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How to get Opt-ins (Subscribers) for your WhatsApp πŸš€

Alessandro Pinelli Updated by Alessandro Pinelli

Intro

In order to reach out to your users, they need to become subscribers first! 🀚 This is the place where we provide you with the tools you need to get them onboard. πŸš€

Once you have an active WhatsApp channel, you'll be able to enter the Get Opt-ins section.

Get Opt-ins is subsection of the WhatsApp section of the app, it will be active only if you have a PRO or Business plan and an approved business phone number!

Read this article to know more about how to request a WhatsApp business number.

There are several ways in which businesses can get Opt-in, bothΒ on and off WhatsApp. Users must in any case confirm that they wish to receive future messages on WhatsApp: this can be done either through a simple Snippet added to your website, a specific Web Bot or simply getting their permission on WhatsApp itself.

When the user gives consent we call it the Opt-in process. Click on this link to learn more about it!

Snippet Option

By clicking on "Configure a new snippet" you can create and customize a Snippet to integrate into your website.

What is a Snippet?

Question: how to get new Subscribers with Opt-ins? Well, we provide you with a snippet you can easily embed into your website for your visitors to tick and become subscribers.

⚠️ The snippet has to be contextual and explicit about its purpose as WhatsApp Terms of Use indicates ⚠️

β€œIn order to send a WhatsApp message to a person, you must receive opt-in permission in-line and contextually during the relevant user flows. For example, to receive a receipt via WhatsApp, a person must opt in during a purchase flow. Opt-in obtained without context and in any manner not related to an action the user is already taking, does not comply with this policy.β€œΒ 

You can customize its code from the Customize the snippet message section within Get Subscribers:

Once you're done with customization, add it to your website so visitors can tick it when performing other actions like buying something or subscribing to your newsletter.

If you click on the eye icon in the right corner, you will see the preview of the snippet. By default it looks like this:

Create a new snippet

First, click on Configure a new Snippet:

You will land to the Snippet creation page. Here you need to choose:

  • The snippet name
  • The snippet message

The next steps are not mandatory, but we recommend you to choose also:

  • The message Template, a proactive message that the user is going to receive on WhatsApp
  • The bot linked to this template

Wondering what a message template is? It's a message that you can proactively send to your subscribed users.

Click here to learn more about HSM templates and how to use them!

If you click on Choose message template you'll see the template messages available for you to choose one:

When you choose a message, all you need to do is assign a value to the variables that appear on it.

The variables are going to be displayed as numbers surrounded by double brackets:

When you click on Choose the bot, this is what you'll see:

You can choose a bot from your list or decide to not link a bot to this Template and just have Human Chat.

If you choose a bot, after receiving the template message the users will chat with the Bot. πŸ€–

If you don't link a bot, nothing will happen, unless there is a human that can take part in the conversation from Landbot's Chat section. πŸ‘©β€πŸ’»

Quick guide to get subscribers with a Snippet

To sum it all up, here's a quick guide on how to get subscribers: πŸ’ͺ

  1. Customize the snippet with the message you want, and preview it using the Preview button.
  2. Once happy with it, copy it and paste it into your website.
  3. Now, choose if you want to send an auto-message to your users once they subscribe.
  4. If you do, choose between your templates and customize the variable's names.
  5. Choose if you want to link a bot to this template.
  6. Click Save to save all the changes and start getting subscribers!

Still not sure if WhatsApp is for you? You can still use a WhatsApp Testing channel to get a feel of what an official WhatsApp integration feels like!
Read this article dedicated to WhatsApp Testing channel to know how it works!

Bot option (for WhatsApp and Web)

How do I build an Opt-in Bot for WhatsApp?

If you prefer, you can choose to get your subscribers directly through WhatsApp by creating a dedicated flow for Opt-in.

  1. First things first: the WhatsApp Bot builder.

After the first Welcome or simple Message Blocks, we ask for the user's consent to receive WhatsApp notifications (bear in mind that, differently from an Opt-in for Web, we can avoid asking for the Phone Number, as it will be automatically saved under the Variable @phone) using a Keyword Options Block.

Check out how to assign keywords to buttons on WhatsApp and Facebook

How to add new Subscribers through the Opt-in

Now we have our new user's consent, and before starting our Chatbot flow, it is important to save the information collected into your Subscribers. How to do that? With a Webhook Block πŸ’ͺ

Here we have to set a few things:

  • URL: You can find the extended explanation of the URL below
  • Method: POST
  • Send param: yes
  • Variables: include all the variables you want to send to the WhatsApp channel

How do I build an Opt-in Bot for Web?

Let's have a look at our example of an Opt-in bot from the inside:

In the bot builder, after the welcome message, we ask for the user's name and company name, then we have a Phone Code Validation brick, which we use to validate the phone code and the phone numbers.

Want to learn more about Bricks? Read this article!

Then we have the most important block for the Opt-in: the Webhook block.

We need to set up the Webhook with:

  • URL: You can find the extended explanation of the URL below
  • Method: POST
  • Send param: yes
  • Variables: include @phonevalidated and all other variables you want to send to the WhatsApp channel

⚠️ Important: to assure that your Bot complies with WhatsApp guidelines, please check out the requirements here ⚠️

How to write the correct URL

We need a URL like this one:

https://messages.landbot.io/wa/W-2-BT7U5A00PX42W8HT/opt_in?phone=@{phone}&name_user=@{name_user}&demo=@{demo}&country=@{country}

W-2-BT7U5A00PX42W8HT is an Id that belongs to the WhatsApp channel.

You can find it in Channels > WhatsApp Business > Click on your WhatsApp business Channel > Get Subscribers > Click on a Snippet or Create a new Snippet

Once you pasted the Id into the URL, you have to know which variables you want to send to the WA channel.

Phone and name the basics variables that you need to have in the URL to realize the Opt-in.

opt_in?phone=@{phone}&name=@{name}

Use the pre-made Opt-in bot for web!

The Opt-in bot is a pre-made web bot, already set up to allow you to get subscribers for your channel.

Please keep in mind that you need to do some modifications and follow the instructions inside the bot, in order to make it function for your number.

You can find it inΒ WhatsApp Business > Get Optins

Or you can find it in our templates page:

You can find more info in this article!

Channel's Opt-ins list

You can see the list of users that subscribed to your channel by clicking on the Channel's Opt-ins buttons on the right side of the page.

The list will display the total number and a list of users. You can show/hide columns to this table apply filters.

⚠️ The opt-out button is to permanently delete a user from your subscriber. Please use it ONLY if one of your users asked you to remove his contact from your list. ⚠️

How did we do?

What is the Opt-in process? ✍️

WhatsApp Opt In Template βœ…

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