WhatsApp marketing automation and Utility conversation

WhatsApp marketing automation and Utility conversation

We’re excited to announce the addition of two new features to our WhatsApp integration: Automation and Utility conversations. These enhancements will allow you to streamline your marketing efforts and engage with your customers more effectively by automating messages and providing essential information seamlessly.

WhatsApp marketing has become a prominent player in many marketing strategies, having demonstrated a 44.5% uptick in customers engagement. You can enhance your customer journey using WhatsApp automations to deliver personalized messages at the perfect moments and generate meaningful engagement with your contacts.

Enhanced engagement through journeys

Zoho Marketing Automation's journey builder takes WhatsApp engagement a step further by enabling you to create automated workflows that initiate conversations based on specific customer actions and ensure you trigger various types of interactions throughout the customer journey. The result is a seamless, personalized experience that delivers the right message at the right time.


Benefits for marketers:

  • Holistic customer engagement: Combine marketing efforts with essential service updates for a well-rounded customer experience.

  • Improved customer satisfaction: Foster trust and loyalty by ensuring customers have the information they need, when they need it.

  • Streamlined workflows: Automate routine tasks and free up valuable time for strategic marketing initiatives.

 

A quick walkthrough 

Trigger 

Similar to an email campaign trigger, if a contact from a WhatsApp campaign meets certain criteria, they will be added to a journey. Only actions can be added as criteria for journey enrollment, however. This restriction ensures that only specific customer behaviors—such as responding to messages or clicking links—qualify them as contacts worthy of inclusion. By focusing on these actions, we can enhance engagement and tailor our communications to those who show genuine interest.


Process 

Once a contact is added to a journey, you can define a Process > WhatsApp activity to categorize and send  based on user's activity. In this case, you can choose from multiple activities to associate with a WhatsApp message for greater flexibility and customization in your messaging strategy. 

You can use a single WhatsApp activity component to trigger specific actions based on user interactions. For example, if a user clicks on a specific link in a WhatsApp message, they may automatically move to a different lead stage. Alternatively, if a user responds with a specific keyword, you can automatically send a different WhatsApp message. These use cases highlight how you can engage with users effectively through WhatsApp activities.


 

Action 

You can use this action to send a WhatsApp message to all qualified contacts associated with the journey. By delivering personalized messages to contacts associated with a specific journey, you can achieve more targeted and relevant communication. Additionally, creating and sending purchase confirmation and transactional messages, collectively known as Utility Conversations, allows users to automate personalized marketing campaigns based on user behavior.

 

 


 

Utility Conversations

We've also added a new feature: utility conversations. Previously, Zoho Marketing Automation only supported promotional messages, offers, and updates. Now, with utility conversations, you can deliver essential, purchase-related information directly through WhatsApp.

This enables you to:
  • Provide timely updates: Send order confirmations and other critical information directly to customers to ensure they stay informed throughout the journey.

  • Streamline transactions: Use automated payment reminders and transactional messages to simplify the buying process and reduce friction.

  • Gather valuable feedback: Easily collect customer feedback through surveys to foster continuous improvement and increase customer satisfaction.



Note: Utility conversations have a distinct pricing structure compared to marketing conversations. You can visit our pricing page to calculate these costs accurately. Additionally, utility conversations will be included only in Professional and Enterprise plans.

 


 

With this update, we expect our users to get more out of Zoho Marketing Automation and enhance their brands' reputations with timely campaigns. We're always here to help marketers at every step in their marketing endeavor with Zoho Marketing Automation. Please reach out to us at support@zohomarketingautomation.com. We'll be more than happy to provide assistance!



      Zoho Campaigns Resources


        • Desk Community Learning Series


        • Digest


        • Functions


        • Meetups


        • Kbase


        • Resources


        • Glossary


        • Desk Marketplace


        • MVP Corner


        • Word of the Day


        • Ask the Experts


          • Sticky Posts

          • Marketer’s Space - Automating CRM Actions with Journeys – Part 2

            Hello marketers! Welcome back to another post in Marketer’s Space. In our previous post, we explored how CRM actions in Journeys help marketing and sales teams work together by nurturing CRM leads and pushing only engaged prospects back to sales. If you
          • Introducing automation and utility conversations in WhatsApp marketing

