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Creating a campaign

Campaigns are created in the workflow builder, not on the Campaigns page.

The Campaigns page is a monitoring view. It has no create button, because campaigns are produced by workflows.

To send an announcement, open an Automation engine in the sidebar and build a workflow. Under Organisation pick Church, School, NGO or Community Club; under Events pick Event Reminders, Schedule Update or Attendance Confirmation. The engine you choose sets the campaign's title and colour — the form is the same in all seven.

The five sections of the builder

  1. 1Target Audience — the group that receives this. Required; the submit button stays disabled until one is chosen.
  2. 2Message — choose an approved template and fill in its variables, or leave the template empty and write a free-form message. Templates awaiting approval appear greyed out with their status.
  3. 3Flier and Smart Reply — an optional attachment up to 16MB, up to three quick-reply buttons, and an optional link button.
  4. 4Smart Auto-Replies — automatic answers to common questions from people who reply. See Smart Auto-Replies.
  5. 5Delivery — send now or schedule, plus an optional repeat.

Click Create Workflow (or Schedule Dispatch) to queue it. The confirmation screen offers Create another and a link to the delivery queue.

What happens next

MsgOrb expands the workflow into one queued message per active member of the group, skipping anyone who has opted out or bounced. The dispatcher picks them up on its five-minute cycle, and MsgOrb also triggers a dispatch immediately after you submit.

With a text template, the attachment is not pushed with the announcement. It is held and sent when a member replies asking for it — with words like *flier*, *flyer*, *poster*, *photo* or *picture*. Say so in your message, or nobody will ask.

Show the flyer at the top of the message

Every event template in the Built-In Library (Church, School, NGO, Community, Webinar, Conference, Graduation and Funeral) has a ... with Picture version, for example Church Service Reminder with Picture. It has the same blanks as the text version, puts your flyer at the top of the message, and lists the event, time and venue on their own lines.

  1. 1Go to Templates, click Built-In Library, and click Use Template on the ... with Picture version you want. Submit it to Meta.
  2. 2Once Meta approves it, choose it in step 2 of the builder.
  3. 3In step 3, attach your flyer as a JPG or PNG picture. WhatsApp does not accept a PDF, video or WEBP file at the top of a message, so the builder asks for a picture before sending.

The flyer is also still held back as before, so a member who replies *flier* gets it again on its own.