Proactively contacting people with WhatsApp Integration

[maulpaurer]

I have a question regarding the communication start within the WhatsApp Integration. 

As far as I know, the contact that I am trying to reach has to proactively send a Message to my WhatsApp phone number saying "Start", otherwise my messages won't deliver. 
This acts as a trigger that lets me send messages to them. 

Is there a way for me to proactively ask for the contact to write "start" to me? In a sense that I am proactively writing to the contact "Please write "start" to initiate a conversation" ?
At the moment I am unable to contact people without them giving me permission, but how are they supposed to know that they have to write "Start" when I am unable to give instructions?

I hope somebody has the answer. Thanks in advance!

[TomM2 · Accepted solution]

Hey @maulpaurer you're basically asking to forgo any marketing contact consent to start immediately marketing to someone without them providing previous consent to have their data processed and be marketed to. 

In HubSpot, no this isn't currently possible as whatsapp and most laws require a person to consent to be marketed to. 
You can get yourself a whatsapp number and start messaging contacts personally on whatsapp as much as you wish, but as soon as it becomes a marketing contact a person has to voluntarily opt-in to this, you don't  get to market to them asking if they'd like to opt-in. 

[NiloofarK]

Hi @maulpaurer,

You said "They are signed-candidates that are in a long lasting process with us."

"They are expecting us to text them once in a while."

From the eyes of Meta (WhatsApp's parent company) this is consent because you are messaging them in the right context and at the right time. You are not spamming strangers who have never interacted with your business with irrelevent marketing messages. 

Meta does not require businesses to get consent (in the form of "Start") every time they want to send a (marketing) message. It is HubSpot that has made it a requirement.

I believe you are using HubSpot's native WhatsApp integration (?)

"Perceived consent/expectation" from the customers to receive a message form you, like in your case, is enough for Meta.

I know this because I'm using a WhatsApp platform to talk to customers and leads for the past 3 years using a Meta Business Partner platform. I know many businesses that are doing this too.

You might want to look into other WhatsApp-HubSpot app integrations. There are different ones for different use cases/businesses. I'd be happy to recommend some if you tell me what use cases you have.

Hope it helps 🙂

[Lucila-Andimol · Accepted solution]

Hi @maulpaurer 

to be able to send a Whatsapp message from HubSpot the contact must exist first in the CRM.

So, if you are thinking about new propsects, they need to send some kind of message first so that HubSpot gets the number and then you send an automated message.

If the contacts are propsects/customers already in the CRM,

you need to mark them as Marketing Contacts and with legal consent (you can do this manually or with an automation) and then you can send Whatsapp templates (created first in Facebook) also with workflows.

Hope this helps

[maulpaurer]

Hi, thank you for your reply. 

I was not precise enough. The contacts that I am trying to reach are not for marketing purposes. 

They are signed-candidates that are in a long lasting process with use and we want to switch the basic communication like meeting-reminders and some short messages to whatsapp, as emails are too formal. 

They are expecting us to text them once in a while. 

Is there still no way to do this? 

[TomM2 · Accepted solution]

Hey @maulpaurer you're basically asking to forgo any marketing contact consent to start immediately marketing to someone without them providing previous consent to have their data processed and be marketed to. 

In HubSpot, no this isn't currently possible as whatsapp and most laws require a person to consent to be marketed to. 
You can get yourself a whatsapp number and start messaging contacts personally on whatsapp as much as you wish, but as soon as it becomes a marketing contact a person has to voluntarily opt-in to this, you don't  get to market to them asking if they'd like to opt-in.