WhatsApp Bulk Messaging: A Comprehensive Guide 2024

In the competitive landscape of selling your product, brands are generally judged by users before buying on two things:

1. Marketing and branding
2. Product quality/satisfaction

We’re really sure about the quality of your product, but what’s your thought process on marketing and branding them?

First and foremost, we’re not an agency that will be selling their services to you, rather, today we’ll tell you about one of the easiest ways to market your product - WhatsApp Bulk Messaging Guide.

WhatsApp Business & its Reach Potential for D2C India

WhatsApp alone has emerged as a platform that has showcased numerous benefits when it comes to using it as a marketing channel. 

It is one of those software that offers efficient features, and multiple benefits, and let’s brands build strategies to help drive sales and truly foster business growth.

In this comprehensive guide, we will look into the world of WhatsApp Bulk Marketing Software, exploring it end-to-end and how it can benefit your business.

Let’s delve into the core of it now!

What are Bulk Broadcast WhatsApp Messages?

Bulk broadcast messages on WhatsApp allow businesses to send the same message to a large number of contacts simultaneously, without recipients seeing each other's details.

This feature is especially useful for Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) brands in India looking to announce offers, launch new products, or share important updates with customers in a quick and efficient manner.

Difference Between Broadcast and Group Messaging:

Unlike WhatsApp groups, where all participants can see and respond to each other’s messages, broadcast messages maintain privacy by treating each message as a personal one-to-one interaction.

Each recipient sees it as a direct message, which is particularly effective for maintaining a personalised communication channel.

What are WhatsApp bulk messages?

WhatsApp bulk messenger suite involves sending similar messages to a large number of contacts, all at once. 

This method is primarily employed in the campaigns run by the sales and marketing team. 

The main idea behind bulk messaging is to deliver a consistent message to a broad audience of potential clients or existing customers in order to generate better leads.

Companies opt for bulk messaging tools like Pragma as they streamline the process, eliminating the need to craft and send individual messages, ultimately saving time and effort. 

When executed effectively, utilising WhatsApp and chatbots for bulk messaging can lead to a significant increase in customer interaction, those of which can be again nurtured to push them for cross-sell and up-sell of products.

What is a WhatsApp Business bulk message?

A bulk message is a message that is sent from a single WhatsApp Business user to multiple phone numbers at the same time. All receivers of the message will see it coming in as a private message. WhatsApp bulk messaging first was a consumer-only feature, but it’s now also available for businesses

WhatsApp Business App vs. WhatsApp Cloud API for Bulk Messaging

When it comes to sending bulk messages, businesses often wonder whether they should use the WhatsApp Business App or the WhatsApp Cloud API. Here's a comparison to help you make an informed decision:

WhatsApp Business App:

• Limited Scale: With the WhatsApp Business App, you can send bulk messages to only up to 256 recipients at a time. This is sufficient for small businesses but limiting for larger campaigns.
• No Automation: Manual message sending limits the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, especially if you’re handling a large number of customers.
• Free to Use: The WhatsApp Business App is free, making it a great option for small businesses with limited marketing budgets.

WhatsApp Cloud API:

• Scalability: The WhatsApp Cloud API allows businesses to send bulk messages to thousands of recipients without limitations, ideal for medium to large businesses in India.
• Automation: Integrating with platforms like Pragma allows you to automate messages, schedule campaigns, and even deploy chatbots, all while ensuring seamless customer interaction.
• Advanced Analytics: Cloud API integration provides detailed analytics to track customer interactions, helping brands optimise future campaigns.

For growing businesses or those that regularly run large-scale campaigns, the WhatsApp Cloud API offers far more flexibility and scalability.

Best Practices for Sending Bulk WhatsApp Messages

To ensure your WhatsApp bulk messaging campaign performs effectively and complies with WhatsApp guidelines, follow these best practices:

Targeted Lists: Segment your contact list based on customer behaviour, interests, and demographics. Sending relevant messages to the right people increases engagement and conversions.

‍Craft Value-Driven Content: Provide your audience with valuable content—whether it’s offers, updates, or educational material. Ensure that every message adds value to the recipient, especially in a price-sensitive market like India.

Personalisation: Use recipient names and tailored offers to make messages feel more personal. WhatsApp bulk messaging platforms like Pragma allow the use of tags to personalise each message.

Avoid Overloading: Limit the frequency of your bulk messages. While WhatsApp is an excellent platform for customer interaction, excessive or irrelevant messages may lead to users blocking your number.

Ensure Compliance: Always get explicit consent from your customers before messaging them. Not adhering to WhatsApp's regulations can result in account suspension, harming your business’s reputation.

Use Rich Media: Incorporate multimedia elements like images, videos, or even product explainer gifs to make your messages more engaging and effective, especially during festive sales in India.

