Introduction
WhatsApp has completely transformed how we communicate with each other. It is not just for one-on-one messaging. But it also allows us to reach the masses with a single message. Its popularity and incredible features have prompted even businesses to consider WhatsApp an essential tool for their marketing operations. Â
Though there are some paid tools available in the market that can send your messages to several contacts at a time, WhatsApp Group and Broadcast features are freely available with the WhatsApp app.
If you haven’t used WhatsApp Broadcast and are wondering how to broadcast a message on WhatsApp, then you have come to the right place.
Most of us know WhatsApp groups, but WhatsApp broadcasts could be tricky due to their various limitations. In this article, we tell you how to broadcast messages on WhatsApp, as you will also uncover multiple ways around its limitations to use it completely.
What is a WhatsApp broadcast?
A WhatsApp broadcast lets users send a single message to multiple recipients with a single click. A recipient receives a broadcast message individually as a separate chat, and they cannot view who else received the broadcast message. WhatsApp broadcast helps businesses reach a large audience without compromising privacy. Â
Data from FinancesOnline shows that 80% of WhatsApp messages are read by recipients within five minutes of delivery. For businesses, a WhatsApp broadcast is an effective way to send announcements, updates, and promotions in a personalized manner. If you want to know how to broadcast a message on WhatsApp, stay with us as we reveal all the details later in the article.
What's the difference between a WhatsApp broadcast and WhatsApp group?
Though WhatsApp broadcast and WhatsApp group have similar features, they are different. The main difference between both features lies in their privacy and their way of interaction.
A broadcast on WhatsApp is a one-way communication channel that allows the sender to reach several contacts at once; in contrast, a group on WhatsApp lets multiple participants engage with each other. A WhatsApp group is like a social community where everyone can view and interact with each other.
In a WhatsApp broadcast, the recipients only see the messages from the sender and can communicate with one another. In a WhatsApp group, all members can view and respond to each other’s messages.
If you’re unsure of which feature to use for your communication needs, consider this;
To choose WhatsApp group: If you wish to mediate a discussion among several people, like on a forum or support group.
To opt for WhatsApp broadcast: When you wish to provide updates, promotions, or announcements to recipients without anticipating a response.
| Features | WhatsApp Broadcast | WhatsApp Group |
|---|---|---|
| Communication type | WhatsApp broadcast is a one-way communication as recipients of a broadcast cannot reply to a message. | WhatsApp group is a two-way communication where both sender and recipient can interact. |
| Participant restriction | WhatsApp broadcast has a recipient limit of 256 in a single broadcast list. | WhatsApp Group allows 1024 participants to be added to a group chat. |
| Privacy | A broadcast message is received by an individual as a separate chat, preserving their privacy. | In a WhatsApp group, all the participants in a group can view each other’s details. |
| User experience | Users can send a broadcast to participants who have saved their contacts on their phones. | Individuals can opt to restrict who can add them to a group by choosing between the options: everyone, my contacts, or my contacts except. |
| Media sharing | Media sharing is limited to images and videos. | Members can share various media types, including images, videos, documents, and location information. |
| Group admins | There are no admins for broadcasts. | Groups have admins who can manage the group, add or remove members, and change group settings. |
| Group Mute and Leave | Recipients cannot mute or leave a broadcast. | Members can mute or leave a group if they wish to stop receiving notifications. |
Benefits of WhatsApp broadcast feature for marketing communications
WhatsApp broadcasts can help small and medium enterprises reach their audience directly. It is helpful for many message types and is apt for personalized marketing.
Here are some more benefits to consider regarding WhatsApp broadcasts;
- • Wide communication: WhatsApp broadcast offers a platform for messaging many recipients simultaneously. Instead of typing and sending the same message to different recipients, broadcast allows for one-click message sending. It’s a simple way to reach the audience instead of depending heavily on paid marketing communication.
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- • Personalization: Since a recipient receives a broadcast message as a separate chat, it ensures the user’s privacy. Individuals from the same WhatsApp broadcast cannot view or know the details of other recipients.
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- • Budget-friendly: For budget-friendly customer communication, WhatsApp broadcast offers a better option as it doesn’t incur additional charges compared to traditional SMS services. For small and medium-sized enterprises, it is a sustainable option for customer communication, which requires only sufficient internet connection.
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- • Customer engagement: Millions of users love WhatsApp for instant personal and professional communications. The broadcast feature is an ideal option for reaching them for promotions, offers, or to share updates. Given the personalized nature of the broadcast chat, it ensures recipients’ trust in the business and continued interactions.
