What is Marketing Opt-Out?
Sometimes, businesses receive negative responses after sending out marketing campaigns via WhatsApp Broadcast Messages. Hence, companies need to consider providing a marketing opt-out option. Marketing opt-out refers to ways that customers can use to avoid receiving marketing messages from a company. You can now add an opt-out button to promotional WhatsApp message templates.
Opt-Out and Opt-In Buttons
Marketing opt-out allows your customers to stop receiving marketing messages from your business while retaining the ability to still receive service messages. On the other hand, the opt-in feature allows your customers to agree to receive future notifications from your business via WhatsApp. Sending WhatsApp message templates that contain opt-in and opt-out buttons within a certain period is very important. It helps the company evaluate broadcast content and opens the door for customers who opt out to return to receiving marketing messages.
Benefits of Opt-Out and Opt-In Buttons on WhatsApp Message Template
We recommend that you add marketing opt-out and opt-in buttons to your marketing templates due to several reasons:
- Increase the quality of your message template
One of the reasons customers may block your WhatsApp message is because they don't favour its content. This will lead to quality issues with the template. Knowing which customers have clicked on the opt-in button will help you get a list of customers who are really interested in sending marketing messages. Meanwhile, an opt-out option will help you know which template needs to be edited for better quality. - Reduce block/report rate
A high block rate may cause a campaign to be suspended or the quality rating of your phone number to decline. Allowing customers to opt-out of marketing messages may prevent customers from blocking your brand. - Provide message type options for customers
By letting customers opt out of marketing messages, you can still send transactional or messages containing One-Time-Passwords even though customers do not want to receive your marketing message. - Obtain insightful analytics on customers' preferences
Adding opt-out and opt-in buttons lets you obtain information about your customer's preferences. You will be able to see who has opted out of your marketing messages and then improve the content of your message templates.
Opting Out of Marketing Messages vs. Blocking A Number
If customers do not like messages received from a business, they can block the business’ contact number. Once this happens, you can no longer send a message to the customer. Unlike blocking, an opt-out button allows you to continue sending other types of messages that the customer needs such as passwords and shipping updates. The latter means that communication between businesses and customers will be maintained.
Qiscus Marketing Opt-Out Feature
Qiscus presents the Marketing Opt-Out feature in line with the importance of marketing opt-out buttons to avoid high block/report rate rates. You can easily add opt-in and opt-out buttons when creating a new template. You will be able to complete analytical reports on customer preferences and feedback on messages sent. You will also be able to see who has opted out of your marketing messages so that you can decide how to improve the content of your message templates.
To make this feature easier, we have provided several use cases to suit your current business conditions.
Use Case 1: Sending marketing opt-out templates for the first time.
If you have never sent WhatsApp messages containing opt-in and opt-out buttons to customers, you may be confused about where to start. But don't worry! We have a tutorial you can easily follow.
The first step that must be taken is to create a template through the Qiscus Omnichannel Chat dashboard. You can do this by:
- Go to the Outbound Message menu and select WhatsApp Broadcast Templates.
- Then, click the New Template button.
- Select No, I don't have any broadcast template before, and click Next.
- Select the WhatsApp Account you want to use. Fill in the Message Template Name and select Marketing as the category. You can add multiple languages to suit your needs.
Pro tips:
On this page, you can view examples of different content for templates under the transactional, marketing, and OTP categories. - Fill in the content and ensure that the content follows the language chosen, especially if you are using many languages. The range consists of Header, Body, Footer, and Buttons. In the buttons section, click the dropdown and select Marketing Opt-Out.
Pro tips:
When you want to send an opt-out marketing template for the first time, we recommend that the content in your template contain a few things:
- Your business name. For example: Hi, we are from the Qiscus team or Hi, I am Alena from Qiscus.
- A statement to inform the customer that your brand will stop sending promotional messages if the customer opts out.
- You are required to add opt-in and opt-out buttons. By default, the button text will be Of Course for opt-in and Stop Promotion for opt-out. But you can change it as you wish. Don't forget to check the I understand that it is {Company} responsibility to stop sending marketing messages to customers who have opted out section.
- Submit the template.
Once the template you created has been approved, you can go to the next step, which is sending messages to customers.
Like sending broadcasts, you can send marketing opt-out templates via the Outbound Message or Inbox menus.
