Guides

Broadcasts and re-engagement, without getting your number blocked

Last updated 2026-09-14

Messaging a list is the single fastest way to lose a WhatsApp number. Enough people tapping Block or Report and the number's quality rating falls, your sending limits drop, and eventually you cannot message anyone at all — including the buyers who wanted to hear from you.

So Vesma enforces the consent rules rather than trusting anyone to remember them, and refuses some sends outright.

What you are actually risking

A broadcast is not an email campaign. The downside of a bad email send is that it is ignored; the downside of a bad WhatsApp send is the channel itself.

WhatsApp is a private space and people treat unwanted business messages there far less tolerantly than in an inbox. The asymmetry is worth internalising before you press send: the upside is a few replies, the downside is the number your ads point at.

The three rules enforced for you

Anyone who opted out is removed. Replying STOP suppresses business-initiated messages permanently until they opt back in. They are dropped from the audience with the reason shown, not silently skipped.
A seven-day cooldown per person. Anyone messaged in the last seven days is excluded, however they ended up on the list. Two campaigns in one week cannot reach the same person twice.
Outside the 24-hour window, only approved templates. Meta's rule, not ours. Most of a broadcast audience is outside that window by definition, which is why broadcasts need approved templates.

Excluded recipients are reported back with why. A send that reaches 40 people out of 300 has told you something useful about your list, and you should read it rather than work around it.

Choosing who receives it

The audience is picked from your contacts — your leads, grouped by tags — in a dialog, so the message you have drafted survives while you decide who gets it.

Narrow beats broad every time. A message about one project sent to the people who enquired about that project gets replies; the same message sent to everyone gets blocks. The cooldown exists partly because the temptation is always to widen the list.

Writing one that does not get reported

Say who you are in the first line. They enquired weeks ago and do not have your number saved. An unexplained message from an unknown number is the one people report.
Have an actual reason to message. A price revision, a launch, a possession update. “Just checking in” is not a reason and reads as one.
One message, one thing. If it needs two paragraphs to explain, it is a conversation, not a broadcast.
Make replying the obvious next step. A reply reopens the 24-hour window and puts the assistant back in the conversation.

When re-engagement beats a broadcast

Re-engage is the better tool for bringing quiet leads back: one WhatsApp message to people who already had a conversation with you, rather than an announcement to a list.

Reach for a broadcast only when the message is genuinely the same for everyone. Otherwise:

One lead went quiet. The follow-up sequence is already handling it — do nothing.
A segment went quiet. Re-engage.
Genuine news for everyone. Broadcast.

How often is too often

The seven-day cooldown is a floor, not a target. Most businesses in this category should be broadcasting monthly at most, and many should do it two or three times a year.

The number to watch

Watch opt-outs after each send. A rising opt-out rate is your list telling you the messages are not worth receiving, and it arrives well before the quality rating drops. That is your early warning — the rating falling is the late one.

Reach your list without losing your number

Consent, opt-outs and cooldowns enforced automatically, so a campaign cannot quietly cost you the channel.