WhatsApp compliance and regulations require that businesses and organizations get consent from the customer before sending WhatsApp messages to them. As an organization, collecting and maintaining WhatsApp consent is crucial. It ensures you will send messages only to customers who want to receive them. You can collect and manage consent using Acoustic Campaign.
Maintain consent records
In Acoustic Campaign, you can maintain a list of mobile numbers that can receive WhatsApp messages in a consent summary. The consent summary must be kept up to date with the WhatsApp opt-in and opt-out statuses.
Managing and keeping the consent records up to date depends on your use case, country, and country regulations.
The simplest approach is to have WhatsApp opt-in campaign, called, for example, WhatsApp customers. Your contacts can then opt-in to the campaign by texting a keyword, for example, JOIN.
Tip: Contacts can also opt-in through a form or other channels.
For a more sophisticated implementation, you can create multiple WhatsApp opt-in campaigns. For example, you can create one campaign for Business Unit A and another for Business Unit B. Contacts who opt-in to WhatsApp from business unit A are not implicitly opting-in to WhatsApp from a business unit that might not interest them: in this case, Business Unit B. However, they can opt-in to both if they want.
Keeping consent separated through different WhatsApp opt-in campaigns ensures you are only talking through this channel to those customers that truly want to hear from you, minimizing the chances of opt-outs.
For more information on how to create these types of campaigns, create a WhatsApp autoresponder campaigns or create a WhatsApp opt-in campaign.
Collect WhatsApp consent
There are four different ways a contact can opt-in or opt-out their mobile number from a WhatsApp campaign:
- The contact can send a specific keyword to a specific WhatsApp opt-in campaign.
- An Acoustic Campaign user can collect consent outside of Acoustic Campaign, for example, in a physical store, and then import WhatsApp consent (per campaign) into the database.
- From within an Acoustic Campaign hosted form, which will update the consent as per the user’s selection.
- Through an API.
To collect WhatsApp consent through any of these methods, you must have the following WhatsApp requirements completed:
- Your organization must be SMS-enabled.
- You must have a flexible SMS-enabled database with an SMS phone custom field.
- You must have a WhatsApp opt-in campaign.
Text a keyword to opt-in
A WhatsApp opt-in campaign is the primary type of campaign required to build a list of mobile numbers that can receive promotional WhatsApp messages.
Contacts receive the WhatsApp opt-in campaign and can sign up to receive WhatsApp messages by responding with a keyword. The contacts will receive confirmation that they have opted into the campaign.
Import consent collected outside of Acoustic
Consent can also be collected outside of Acoustic Campaign, for example, in a physical store, or you might already have a list of contacts who provided consent through a different service provider. You can import these contacts and their consent and add them to the consent table database.
Use an import to add or update multiple contacts with WhatsApp consent data into your WhatsApp database.
When you import contacts into an existing database, you can choose the SMS consent contact source update as the import update type. If you want to add new contacts to your SMS-enabled database without consent, choose the contact source as the import update type.
Format of the file to be uploaded
The file you upload to import WhatsApp consent must include the fields that identify the record to update the consent and the desired consent.
The imported file format is as follows:
- Phone number (required)
- SMS consent status (required) – valid consent status record formats are OPTED-IN and OPTED-OUT.
- SMS consent date (optional) – when you collected the consent.
- SMS consent source (optional) – where you collected the consent, like a physical store or call center.
Example
Note: The contact cannot be imported if a contact record’s WhatsApp consent status or phone number is left blank.
The consent date and source information must be recorded for historical purposes when the information is added to Acoustic Campaign. Therefore, if the WhatsApp consent date or the WhatsApp consent source is left blank and is not mapped, then the system defaults SysDate for WhatsApp consent date and List import for SMS content source are added.
The following table describes the SMS-consent related fields, the format, and its different value options:
Values for | Format | Example | |
SMS consent date Date and time values Note: All date and time values must be in Greenwich Mean Time as this is the reference used to convert sends to other time zones. Example date and time values:
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Month |
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Day |
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Year |
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Time |
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Consent status format |
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Phone number format Note: For non-U.S. numbers, all numbers must have a country code. |
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SMS consent source | String | SMS consent source |
In addition to these required and optional fields that provide information about the WhatsApp status, the file can also include other fields. You can map these to database fields during the import process, so they are updated correctly.
