WhatsApp offers people actually open

A WhatsApp offer lands in the same list as messages from family and friends. That’s why it works, and it’s why a careless one gets muted, blocked or reported. Blocks and reports count against your number’s quality rating with WhatsApp, and a low rating can get your messages paused or limited.

So the goal isn’t to reach as many people as possible. It’s to send offers that the people who get them are glad to see. Here’s how.

Start with a real yes

Send offers only to people who told you, on WhatsApp, that they want them. Three things are not a yes:

• A yes to something else. Agreeing to hear that her order has shipped is not agreeing to hear about your sale.
• A yes on another channel. Following you on Instagram is not a yes on WhatsApp.
• A list of numbers. Numbers from an old order book, a pop-up stall or a spreadsheet are not people who asked.

Good moments to ask are when she’s already happy with you: after a delivery check-in, at your counter, or from a link in your bio that opens WhatsApp with a message ready to send, like “Hi! I’d like offers from your shop.” She sends it herself, and that message is her yes, in her own words.

Keep a record of each yes: who, when, where it came from, and what it was for. insideDM keeps it for you — per channel and per kind of message, so a yes to order updates never counts as a yes to offers, and importing a list never makes anyone a yes. See who gets your offers.

Know the template rule

For 24 hours after a customer’s last message, you can write to her freely. After that, WhatsApp only delivers a message that uses a template Meta has approved. Offers go in marketing templates; order updates go in utility templates.

A template is a message you write once, with blanks that are filled in when it’s sent — her name, the product — and buttons she can tap. Approval isn’t instant, and a template can be turned down, so send yours for approval a few days before you need it. Write it the way you’d say it to a customer at your counter, not the way a bank writes a notice.

In insideDM, you write templates in Templates and send them to Meta for approval from there. See WhatsApp templates.

One offer per message

The offers people ignore try to say everything: a sale, a new collection, free shipping and a combo deal, in capitals, with five emojis. The offers people open say one thing:

• One product (or one small collection).
• The price, in rupees, not “up to 50% off”.
• Why her — what she bought, or what she asked about.
• One thing to do — a button to tap is easier than a word she has to type.
• How to stop.

Everything in it is specific to Rohit, and he can act on it in one tap.

Send when you can answer

An offer’s real result is the replies, and every reply is a customer asking you something. Send at a time when you, your team or your agent can answer for the next couple of hours.

Beyond that, good timing comes from a reason, not a perfect hour:

• Send around a reason. A restock, a new colour, a festival she shops for — Rakhi, Diwali, wedding season — or the start of the month, if your customers are salaried.
• Learn from your own sends. Note when replies come back fastest, and send then next time.
• Keep offers to the hours people expect to hear from a shop. insideDM holds offers during your quiet hours — 9 pm to 9 am, unless you change them.
• Set a limit and keep it. Pick a number you’d be happy to receive yourself. insideDM’s marketing limit starts at four per person in 30 days, and it counts everything a person didn’t ask for — campaigns and follow-ups alike.

Make stopping easy, and mean it

Every offer should end with how to stop. And when someone says stop, they should never hear another offer from you — not next week, not in the Diwali send, not because their number turned up again in an import.

People don’t always type the English word. “band karo”, “mat bhejo” and “unsubscribe” all mean the same thing:

insideDM stops offers to her the moment she sends STOP, or a common Hindi or Hinglish way of saying it, such as “band karo” or “mat bhejo”. Your next send skips her and shows why, and only a message from her own number can bring her back. See who gets your offers.

Read what came back

Look past the number you sent to. For each offer, check:

• Delivered. If many weren’t, check your list — wrong numbers, people not on WhatsApp, or WhatsApp holding back messages.
• Read. A low read count usually means the first line didn’t give anyone a reason to open it.
• Replied. This is the one that matters. Answer every reply quickly — each one is a customer asking.
• Stopped. The cost of the send. Keep it low.

In insideDM, every send keeps its own count — sent, delivered, read and replied — and every reply arrives in your inbox as a conversation, ready to answer. See send an offer and read your numbers.

The short version

• Send offers only to people who said yes to offers on WhatsApp — a yes to something else, or on another channel, doesn’t count.
• Outside 24 hours, use a marketing template Meta has approved, and send it for approval days ahead.
• One offer per message: one product, the price, why her, one button, and how to stop.
• Send when you can answer the replies, around a real reason, and stay within a limit you’d accept yourself.
• When someone says stop in any words, stop for good.