Every message your business initiates on WhatsApp must start from a pre-approved template, and every template belongs to one of three categories. Choose wrong and two things happen: Meta reclassifies or rejects your template, and you pay the marketing rate for messages that should have cost a fraction of it.

The three categories in plain language

• Marketing: anything promotional — offers, new products, reminders to come back, upsells. Highest conversation price, strictest scrutiny.
• Utility: messages triggered by a transaction the customer already agreed to — order confirmations, delivery updates, appointment reminders, payment receipts. Much cheaper, approved faster.
• Authentication: one-time passcodes only, with fixed wording and a code parameter. Priced separately for security use.

Where businesses get it wrong

The classic mistake is smuggling promotion into a utility message: an order update that ends with a discount code becomes a marketing message in Meta's eyes, and the whole template gets reclassified. Keep transactional templates strictly transactional, and send your offer as a separate, honest marketing message to customers who opted in.

Getting templates approved the first time

• Use named variables and provide realistic example values when you submit.
• Avoid URL shorteners — use your own domain in links.
• Match the language declared to the language written; mixed-language templates are a common rejection cause.
• Keep formatting simple: one clear message, one clear action.

A practical starting set

Most Moroccan SMEs can cover 90% of their needs with six templates: order confirmation, delivery update, appointment reminder, payment received, a win-back marketing message, and a monthly promotion. Write them once in French and Arabic, keep them transactional where they can be, and your WhatsApp bill drops while deliverability improves.

SalesRep manages template submission and approval from the dashboard, tracks each template's category and performance, and warns you before a draft risks reclassification. Start free for 21 days and send your first approved template today.