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Create WhatsApp content templates

How it works

WhatsApp requires that you use templates to ensure that messages comply with their policies and to prevent spam. So, before you can send WhatsApp messages, you’ll need to create templates and have them approved by Meta/WhatsApp.

The process to create and use templates depends on whether you connected your Facebook Business Account directly to Customer.io or set up WhatsApp support as a part of your SMS setup through Twilio.

This template in Twilio	Becomes this message in Customer.io

• If you set up WhatsApp support in Customer.io using your Facebook Business Account, you’ll create templates in your Facebook Business Account.

• If you set up WhatsApp support through Twilio, you’ll create templates in Twilio and select them in Customer.io when you go to send a message.

Personalize WhatsApp content templates

When you create templates, you’ll add variable fields to your message with {{1}}, {{2}}, etc.

When you go to send a message, you’ll pick a template and populate these variables—either with static text or using liquidA syntax that supports variables, letting you personalize messages for your audience. For example, if you want to reference a person’s first name, you might use the variable {{customer.first_name}}. to personalize messages.

Create a content template

If you manage WhatsApp support in Customer.io using your Facebook Business Account, you’ll create templates in your Facebook Business Account. See Meta’s documentation about creating and managing content templates if you want to do this programmatically.

After you create a template and it’s approved by Meta, it’ll appear in Customer.io when you go to send a message.

1. Go to Meta Business Suite, select your business portfolio, and go to your WhatsApp Manager.
2. Select the account that you want to create the message template for.
3. Click > Manage message templates and click Create message template.
4. Set your template’s category, name, and languages. For category, choose from marketing, utility or authentication. You can hover over the template types to view details for each template.
   • Name: Enter name of the template in lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores only.
   • Language: Set your template’s language code.
5. Follow the steps below to create your template depending on whether you want to make a Marketing or Utility template or an Authentication template.

Set up a Marketing or Utility template

1. Add a sample of your message based on the values you plan to populate from Customer.io. This helps WhatsApp understand what kind of message you plan to send during the review and approval process. Make sure your message includes representative examples and does not include any actual customer information.
2. (Optional) Add a Header. Set a title or choose the type of media you want to use for your header.
3. Enter the Body of your message in the language you’ve selected. You can edit text formats, add emojis or include variables. Where you use variables, you can populate them with data from Customer.io.
4. (Optional) Add a Footer to the bottom of your message template.
5. (Optional) Add Buttons to your message. You can select from the dropdown menu to create buttons your audience can use to respond to your message or take action. If you don’t want to add any buttons, select None.
6. (Optional) Add a Call to action to your message. Here you can combine up to 10 buttons in a button list so your audience can take action; these are independent of other buttons. The types of actions include things like “Call phone number” and “Visit website.” Note that you can combine a call-to-action and a quick reply as one button.
7. (Optional) Add Quick replies to your message. Create up to 3 buttons that let your customers respond to your message.
8. Click Submit.

WhatsApp will review your template and approve it or reject it. You’ll see your template’s status in the WhatsApp Manager. When they approve your template, you can begin sending messages with it.

Set up an Authentication template

1. Set the Code delivery method for how your customers input the code into your app.
2. Enter the Message content for your authentication template. The message content is fixed as shown in the preview. You can optionally add a security recommendation statement or code expiration time in your message.
3. Click Submit.

WhatsApp will review your template and approve it or reject it. You’ll see your template’s status in the WhatsApp Manager. When they approve your template, you can begin sending messages with it.

Create a content template in Twilio

When you create a content templates, follow Twilio’s Guidelines to make sure that WhatsApp approves your template.

1. In Twilio, go to Develop > Messaging > Content Template Builder and click Create New.

2. Give your template a name and select the language you’ll use in your template. Use the full name of the language, not a language code. For example, use English not en-US.

3. Select your content type and then click Create. Text messages are relatively simple. Other content types are based on the basic message types supported by WhatsApp.

   Note that some templates, like the List Picker are restricted to conversational messages.

   

   

4. Add your template content. Available fields change based on the content type you selected. Use the {{1}}, {{2}}, etc. syntax to add variables to your content template. Follow Twilio and Meta’s rules to ensure that your template gets approved. Meta might disapprove of your template if your variables are not sequential, if variables are the start or end of your message body, and so on.

   

   

5. Click Save with Samples and give names to your variables. These are the titles that’ll show up in Customer.io, so make sure they’re descriptive enough for your team members to understand what they’re for.

   

   

6. Click Submit for WhatsApp approval.

Troubleshooting a template that doesn’t appear in Customer.io

If you don’t see a template when you set your message in Customer.io:

1. Check the template’s approval status

Meta needs to approve templates before they appear in Customer.io. To check a template’s approval status, go to the service you use to manage your WhatsApp templates (Meta Business Suite or Twilio).

2. Verify that you’ve connected the correct WhatsApp Business Account to Customer.io

If your template is approved but still doesn’t appear, Customer.io may be connected to a different WhatsApp Business Account than the one where you created the template.

1. Go to > Workspace Settings > WhatsApp and note which account is connected.
2. Go to the Meta Business Suite for the account that’s connected to Customer.io and confirm your template exists under that same account. If they don’t match, either reconnect Customer.io to the correct account, or create the template under the account that’s connected to Customer.io.