For assistance or information on other template categories compatible with CleverTap, refer to our documentation or contact our support team.

Authentication templates enable businesses to authenticate users with one-time passcodes (usually 4-8 digit alphanumeric codes), potentially at multiple steps in the login process (for example, account verification, account recovery, integrity challenges).
Authentication templates are our most restricted.

For a template to be classified as authentication, a business must do the following:

• Use WhatsApp’s preset authentication message templates, which include optional add-ons like security disclaimers and expiry warnings.
• Configure a One-Time Password button (copy-code or one-tap)
• Follow content guidelines. For example, URLs, media, and emojis are not allowed for authentication template content or parameters. An additional restriction of 15 characters also applies to parameters.
  Authentication Code:
  Business Goal: Send OTP messages via WhatsApp.
  Example Template: "{{1}} is your verification code. For your security, do not share this code.

WhatsApp Template Types

CleverTap streamlines WhatsApp template creation by categorizing them into two distinct types, simplifying the template creation process for CleverTap users. Each type serves specific purposes, providing clarity and flexibility.

CleverTap offers three main types of WhatsApp templates, each tailored for different communication needs. The following are the types of WhatsApp templates, along with their features and use cases:

Basic Templates

Basic templates provide a comprehensive structure for standard communication needs. They include the following:

• Header: Optional with support for text, image, video, document, and locations.
• Body: Mandatory with support for up to 1024 characters in text format.
• Footer: Optional with support for up to 60 characters.
• Buttons: Optional with support for up to 10 buttons, including copy code, visit website CTA, call phone CTA, and quick reply buttons.

Use Cases

The following are some of the use cases that can be addressed with basic templates:

• Order Confirmation:
  Example Template: "Dear {{1}}, your order {{2}} has been confirmed. Track your package via {{3}}."
• Service Updates:
  Example Template: "Hello {{1}}, we've made improvements to our service. Stay tuned for enhanced experiences."
• General Announcements:
  Example: "Exciting news, {{1}}! Explore our latest offerings and promotions. Don't miss out! "

Limited-Time Offer Templates

Limited-time Offer templates are designed for time-sensitive promotions. They include the following:

• Header: Optional with support only for text, image, video, document, and location.
• Limited-Time Offer: Optional with sub-components:
  • Offer Title: Offer detailed text with a character limit of 16 characters.
  • Offer Expiration Timer: Optional field displaying offer expiration details.
• Body: Mandatory with support for up to 600 characters in text format.
• Buttons: Optional with support for up to 10 characters, including copy code, visit website CTA, call phone CTA, and quick reply buttons.
• Limited-Time Offer Templates: Limited-Time Offer Templates are designed for time-sensitive promotions. They include headers, limited-time offer components, body, and buttons.

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Support for Limited-Time Offer (LTO) Templates in Utility Category

Limited-Time Offer (LTO) Templates are not supported in the Utility category by WhatsApp. Be aware of this restriction when planning your campaigns. You can explore other categories for optimal template utilization.

Use Cases

The following are some of the use cases that can be addressed with Limited Time Offer templates:

• Flash Sales:
  Example Template: "Hurry! Flash sale ends in {{1}} hours. Use code {{2}} for a special discount."

• Exclusive Discounts:
  Example Template: "Hey {{1}}, Exclusive offer for you, {{2}}! Use code {{3}} to unlock your special discount."

• Seasonal Promotions:
  Example Template: " Hey {{1}}, Celebrate the season with us! Enjoy exclusive promotions until {{1}}. Don't miss out!"

Create WhatsApp Template

Creating WhatsApp templates is a simple process with CleverTap, offering flexibility through two distinct template categories. The steps vary depending on the types of template you choose.

Basic Templates

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. Choose the Provider Type as follows: WhatsApp Direct for CleverTap BSP or WhatsApp Connect for external BSPs.

   

3. Select the WABA account or provider to add templates.

4. Navigate to the Templates tab and click + Template.

5. Select the Template Type and Category .

6. Once you select the Template type and Category, you will land on the Template editor.
7. Enter the Template Name, and configure headers and body as follows:

