Salesforce Marketing Cloud - WhatsApp Messages
Since February 2021, Salesforce Marketing Cloud has had a new chat messaging feature that allows marketers to send transactional messages via WhatsApp. We'll present the new feature in this post and explain why we're pretty excited about it.
WhatsApp messages from Journey Builder
Salesforce's partnership with WhatsApp Business Solution Provider Sinch makes it possible: Marketers can now also send WhatsApp messages to their contacts in Journeys. These can be either transactional messages such as order or shipping confirmations, or so-called session messages, i.e. messages that are sent as an automated response to a chat message from a contact.
With the introduction of this feature, Salesforce says it is responding to the corresponding requests of numerous customers. According to Salesforce, WhatsApp messages have the advantage that marketers can add another channel to their multi-channel communication and further improve recipient engagement.
Technical requirements
If you want to send WhatsApp messages from the Marketing Cloud, you must first create a WhatsApp account and link it to Facebook Business Manager. As soon as the account has been activated by Facebook, channels can be created, which must also be approved. Template messages are then built to send the messages — but before they can be sent, they too must be approved by Facebook. This is to ensure that the messages do not contain any advertising content.
A feature with downsides
Even though Salesforce announced the Marketing Cloud WhatsApp Messages with great enthusiasm, in our opinion, a critical look at the new feature is definitely appropriate. Because since December 2019, advertising messages can no longer be sent via WhatsApp. That is why only transactional messages and session messages can be sent via Salesforce Marketing Cloud — which must also be approved by WhatsApp beforehand.
A few years ago, this functionality would certainly have been a long-awaited innovation for marketers; following the change in the WhatsApp terms of use, this is only valid with restrictions. Especially the advertising communication that is no longer allowed would have been attractive for marketers; from this point of view, the introduction of the feature comes a few years too late. Every marketer must carefully consider whether sending transactional messages is an option: On the one hand, most will prefer to send these messages, which are so important to recipients, via the traditional email channel. On the other hand, you need a separate opt-in to send WhatsApp messages. Whether it is worthwhile to obtain this from your own target group should be carefully considered.
As always, information about the requirements and implementation of the WhatsApp feature can be found in Salesforcedocumentation.