To import WhatsApp consent, follow these steps:
- In Acoustic Campaign, go to Data > Import update.
- From the Choose import update type dropdown, select SMS consent contact source and then select Import update.
- Select the contact source you wish to update and choose one of the following options:
- Add new contacts: In the SMS context, this option in list import looks only for new contacts in the imported file with SMS opted-in or opted-out consent data for a specified text to join campaign. If one of the contact records exists in the SMS-enabled database and the data file, even with consent data, they are ignored as this list import action is only for new contacts.
- Update field values in the contact source: This option looks for updated contacts data in the data file that matches existing contacts.
- If the contact in the database does not have consent data, the list import update adds the new consent data for the contact.
- Add new contacts and update existing field values in the contact source: This option imports new and looks for updating contacts data in the data file and the database. List import add and update adds in new contacts with consent, updates the contact's consent state if it is opposite to the current state of the contact in the database, and adds new consent data for the existing contacts if they don't have any consent data.
- In the Consent management section, select the campaign to which you are adding or updating consent.
- If you want to update a contact's consent date and source when their consent status has not changed, select Update existing SMS consent date and source when consent status remains the same.
- To update the consent status for contacts who opted out, select Update the consent status if the existing contact has been opted out.
- Select the file to upload. You can upload a file from your local hard drive or select a file from stored files. You can upload a CSV, TSV, or PSV file.
- Select the file type you are uploading and click Next.
- If your file contains field names in the first row, select First row contains field names and define the date format from the Date field formatting section if needed and click Next.
- On the Map fields page, there are specific SMS consent fields that you must map so SMS consent can be imported and updated to your contact's mobile phone number records. Before you begin, make sure that the SMS phone number field is listed and displays as the SMS phone number field type.
- Map the import fields to the following consent fields and then click Next:
- SMS consent status (required, OPTED-IN or OPTED-OUT)
- SMS consent date (optional)
- SMS consent source (optional)
- Edit field settings. Note: Default values will be used if the SMS consent date and SMS consent source are left blank in your imported file. Review the information and click Next.
- Select sync fields. The system automatically selects the option that you will sync the SMS consent records by the required SMS phone number field. Consent records will follow the SMS phone number field. If you have any other fields in the file, this screen allows you to indicate what field it matches in the database. Click Next.
- Submit the data job. Confirm the information is correct. Enter your email address to receive an email notification when the job's status is complete. You may check the status at any time on the Data jobs page. Click Submit.
Create forms for opt-in
You can create a form within Acoustic Campaign where your contacts can complete their information and click to opt-in to a WhatsApp opt-in list.
Before setting up the form, you must have a WhatsApp opt-in campaign created. The WhatsApp opt-in campaign represents the double opt-in process. The campaign is triggered from the form once the contact’s desire to opt-in is validated.
Once you have the WhatsApp opt-in campaign set up, complete the following steps in your form.
- Add the SMS phone number object to the form and then edit the label. Be clear and state what the contact is signing up for by providing their phone number, provide details about how they could eventually unsubscribe and links to your terms and conditions.
- For example: you can add a label as follows: “You will receive a text message asking you to confirm your sign up to receive SMS messages. This is a free service, but text messages sent by/received on your mobile may be subject to message and data rates by your mobile carrier. Text "SMS HELP" for help or "SMS STOP" to unsubscribe at any time to 123456789. For T&C go to: https://exampleurl.com/sms/termsandconditions”
- Add other fields that you need to capture data, such as email if you will send emails to people who opt-in to the campaign or any other PII data.
- Publish the form.
Use an API
You can also import the contacts that provided consent using the API: Import to a database. The API caller must have the SMS list ID and SMS user access.
Identify the contact’s WhatsApp consent in your database
You can view the consent status for a contact added to your database. The database must be SMS enabled.
- In Campaign, go to Data > Database > View data.
- Select your SMS-enabled database.
- Click the Search tab.
- Search and select the contact that you would like to see on the SMS consent summary page. The Edit contact page opens.
- Click the SMS consent summary button and find the SMS consent where the contact is currently enrolled.
On the SMS consent summary page, if the contact's status is OPTED-IN to a specific opt-in campaign, then the contact has given consent to receive SMS messages. Consent is tied to the opt-in campaign listed in the SMS consent summary.