import { Steps } from '@astrojs/starlight/components';
import Figure from '@/components/Figure.astro';

**Who it's for:** businesses that want to message their customers outside an ongoing conversation — a
campaign, a reminder — while following Meta's rules for WhatsApp.

## What the end customer sees

The customer receives a WhatsApp message with the template's content, already filled in with their data
(name, or any other field you mapped). If they ever replied **STOP** or opted out, or are unsubscribed from
marketing, they're automatically excluded from any campaign — the system honors this even during
conversations a human operator is running.

## Steps in the product

<Steps>

1. **Create the WhatsApp template.** In **Marketing → Templates**, press **"New template"**, write a name
   and language, and the message body using positional variables (first, second…) wherever you want a
   contact's data filled in. The template is sent to Meta for review.

   <Figure
     src="/captures/marketing-templates.png"
     alt="Marketing screen, Templates tab, showing one WhatsApp template with its language, Approved status and the start of its message body"
     caption="Only templates in Approved status are available to pick when you create a campaign."
   />

2. **Wait for Meta to approve it.** Press **"Refresh status"** to check again — only **Approved** templates
   are eligible for a campaign; if Meta rejects it or pauses it for quality, the status tells you.
3. **Group your contacts into lists**, if you want to reuse the same destination across several campaigns:
   press **"Manage lists"** in Contacts, create the list, and add or remove contacts by checking their
   boxes in the table.
4. **Launch the campaign wizard.** In **Marketing → Campaigns**, press **"New campaign"** and follow the
   four steps: name, recipients (a list or a manual selection), an approved template with a preview, and
   a confirmation summary of eligible recipients, ones excluded for opting out, and your plan's remaining
   quota.
5. **Confirm and sending starts right away.** There's no scheduled-for-later sending today — every
   campaign launches the moment you confirm it.
6. **Watch results live** in the Campaigns table: queued, sent, delivered, read, failed, and recipients
   excluded for opting out or because the monthly limit ran out — no recipient is ever silently dropped.

</Steps>

## What to configure

- **At least one template Approved by Meta.**
- **A connected WhatsApp channel**, required to use templates at all.
- **Contact lists**, optional but recommended if you reuse the same destination across several campaigns.

## Limits and honesty

- Sending a campaign is **always immediate** once you confirm it — scheduling it for later isn't
  available yet.
- Meta requires a pre-approved template to message outside an ongoing conversation; a free-form message
  isn't an option for marketing.
- Your plan sets a monthly marketing-send limit, always visible in the Campaigns banner; once it runs out,
  the remaining recipients of a campaign already in progress land as "Excluded (limit)" — never silently
  sent without being counted.

## See also

- **[Contacts and marketing](/en/guides/contactos-marketing/)** — the full detail of lists, templates and
  campaigns.
- **[Lead capture via WhatsApp and web](/en/use-cases/captacion-leads-whatsapp-web/)** — where the
  contacts that later join a campaign come from.