Opt-in for WhatsApp marketing: what to ask, where, and how to honour a stop

Meta’s rule is short: the customer must see that they are opting in to messages from your business, and your business’s name. Say what kind of messages, too, so nobody is surprised by the first one.

Don’t tick the box for them. An opt-in someone didn’t notice is the one that turns into a block.

Meta leaves the method to you. A box at checkout, a line on your website’s form, a paper form at the counter or a question in a WhatsApp chat the customer started all work, as long as the words say who and what.

Ask when the customer has a reason to say yes: after an order, at a showroom visit, when they ask to hear about a restock.

An order update and a promotion are different messages, and Meta treats them differently: templates are marketing or utility, and a template that mixes an update with an offer counts as marketing.

Meta suggests separate opt-ins by kind of message, because people expect what they agreed to. A customer who wants delivery updates hasn’t agreed to offers.

Note the number, the words they agreed to, where they saw them and when. Meta’s page doesn’t ask for a record, but you’ll want one the day a customer asks why they got a message, or a regulator does.

Meta also says to follow the law where you operate. In Malaysia that’s the PDPA, Act 709, whose principles include notice and choice. This isn’t legal advice.

Meta asks businesses to make the value of the messages clear. If you said new arrivals, send new arrivals, not a daily discount. The first marketing message sets what the customer expects from the rest.

Tell people how to stop in the message itself, and honour it: Meta asks for clear instructions to opt out and for those requests to be honoured. Ask for a single word, such as STOP, so nothing depends on how someone phrases it.

A stop means no more offers from any tool that sends them. Order updates and replies to their questions can still go.

People can block or report a business, and Meta limits how much a business can send when its quality stays low. A template can be paused for recurring negative feedback or low read rates.

Check your quality rating after a new opt-in method goes live. If blocks rise, the wording or the timing is wrong, not the customers.