WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps, with over 2 billion users worldwide. Its ease of use and versatility make it a go-to choice for both personal and business communications. One of WhatsApp’s key features is the ability to broadcast messages to multiple recipients at once. This opens up opportunities to connect with large audiences for purposes like promotions, announcements, and alerts. But how far can you scale up these broadcasts? Let’s take a look at WhatsApp’s capabilities and limits when it comes to mass messaging.
WhatsApp Broadcast Lists
The main way to send messages to multiple recipients on WhatsApp is through broadcast lists. These allow you to pre-define groups of contacts to receive your broadcasts. Broadcast lists can contain up to 256 members each. To send a broadcast, you simply select the list and send the message as you would to an individual. The message will then be delivered to everyone in the list simultaneously.
You can have unlimited broadcast lists, so there’s no cap on the total number of contacts you can reach through this method. However, each member can only be in one broadcast list at a time. So if you wanted to reach a very large audience, you would need to divide your contacts across multiple lists of up to 256 members each.
Limits on WhatsApp Broadcasts
While broadcast lists provide a lot of reach, WhatsApp does impose some limits:
- Each broadcast list can have a maximum of 256 members
- Each member can only be in one broadcast list at a time
- Members can leave a broadcast list at any time
- There is a limit of 5 broadcasts to a broadcast list within a 24 hour period
So in practice, it’s not feasible to reliably reach 100,000+ people through WhatsApp broadcasts alone. You’d have to manage almost 400 separate broadcast lists, while constantly shuffling members around to stay under the 256 limit per list. And even then, you could only send 5 broadcasts per day to each list.
WhatsApp has deliberately imposed these limits to prevent spamming and abusive messaging. While reasonable for regular usage, the caps fall short for broadcast messaging at massive scales.
Workarounds for Mass WhatsApp Messaging
There are some workarounds that enable you to reach larger WhatsApp audiences despite the barriers:
Use Multiple WhatsApp Business Accounts
WhatsApp Business accounts have higher limits than regular WhatsApp accounts when it comes to broadcasting. Each Business account can have up to 1000 members per broadcast list. You can verify up to 10 Business accounts under the same phone number.
By maximizing these accounts, you could potentially reach 10,000 recipients through WhatsApp broadcasts alone. It’s still well short of 100,000 but a viable option for small- to medium-sized campaigns.
Automate Broadcasts Through 3rd Party Tools
Various 3rd party tools have been developed to automate and manage WhatsApp messaging at scale. These tools can cycle through broadcast lists in a coordinated way to work around WhatsApp’s per-list limits. Popular options include:
- WhatsApp Chat API
- Bulk WhatsApp Sender
- Chat-Api.com
- WhatsApp Marketing API
The tools make larger broadcasts possible through clever use of automation. However, excessive volumes may get flagged as spam by WhatsApp. Proceed with caution.
Use WhatsApp for Notifications, Not Mass Messaging
Given the limits in place, WhatsApp may be better suited for sending alerts and notifications rather than mass promotional content. You can drive your audience to your website, app or mailing list for more extensive communications. Use WhatsApp as a supplemental way to notify them about new updates.
For example, an e-commerce business could notify customers about shipping alerts through WhatsApp broadcasts. Clothing brands can message followers about new product arrivals. This keeps audiences engaged while avoiding overuse of WhatsApp.
Managing Contacts and Opt-Ins
When building large WhatsApp broadcast lists, you need robust contact management processes. Important factors include:
- Obtaining opt-in consent before adding anyone to broadcast lists.
- Allowing contacts to easily opt out at any time.
- Regularly removing inactive numbers.
- Monitoring engagement and sentiment across broadcasts.
This helps ensure you’re messaging engaged audiences who want to hear from you. It also prevents contact lists getting stale and ineffective.
You may wish to manage contacts in a CRM platform like HubSpot or Salesforce. This allows you to track opt-ins/outs, engagement, and list memberships seamlessly.
Sample Broadcast List Management Workflow
Here is an example contact management process for WhatsApp broadcasts at scale:
- Visitor signs up through website opt-in form.
- CRM platform tags contact as “pending opt-in”.
- Confirmation message sent to visitor via email or SMS.
- If visitor confirms opt-in, they get tagged as “opted in” in CRM.
- “Opted in” contacts segmented into broadcast lists by preferences, interests etc.
- Monitoring in place to track opt-outs, engagement, inactive numbers etc.
- Regular pruning of list based on opt-outs, bounces etc.
Measuring Broadcast Performance
To optimize your approach, you need to monitor metrics like:
- Deliverability rate
- Opt-out rate
- Engagement rate
- Click-through rate (if linking to website/app)
Watching these metrics lets you identify lists and messages that resonate best with your audience. You can then fine-tune your broadcasts for maximum impact.
Setting Up Tracking
There are a few ways to track WhatsApp broadcast performance:
- Use 3rd party tools like Chat-Api.com which provide analytics.
- Insert tracking links in your message to measure clicks.
- Use UTM campaign tags if driving traffic to website or app.
- Ask recipients to reply or react to measure engagement.
Take care not to make messages feel spammy with excessive tracking. Focus on discreet yet effective tracking mechanisms.
Optimizing Your Approach
Some best practices for getting great results from WhatsApp broadcasts:
- Personalize messages with recipient’s name when possible.
- Send at optimal times based on recipient time zones.
- Use multimedia like images and video for engagement.
- Test different types of content to see what resonates.
- Ensure a clear call-to-action in each broadcast.
- Follow up inactive numbers to re-engage or remove.
Keep iterating and improving based on the data and feedback you receive. This will allow you to refine an approach that delivers value to recipients without overstepping WhatsApp’s limits.
Compliance Considerations
When broadcasting at high volumes, ensure you comply with regulations like:
- GDPR in the EU
- Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations in India
- CAN-SPAM Act in the US
Key requirements include:
- Obtaining clear opt-in consent before messaging.
- Honoring all opt-out requests.
- Identifying broadcasts as promotional content.
- Providing an unsubscribe mechanism in each message.
- Maintaining suppression lists.
Non-compliance can lead to severe penalties. Work closely with legal counsel to ensure you meet all regulations in the geographies you are messaging.
Conclusion
Broadcasting to 100,000+ people on WhatsApp alone faces challenges due to built-in limits. With careful list management and automation, you can potentially reach about 10,000 people through verified Business accounts.
For larger scales, use WhatsApp as part of an omnichannel strategy. Drive contacts from ads and campaigns to collect opt-ins. Then notify them of updates via WhatsApp along with email, SMS, push notifications etc.
Monitor performance closely and maintain compliance to ensure messaging is effective and respectful of recipients. With a thoughtful approach, WhatsApp can be an impactful part of a broader digital marketing mix.