            We’re excited to announce the addition of two new features to our WhatsApp integration: Automation and Utility conversations. These enhancements will allow you to streamline your marketing efforts and engage with your customers more effectively by automating
          • Tip of the week 02 - The art of 'seeing' your leads

            What's the last page that your lead visited before signing up for your brand? What was the page that first convinced your lead to explore more about you? Where are your leads coming in from? Well, these are some perennial questions today's marketers live upon. And, knowing the answers to these questions is crucial, considering the vitality of leads in every business. In the journey of finding lead opportunities, it's important to understand that every detail about a lead is useful. While the channels
          • Zoho Marketing Automation Update: Topics, Contacts, and List Management

            At Zoho Marketing Automation, our highest priority is making it easier for you to use our product to accomplish your business goals. With that in mind, we are updating three of our pivotal features: Topic, Contacts, and List Management.   These existing
          • Important: Zoho MarketingHub is now Zoho Marketing Automation

            Hello Everyone,   We hope you all are doing well. We'd like to notify you that we have rebranded Zoho MarketingHub to Zoho Marketing Automation. We'll discontinue using the term "MarketingHub" from May 26, 2021. However, there will be no changes in the

          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

            Zoho Books Resources


              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                Zoho Projects Resources


                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                    Zoho Orchestly Resources


                      Zoho Creator Resources


                        Zoho WorkDrive Resources



                          Zoho CRM Resources

                          • CRM Community Learning Series

                            CRM Community Learning Series


                          • Tips

                            Tips

                          • Functions

                            Functions

                          • Meetups

                            Meetups

                          • Kbase

                            Kbase

                          • Resources

                            Resources

                          • Digest

                            Digest

                          • CRM Marketplace

                            CRM Marketplace

                          • MVP Corner

                            MVP Corner




                            Zoho Writer Writer

                            Get Started. Write Away!

                            Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                              Zoho CRM コンテンツ










                                ご検討中の方

                                  • Recent Topics

                                  • Voicemail to Text Transcription

                                    Hello, We use the Twilio phone integration in Zoho Desk. When a voicemail is left, it creates a Ticket in Zoho Desk, and we are able to listen to the audio recording in the Ticket. My hope is to also have a voicemail-to-text transcription show up in the
                                  • Conversation to Resolution

                                    Good day, I'd like to know how others are doing it. When we close a ticket, we reply to the ticket via email with photos of the issue and disclaimers. Then, we enter (copy and paste) the exact text in the resolution for reporting. I asked Zogo for a possible
                                  • Zoho Sign & Analytics

                                    Hi, Is it possible to import data from Sign into Analytics?
                                  • Zoho Desk - Feature Request - Add more social channels on Community user profile

                                    Hi Team, While updating my profile here I noticed that it is only possible to add Facebook and Twitter social links. 1. Please consider adding at least LinkedIn and if possible, other popular channels. 2. Please consider renaming Twitter field name to
                                  • Train Zia answer bot on only part of Knowledge Base?

                                    We are trialing Zia answer bot and hope to use it on the knowledge base to help our users find the information they are looking for. I have found how to train Zia on the entirety of our knowledge base. But is there a way to train it on only certain categories
                                  • More Workflow Triggers

                                    We utilize a lot of workflows in our organization. Recently we've identified two use cases where we would like a workflow to run a function. Upon further checking, the workflow trigger wasn't available, or the only option was to run the workflow more
                                  • Modular cannot Edit in portals

                                    I have a custom module in CRM. If I create in either CRM or portals, I can edit it in the CRM but I can't edit in the portal. Even if it is created in the portal it wont edit. Anyone know why? I've created a new module and it works fine but this one
                                  • ViewID and Zoho Desk API

                                    I'm looking at the documentation for Listing contacts and it looks like you can filter by ViewID. I assume this is views created in a department or all departments. Is this correct? And if so, how do I find the ViewID for that view? EDIT: I see the view
                                  • Writing on sketch cards is bugged when zoomed in

                                    When zoomed in, it writes a noticeable distance above or to the side of where you're actually trying to write. The further you're zoomed in, the more noticeable it is. Zooming is also entirely absent on the desktop version.
                                  • Lost the ability to sort by ticket owner

                                    Hi all, in the last week or so, we have lost the ability to sort tickets by Ticket Owner. Unlike the other columns which we can hover over and click on to sort, Ticket Owner is no longer clickable. Is it just us, or are other customers seeing this too?
                                  • In Zoho CRM, is it possible to transition from Approach 1 to Approach 3 based on the contract End Date? automatically