To send broadcasts via the Outbound Message menu, you can send broadcasts in two ways i.e. the WhatsApp Broadcast or Broadcast to All Channels features. You can follow the steps in this documentation to send a broadcast via the Outbound Message menu. The difference between sending a marketing opt-out template and other templates is that on the Broadcast settings page, you can set who the broadcast will be sent to, all customers or only opt-out customers.
Specifically for business sending a marketing opt-out template for the first time, we recommend sending a broadcast to all customers who have previously contacted your business via WhatsApp. This will help you gather data on customers who have opted out of receiving marketing messages.
To send an opt-out marketing template via the Inbox menu, you can follow these steps:
- Go to the Inbox page and select an expired WhatsApp conversation.
- Click the Start Chat/Follow Up Customer button.
- In the Open Session Chat section, select Template Type: Broadcast Message Template and select the Template Name according to the name of your marketing opt-out template. Fill in the required variables then click Send.
What happens if a customer chooses to opt-out
If a customer chooses to opt out of a marketing message, an opt-out date will appear in the Chat & Customer Info section.
When a customer has opted out, you can no longer send templates with marketing categories to these customers. Hence. you will get a message like this when you want to send templates with marketing categories.
Use Case 2: Sending marketing opt-out templates after a long time
The second use case is about sending marketing opt-out messages to customers after a long time has lapsed. Even if customers have chosen to refrain from receiving your marketing messages, this does not indicate they no longer want to hear from you. For this reason, sending WhatsApp templates with opt-in and opt-out buttons within a certain period is very important. This will make it easier for customers if they want to opt-in and receive marketing messages again or if they accidentally press the opt-out button on a previous message.
When is the best time to send your next marketing opt-out?
While every business varies when it comes to the right time to send back marketing opt-outs, there are a few points you can take into consideration:
1. You can send marketing opt-outs three months after the last message.
Example:
Hi {1}, we missed you!
We have many attractive offers waiting for you.
Please click I want to know more for more information or ignore this message if you still do not want to receive promotional messages from us.
2. You can send marketing opt-out messages after releasing a new product.
Example:
Good news!
We have just released a new product last week.
Would you like to receive a special promo for our new product?
3. You can send marketing opt-out seven days before events or holidays such as Christmas, New Year, or Eid Al-Fitr.
Example:
Holidays are just around the corner!
Make sure you don't miss this exciting special offer for the new year. Click Send the Promo to Me to receive lots of great offers.
Use Case 3: Sending messages to unengaged customers
Sometimes, customers may respond to your WhatsApp messages only for a short period of time. There are several reasons why they do not respond to messages you sent. These reasons may be different for every business. Customers may not need to buy more of your products or reuse your services. Another possibility is that your message has already met their expectations.
However, customers who ignore your message do not necessarily mean they are completely disinterested in your business. With the right approach, you can attract their attention back.
How to re-engage customers
Usually, customers who fall into the unengaged customer category do not respond to messages you sent within 60 to 90 days. You can attract the unengaged customer's attention by sending a marketing opt-out message with one of the following content:
1. Discounts for a certain period of time
Customers who are unengaged are different from opt-out customers. You can still freely send marketing messages without making them feel negatively towards your brand. One method is to send out a discount offer for a limited period of time to create a sense of urgency.
Example:
Get special discounts of up to 50% for all beauty products. This promo is only valid for purchases at our online store for the next three days.
2. Send surveys
You can gather valuable client inputs and learn what needs to be improved by sending out surveys. The theme of the survey can center on their experiences of buying or using your product. You can also seek their opinions on what kind of messages they expect in the future.
Example:
{Customer’s Name}, how was your recent experience using our product? Your feedback is helpful for us to improve the quality of our goods and services. Provide us with feed and receive 30% off your next purchase.
3. Messages detailing opt-in benefits
Reminding customers about the benefits they can receive if they opt-in can be a way to attract them again to your business. For example, a monthly special promotion is available if they opt-in.
Example:
We noticed that you have yet to opt-in to receive our promotional messages. Enjoy attractive offers every month when you opt-in! Interested?
Optimizing Opt-Out and Opt-In buttons Feature
Sending marketing opt-out using Customer Group on Qiscus
Creating templates remains the first part of sending marketing opt-out. So, plan in advance the type of content you will send customers and create a template for it on the Qiscus Omnichannel Chat dashboard.
To make it easier for you, you can also take advantage of the Customer Group feature on Qiscus. Consolidate all customers from all use cases in the same group. Check out this documentation to learn more about the Customer Group feature.