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- • Customer support: Prompt customer support can establish a positive brand image, and by using the WhatsApp broadcast, businesses can do so. Sharing product features, troubleshooting contents, and knowledge base articles will inform the customer regarding common issues. With regular helpful tips on product or service usage, businesses will help to establish a positive customer support channel.
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- • Feedback collection: Customer feedback is essential for service or product improvement. Businesses can use WhatsApp broadcasts to offer customers a direct mode for sharing feedback.
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- • Promotions: WhatsApp broadcast is apt for sending promotional content and offers. Appropriate categorization of customers in a broadcast list will allow businesses to use the channel to inform their customers constantly.
Features of a WhatsApp broadcast
If you are new to WhatsApp broadcast and wondering how to broadcast a message on WhatsApp, it is best to know its features first. Here are some key features of WhatsApp broadcast that have allowed it to be a central tool in most marketing strategies.
- • One-way communication: You can share announcements, product updates, and more with the WhatsApp broadcast, which allows you to message many at a single click. Recipients cannot reply to the broadcast message. Hence, it is an appropriate tool for sharing important announcements.
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- • Personalized chat: Amid marketing promotions, ensure customer privacy by sending them broadcasts the user receives as an individual chat. Recipients are not in a group conversation and cannot know the details of other recipients.
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- • Limited recipients: A WhatsApp broadcast allows you to save only 256 contacts in a single list, and hence, you need to create multiple lists to reach a far greater number of users.
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- • Recipients should save contact: A broadcast can be sent to a recipient only if the recipient has saved the sender’s number in their phone contact.
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- • No scheduling option: WhatsApp broadcast doesn’t offer any automation option to schedule and automate message delivery at a specific time.
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- • Feedback collection: Customer feedback is essential for service or product improvement. Businesses can use WhatsApp broadcasts to offer customers a direct mode for sharing feedback.
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- • Analytics: Successful message delivery can be known. It also offers a message read receipt to know if the recipients have read the broadcast.
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How to broadcast message on WhatsApp from WhatsApp Business App?
With WhatsApp’s Broadcast message feature, you can send messages to several contacts in a single click without forming a specific group. For sending a broadcast, start by creating a WhatsApp broadcast list, which is straightforward, and you can do it with the following steps;
- 1. Open the WhatsApp app on your phone.
- 2. Tap on the three white dots present in the upper right corner of the app.
- 3. Tap on the “New broadcast” option from the drop-down menu.
- 4. Choose the individuals you wish to include in the broadcast list. You can manually choose contacts by navigating your contacts list or searching their name in the search bar. Once you select all the contacts you want to add, tap the “Create” button.
- 5. Give a name to your broadcast list. Although it’s not required, doing this could be beneficial if you want to make several broadcast lists.
- 6. To finish creating your broadcast list, use the “Create” button.
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Now that your WhatsApp broadcast list is ready, you can start broadcasting by typing your message in the broadcast list.
Limitations of sending WhatsApp broadcast through WhatsApp Business App
Even though the WhatsApp broadcast feature is an engaging way to interact with your audience, it doesn’t come without any limitations, and some are here below;
- • Participant restrictions: A WhatsApp broadcast list is limited to only 256 contacts, and to reach more users than that, businesses need to create multiple broadcast lists.
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- • The recipient must save the contact: A broadcast feature on WhatsApp allows users to send messages to people who have saved their number in their phone contacts. A user cannot send a broadcast to a new customer who has not yet saved your contact.
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- • No automation: Though WhatsApp doesn’t offer a message automation feature in its chats anyway, not having any option to schedule your message in broadcast is a huge limitation. If you have many broadcast lists to send messages, it can be challenging to broadcast messages through the WhatsApp app. Â
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- • Content restrictions: WhatsApp broadcast has content limitations as some regions don’t allow sending promotional content. Though images, videos, and document attachments are permitted, they may not be sufficient to support your marketing needs.
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- • No scheduling option: WhatsApp broadcast doesn’t offer any automation option to schedule and automate message delivery at a specific time.
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- • Limited analytics: Though a WhatsApp broadcast feature lets you know if the message was delivered successfully, in-depth details, if the users clicked on the links in the message, are limited. Further, analytics to gauge the customer perception towards your message is limited in a WhatsApp broadcast is limited.
How to broadcast message on WhatsApp using WhatsApp Business API
WhatsApp broadcast is an incredible feature, though using it with a WhatsApp Business app comes with quite a few restrictions that may not be feasible for extensive marketing communications.
To overcome the challenges of the WhatsApp business app, WhatsApp Business API was launched to allow small and medium-sized enterprises to scale their marketing efforts.
