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Marketing Opt-Out Management

Giving people an easy way to stop marketing messages keeps your WhatsApp quality rating high and your messaging limits growing. With the Managing Marketing Opt-Out Requests automation, a customer replies STOP to unsubscribe and RESUBSCRIBE to opt back in. Whautomate tags them, adds them to your do-not-message list and leaves them out of future broadcasts automatically.

How it works​

When a customer sends a message that is exactly STOP (any capitalisation):

  1. They receive a confirmation that they are unsubscribed, with a Resubscribe button.
  2. Their contact (and matching client) gets the unsubscribe tag.
  3. Their number is added to WhatsApp Suppressions with the type UNSUBSCRIBE, so they no longer receive WhatsApp template messages such as broadcasts.

When they send RESUBSCRIBE or tap Resubscribe, they get a welcome back message, the tag is removed and they are taken off the suppression list.

"Stop marketing" or "please stop" does not trigger the rule. The message must be the single word STOP. The rule runs even while a team member is handling the chat.

Customers can also turn off marketing messages from your business inside WhatsApp. Whautomate adds those numbers to WhatsApp Suppressions automatically, without the rule.

Step 1: Add a STOP line to your marketing templates​

When you create a WhatsApp template in the Marketing category, the footer is pre-filled with "Reply 'STOP' to unsubscribe from our updates." Keep it, so customers know how to opt out. See WhatsApp Message Templates.

Step 2: Install the opt-out automation​

  1. Go to Engage > Automations and click Add Rule.
  2. Find Managing Marketing Opt-Out Requests and click Install Rule.

The rule is installed and active. You can open it under Automations to change the confirmation messages.

The Select Rule Template page with the Managing Marketing Opt-Out Requests template and its Install Rule button

Step 3: Leave opted-out people out of your segments​

Numbers on the suppression list are skipped by WhatsApp broadcasts. To keep your recipient counts accurate, and for email or client campaigns, also exclude the tag in your segments:

  1. Go to Engage > Segments and click + Add Segment.
  2. Under Exclude Contact(s) with Tags (or Exclude Client(s) with Tags), add unsubscribe.
  3. Save, and use this segment for your marketing broadcasts.

People who opt out later drop out of the segment automatically. See Contact segments.

Test it​

  1. Send a marketing template to your own number, for example with a test broadcast.
  2. Reply STOP. Check that you get the confirmation and that your number appears on Engage > Contacts > WhatsApp Suppressions.
  3. Reply RESUBSCRIBE and check that you are removed again.

Manage opt-outs by hand​

On Engage > Contacts > WhatsApp Suppressions you can add a number (Add Number), import a list (Bulk Import) or remove numbers. See Contacts.

For email, people who click Unsubscribe in a campaign are added to the email do-not-send list. See Email Activity and suppressions.

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