Create and send a WhatsApp campaign

Pick who receives it. Choose or build a customer segment in Shopify. This defines who the campaign is sent to.

Segments live in Shopify, which owns the customer data. Dondy reads and syncs that data, so once you save a segment in Shopify it becomes available to use when you create a campaign in Dondy.

Confirm you can message them. By default, any customer who left a phone number is eligible. You can tighten this to require explicit opt-in, aligned with your consent rules. It's best to be transparent about WhatsApp marketing wherever you collect the number (a checkout box, a sign-up pop-up).

Write the message and submit it to Meta. Design the message in Dondy and create draft (this will send the template for Meta's approval). Nothing can be sent until Meta approves it.

You can find and select various pre-made templates to serve as a guide, get AI assistance for writing messages, change the language, use dynamic codes, or embed a custom image.

Wait for approval, then set the send time. While the template is pending, the campaign can't go out. Once approved (shown green), set the date and time. You can still edit the time before it fires. The scheduled time must be within the next 2 months.

By visiting this option, you can also check the approximate cost of the campaign, estimated based on the segment size. Dondy only charges for messages that are actually sent, and undelivered messages are not charged.

Check it before the real send. Once the template is approved, send yourself a test message to confirm it looks right.

A test message lets you confirm the message looks right: the text, the formatting, and the links so you don't spend balance on a bulk send that has an error. For the test to be sent, the campaign's template must be approved, you must have a valid WhatsApp number to send the test to, and enough Dondy balance to send it.

Make sure you can cover the send. Confirm you have enough Dondy balance for the number of recipients. If the balance is empty, sending stops.

Messages are paid for using your Dondy balance and the payment method linked to Meta. If your balance drops to zero, sending stops until you top up. If this happens, none of your settings are lost; you simply need to add more funds.

When you top up your Dondy balance, you make a one-time purchase via Shopify—using the payment method linked to that platform for the amount of your choice.

Let it launch as scheduled, cancel the campaign if something doesn't look right, or reschedule it for another date. The campaign moves from Draft to Scheduled and then, at the set time, to Sent.

Use the “Exclude customers who received marketing messages recently” option when creating a campaign. This helps prevent contacting the same customers too frequently. As a best practice, avoid messaging the same customer more than once or twice per month.

It’s best to stay below your daily messaging limit to leave room for other messages. For example, if your daily limit is 2,000 messages, consider sending messages to around 1,500 customers instead of using the full limit.

When you send matters, you set the campaign's send time when you schedule it, and reviewing when messages went out and were delivered helps you interpret the results and choose better send times next time.

Once a campaign is sent, Dondy reports back on how it performed so you can review the results.

After it’s sent, check the metrics: how many messages were sent, how many were delivered, and the revenue impact.

Attribution is how you determine which sales count as a result of a campaign. Dondy attributes an order to a phone number if that customer received a message within a set time window before making a purchase. The default window is 7 days: if the customer purchases within 7 days of receiving the campaign, that sale is credited to it, but you can change this.