How to create and send WhatsApp conversation campaigns

From canvassing for a ballot vote to gathering user-generated content such as photos, videos and voice notes, a WhatsApp conversation campaign is the perfect tool to build trust and response rates to win campaigns.

Note: The campaign build flow is broadly similar across all campaigns! Simply navigate to campaigns, choose the type of campaign you'd like to send and follow the flow!

Tip: Every WhatsApp conversation must start with a template message. Before you get started, ensure you have the templates you need.

To create a WhatsApp conversation campaign, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Create your conversation campaign

Navigate to campaigns > select create campaign > WhatsApp > Conversations

Step 2: Name your campaign

Name your campaign so you can easily find it again

Tip: Create naming conventions for your campaigns as a team

Step 3: Follow the campaign build flow

Tip: Hit save once you've completed each section, you can go back and edit at any time, in any order

Goals (optional): Goals allow you to group multiple campaigns with a shared goal together and efficiently group everyone who meets the goal to make managing audiences and tracking results easier. For example, when running a get out the vote operation for a ballot, you can set up a goal for the ballot of people voting, which you can apply across multiple campaigns. If you would like to apply a goal to your WhatsApp blast, select it from the drop down menu, otherwise, disregard this section:
To: Select the audience you wish to send your blast to from the drop down or select Create new if you would like to create a new audience for this campaign - you'll be taken to an audience build page. If you would like to send to a particular number of randomly chosen audience members, check the box and enter the number you would like, up to the size of your audience:
Instructions: Add some instructions for the people taking part in the campaign - this is optional and may be most helpful if you have volunteers taking part in conversation campaigns

Tip: You could use this space to add a thank you message for volunteers taking part!
Users: Select which users can take part in the campaign, that is, the people who will be replying to the messages that come in from your audience. If you are setting up the campaign as a national admin and want users that are assigned to regions or other organisations below the national organisation, use user groups to allow them to take part.

Note: If you don't have an organisation hierarchy within Movement and operate as one national organisation, the default here will be national and you won't need to edit it
Content: This is what you want the first WhatsApp message in your conversation to say. Choose one of your templates and then edit any variables you would like to.

Tip: Make use of the emoji picker and merge tags for personalisation!

Note: As with all WhatsApp campaigns, only your initial message needs to be a template. Once you've sent this template message, you'll have a 24 hour window after any replies come in to have a free flowing conversation via Movement, which will be received just like any regular WhatsApp chat.
Settings: There are a number of settings you can adjust:

Volunteer matching: Choose how to match those taking part in campaigns to the people they'll be able to have conversations with. This can help to localise your campaign, for example, by allowing users and volunteers to reply only to the people in their area or workplace. The Volunteer matching mode has four options:

. Everyone: This is the default option, where people taking part in campaigns will be able to reply to everyone in the audience.
. Match by branch: Users can only reply to people within the same branch
. Match by organisation: Users can only reply to people within the same organisation
. Any organisation below user’s organisation: This is the recommended setting for matching and works flexibly based on your organisation structure and the User’s organisation. Users can only reply to people in the same organisation as them or the ones below their organisation in your organisational structure.

Volunteer targeting: You can optionally choose to let volunteers select which organisational unit they would like to call. Use this setting to target specific branches, regions, employers or workplaces within the campaign. When turned on, senders will have the option to pick a target before they begin making calls.

. Any organisation beneath their own - senders can target any organisation in the campaign that is within the organisation they are assigned to as a user (eg a regional user can select to target only those branches, employers or workplaces in their region)
. Any organisation - senders can target any organisation in the campaign. For this to work for the sender assigned to organisations below national, you will need to given them a role permission "Volunteer anywhere". See more about creating and updating roles.

Limit total messages sent: It's possible to limit the total messages sent by inputting a number lower then your audience size.

Sending mode: You can send all messages at once or customise to drip send a set number of messages per hour, between specific times. This is particularly useful in conversation campaigns where you're expecting lots of replies.
Canned responses: Canned responses are pre-written responses that users can select and edit when replying. Users can use these canned responses for common questions or as explanations about relevant topics. This functionality can help to speed up the process of replying to people and assist with FAQs. You can add as many canned responses as you like per campaign.

Tip: It's possible to add personalisations within canned responses, so they can be useful for checking personal details. Users won't be able to view personal details, only the description of what the details are e.g. postcode.
Preview: Utilise the preview to check your personalisation by selecting any contact to show an accurate preview of the initial message they will receive and check your message end to end by sending yourself or a colleague a sample of your WhatsApp message. Here you'll also be able to hit send to send your message immediately or use the schedule option to set a date and time to send the message.

Tip: When members and supporters reply to your initial conversation message, this will open a 24 hour period for free flowing messaging. Every time you receive a reply, this 24 hour window will refresh. After 24 hours, you'll need to send a new template message to re-start the conversation.

Replying to WhatsApp conversation messages

Users taking part in the campaign will be able to reply within Movement - for those receiving messages, it'll appear just like any other WhatsApp chat. If you have included a goal, instructions or canned responses within your campaign, they will be available on the reply interface.

To start replying, navigate to the campaign overview page once you have launched your campaign and select Start replying:

Or navigate to the Take part in campaigns button on the left side menu and select Go on the campaign you'd like to take part in:

Once the recipient has replied users taking part in the campaign can start replying. If there are instructions, these will be displayed before replies. Any goal can be marked as complete at the top right and any canned responses will be available to select at the bottom - once they're selected, it's possible to edit before sending, they don't send automatically on selection. Here's an example of the conversation interface:

Find out more about replying to conversations as a user here