What Are the Limitations of the Whatsapp Broadcast List? How Do You Overcome Them?

September 27, 2022

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In the current era, WhatsApp requires no additional introduction since it has become one of the most used messaging apps that let its users text, chat and share voice messages and media with individuals and groups. Alongside using this application on mobile phones, people can also get it on their personal computers and laptops. And on the one hand, where people are using WhatsApp for personal communication, businesses have the ultimate benefit of using WhatsApp for businesses.

Whether you have a personal WhatsApp or a business account, the broadcast list feature is in both. The broadcast list feature allows you to send a message to several contacts without letting an individual recipient know about the others receiving the same message.

That is not enough. One can create a broadcast list once and save it to send messages repeatedly without the hassle of selecting individual recipients each time.

But like there is always another side of a coin, the limitations come with all the freedom WhatsApp broadcast feature brings.

This article aims to identify the limitations in a WhatsApp broadcast list and tell you how to overcome them so that you can make the most of the feature without interruption.

But Before That, If You Are A Newbie In WhatsApp Broadcasting, We Will Tell You How To Create A Broadcast List

If now the WhatsApp application is already there on your phone, whether a personal or a business account, you already have the WhatsApp broadcast feature in the application. But since the interfaces of Android and iOS are different, we will tell you how to find the broadcast list feature in each so that you can start creating one without wasting time finding the options.

How To Create A Broadcast List On An Android Phone?

Open WhatsApp on your phone
Tap on 3 vertical dots placed at the right-up corner
Choose the option ‘New Broadcast.’
Now select the recipients you want to add to your broadcast list
Finally, tap the check mark, and your WhatsApp broadcast list is ready

How To Create A Broadcast List On iOS?

Open the WhatsApp application on your phone.
At the left upper corner, below its written “WA Business,” you will find the broadcast lists option.
After clicking on broadcast lists, tap on ‘New List.’
Now select the recipients you want to add to your broadcast list
And tap on the create option at the right corner
Voila! Your WhatsApp broadcast list is now ready.

Following the steps mentioned above will help you create a new broadcast list. And when you send a message on that broadcast list, it will be sent to all the recipients in the list who have your number saved on their phone or address book. Every recipient will receive your message as a standard message, not as a group message.

We emphasise that the recipient must save her number from receiving your broadcast message. If any of your broadcast list contacts are not receiving the messages you are sending, make sure they have added you to their address book.

Read more about WhatsApp Status about Life

What Are The Limitations Of WhatsApp Broadcast?

With over 2 billion active users worldwide, WhatsApp’s popularity proliferates as a primary means of communication across Asia, America and Europe. This easy-to-download mobile application is competing with Facebook Messenger and has even outranked the popularity of messenger. It is the reason why 5 years after the release of WhatsApp, Facebook decided to invest more than $19 billion to acquire WhatsApp.

And as mentioned earlier, businesses are also making use of this platform since its feature-rich, and the features offered by WhatsApp are beneficial. Today we are discussing WhatsApp business and broadcast messages. And by now, we have talked about the benefits of WhatsApp broadcast. Now is the time to let you know about the limitations of WhatsApp broadcasts.

It’s A One-To-Many Communication App:

Whereas regular WhatsApp messaging allows you to send a message to an individual and the individual also gets all the freedom to reply to your message. That is not how it works in WhatsApp broadcasts. When you send a message to your WhatsApp broadcast list, each recipient receives it as a standard message, but the only difference is that they cannot reply.

Therefore, if you want to allow your recipients to communicate with you, you can send a personal message to each or create a group instead.

The Recipient Needs To Save The Senders Number:

Though it is a common characteristic of the WhatsApp broadcast feature, it seems like a limitation to many. Creating a broadcast list is not enough to ensure that your message will be perfectly conveyed to all the recipients on your list. To confirm the successful delivery of your message, you also need to ensure that the recipient has your number saved in their address book.

You Can Add Limited Users In A Broadcast List:

Though it is easy to create a WhatsApp broadcast list in the WhatsApp application, you cannot send the desired message to all of your audience at once. That is because WhatsApp broadcast allows adding 256 recipients to one list, which seems like a limitation to businesses that want to target more people than that.

How To Overcome The Limitations Of WhatsApp Broadcast?

As promised, we will also discuss how to overcome all the limitations in WhatsApp broadcasts.

Create Different Broadcast Lists:

There is a limitation on the number of recipients you can add to one WhatsApp broadcast list, but there is no limitation on how many broadcast lists you can create on your WhatsApp business account. Therefore, if you want to send the same message to more than 256 people, you can create another broadcast list and broadcast the same message to them.

You can even create different broadcast lists for other services and products if you have a different set of audiences for all your services and products.