Send marketing opt-out during a specific period
Like the previous use-case, you will need a message template before sending marketing opt-out after a certain period.
To ensure the best results, we recommend doing an A/B test. A/B testing is a method that is usually used to compare two versions of a message or campaign to figure out which performs better. In this case, we recommend creating two templates with different content and sending them to opt-out customers, whose numbers have been halved beforehand.
Doing this will help you to obtain information on which type of message customers prefer. This can be used as a reference when sending the next marketing opt-out message.
We understand that text-only message templates may be less attractive to your customer. Hence, we have prepared references for several types of templates that you can consider. Check out different types of templates here.
To carry out A/B testing, you will need to send the opt-out marketing template twice by uploading the CSV opt-out customer data divided into two. To broadcast template messages by uploading CSV, you can follow this documentation.
How to halve a customer opt-out list
Qiscus provides a Marketing Opt-Out analytics feature that provides insightful reports on customer preferences and feedback on the marketing messages you have sent. This way, you can see who has opted out of your marketing messages.
To access this analytics report, follow the steps below:
- Go to the Analytics menu and select WhatsApp.
- Click Marketing Opt-Out.
- You can filter the opt-out list by channel name and time.
- Download the opt-out list data and manually split the data in half.
Key Points:
There are several things you need to pay attention to so that the use of the opt-out button is optimal:
- It would be best if you understand that it is your company's responsibility to stop sending marketing messages to customers who have opted out.
- Apart from adding an opt-out button, it would be better if you also add an opt-in button. This will help bring back customers who change their minds or have accidentally hit the opt-out button.
- Ask customers for their reasons for choosing an opt-out or what kind of message they prefer, moving forward.
You can also create a high-quality opt-in experience by:
- Providing information about other messages customers will receive besides marketing messages, such as OTPs, order updates, or product recommendations.
- Communicating the advantages customers will enjoy if they opt-in to receive your marketing messages.
- Ensuring your opt-in and opt-out flows are clear and intuitive for users.
The best way to collect WhatsApp opt-ins
Only a percentage of your customers chose to opt-in and do not mind receiving your marketing messages. Qiscus provides a public API to ensure that your customers using the WhatsApp channel have consented to opt-in or receive marketing messages without having to be sent an opt-in marketing message template first.
Using the API
You can use this API for Opt-In:
[POST] {{BaseUrl}}/api/v2/admin/opt-out/set-customer?phone_number={{phone_number}}&channel_id={{channel_id}}
Example request:
curl --location -g '{{BaseUrl}}/api/v2/admin/opt-out/set-customer?phone_number={{phone_number}}&channel_id={{channel_id}}' \
--header 'app_id: {{app_id}}' \
--header 'authorization: {{AdminToken}}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
"phone_number": "xxxxxxxx",
"channel_id": xxxxx,
"is_opt_out": false
}'
Example response:
{
"is_opt_out": false,
"opt_out_date": "2023-02-14T06:02:06Z"
}
You can use this API as one of the actions on bots integrated with Qiscus Omnichannel Chat. You can use Robolabs or other bot services. You can also collect opt-ins by other methods, such as placing an opt-in form on your website, creating a special landing page or getting opt-ins during the transaction process.
However, please note that this API can only be used for set opt-ins from customers registered on the Customers menu in Qiscus Omnichannel Chat.
Therefore, if the customer has yet to be included in the customers' list, the customer you obtained via the above method must first be imported to Qiscus Omnichannel Chat. You can do this by using the following API:
[POST] {{BaseUrl}}/api/v2/admin/customer/add
Example request:
curl --location '/api/v2/admin/customer/add' \
--header 'authorization;' \
--header 'qiscus-app-id;' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
"channel_id": {{channel_id}},
"source": {{channel}},
"identifier": {{phone_number}},
"name": {{name}},
"email": {{email}}
}'
Example response:
{
"data": {
"contact": {
"contact_channels": [
{
"channel_id": 3xxx,
"identifier": "62xxxxxxx",
"last_customer_message_date": null,
"last_message_date": null,
"source": "wa"
}
],
"created_at": "2023-02-14T06:29:38",
"email": "avgip@mail.com",
"id": 32xxxxxxx,
"is_main": null,
"last_customer_message": null,
"last_customer_message_date": null,
"last_customer_message_id": null,
"last_message": null,
"last_message_date": null,
"last_message_id": null,
"linked_id": null,
"name": "Avgi",
"phone_number": "62xxxxxxxx"
}
},
"status": 200
}
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