                                    In Zoho CRM, is it possible to transition from Approach 1 to Approach 3 based on the contract End Date? I have one issue between Approach 1 to Approach 3 there is another transition Approach 2 Iam faceing the issue if use the blue print API means i able
                                  • Mapping a new Ticket in Zoho Desk to an Account or Deal in Zoho CRM manually

                                    Is there any way for me to map an existing ticket in Zoho desk to an account or Deal within Zoho CRM? Sometimes people use different email to put in a ticket than the one that we have in the CRM, but it's still the same person. We would like to be able
                                  • Introducing Rollup summary in Zoho CRM

                                    ------------------------------------------Moderated on 5th July'23---------------------------------------------- Rollup summary is now available for all organizations in all the DCs. Hello All, We hope you're well! We're here with an exciting update that
                                  • Introducing Color and Order Preferences for Blueprint Transitions

                                    Blueprints exist to improve the efficiency of your company's processes and ensure compliance — but only if your users follow them promptly. More often than not, your users may find it challenging to adopt your processes and follow through on them, especially
                                  • HOW CAN I ADD NOTE FIELD IN EMAIL TEMPLATE?

                                    I have an email template which i use as a lost deal notification. I would like to mention "Note" field also which captures the reason for the lost deal. I am not able to do so and i checked with help desk and they confirmed that it is not possible. Is
                                  • Announcing Early Access to "Zoho CRM for Everyone" — A new and exciting update to Zoho CRM

                                    We are delighted to announce an Early Access to Zoho CRM for Everyone— a truly democratic approach to managing a CRM, gift-wrapped in an exciting and intuitive user interface. Here, multiple teams across an organization can coordinate among each other
                                  • Subject: Urgent: Unrelated Email Automation Issue – Request for Immediate Resolution

                                    Dear Zoho One Support Team, We are currently facing a critical issue with email automation in our Zoho One account. Despite deleting the associated templates and workflows, the same email templates are still being sent to our customers. This has become
                                  • Widget JS SDK to Upload a photo to a record in a Module

                                    Good day,  I would really appreciate it if someone can assist me. I have written a widget, to be used in a Custom Module in CRM.  My goal: I want to upload a photo from my computer and display it in die "upload image" field. I am using the JS SDK: https://help.zwidgets.com/help/v1.1/index.html
                                  • Presenting the brand new Zoho Bookings!

                                    Hello everyone, Greetings from Zoho Bookings! We're happy to announce a new version of our product with enhanced features to simplify scheduling, coupled with a sleek interface and improved privacy across teams. Here's what you can expect from the latest
                                  • Create Funnel to Track Email Outreach Conversion

                                    Hello, We would like to create a funnel that measures: N° of emails sent -> N° of emails opened -> N° of emails responded We would like to measure this email response conversion rate for each of our SDRs. We use the analytics tool of Zoho CRM and not
                                  • Zoho CRM - Analytics: How Can I Set Monday as First Day of The Week?

                                    Hello, In the analytics section of our Zoho CRM (not Zoho Analytics), we would like to track our SDRs' outreach activity. However, it appears that Zoho CRM treats Sunday as the first day of the week for the "This Week" and "Previous Week" filters. How
                                  • Remove OpenAI Dependency for Zia Meeting Keynotes & Add Hebrew Support

                                    Hi Zoho Meeting Team, Hope you're doing well. We would like to request the following enhancements to the Zia integration for meeting keynotes in Zoho Meeting: 1. Remove the Dependency on OpenAI's ChatGPT Currently, Zia uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT to generate
                                  • ZOHO Task deleted accidently

                                    Hello team, Can you please help me with a deleted task that was created in general task list for one of my project. The task is very important to me as it was created by client. Please help me.
                                  • Global Fields

                                    Just like Global Sets for Picklists, we would like to have global fields for any kind of field. Three things that should be saved globally: 1. The Existence of the field 2. The Name and 3. Association with a module should be set up in a respective place
                                  • I dont see Timesheet configuration for my client

                                    I dont see Timesheet configuration for my client
                                  • Zoho Flow Needs to Embrace AI Agent Protocols to Stay Competitive

