Intelligent conversation operations
RSVPs, the seating card, the parking pass and the day-of logistics to three hundred guests who were invited by the family and never signed up to anything. The one that decides deliverability: a message about the event the guest is attending is utility; "book us for your next event" is marketing.
The category decides everything else: the price, whether it reaches somebody who opted out, and the criteria it is reviewed against.
| Message | Category | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Invitation with RSVP buttons: attending / not attending / plus one | Utility | The guest was invited by the host; the message is about that invitation. The buttons write the answer straight into the guest list rather than into a WhatsApp group the planner reads at midnight. |
| Venue, timing, table number, parking and dress code, two days out | Utility | About the event they confirmed for. Sent as one template with variables so the same approval covers every guest, and the table number is per-recipient. |
| Day-of changes: doors open late, the ceremony moved indoors | Utility | The 24-hour window is open for every guest who replied RSVP in the last day — and closed for the rest, so this one must be a pre-approved template held ready, not typed at 4pm. |
| Photo gallery is ready, thank-you note, book us for your event | Marketing | The gallery link alone is utility. Adding "planning something? talk to us" turns the whole message into marketing to three hundred people who never opted in — send the gallery, keep the pitch for the host. |
Planners reach for a WhatsApp group because it is what they have — and it leaks every guest's number to every other guest, which in the UAE, Bahrain and Oman is a personal-data problem and in every market is the thing the family will complain about. A template sent to each guest individually shows nobody else's number, carries their own table and their own RSVP, and costs a utility conversation per guest rather than a marketing one. The other thing a group cannot do is prove delivery: Zanii keeps a receipt per message, so when the mother of the bride asks whether her cousin was told about the venue change, the answer is a timestamp rather than a guess.
{{1}} and {{2}} would be honoured by your presence at their wedding on {{3}} at {{4}}. Please let us know by {{5}} using the buttons below.
Category: Utility
The double braces are variables WhatsApp fills per recipient. Meta rejects a template whose numbering has gaps, and Zanii catches that before you submit it.