Your business number, on WhatsApp, from inside Meser10
Send WhatsApp messages to your customers from your own verified business number, using the same contact lists, the same segments and the same reports you already use for email and SMS.
What you get
- ✓Your own verified business number, not a shared sender
- ✓The same contact lists, segments and custom fields you already use
- ✓Approved templates for order updates, reminders, appointments and one time codes
- ✓Incoming replies collected in one place instead of a phone on someone desk
- ✓Sent, delivered, read and replied status inside the reports you already read
- ✓Opt in recorded per contact, with the source and the date
WhatsApp is not another SMS channel
On SMS you write what you want and press send. WhatsApp works the other way round. Every message you start yourself has to use a template that Meta approved in advance, and free text is allowed only inside a twenty four hour window that opens when the customer writes to you. That sounds like a restriction, and it is, but it is also the reason the channel still works: people read WhatsApp because it is not full of unsolicited marketing.
Templates, and how they behave
A template is a message with fixed wording and a few variables, for example an order number or a delivery date. You submit it once, Meta reviews it, and from then on you can send it as often as you need. Approval usually takes minutes to a few hours. Templates fall into three categories, and the category decides both what you are allowed to say and what you pay. Authentication templates, the one time code kind, are approved automatically.
Consent is the whole game
A phone number in your database is not permission to send WhatsApp to it. The contact has to opt in to this channel specifically, and if Meta asks, you need to be able to show where and when that happened. Meser10 stores the opt in per contact together with its source and date, keeps an opt out path in every conversation, and treats email consent and WhatsApp consent as two separate things, because they are.
What it costs
Meta charges per message, and the price depends on the template category and on the country. Two things are free and worth planning around: a conversation the customer starts is free to answer for twenty four hours, and utility templates sent inside that window are free as well. In practice that means service and transactional traffic is far cheaper than marketing traffic, and a flow that answers people rather than interrupts them costs very little.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need a separate WhatsApp number?
You can register a new number for the business or move an existing one. A number that is currently used in the WhatsApp Business app has to be migrated before it can send through the API, and the app stops working on that number once it does, so most businesses keep the human support line as it is and put the automated channel on a second number.
Can we send any text we want?
Only inside the twenty four hour window that opens when the customer writes to you. Anything you start yourself has to use a template that Meta approved in advance.
How long does template approval take?
Usually minutes to a few hours. Authentication templates, the one time code kind, are approved automatically.
What does it cost?
Meta charges per message, by template category and by country. Answering a conversation the customer started is free for twenty four hours, and utility templates sent inside that window are free as well.
Do we need consent for WhatsApp?
Yes, and it is specific to this channel. Consent to receive email is not consent to receive WhatsApp. Meser10 records the opt in per contact with its source and date.
Can we use the same lists as email?
Yes. Same contacts, same segments, same custom fields. A contact can be opted in to email and not to WhatsApp, and the system respects that separately for each channel.
Talk to us about WhatsApp
Tell us what you want to send and we will tell you which templates you need and what it will cost.
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