                                    Zoho Flow has long been a reliable platform for automating workflows and integrating various applications. However, in the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-driven automation, it risks falling behind competitors like n8n, which are pioneering advancements
                                  • Add Hebrew Support for Meeting Transcripts Provided by ZIA in Zoho Cliq

                                    Hi Zoho Cliq Team, Hope you're doing well. We would like to request the addition of Hebrew language support for the Meeting Transcript and Summary feature in Zoho Cliq. Currently the transcript and summary feature is available for recorded meetings and
                                  • Seriously - Create multiple contacts for leads, (With Company as lead) Zoho CRM

                                    In Zoho CRM, considering a comapny as a lead, you need us to allow addition of more than one contact. Currently the Lead Section is missing "Add contact" feature which is available in "Accounts". When you know that a particular lead can have multiple contacts, why was this feature not included. Now we have to miss out other contacts or enter them somewhere in the description.!!! this is bad.
                                  • Add RTL (Right-to-Left) Text Direction Support Across All Zoho Learn Editing Interfaces

                                    Hi Zoho Learn Team, Hope you're doing well. We would like to request an important enhancement to Zoho Learn regarding support for right-to-left (RTL) languages such as Hebrew and Arabic. 🔹 Current Issue While the Knowledge Base Article editor provides
                                  • Zoho Creator delete validation seems like does not support <br> html code

                                    Validation Workflow in Create or Edit, We can use this styling code eg: <br>, <b>, <u> Those very simple code in those validation (in Create or Edit) But, for Validation (In Delete) Zoho Creator seems like does not support it. The alert task just shown
                                  • update warehouse id for closed credit notes

                                    the code run successfully but its not updating the warehouse, i send payload of warehouse id and name ,then tried to clone exisitng with updated fields .. lost one week in this.. <?php namespace App\Http\Controllers; use Illuminate\Http\Request; use App\Libraries\ZohoConnector;
                                  • Add Comment/Notes to Each Action in Zoho Flow for Internal Documentation

                                    It would be great if Zoho Flow could introduce a field to every action where we can make an internal note about why we are doing something with a specific action. This is especially helpful if more than one person from the organization handles automation
                                  • Monitor Ticket Transition Through Lifecycle Report

                                    Hello everyone, We have introduced lifecycle report under the pre-defined or static reports to provide better visibility of ticket transitions. For more information kindly refer to the help doc: Monitoring Ticket Transition with Lifecycle Reports Importance
                                  • How Do I Refund a Customer Directly to Their Credit Card?

                                    Hi, I use books to auto-charge my customers credit card. But when I create a credit note there doesn't seem to be a way to directly refund the amount back to their credit card. Is the only way to refund a credit note by doing it "offline" - or manually-
                                  • Importing Tasks : Where is the flexible work hours field ?

                                    I need to be able to import a years worth of flexible hours for our part time workers, but I can't find what field to import to. When I do an export, there is nothing that signifies Standard/Flexible and whenever I import it automatically sets it to Standard...
                                  • CRM Account Owner to be Assigned as Customer Owner

                                    We have enabled books and CRM integration The Account Owner in CRM, should be assigned as the Customer Owner in Books, but this is not the case You have go to books and manually assign the Customer Owner again If you change the Account Owner in CRM, again
                                  • CRM x WorkDrive: File storage for new CRM signups is now powered by WorkDrive

                                    Availability Editions: All DCs: All Release plan: Released for new signups in all DCs. It will be enabled for existing users in a phased manner in the upcoming months. Help documentation: Documents in Zoho CRM Manage folders in Documents tab Manage files
                                  • Zoho Campaign initial Setup

                                    Clarification on Contact Consent for Email Campaigns in Zoho Campaigns I’m currently setting up an email marketing campaign for my organization using Zoho Campaigns, and while going through the process, I came across the requirement of having contact
                                  • Zoho Projects Roadshow, Australia & New Zealand - 2025

                                    Dear Users, We are happy to announce the Zoho Projects Roadshows 2025 in Melbourne & Auckland. Our team will discuss industry specific solutions as well as help network with other participants. If you are an existing user of Zoho CRM, Zoho Books, or Zoho
                                  • Filter lookup field using client script

                                    Hi, I used client scipt to filter a lookup field- the trigger is on detail page onload. It works, however sometimes when I start typing in that field the filter is removed and the whole list is shown. What can I do so that should not happen? Thanks
                                  • Next Page