WhatsApp marketing: how to turn every conversation into a sale

With open rates close to 98% and a direct, highly personalised relationship with every shopper, WhatsApp marketing has become an essential lever for businesses to win and retain customers.

Costs, Meta’s rules, the best campaigns and automations to launch: here is the complete guide to turning your WhatsApp chats into a powerful growth engine.

What is WhatsApp marketing?

A key lever of conversational marketing, WhatsApp marketing lets brands interact with their customers, promote their products and sell to them. It offers a direct, personalised dialogue that is more engaging than traditional SMS.

Running your marketing strategy on WhatsApp requires the WhatsApp Business API. There are several types of message:

• Marketing messages are promotional campaigns started by brands (flash sales, targeted reminders, event invitations, etc.)
• Utility messages are triggered automatically by a specific customer action or need (delivery tracking, appointment reminders)
• Service messages answer requests for help or information (after-sales service, technical support)
• Authentication messages secure access to your users’ accounts (OTP codes to confirm a login, a sign-up, etc.)

WhatsApp Business vs WhatsApp Business API: which should you choose?

To talk to your customers, Meta offers two distinct business solutions: a ready-to-use mobile app and an API to connect to a dedicated platform.

The WhatsApp Business app

The free WhatsApp Business app is ideal for small businesses that want to get started easily. Quick to install on a smartphone, it lets you create a complete business profile with a basic catalogue.

However, sending is limited to 256 contacts per broadcast list and everything is managed by hand. You cannot set up advanced CRM integrations to automate your strategy.

The WhatsApp Business API

Essential for WhatsApp marketing, the API lets you send messages at scale and gives your whole team multi-user access. It runs advanced automations through direct integrations with the tools you already use, Shopify among them.

This model relies on pricing set by Meta, billed according to the volume of conversations. Access also has to go through a third-party interface. This is where WAX makes the difference, with a smooth, intuitive platform to roll out the channel easily.

What are the benefits of WhatsApp marketing?

A huge audience

With more than 3 billion monthly active users in over 180 countries, 2 billion of them daily, WhatsApp is a direct channel that reaches a vast, engaged audience. Unlike RCS, it gives you international coverage from a single account.

The two remain complementary: WhatsApp leads in Europe, Brazil, India and Mexico, while RCS takes over in markets such as the United States and Canada, where the app is less used.

A rich, conversational channel

Unlike traditional channels, WhatsApp turns a plain text exchange into a visual, interactive experience, thanks to rich formats (photos, videos, PDFs, voice notes, product carousels, CTAs).

It also opens a human, direct and personal conversation with the customer, who can reply straight away by tapping a quick-reply button or typing their own message.

Present at every step

By sending targeted, personalised offers right into your customers’ chats, this channel lets you step in at every stage of their journey. Conversational marketing is an ideal way to engage your audience, drive sales, send qualified traffic to your shop and build lasting loyalty.

An excellent engagement rate

Thanks to the closeness WhatsApp offers, messages deliver outstanding results. Open rates reach 98%, three times the impact of SMS and five times that of email. On top of that, the average time to interact is only seven minutes (against 20 hours for email), with click-through rates reaching 45 to 60%.

How much does WhatsApp marketing cost?

While the WhatsApp Business app is free, the WhatsApp Business API is billed per message sent, depending on the recipient’s country and the message category.

The rates in France as of 1 October 2026:

• A utility message costs €0.0248
• A marketing message costs €0.0712

4 WhatsApp campaigns to launch

Promotional campaigns and flash sales

Use this format to send special offers, limited-time discounts or flash sales. By adding eye-catching visuals and a button that takes the customer to their basket, you make buying easier. On the WAX platform, these campaigns drive up to 10% conversion.

Private sales & early access

This scenario gives exclusive or early access to your new collections or your sales, reserved for your WhatsApp subscribers. It rewards your VIP customers and makes them feel privileged, which boosts their engagement. Brands record up to 12% conversion with these operations.

Back in stock

The back in stock alert is a notification sent to your customers as soon as a product that was unavailable is back in stock. Aimed at people who have already shown a clear intent to buy, it re-engages them at just the right moment.

On WAX, this reminder can be fully automated. It then records up to 12% conversion.

NPS survey

Sending a satisfaction survey inside the conversation, a mechanic that can also be automated, helps you improve your NPS (Net Promoter Score). You collect precise feedback from your customers to refine your service. Paired with a repeat-purchase offer, it drives up to 12% conversion.

4 WhatsApp automations to switch on

Welcome message

Triggered as soon as a sign-up is confirmed, this message gives new subscribers a warm welcome and encourages them to make their first purchase. Paired with a welcome offer (a discount or a gift with the first order), these targeted automations turn up to a third of recipients into customers.

