How to collect WhatsApp opt-ins the right way (and keep your number safe)

WhatsApp is the most personal messaging app most people use. That is why customers read WhatsApp messages, and why Meta protects it with strict rules. The most important rule: you may only message people who have agreed to receive WhatsApp messages from your business.

What Meta requires

Under the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy, before you send a business-initiated message:

• The person must have given you their phone number.
• They must have opted in to receive WhatsApp messages from your business specifically.
• The opt-in must make clear that they will get messages from your business on WhatsApp.
• You must honour every request to stop, whether it comes on WhatsApp or anywhere else.

Good ways to collect opt-ins

On your website

Add a checkbox to sign-up, checkout and enquiry forms: "Send me order updates and offers on WhatsApp." Leave it unticked so the customer chooses.

In your shop, restaurant or hotel

Put a QR code on tables, receipts, bills and room cards that opens a WhatsApp chat with you. A customer who messages you first has opted in to a conversation, and you can ask whether they want offers too.

With click-to-chat links

Share a wa.me link in your Instagram bio, Google Business Profile and emails. Pre-fill a message such as "Hi, I'd like to hear about your offers."

With ads

Click-to-WhatsApp ads on Facebook and Instagram start a chat directly and are a fast way to grow an opted-in audience.

What to avoid

• Buying or renting phone number lists. These people never agreed to hear from you. They will block and report you, and your number will be restricted.
• Importing your phone's contact list.
• Pre-ticked consent boxes or consent hidden in terms and conditions.
• Using an opt-in for one thing (delivery updates) to send something else (daily promotions) without asking.

Why it matters: quality rating and limits

Every WhatsApp business number has a quality rating (high, medium or low) based on how people react to your messages over recent days. When many people block or report you, the rating drops. A low rating can pause templates, stop your number from moving up to higher messaging limits, and in serious cases lead to a ban.

New numbers also start with a messaging limit: the number of different customers you can start conversations with in 24 hours. It rises as you send messages people value.

Keep a record of consent

For each contact, keep:

1. The date of the opt-in
2. Where it happened (website form, QR code, in store)
3. The wording the customer agreed to

Dizitallink stores the opt-in source with each contact, so you can show where consent came from.

Make opting out easy

Tell customers they can reply STOP at any time. Dizitallink automatically marks anyone who replies STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE or similar words as unsubscribed, and leaves them out of future campaigns.

Treat consent as the foundation of your WhatsApp marketing. Customers who chose to hear from you read your messages, reply and buy, and your number stays healthy.