Try WhatsApp Business API:

As the number one messaging app, WhatsApp is continuously trying to transform how brands engage with their customers throughout their journey. And since its launch in 2009, WhatsApp has come a long way in revolutionising how we communicate with one another. If you have been thinking about how to get rid of the number of recipients’ limitations on WhatsApp broadcasts, you can give WhatsApp API a try.

WhatsApp API is designed for medium to large-sized businesses who want to connect with more audiences while using WhatsApp with multiple users. WhatsApp API is way more different and complex than the WhatsApp business application since it does not have any application or front-end interface. It needs to be integrated into business software.

The best part of WhatsApp business API is that it allows businesses to receive and answer unlimited messages seamlessly. In 2018 Facebook created WhatsApp API to provide medium and large companies with a tailored solution to scale their customer engagement using WhatsApp.

Who Can Use WhatsApp Business API?

As we mentioned earlier, the WhatsApp Business API does not have an application, and it needs to be integrated; you might need to reach out to our service provider to apply for WhatsApp business API. But before you dive deeper into WhatsApp API and start applying for it, you first need to confirm that your business gets approval from Facebook.

It is because specific business terms and conditions need to be followed before you apply for WhatsApp API. Apart from the business terms and conditions, there are 2 more things you need to consider: your business size and the industry you belong to.

Your Business Size: Creating a WhatsApp chatbot and WhatsApp API integration is a long and complex process. However, medium and large-sized businesses get easy approval from WhatsApp, which is why WhatsApp Business API is also known as WhatsApp Enterprise.

But getting approval for small businesses is quite tricky; therefore, small businesses can use the free WhatsApp business application and its features.

Your Industry: WhatsApp is pretty rigid about its industry guidelines and has a strict commerce policy regarding what industries can use WhatsApp business API. Companies from the gaming and gambling industry, entertainment, adult content, independent software vendors, alcohol and tobacco, arms, and even medical drugs are prohibited from using WhatsApp business API.

All the other industries like travel, hospitality, education, real estate, telecommunications and e-commerce can get certain industry-specific benefits from WhatsApp API.

Before discussing the benefits of using WhatsApp API, we will tell you how to get WhatsApp API.

Undoubtedly WhatsApp is a safe and user-friendly communication environment. With new businesses coming into existence every day on WhatsApp business, it needs to be selective in providing WhatsApp business API. And to get a WhatsApp business API approval, your business needs to follow 3 major steps:

Application

Your business can get WhatsApp business API in 2 ways: by signing up directly with WhatsApp or approaching the 3rd party WhatsApp business provider. Suppose you are new to WhatsApp business API. In that case, we suggest you go for the second option, as direct sign-up with WhatsApp can be a bit complicated, labour-intensive, and technically challenging.

Many service providers will make the process easy and convenient for you, and all you need to do is provide them with some details about your business, and they will take care of the rest.

Remember that a Facebook business manager ID is essential to start the process of applying for WhatsApp business API with a verified number and display name. If you don’t have a Facebook business manager page, you can create one with your business name and contact details.

Let’s Look A Quick Look At How To Create A Facebook Business Manager Page.

Login to your Facebook business manager, click on the business setting
Now click ‘opt for a WhatsApp account’ in the accounts section
Fill in all the details like your name, currency, payment method, phone number, website industry etc., along with your Facebook business manager ID and your phone number for verification
Now once you confirm your business details, you will receive our verification code on your registered number
Now you need to enter the verification code to complete the process.

Even though your mobile number is verified, you still need to verify your legal business name by providing certain documents such as your business license certificate of incorporation, GST certificate, business bank account statement, business credit report etc.

Your business address verification is also a part of your WhatsApp business API application. You must provide all the documents to the Facebook team to verify your business address. Once your business is confirmed with the Facebook business manager, you need to give the 3rd party WhatsApp business API provider that particular ID and your verified phone number to get started.

Providing Information

To start with WhatsApp business API, you need to provide the 3rd party API provider with some basic information about your business so they can set up your business account. Remember that all your information must be accurate because your customers will see it when they visit your WhatsApp page.

The information required is:
Your industry
Company name
Website URL
Country of HQ
Time to market
Regions where you plan to serve

Try to provide all the required information at once so that the 3rd party provider can create your account and send it for approval. The entire process, including the approval, takes up to 2 to 3 weeks.

Mobile Number Activation For Business Account

If you have an existing mobile number, you can use it for your WhatsApp business profile, or you can use a new number instead. Once Facebook verifies your business, it is time to complete your WhatsApp profile by filling in all the information like your business name, category of business, description and a catalogue of your products and services, if any.

Alternatively, you can provide all the details to the 3rd party WhatsApp business API provider to complete your business page.