Limitations of Sending Bulk Messages from WhatsApp Business App

While the WhatsApp Business App is popular among small businesses, it does come with several limitations for sending bulk messages:

1. Recipient Limit: As mentioned, you can only send messages to 256 contacts at a time. For larger campaigns, this makes the process tedious and time-consuming.
2. No Message Scheduling: Unlike platforms integrated with WhatsApp APIs, the Business App doesn’t allow you to schedule messages for future dates, which limits campaign flexibility.
3. No Automation: Without the ability to automate, every message must be sent manually, creating inefficiencies and increasing the risk of errors in your campaigns.
4. No Advanced Analytics: The Business App offers minimal insights into how your messages are performing, making it difficult to gauge campaign success and areas for improvement.

Alternative:

If your business is growing and you're running frequent campaigns, it's highly recommended to upgrade to the WhatsApp Cloud API. This provides access to features like automated chatbots, scheduling, and larger message limits, making it a more suitable option for medium and large businesses operating in India.

When to use WhatsApp bulk messaging?

With those being the basics of WhatsApp bulk messaging, let’s understand when and where brands can use it to send bulk messaging.

Its usage is generally found in campaigns like, but not limited to:

1. Announcing upcoming offers and discounts - festive or clearance sales

2. Addition of new products or services to your catalogue

3. Notifying customers about approaching payment reminders.

4. Reviving abandoned carts or pending orders to customers

5. Re-engaging with churned customers with personalised offers.

Quick Tips for Sending WhatsApp Bulk Messages

To maximize the effectiveness of your WhatsApp bulk messaging campaigns, follow these quick tips:

• Keep Messages Clear and Concise: Ensure your messages are short and straightforward, avoiding complex language.
• Personalize Your Messages: Use personalization tags to address recipients by their names and tailor messages based on their preferences.
• Include a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): Guide recipients with specific CTAs such as "Shop Now" or "Learn More."
• Use Visual Elements: Incorporate images, videos, or emojis to make your messages more engaging.
• Leverage A/B Testing: Test different message templates to find what resonates best with your audience.
• Optimize Send Times: Use Send Time Optimization to send messages when recipients are most likely to read them.
• Ensure Compliance: Follow WhatsApp's guidelines to avoid being flagged as spam.
• Monitor Performance: Regularly track campaign performance using analytics tools to refine your strategy.

How to Send Bulk WhatsApp Messages: Step-by-Step Guide

Before we proceed to the guide on how you can send bulk messages, it’s important for every brand to understand that any business engaging in excessive and spammy promotions can risk being removed from the WhatsApp business platform. 

However, this doesn't simply mean that sending bulk messages is prohibited.

You can certainly leverage this feature as long as you adhere to the platform's guidelines, allowing you to benefit your brand without any associated risks. On the flip side, if you don't follow the rules correctly, you run the risk of having your WhatsApp number blocked, potentially resulting in the loss of potential clients.

Using the standard WhatsApp Business App, you have the capability to send bulk messages to up to 256 recipients in a single batch. Hence, businesses are usually suggested to apply for WhatsApp Business API so that a platform like Pragma’s WhatsApp Business Suite can help them.

Let’s see Why WhatsApp Business APIs are important.

1. Your WhatsApp API number gets a WhatsApp green tick verification mark that confirms your brand is a legitimate and known player in the market. 

What does this mean for the user - Any message sent from a verified WhatsApp account will be considered trustworthy.

2. Send promotional messages to customers on new clearance sales, offers, discounts, and newly added products in a single go.

3. Usually, WhatsApp API numbers don’t get banned as they are verified by WhatsApp.

4. Single platform for various agents to work together.

5. The best part is - You can deploy Automated Chatbots to send automated messages, collect responses and resolve queries.

With those being the benefits of WhatsApp Business API, let’s understand how can you access these:

1. A phone number that will be used for all communications with WhatsApp and User
2. A business name displayed to recipients 
3. A verified Facebook Business Manager ID.

Now, you can simply reach out to WhatsApp Business Suite providers like Pragma who guide you through the application process and once the account is ready, you can automate your bulk messages right from Pragma’s dashboard.

Here are the straightforward steps to send Bulk messages via Pragma:

With brands taking the first step towards selling on WhatsApp, we believe Bulk messaging should be the number one tactic to start off with.

The most common steps are:

1. Build a messaging template
2. Submit template for approval
3. Upload contacts of campaign receivers and select them
4. Schedule the campaign

Let’s understand these in detail:

Build a messaging template

What do you wish to convey?

Is it a new product launch, a festive season sale or maybe a clearance sale?

A template is what your recipients will see as the first thing. You can add interactive features like media files, emojis, etc. 

For a D2C brand, what works best is attaching explainer videos for the product they running the campaign for. This increases the chances for your recipients to get an understanding of the real product, helping you get better conversions.

Submit template for approval

When you have decided what goes out to your audience, you have to submit the for approval to the WhatsApp authorities as a mandatory step.

This can be a long process sometimes and hence delay the timely announcement of offers or products to your users. But, do you know Pragma can help you launch instant campaigns?

Interesting?

With over 10,000 pre-approved templates, Pragma helps you get started with your campaign in minutes, instead of weeks. 

From offering the best ROAS to offering flexibility and customization options to meet your business needs, Pragma collects and analyses data from over 450+ brands helping your D2C brands target campaigns to the best audience with personalised offers.