Abandoned cart reminder

This scenario targets shoppers who left your site without completing their order, sending them a reminder of the items left in their basket with a direct link to finish checking out. WhatsApp messages help you spot and remove what is holding them back.

You remove friction and secure sales that would otherwise have been lost: a particularly profitable reminder that generates up to 120x ROAS with WAX.

Upsell

Recommending complementary products or accessories after a first order adds real value for your customers while raising your average order value.

Birthday offer

Send a personalised message on a customer’s birthday, with a gift or an exclusive voucher, to strengthen their bond with your brand. On WhatsApp, this targeted gesture reaches up to 25x ROI.

How do you handle replies on WhatsApp?

On WhatsApp, you cannot stop a customer from replying to your messages. And leaving them unanswered creates frustration, blocks and reports that directly hurt your quality score.

WAX AI with customer service as a fallback

WAX AI answers common requests instantly. When it cannot find the answer to a specific question, it automatically hands over to your customer service team. WAX also works with the Gorgias, Zendesk and Crisp support tools.

100% AI or 100% customer service

You can choose to hand every conversation to our AI or, the other way round, route every incoming message to your own teams.

A tailored automatic reply

For businesses that do not want to handle incoming replies, you can set up an automatic message specific to each campaign or automation. It points the customer to another channel, such as your online shop.

A single automatic reply

A generic automatic message is sent as soon as a customer writes in the chat. It explains that the line does not take direct replies and gives the channel to contact instead.

How do you launch your WhatsApp marketing strategy with WAX?

Step 1: set up your WhatsApp and WAX accounts

To get started, create a WAX account and connect your whole ecosystem to it. WAX offers native integrations with your e-commerce tools (Shopify, PrestaShop), marketing tools (Klaviyo, Yotpo, Splio) and support tools (Gorgias, Zendesk, Crisp).

Next, create your dedicated WhatsApp phone line and link it to your company’s Meta Business Manager. Once your payment method is added, all that is left is to customise your business profile from WAX or Meta, so customers see a clear, reassuring image of your brand.

Step 2: collect opt-ins

Before sending any message, you must obtain each user’s explicit consent, as required by the CNIL (the French data protection authority) and by Meta’s rules. Several channels can help you build your contact list.

Online, you can:

• Add pop-ups to your website
• Add a checkbox to the checkout page
• Use Click-to-WhatsApp buttons and targeted ads
• Send a dedicated campaign to your email list

In physical shops, collection happens naturally at the till or through QR codes printed on your packaging, receipts and marketing materials.

Step 3: launch your first automations

Once your list is ready, you can launch your first actions straight from the WAX app. The platform gives you ready-to-use templates or lets you build your own scenarios from scratch.

For quick results, switch on high-ROI automations right away, such as the welcome message or the abandoned cart reminder. These mechanics create strong engagement with your customers and speed up your WhatsApp sales from the very first days.

To keep a good quality score and avoid being reported by your customers, make sure you also include utility automations (order tracking, NPS surveys).

Step 4: launch your campaigns

Schedule and send your first campaigns to engage your audience and boost your sales. Segmenting your audience is the key to maximising results. Each customer’s purchase history and frequency, average basket value and interests let you send highly targeted messages and offers.

The goal is to get the right message to the right person on WhatsApp, keeping engagement high while limiting marketing pressure and unsubscribes.

Step 5: analyse your performance and adjust your strategy

From the WAX dashboard, you see all your data in real time to analyse how your WhatsApp marketing strategy performs: open rate, click-through rate, conversions and revenue generated by each campaign.

WAX also lets you A/B test your campaigns to find the best-performing version and fine-tune the tone of your messages, the send time and the relevance of your segments.

WhatsApp marketing best practice

The 24-hour rule

The 24-hour rule governs every interaction between a business and its customers on WhatsApp. As soon as a customer messages you, a conversation window opens for 24 hours, letting you talk freely and reply in a personal way with no format restrictions.

Once that time is up, the window closes automatically. To re-engage the customer or start a new conversation, you must use a message template approved by Meta beforehand.

Marketing pressure

Sending WhatsApp messages too often can feel intrusive and harm your quality score. It is best to limit campaigns to one or two sends a week at most, to avoid a temporary or even permanent block on your WhatsApp number.

Tone and format

On WhatsApp, communication is about closeness and immediacy. Use a natural, human and direct tone that reflects your brand’s personality. As for format, write punchy messages enriched with eye-catching visuals (photos, videos, GIFs) and add action or quick-reply buttons.

Finally, always include a simple, clear way to unsubscribe at any time, such as a dedicated button in the chat.