Campaigns: live chat, SMS and WhatsApp

The Campaigns section in the sidebar holds three kinds of outreach: Live Chat, SMS and WhatsApp.

Live chat campaigns

A message appears to a website visitor automatically, under conditions you set.

1. Open Campaigns → Live Chat.
2. Create a campaign.
3. Fill in:
   • Title — internal, the customer never sees it;
   • Message — the text shown to the visitor;
   • Inbox — your website widget;
   • Sent by — an agent or a bot;
   • URL — the page where it should appear;
   • Time on page — the delay in seconds.
4. Enable the campaign.

Examples: offer help on the checkout page after 30 seconds; explain delivery terms on a product page.

SMS campaigns

A one-off broadcast to a list of contacts.

1. Open Campaigns → SMS and create a campaign.
2. Enter a title and the message text, and pick an SMS inbox.
3. Choose the audience by contact labels.
4. Set the scheduled time.

An SMS inbox has to be connected first.

WhatsApp campaigns

A broadcast over WhatsApp. Since these messages go out beyond the 24-hour window, they use an approved template — free-form text cannot be sent.

1. Open Campaigns → WhatsApp and create a campaign.
2. Pick the WhatsApp inbox and an approved template.
3. Fill in the template variables.
4. Choose the audience and the scheduled time.

See "WhatsApp templates and the 24-hour rule" for more on templates.

WhatsApp messages are billed separately. On Gupshup they draw down your WhatsApp credits — check the balance before a large broadcast, or sending will stop halfway.

Recommendations

• Segment your audience: broadcasting to everyone produces more opt-outs than orders.
• Never put marketing content in a utility template — that is what gets numbers restricted in WhatsApp.
• Test a campaign on yourself before sending it widely.
• Replies land in the shared conversation list, so make sure someone is there to answer.