WhatsApp consent: how do you handle existing and new customers?

Question

Hi everyone 👋We’re starting to use WhatsApp  and I’d like to clarify a few best-practice questions around opt-in and consent management. 1️⃣ Existing contactsWhat’s the recommended way to collect WhatsApp consent from contacts already in our Klaviyo base?	An email campaign with a wa.me link (prefilled keyword)? Does the opt-in valid without keyword input?			An email campaign with an LP with an embedded form?			Does that automatically set “WhatsApp Marketing = subscribed” ans transactional?			Are there better/approved methods (embedded form, landing page, etc.)?	2️⃣ New customersHow should we collect WhatsApp consent during acquisition?	On Shopify checkout, we only have the SMS checkbox - how can we also collect WhatsApp consent there?	3️⃣ Marketing vs. TransactionalWhen someone opts in through a keyword, only the marketing consent is activated.	How can we get both Marketing + Transactional opt-ins together (without API if possible)?			If API is needed, what’s the recommended approach?	 Thanks !

Byrne C · Accepted Answer

Hey ​@Nico01,As of now, there are 4 ways to pass WhatsApp consent into Klaviyo. Via a Klaviyo form, a Keyword (like an SMS subscribe keyword), API, or a WhatsApp subscribe link or QR code. There isn’t currently a way to collect WhatsApp consent at Shopify checkout, at least not through the Shopify integration. That being said, you could use the Bulk Subscribe Profiles endpoint to make an API call from Shopify that could accomplish this, with a bit of custom coding.For new customers, I’d recommend sticking to a Klaviyo form, or having a keyword/QR code posted somewhere on your site or social media that gets a fair amount of traffic.While we do plan to add transactional consent collection to our forms in the near future, the best way to collect transactional consent is via API (or list upload, but that’s obviously a more manual process). This article herespeaks all about WhatsApp consent, and the section I linked contains an example Bulk Subscribe Profiles payload that includes both marketing and transactional WhatsApp consent. You can base your API calls on this payload.To address your originalquestion, since WhatsApp is such a new channel, I can’t confidently tell you the “best” way to collect consent from your existing subscribers, but you certainly can create a wa.me link and add it to buttons/links in your emails. That being said, if any other marketer wants to weigh in on this thread and let us know how you’ve been collecting WhatsApp consent from your subscribers, we’d love to hear your tips!

Michael Pretorius · Answer

Hey ​@Nico01. Regarding collecting consent at checkout - we added a checkbox using the Checkout Blocks app that updates an order metafield that we created.We are on Shopify Plus - so I managed to create a Shopify Flow to update consent in Klaviyo.Here is a screenshot of the run code section:It is necessary to format the phone number correctly. We are based in South Africa, so the country code is +27I then used a POST request​​​​​​​I hope that helps!

1️⃣ Existing contacts

2️⃣ New customers

3️⃣ Marketing vs. Transactional

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