How to set up WhatsApp outreach

WhatsApp outreach lets you message contacts from the same list you already manage in NerdCRM, with replies landing in a shared inbox your whole team can see.

It’s a paid feature. The free plan includes 100 outbound messages to try it — see your free allowance.

Before you start

You need a Meta (Facebook) Business account, a WhatsApp Business Account (WABA), and a phone number that is not currently registered to the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business app. If the number is in use, delete that account first — Meta won’t let you register a number that already has one.

Step 1 — Create the Meta app

1. In the Meta developer console, create an app and add the WhatsApp product.
2. Note the App ID and App secret.
3. Add your phone number under the WhatsApp product and complete verification.

Step 2 — Connect it to NerdCRM

Go to Settings → WhatsApp and enter:

• App ID and App secret — the app secret is encrypted at rest and never shown again.
• Webhook verify token — any random string you choose. You’ll paste the same value into Meta.

Then turn WhatsApp on for the organization.

Step 3 — Point Meta’s webhook at NerdCRM

In the Meta console, set the webhook callback URL to your NerdCRM API’s WhatsApp webhook endpoint and paste the verify token from the previous step. Subscribe to the messages field.

Meta calls the URL once to verify it. If verification fails, the token doesn’t match exactly — check for trailing spaces.

Step 4 — Sync your templates

WhatsApp only lets you start a conversation with a template that Meta has approved in advance. Write templates in the Meta console, then hit Sync templates in NerdCRM to pull them in with their variables.

Templates take anywhere from minutes to a day to be approved. Rejections are usually promotional language or a missing variable example.

Step 5 — Run a campaign

WhatsApp → New campaign:

1. Pick the sender (your registered number).
2. Pick a tag — everyone carrying that tag is your audience. The builder shows a live count of who’ll be enrolled.
3. Pick an approved template and map its variables to contact fields.
4. Send. The confirmation warns you if the audience is larger than your remaining free allowance.

The 24-hour window

This is the rule that trips people up most.

• To start a conversation you must use an approved template.
• Once a contact replies, a 24-hour customer service window opens. Inside it you can send free-form messages.
• When the window closes, you’re back to templates only.

The inbox shows the remaining window on each conversation, so you can see at a glance whether you can still reply freely.

Opt-outs

Anyone who asks to stop is added to your suppression list and excluded from every future campaign automatically. Respect it — WhatsApp is far less forgiving than email, and a pattern of unwanted messages can get your number restricted by Meta.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause
Campaign paused on its own	Free allowance used up — the campaign resumes after you upgrade and un-pause it
Template send rejected	Template not approved, or a variable is missing a value
Can’t send free-form text	The 24-hour window has closed; use a template
Nothing arrives in the inbox	The Meta webhook isn’t verified, or messages isn’t subscribed