In our latest #illuminateByMeritto webinar, our experts explored the challenges educational institutions face with WhatsApp engagement delivery rates. Institutions often experience issues like spamming, delivery failures, and misinterpretations about platform performance. Many assume delivery problems stem from the service provider, but recent updates from Meta indicate a broader shift toward promoting healthy engagement and reducing spamming. With WhatsApp now emphasizing bidirectional conversations and limiting broadcasts, institutions must adapt their communication strategies.
Understanding the changing landscape of WhatsApp engagement
In the webinar, our experts explored how Meta’s recent updates are designed to ensure WhatsApp remains a platform for meaningful conversations. Even when institutions follow best practices, Meta may decide not to deliver messages to maintain a balanced user experience. This shift stems from two concerns: a noticeable decline in the average time users spend on WhatsApp and a growing imbalance between personal and business messages. To address this, Meta has prioritized bidirectional engagement. Users who maintain two-way conversations with businesses are more likely to receive messages, while frequent WhatsApp users are also given a higher priority for business message deliveries.
Additionally, for the US territory, the WhatsApp Business API is currently restricted. Meta has introduced a quality rating system for both WABA numbers and templates, categorizing them into green, orange, or red. Templates fostering bidirectional engagement are assigned a green rating, while those receiving negative feedback are marked red. Orange indicates a mid-level rating. Maintaining a green quality rating requires little to no negative feedback and consistent positive engagement.
Another critical aspect introduced by Meta is template pacing. During large broadcasts, Meta may initially deliver only 25% of the messages and monitor for feedback for 1-2 hours. If engagement remains positive, the remaining 75% of the messages will be sent. This proactive monitoring ensures a positive user experience and prevents spam-like behavior. Institutions must adapt by sending messages in smaller batches and focusing on fostering engagement rather than mass broadcasting. Additionally, institutions are encouraged to adopt bidirectional engagement platforms like Echo and Niaa, which are now the most effective pathways for WhatsApp marketing.
Strategies to maximize WhatsApp engagement delivery rates
- Building a high-quality student opt-in list
Our experts emphasized the importance of creating a high-quality student opt-in list. Institutions can encourage students to opt-in by asking for their consent during initial interactions. A simple message like “Type ‘Yes’ to receive updates on your admission journey” can significantly improve opt-in rates and maintain compliance.
- Segmenting your audience for personalization
Personalization was another key topic. Segmenting students based on course preferences, location, or activity ensures messages are relevant and engaging. Experts highlighted how Template Manager allows institutions to use personalization tokens for tailored messaging.
- Using multiple WABA numbers for scalability
To maintain effective message delivery at scale, our speakers suggested using multiple WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) numbers. Distributing messages across different numbers helps institutions stay within messaging limits and maintain high deliverability.
- Driving engagement with transactional messages
Institutions can enhance engagement by sending timely transactional messages, such as admission updates, fee reminders, and exam schedules. Our experts recommended maintaining a balanced mix of transactional and engagement messages to build trust and boost delivery rates.
- Enhancing engagement with visual and interactive messaging
Our experts explored how Echo and Niaa can foster bidirectional communication. With these solutions, institutions can respond to student queries in real time, offering personalized assistance throughout the admission journey.
Rich media can be used to improve engagement and make content more interactive. Creating templates with good quality images, videos, documents, and interactive templates like quick replies and buttons can be leveraged to create dynamic and engaging content.
- Building bidirectional engagement with students
The discussion revolved around how institutions can foster bidirectional engagement using Echo and Niaa. Niaa, the education chatbot, powers 24×7 automated responses based on student queries and activity. Echo, a WhatsApp live chat platform, empowers counselors to handle live chat interactions in real-time. This creates a two-way engagement loop that enhances student support and responsiveness.
Additionally, institutions can enhance engagement by using marketing automation to trigger timely and personalized messages. For instance, when a student fills out a form, they can receive an instant confirmation. As deadlines approach, automated reminders can be sent without manual intervention. Marketing automation ensures messages are delivered based on student activity, providing relevant and timely communication at scale.
- Maintaining a green quality rating on your WABA
Meta assigns a quality rating to each WABA number, determining how far your messages go. Maintaining a green rating is essential for message delivery. To achieve this:
- Enable bidirectional replies
- Avoid overusing promotional content
- Provide clear STOP/RESTART functionality in all messages.
Our experts highlighted that maintaining a green quality rating ensures uninterrupted message delivery. Institutions can achieve this through bidirectional replies, reduced promotional content, and clear opt-out or restart options.
- Promote vernacular templates
Our experts also discussed the benefits of using regional languages to build familiarity and encourage interaction. Vernacular templates ensure inclusivity and broader reach.
- Integrate multi-channel communication
In case WhatsApp delivery fails, institutions should have alternative communication channels like email, SMS, and telephony in place. Our experts highlighted how this ensures messages still reach students through their preferred medium.
- Managing unverified leads with caution
When dealing with unverified or publisher leads, our experts advised limiting messages to a maximum of three per contact with a gap of at least two days. This cautious approach prevents spam reports and increases the likelihood of opt-ins.
- Execute smaller batches for bulk messaging
To prevent delivery issues, institutions can break large message lists into smaller batches. Our speakers suggested sending up to 25,000 messages per batch with a two-hour gap in between to maintain a high delivery rate.
The takeaway
To maximize WhatsApp engagement delivery rates, institutions should adopt student-centric communication strategies, leverage bidirectional solutions like Echo and Niaa, and maintain a balance between transactional and promotional messages. As we explored in this webinar, educational organizations that follow these best practices can improve student interaction, drive higher enrollments, and enhance post-enrollment retention. For more insights, watch the full webinar here.