What Are The Most Lucrative Benefits Of Using WhatsApp Business API

Now that you know the limitations of WhatsApp, broadcast lists can be defeated with a WhatsApp API for your business. Now let’s look at some of the commendable benefits you get while using WhatsApp business API.

Automated Responses: When you use WhatsApp business API, you can automate your response to your customers. But don’t misunderstand this with artificial intelligence. You can make your response interactive and leave your customers happy and satisfied. You can also set up a welcome or away message to cover the delayed response.

WhatsApp Business API has features like WhatsApp notifications and WhatsApp auto-reply so that you can effectively interact with your customers round the clock, even during public holidays and off hours. There are dynamic reply buttons that make WhatsApp the most accessible communication channel for brands as well as customers.

Personalised Experiences: There are many variables for WhatsApp to personalise messages. It can collect the data from your contact book and place them in specific places in your messages. For example, if you have saved someone’s name as “X” in column one, the message will be like hello “X”.

It’s not enough. WhatsApp also supports 10 languages for interaction, so if your business requires multilingual support, WhatsApp business API is the ultimate solution.

FAQ Answering: With WhatsApp business API, automating queries to all the FAQs is easy. WhatsApp business has the feature to reply to simple queries of customers instantly. However, in the case of any complex question, the agents might need to step in.

WhatsApp automatic replies trigger when the customer’s keyword matches precisely with the keyword of the question. And it is possible to set up to 5 input messages to trigger a response.

Seamless Support: WhatsApp business API brings you the benefit of adding a team of customer support representatives to work together on queries that come through the app. In the case of any complex situations, the customer support representative can easily take the front seat once the customer chooses the option to connect with the customer support representative.

Appointment Scheduling: Once you integrate WhatsApp API with your calendar, you can automate scheduling appointments with phone calls or email threads. Even when your customer support team is unavailable, you can still send automated messages to your customers about timings when they are available next. Using WhatsApp Business API is quite time-saving.

Sending Reminders: It works wonders for the financial industry or businesses that offer a subscription model. You can use WhatsApp Business API effectively to reduce the drop-off by reminding your customers about their payments. The app sends notifications about payments, and customers even can make the payment through the app.

Collecting Documents: Before WhatsApp came into existence, the best method of sharing documents was either physical submission or via email. And now, since no customers like to complete any documentation process, traditionally, WhatsApp is the best solution to collect all the required documents and save them for later use.

Providing Post Sale Support: The common goal of most businesses using WhatsApp business API is to provide seamless customer support. Soon after a purchase is made, companies can start the support immediately using WhatsApp, from sending shipment details and delivery updates to solving customer queries; all can be done using the app. It is necessary to automate the chatbot with 100% accuracy and test it. An excellent chatbot increases customer satisfaction rate.

FAQs Answered About Using WhatsApp Business API

What Are The Charges For WhatsApp Business API?

There is no fixed cost of WhatsApp business API since different partners charge different amounts depending upon the features and insight provided to the business dashboard. However, one can reach out to other providers and collect quotations to understand the pricing structure.

Is It Possible To Change The Phone Number After Integrating WhatsApp Business API?

Yes, it is possible to change your WhatsApp number and business details at any point in time after integrating WhatsApp business API.

Is WhatsApp Business API Available For Every Business?

There are certain restrictions for getting approval of WhatsApp business API for a business. To integrate WhatsApp business API, the business size has to be medium to large since small companies are not approved for WhatsApp business API. Moreover, specific industries, such as gaming, gambling, adult content, entertainment etc., are not allowed to use WhatsApp business API.

How To Automate WhatsApp For Business Messages?

The process of automating business messages is easy on WhatsApp once you are already registered on the business application. First, you must go to the setting and click on ‘set away message’. You can edit your ‘away message’ and schedule your away message such as ‘always send’, ‘custom schedule’ and ‘outside of business hours.’ The final step is to choose the recipients to whom the away message will be sent, including ‘everyone’, ‘everyone not in the address book’, ‘everyone except’ and ‘only send to’.

Which Companies Are Using WhatsApp Business API?

Many companies from different industry verticals are using WhatsApp business API. ICICI Bank, Citibank HDFC Bank, Amazon and other retail and e-commerce companies are some of them.

Conclusion

Once you know all the other options available, there is no obsolete limitation in using WhatsApp for business. This article discussed how WhatsApp business API could work as a saviour against all the rules in a WhatsApp broadcast list. However, we also mentioned that creating multiple broadcast lists is the best possible solution if you have a small business not approved for WhatsApp business API. I hope this article helped you know the best methods of using WhatsApp broadcast to promote your business. Keep following us for many such articles, and let us know which is your favourite WhatsApp API provider in the comment section below.