Running out of things to send is usually a sign that you have only been sending offers. Customers keep a business in their chat list when its messages are useful more often than they are promotional. This guide lists message types that earn their place, grouped by purpose, with a note on the template category each needs.
Read alongside this guide: WhatsApp marketing software and Waki plans and pricing.
Key takeaways
- Utility messages people are waiting for come first and need utility templates.
- Marketing is the smaller part: specific, segmented, infrequent, with consent.
- Educational and feedback messages invite replies and improve your segments.
- Avoid anything you would not send to a stranger, and keep the promised frequency.
Service messages people are waiting for
These are utility templates and the backbone of a good channel.
- Order, booking and payment confirmations with the details.
- Shipping, out-for-delivery and ready-for-pickup notices.
- Appointment reminders with confirm or reschedule buttons.
- Documents: invoices, tickets, itineraries, reports ready to collect.
- Renewal and due-date reminders with the amount.
Useful marketing
Marketing templates to contacts with marketing consent, sent sparingly.
- New arrivals or a new service, with one image and one button.
- Restock of something the customer asked about or bought before.
- A seasonal or festival range, segmented by region.
- An early-access window for existing customers.
- A replenishment reminder timed to the product’s usual lifetime.
Educational messages
Short, practical and specific to what the customer owns or does.
- How to use or care for the product they bought.
- A reminder about a deadline that affects them, such as a filing date or a warranty.
- One tip a week during onboarding, then stop.
- Answers to the three questions everyone asks, sent before they ask.
Conversation starters and feedback
Messages that invite a reply, inside a window you can then use.
- One feedback question with buttons after a purchase or visit.
- A question about preferences that improves your segments: language, store, interests.
- An invitation to reply with a photo or a question, where that fits your business.
- A check-in after a service with a direct line to a person.
Operational notices
Short, factual, and welcome when they save a wasted trip.
- Changed opening hours or a holiday closure.
- A new location or a moved counter.
- A delay you already know about, before the customer finds out.
- A policy change that affects them, explained in two lines.
What to avoid
The messages that get a business muted.
- Daily offers, or any frequency you did not promise.
- Forwarded jokes, festival images without a reason, or anything you would not send to a stranger.
- Long messages that need scrolling; link to a page instead.
- Anything to people who did not opt in to that kind of message.
Next steps
Conclusion
Send what customers are waiting for, then what helps them, then occasionally what you would like to sell. A channel built in that order rarely runs out of content or of readers.