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WhatsApp Templates

Setting Up Marketing Templates

Setting Up Marketing Templates

In this article

Marketing templates let you reach out to customers even when they have not messaged you in days, weeks, or months. Use them to run promotions, announce new services, or reconnect with customers during festive seasons. Unlike Utility templates which respond to something that has already happened, Marketing templates are proactive — you are starting the conversation. Because of this, they require WhatsApp approval before use and come with a few important rules to keep your account in good standing.

Contents

When to Use Marketing Templates

Use Marketing templates when you want to reach out to a customer who has not recently contacted you:

  • Running a festive promotion (e.g. Hari Raya, Christmas, year-end sale)
  • Announcing a new service your business is offering
  • Sending a limited-time discount to customers who have not ordered recently
  • Sharing a seasonal campaign across your customer list
💡 Tip: Takes about 10 minutes to write and submit. Most templates get approved within the hour — sometimes within minutes.
⚠️ Important: Marketing templates can only be sent to customers who are already saved in your EasyBiz contact list and have messaged your WhatsApp number at least once before. You cannot use them to reach people who have never contacted your business on WhatsApp.
📝Note: If your message is tied to a specific customer action (like an order confirmation or delivery update), use a Utility template instead — it is more reliable and never gets blocked by WhatsApp.

Pre-Built Templates Available

EasyBiz provides 3 ready-made Marketing templates to get you started.

  1. Special Offer -> Announce a discount or limited-time deal. Pre-written with a promotional message, coupon code, and a Book Now button.
  2. New Service -> Announce a new service (e.g. express same-day laundry). Comes with a Learn More button.
  3. Seasonal Promotion -> For festive or seasonal campaigns. Comes with a Shop Now button.
💡 Tip: The pre-built text is a starting point only. Replace it completely with your actual promotion. The structure and button setup are what you are reusing, not the sample wording.

Creating a Marketing Template

  1. Click the Marketing tab then click + Add Template, a dialog titled "New WhatsApp Template" will appear.
  1. Fill in the template details:
  • Template name — An internal label for your team. Not shown to customers.
  • Auto-move deal to stage — Optional. Automatically moves the customer to a stage in your sales pipeline when this template is sent. Leave as None if you are not using Deals. [Learn more about Deals — Coming Soon]
  • Default reply status:
    • Replied — Marks the conversation as done and removes it from your Pending list.
    • Pending — Keeps it in your Pending list so your team remembers to follow up.
  1. Click a pre-built template card to select it. A blue border appears around the selected card. The Create button is greyed out until you have selected one. Click Create and the editor will open with the template pre-loaded and ready for you to customize.

Configuring the Template in the Editor

The editor shows a live preview on the left that updates as you make changes. Configure the template using the sections on the right.

📝Note:

At the top right of the editor you will see three buttons

  • Discard -> reverts your draft back to the last published version of this template.
  • Send Test -> lets you preview how the message looks on a real device

For Utility and Marketing templates, Send Test only becomes available after Meta has approved the template. If you click it before approval, the account selector will be empty. Once approved, use Send Test to verify everything looks correct before sending to customers.

  • Submit -> submit your template to Meta for review

Header

Appears at the very top of the message. Options:

  • None — No header
  • Text — A short bold title (e.g. Special Offer for You!)
  • Image — A photo or promotional banner
  • Document — A PDF attachment
📝Note: When you select Image or Document as your header type, a "Samples for header content" section appears below the header fields. This is where you upload a sample image or PDF so WhatsApp can review your template with real content. Without a sample, your template may be rejected. Upload any relevant image or sample PDF — it does not have to be the final file.

Body

The main message your customer reads. Keep it punchy and action-oriented — include your offer clearly and give the customer a reason to tap the button.

