Before you start: segments and consent
Broadcasts and sequences come with messaging on Premium and higher plans. Broadcasts go to contacts who opted in, and opted-out contacts are skipped. Postocial checks who can receive a broadcast when you build the audience and again when it sends, so someone who unsubscribes in between isn't messaged. What each channel sends, and to whom:
| Channel | What you send | Who it reaches |
|---|---|---|
| Approved templates | Contacts who opted in | |
| Messenger | Any message | People who messaged you in the last 24 hours |
| Any message | People who messaged you in the last 24 hours | |
| SMS | Plain text through your provider | Contacts with a phone number who haven't opted out; collecting their consent is up to you |
| Telegram | Any message from your bot | People who started your bot |
To reach a specific group, such as customers tagged VIP who haven't been in touch for 60 days or more, save a segment first. Build a segment.
Send a broadcast step by step
- Pick the channel. In WORKSPACE CHANNEL, choose the channel the broadcast goes out on: a WhatsApp number, a Facebook Page, an Instagram account, a Telegram bot or your SMS channel.
- Start a broadcast. Open Salesbot > Broadcasts and choose NEW BROADCAST. Four steps follow, Audience, Message, Schedule and Review, next to a live preview.
- Choose the audience. Send to all contacts, active contacts or a saved segment, or retarget a past broadcast, for example everyone who read it but never replied. Only contacts who can receive it are included.
- Write the message. On WhatsApp, pick an approved template and fill in its variables. On Messenger, Instagram and Telegram, write your message. SMS sends plain text through your provider.
- Schedule it. Send now or later, at one moment for everyone or at each contact's local time, so nobody gets your message in the middle of the night.
- Review and send. Check the summary and the preview. For a WhatsApp broadcast, send a test to your own WhatsApp number first. Then send or schedule it, or submit it for approval if your team requires one.
An example
A salon fills quiet Tuesdays with a WhatsApp broadcast: an approved marketing template with a Book now button, sent at 10 a.m. in each contact's local time to clients tagged Regular who haven't been in touch for 60 days or more.
Get approval before it goes out
With Require team approval before sending turned on, teammates whose role can't send broadcasts submit them for approval instead, and a teammate whose role can approve broadcasts sends them on. Custom team roles decide who can create, schedule, approve and send. Roles and permissions.
Read the report
- Funnel: recipients, sent, delivered, opened and replies.
- Delivery: a breakdown of deliveries, plus failures and skipped contacts.
- Engagement over time, and the full list of recipients.
You can pause, resume or cancel a broadcast while it sends. SMS has no read receipts, so SMS reports stop at delivered. To follow up, retarget the people who read your message but didn't reply.
Follow up with a sequence
A sequence is a short series of timed messages that starts when someone subscribes through a flow. Sequences run on Messenger and Instagram and follow Meta's rules, so their standard sends go out only while the person's 24-hour window is open. Plan the steps for the first day, or for people who keep the conversation going, and make each message useful on its own.
- Open sequences. With your Facebook Page or Instagram account selected in WORKSPACE CHANNEL, open Salesbot > Automations, choose SEQUENCES, then NEW SEQUENCE.
- Name it and set when it stops. Name the sequence and turn on Stop when someone replies, so anyone who answers leaves it while everyone else carries on.
- Add the steps. For each step, set the day, a From and To sending window in the contact's time zone, and the message. Standard send delivers inside the 24-hour messaging window.
- Create it. Choose CREATE SEQUENCE and check that it is active.
- Subscribe people from a flow. Contacts join through the Sequence step. Add it to a flow, for example right after someone asks for your price list, and the follow-ups start from there.
Leave the Human agent option for replies a person writes: it isn't for automated or promotional messages. The 24-hour rule on Messenger and Instagram.
Rules that keep your lists healthy
- Message only people who opted in or wrote to you first, and stop when they ask. Never buy, scrape or cold-message lists.
- WhatsApp: approved templates only, sent to contacts with a recorded opt-in. Meta bills WhatsApp messages to your WhatsApp Business account.
- Messenger and Instagram: only people who messaged you in the last 24 hours.
- SMS: texts go through your own Twilio, Plivo or SMS gateway account, which bills each segment, and consent and sender registration are yours to handle.
- Telegram: only people who started your bot.