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Pragma Whatsapp marketing software

Upload contacts of campaign receivers and select them

Now comes the task - who receives this campaign?

You can simply submit an Excel or CSV file that contains your customers' contact numbers, requiring a minimum of two columns: one for the phone number and another for the country code. 

You ask us why the country code. We say this is a compulsory requirement as mentioned by WhatsApp Business guidelines.

As a good practice, we’ve always talked about personalising the campaigns for your users, and the least you can do to play your part is to add their name in the message, like:

1. Hi [Name], did you hear about our latest clearance sale?
2. [Name], you are entitled to 60% discount website-wide! 

Additionally, with customisation being the core of what Pragma does, you have the option of personalised variables like showing a specific product range to only a specific group of users and tailoring your messages as desired.

Schedule the campaign

With this, you’re at the final step - Finalising a time for your campaign.

You’ve got your campaign approved, and you’ve finalised to whom this has to be sent, now what?

Just click that schedule button and time it for a more suitable hour basis for your audience.

If you’re unsure about what time works best for a brand like yours, the support team at Pragma will be happy to assist you.

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But for you, congratulations, you’ve learnt A-to-Z of successfully sending our WhatsApp Bulk Messaging campaigns through Pragma.

Let’s now understand some tips that can help you get better conversions.

Important Steps to Send a WhatsApp Message in Bulk

With the customer receiving promotional messages all day, let’s understand how can your brand excel in delivering the right content in the right format to the audience.

1. Clarity and Simplicity: Keep your messages short and straightforward. Avoid using complex language that may confuse recipients.

2. Personalisation: Use recipient-specific tags to add a personal touch to your messages, increasing engagement. Like: Hey [User Name], [User Name] Hope you’re doing well, etc.

3. Clear Call-to-Action: Include what action you want the recipient to take, such as visiting a website, making a purchase, browsing through newly added products, etc.

4. Visual Appeal: Incorporate emojis, images, or videos to make your messages visually appealing and attention-grabbing.

5. A/B Testing: Experiment with different message templates to identify what resonates best with your audience. Use data collected from Pragma’s analytics to optimise your messages.

6. Timing: Send messages at appropriate times to ensure they are read and not overlooked. This can be optimised by a feature known as Send Time Optimisation that sends messages at the time when the user generally opens the chat/platform. 

7. Value-Oriented Content: Provide valuable information, promotions, or exclusive offers to make your messages relevant and beneficial to the recipient.

8. Conversational Tone: Adopt a friendly, conversational tone to make your messages more relatable.

9. Compliance: Follow WhatsApp's guidelines to avoid being flagged as spam. Don't send too many messages in a short period.

10. Performance Analysis: Continuously monitor message performance and engagement metrics to refine your strategies.

How to Upgrade Your WhatsApp Messaging Limit

If you're using WhatsApp for business and face messaging limits, here’s how to upgrade:

• Apply for WhatsApp Business API: Upgrade from the standard app to the API for higher limits.
• Verify Your Business: A verified business account builds trust and allows higher messaging limits.
• Maintain High-Quality Messaging: Keep engagement rates high with valuable content.
• Partner with an Authorized Provider: Work with a provider like Pragma for advanced features and support.
• Adhere to WhatsApp's Guidelines: Follow all platform rules to avoid penalties.

‍Steps to Send Bulk Messages with the WhatsApp Business API

WhatsApp Bulk messaging is a game-changer for businesses aiming to reach a vast audience with promotional messages and offers. 

It enables companies to simultaneously send messages to multiple recipients, making it an efficient and cost-effective marketing solution. Software like Pragma ensures that messages are delivered promptly and allows users to manage contact lists and analyse campaign performance.

Pragma’s WhatsApp Business Suite: 

With over 10,000+ pre-approved templates, Pragma helps you get started with your campaign in minutes, instead of weeks. 

From offering the best ROAS to offering flexibility and customisation options to meet your business needs, Pragma collects and analyses data from over 450+ brands helping your D2C brands target campaigns to the best audience with personalised offers.

Pragma Whatsapp marketing software

‍WhatsApp bulk messaging software is a powerful marketing tool, offering 1000s of features. But as we said, it's better to use something that has lesser features but is able to solve your use case, just like Pragma. 

‍With businesses in the D2C space losing due to COD orders, Pragma helped Emami reduce losses for its COD payment method, where COD accounted for 85% of all their purchases.

Getting 11X ROAS with Pragma’s WhatsApp Business Suite

Some of the best features why WhatsApp bulk messaging software works best in an industry like D2C are:

1. High Open Rates

2. Personalised Communication

3. Cost-Effective

4. Real-Time Interaction

5. Multimedia Capability 

6. High Engagement through WhatsApp Groups

7. Quick Feedback and Surveys

8. Time-sensitive Offers and Promotions

9. Global Reach

10. Measurable Results 

Overall, WhatsApp bulk messaging software's combination of high open rates, personalised communication, and simple yet cost-effective strategies makes it a powerful and the best marketing tool for businesses looking to connect with their target audience and achieve remarkable marketing success.