To personalise the message, type @ in the Body field and a dropdown list of available placeholders will appear, Click any one to insert it into your message. EasyBiz fills these in automatically with real information when the message is sent. Some commonly used placeholders:

  • @Customer Name — e.g. Sarah
  • @Order Number — e.g. #00234
  • @Order Pickup Date — e.g. Wednesday, 9 April
  • @Order Pickup Time — e.g. 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
  • @Order Delivery Date — e.g. Friday, 11 April
  • @Order Delivery Time — e.g. 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
  • @Order Amount Due — e.g. SGD 45.00

These are just the most commonly used ones. The system has many more available — customer email, customer phone, store name, order date, order subtotal, and more. Type @ in the Body field to see the full list and pick exactly what you need.

💡 Tip: Always include @Customer Name in your message, "Hi @Customer Name, we have an exclusive offer just for you!" feels far more personal than a generic broadcast and is more likely to get a response.
⚠️ Important: Your message cannot end with a placeholder. Always add at least one word or punctuation mark after the last one. Do not use too many placeholders in one template — WhatsApp limits the number allowed.

Footer

A short closing line below the body. Use it for your business name or a brief disclaimer. Cannot contain placeholders.

Buttons

Buttons appear below the message as tappable links. Click + Add button and choose:

  • Quick reply -> A tappable reply button the customer can tap (e.g. "Yes, I'm interested", "Stop Promotion").
  • Visit website -> Opens a webpage. Choose Static (same URL for everyone) or Dynamic (URL changes per customer). For most businesses, Static is all you need.
  • Call phone number -> Dials a number you enter.
  • Open Mini App -> Opens a booking or order form inside WhatsApp. Select which Mini App to link. [Learn more about Mini Apps]

You can add up to 10 buttons. If you add more than 3, they automatically appear as a scrollable list. Drag and drop to reorder.

Submitting for Approval

When you are happy with your template, click Submit at the top right

Select your WhatsApp Business Account and click Submit. Meta review usually takes a few minutes but can take up to 24 hours.

After submitting, you can return to the template list where the status will show as Pending. Once Meta approves it, the status will change to Approved and the template is ready to send to customers.

⚠️ Important: If your template does not appear in the Marketing tab after review, check if it has a Rejected status on the list — edit it and resubmit.

How to Send Your Marketing Template

Once your template is approved, there are two ways to send it.

Send to multiple customers at once via Broadcasts

WhatsApp Broadcasts let you send a promotional message to a targeted group of your existing customers all at once, directly through WhatsApp. You choose who receives it based on their order history, spending, visit frequency, or sales channel, and EasyBiz handles the sending.

This is the most common way to run a promotion

[Learn more about WhatsApp Broadcasts]

Send to a single customer

You can also send a Marketing template to one specific customer in two ways:

Directly from the template list:

Go to the Message Templates page and click the Marketing tab

  1. Find the template you want to send
  2. Click the ⋮ three-dot menu on the right of that template row
  3. Click Send message and a dialog will appear
  4. If your template contains placeholders like @Customer Name or @Order Number, EasyBiz will ask you to confirm the details before sending. Templates with no placeholders will send immediately.
  5. Click Send

Or from the inbox:

  1. Open your WhatsApp Inbox and select the customer
  2. Below the typing area, click the Template icon (it looks like a message bubble 💬)
  3. Select your approved Marketing template
  4. If your template contains placeholders like @Customer Name or @Order Number, EasyBiz will ask you to confirm the details before sending. Templates with no placeholders will send immediately.
  5. Click Send

Understanding Error 131049 — When Marketing Messages Stop Delivering

If your Marketing templates suddenly stop being delivered to customers, WhatsApp has temporarily blocked them. This is Error 131049 — WhatsApp's way of flagging low-engagement outreach as potential spam. It happens when too many recipients receive your message but do not reply or interact.

Utility templates are never affected by this block because they respond to real customer actions, not unsolicited outreach.

If you see Error 131049:

  1. Stop sending that Marketing template
  2. Create a new template written as Utility
  3. Follow the Utility writing tips in this article -> How to Keep Your Template as Utility.
  4. Submit the new template and use it going forward
⚠️ Important: You can only edit a submitted template once every 24 hours. If your template is rejected, you can edit it to match a previously approved version to keep it active.

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Setting Up Quick Reply Templates

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