• For header: Select text, image, video, document, or location.
• For body text formatting:
  • Adding Emojis: Copy from here and paste in the body.
  • Bold: Add asterisks (*) at the beginning and end.
  • Italic: Add underscores (_) at the beginning and end.
  • Strikethrough: Add tilde (~) at the beginning and end.
  • Monospace: Add three consecutive backticks (```) at the beginning and end.
• (Optional) Add footer text.
• Add the buttons and enter the required information:
  • Copy Code buttons: You can include only 1 copy code button. When tapped, the code is copied to the customer's clipboard.
  • Visit Website CTA buttons: You can add up to 2 buttons, giving customers three choices:
    • Static CTA buttons: Use static URLs for redirection.
    • Dynamic CTA Buttons: Brands must provide the URL prefix (URL domain), and the URL suffix can be personalized for each user. For example: https://www.clevertap.com/{{1}}.
    • CleverTap Click tracking CTA buttons: Brands can leverage CleverTap click tracking functionality to monitor user details who clicked on the URL. They can personalize the URL for each user during campaign creation.
• Quick Reply buttons: You can add up to five quick reply buttons. Brands commonly use these buttons to enable users to swiftly respond to WhatsApp messages without typing.
• Marketing Opt-out button : You can add 1 marketing opt-out button. This button essentially sends an unsubscription keyword in quick reply format, making it easy for end-users to opt-out. Brands need to handle these unsubscription flows properly to ensure end-users opt out when they tap this button.

8. Click Save Template to save the message template.

Limited-Time Offer Templates

Limited-Time Offer (LTO) templates are a powerful tool within CleverTap, allowing businesses to craft and send time-sensitive promotional messages to their customers. Whether you are looking to highlight exclusive deals, promote seasonal offers, or drive engagement with flash sales, LTO templates can help you accomplish your objective.

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Availability

This template is available only for CleverTap Provider (WhatsApp Direct).

To create a Limited-Time Offer template in CleverTap, follow these steps:

1. From the dashboard, navigate to Account > Settings > Engage > Channels > WhatsApp.

2. Choose the Provider Type as follows: WhatsApp Direct for CleverTap BSP or WhatsApp Connect for external BSPs.

   

3. Select the WABA account or provider to add templates.

   

4. Select the Templates tab and click +Template.

   

5. Select the Template Type and Category. The Template Editor opens.

   

6. Enter the Template Name and configure headers and body as follows:

• For header: Select image or video.
• For body text formatting:
  • Adding Emojis: Copy from here and paste in the body.
  • Bold: Add asterisks (*) at the beginning and end.
  • Italic: Add underscores (_) at the beginning and end.
  • Strikethrough: Add tilde (~) at the beginning and end.
  • Monospace: Add three consecutive backticks (```) at the beginning and end.
• If required, add the buttons and fill in the required information.
  • Copy Code buttons: You can include only 1 copy code button. When tapped, the code is copied to the customer's clipboard.
  • Visit Website CTA buttons: You can add up to 2 buttons, giving customers three choices:
    • Static CTA buttons: Use static URLs for redirection.
    • Dynamic CTA Buttons: Brands must provide the URL prefix (URL domain), and the URL suffix can be personalized for each user. For example: https://www.clevertap.com/{{1}}.
    • CleverTap Click tracking CTA buttons: Brands can leverage CleverTap click tracking functionality to monitor details of the user who clicked the URL. The entire URL can be personalized for each user during campaign creation.
• Quick Reply buttons: You can add up to 5 quick reply buttons. Brands commonly use these buttons to enable users to swiftly respond to WhatsApp messages without typing.
• Marketing Opt-out button: You can add 1 marketing opt-out button. This button essentially sends an unsubscription keyword in quick reply format, making it easy for end-users to opt out. Brands need to handle these unsubscription flows properly to ensure end-users get opted out when they tap on this button

7. Configure the Limited-Time Offer (LTO) component according to your specific requirements. The LTO component includes two essential components:

• Offer Title: Utilize this section to create a captivating heading for your promotional offer.
• Offer Expiry Timer: This field is optional. If selected, the template will display the time remaining for the offer's expiration, dynamically updating to reflect the time left for the offer to conclude.

8. Click Save Template to save the message template.

FAQs

Q. What are WhatsApp Templates?

A. WhatsApp templates are predefined message formats used by businesses to communicate with their customers via WhatsApp Business API.

Q. Why are Templates Required?

A. WhatsApp only allows brands to send pre-approved messages with brand-initiated conversation. These pre-approved messages are templates.

Q. How are Templates Approved?

A. WhatsApp provides approvals for templates. Once created, businesses submit the templates to WhatsApp for review, and upon approval, they can be used for customer communication.

Q. How Long Does Template Approval Take?

A. Template approval times can vary. It typically takes a few minutes, but the process may take up to 24 hours.

Q. Can I Use Emojis in Templates?

A. Yes, emojis can be used in template messages to add a more expressive and engaging element to the content. You can copy the emojis from websites such as emojipedia.