A WhatsApp Business API allows you to engage with many customers at once, send broadcasts to an infinite number of new users, automate payment links and abandoned cart notifications, and offer live help and WhatsApp Chatbots for round-the-clock customer service.
Since WhatsApp Business API is not a platform, users need to take the assistance of WhatsApp business solution providers (BSP) to access specific features on the WhatsApp platform.
These BSPs are authorized service providers of WhatsApp to offer a consolidated platform for managing your WhatsApp marketing communication. They offer specialized features like WhatsApp CRM, contact management, drip campaigns, WhatsApp reply flows, and team inbox.
Kenyt is a leading WhatsApp cloud API provider offering several features to boost your WhatsApp marketing by blasting your broadcast to unlimited recipients.
How to broadcast a message on WhatsApp with Kenyt
WhatsApp broadcast with Kenyt is a game changer for businesses looking to navigate around the usual broadcast limitations.
Businesses may quickly communicate to big consumer bases using Kenyt, personalize message templates, and monitor delivery progress. Furthermore, Kenyt provides sophisticated analytics and reporting tools to assist companies in gauging the success of their marketing campaigns. Â
Additionally, Kenyt offers features unique to its platform, such as post-paid billing, no platform charges, unlimited messaging, message throttling, and multiple global languages for a complete WhatsApp marketing solution.
For broadcasting a message through Kenyt, follow the simple steps below;
- 1. Import your preferred contact on the WhatsApp Business API solution providers platform. Ensure that the contacts are in an appropriate format with country code.
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- 2. Create an engaging message template and get it approved by the WhatsApp business API service provider.
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- 3. Finalize the message content using the approved template.
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- 4. Schedule to automate the broadcast campaign on the WhatsApp Business API provider platform to send at a specific day and time.
Best ways to write an engaging broadcast message template on WhatsApp
To ensure a successful broadcast campaign, create an engaging message template that excites and conveys the correct information to the audience.
- 1. Personalization: Personalized content goes a long way in engaging your audience. Ensure to give enough attention by carefully crafting a personal message for your recipients. Address your recipients with names and other specific data to catch their attention.
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- 2. A strong CTA:Â A call-to-action is essential as you should let the recipients move to the next step in engaging with your service or product. A powerful and attractive CTA, capable of enticing your recipient to click the link for the next, is highly critical for the success of your campaign.
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- 3. Simple message: A crisp message content is ideal for grabbing the audience’s attention. It should convey the message plainly and direct the user towards taking a positive action per the message context.
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- 4. Create a sense of haste: To ensure recipients take prompt action per the context of your message, craft the tone to create a sense of haste. For example, appropriately use texts like limited editions, lightning deals, exclusive offers, special editions, etc.
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- 5. Visual engagement: Attractive emojis, images, and GIFs are ideal as they make your message template engaging to grab the recipient’s attention.
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- 6. Relatable message tone: Ensure the tone is simple and relatable to your audience to create curiosity and attachment to your brand voice.
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- 7. Strategize a delivery time: Deliver your messages at an appropriate time that suits the recipients. Sending at an inappropriate time risks provoking the recipient to spam your contact. Hence, you can schedule messages when receivers are most active and likely to respond. Â
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- 8. Adhere to WhatsApp compliance: To use WhatsApp broadcast and any other WhatsApp features, be cautious in adhering to WhatsApp privacy regulations. Regional regulations like GDPR are also a must-have.
Conclusion
WhatsApp broadcasting is a versatile tool that helps you reach a large audience efficiently. With the simple steps in this guide, you can create effective broadcasts that deliver your message to the right people. Remember to use broadcasts responsibly and avoid spamming contacts. With some practice, you can leverage WhatsApp broadcasting to connect with your target audience and achieve your communication goals.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes, you can. Open the broadcast list, tap the three-dot menu in the top right corner, and select “Edit.”
- • Use broadcasts sparingly to avoid overwhelming your contacts.
- • Only send relevant and valuable messages.
- • Be mindful of privacy settings and ensure your contacts have consented to receive broadcasts.
For broadcast messages, WhatsApp does not offer delivery status information. It is only visible if it has been sent; each recipient receives it individually.
Currently, a broadcast list can contain up to 256 contacts. This cap ensures that your communications are delivered effectively while maintaining the service’s dependability and quality.
About the Author
Nisha Sneha
Nisha Sneha is a passionate content writer with 5 years of experience creating impactful content for SAAS products, new-age technologies, and software applications. Currently, she is contributing to Kenyt.AI by crafting engaging content for its readers. Creating captivating content that provides accurate information about the latest advancements in science and technology has been at the core of her creativity.
In addition to writing, she enjoys gardening, reading, and swimming as hobbies.
