Written by:
Ashwin
|
on:
October 29, 2025
|
Fact Checked by :
Namitha
|
According to: Editorial Policies
You launch a big campaign. The team is excited, the creative looks great, and your audience is ready. But when the results roll in, engagement is lower than expected.
A portion of your audience never got the message at all.
It is a silent killer for marketers. Wasted effort, lost trust, and missed opportunities.
In reality, delivery depends on factors such as channel health, regulations, connectivity, and timing. The only way to make sure every customer receives your message is through combining SMS marketing with WhatsApp API.
Every brand assumes that once a broadcast is sent, the job is done. Delivery failures often happen silently in the background, and by the time you notice, it is already too late to recover engagement.
Even the best campaigns can fail quietly if you overlook a few critical details.
Template rejections, low-quality ratings, or message limits can stall your campaigns midway.
For example, e-commerce brands can face template rejections when using overly promotional phrases such as “Big Sale” or “Win a Gift,” which might come across as spam.

Financial institutions can see rejections for using threatening tones in reminders or asking for sensitive data such as full card numbers.
In countries such as the United States, promotional WhatsApp messages are completely restricted.
SMS is highly reliable, but it is not without its challenges. In India, for example, DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) registration is mandatory for all promotional and transactional messages.
If your template or sender ID is not registered correctly, carriers will block the message before it ever reaches the device. Globally, spam filters and carrier policies can quietly reduce your SMS reach without notice.
Over time, this lowers engagement and makes it difficult to identify which regions or channels are underperforming, creating hidden delivery gaps that weaken campaign performance.
Even when both channels are technically sound, you can still lose reach due to outdated customer data. Deactivated SIM cards or wrong numbers can cause a dip in the delivery rate.
Each of these gaps reduces your campaign’s performance and reliability. With SMS Marketing Automation, businesses can detect failed sends, instantly re-route messages, and close the gaps before they impact engagement.
Depending on just one communication channel might feel simple, but it puts your campaigns at risk when that channel fails.
WhatsApp is great for engagement, but it comes with limitations.

Every message must adhere to Meta’s business messaging policy, which includes template approvals, messaging limits, and region-specific restrictions.
SMS offers reliability and scale but lacks the depth of engagement that modern customers expect. It cannot deliver media files, personalized interactions, or real-time two-way conversations.
It works well for alerts and reminders, but cannot build conversation-driven conversions.
Wati offers advanced SMS marketing solutions with in-built SMS marketing automation, helping you reach every customer, regardless of the platform or regional restrictions. It is built to make your campaigns smarter, faster, and more reliable.
When a WhatsApp message fails to deliver, our SMS marketing feature automatically sends an SMS after a short waiting period. The system checks the delivery status first, ensuring that customers never receive duplicate messages.

Before triggering the fallback, Wati checks the real-time delivery status of the WhatsApp message. This ensures customers never receive the same message twice across channels.
The process is completely automated and powered by real-time delivery tracking, so you always know which messages were delivered through which channel. The entire process is fully automated, managed through your Twilio SMS integration, and supported by live delivery tracking.
The outcome: One guaranteed message for every contact, sent through the best available route.
Beyond fallback, this new feature allows you to create and send SMS only campaigns directly from the same dashboard.
You can now plan, schedule, and monitor both WhatsApp and SMS campaigns from one unified platform. Every broadcast is synced, every message is tracked, and your communication remains consistent across all platforms.
Go to your Wati dashboard and click on Broadcast in the top navigation bar. In the sidebar, you’ll see the SMS (Beta) option under Template Messages.

Here you can view existing broadcasts or start creating new ones.
Navigate to Template Messages > SMS (Beta) and click Create New SMS.

This opens the SMS Template Builder, where you can define your message content, personalization variables, and compliance footers.
Fill in the following details:

The live Preview panel on the right shows exactly how your SMS will appear to customers. Once complete, click Save as draft or Save.
After reviewing your message, click Save to publish the template.

A confirmation message, “SMS template has been published successfully,” will appear at the top.
Your template is now ready for scheduling and broadcast.
Go to Scheduled Broadcasts under the Broadcast tab. Select SMS.

Choose your SMS template, audience segment, and schedule date/time. This allows you to plan upcoming promotions or alerts.
After the campaign is sent, visit Broadcast Analytics to review performance.

You can see:
Export reports for further analysis or share insights with your team.
Open your Wati dashboard and click More > Integrations from the top navigation bar.

You’ll see a list of available integrations, including WooCommerce, Zapier, Razorpay, and Twilio. Locate Twilio and click on it to begin the setup.
A setup window will appear with a short checklist.
Click Connect with Twilio to start linking your Twilio account with Wati.

This process enables both SMS fallback for WhatsApp broadcasts and direct SMS broadcasts to your contacts.
In the connection window, fill in the following details:

These credentials authenticate the integration. Once entered, click Continue to proceed.
Wati will verify your Twilio connection by sending a test request. You’ll see a message that says “Checking delivery status” as the connection is validated.

If the credentials are correct, your integration will be confirmed automatically.
Achieving 100 percent delivery with reliable SMS marketing solutions does not have to be a lengthy project.
| Week 1: Audit and Hygiene | Begin with a pre-campaign audit. Verify your contact list, remove inactive numbers, and validate templates for both WhatsApp and SMS. This ensures your foundation is clean and compliant before you start sending. |
| Week 2: Configure and test | Set up fallback rules, define time-to-live windows, and confirm that your Twilio integration is active. Run short tests to make sure routing and delivery tracking are functioning correctly. |
| Week 3: Dry run | Send a small internal or targeted campaign to a limited audience. Monitor delivery results closely, note drop rates, and identify the cause of any delays or failed messages. |
| Go live: Phased rollout | Start with a smaller audience segment, observe real-time metrics, and then gradually scale to larger groups. Continue monitoring delivery reports to confirm that fallback and tracking work as expected. |
With the right structure, your team can set up, test, and launch WhatsApp and SMS campaigns in just a few weeks.
The best part of running WhatsApp and SMS campaigns is that success is measurable. You no longer have to guess how your campaigns performed or where your messages got delivered. Every campaign comes with complete visibility and actionable data.
Track delivery rates by channel and region to determine how many of your audience members actually received the message. This helps identify areas where delivery can be improved.
Measure the number of contacts successfully reached via SMS after WhatsApp delivery failed. This single metric often reveals the value that the fallback system adds to your campaign.
See how quickly your campaign reached 90 percent of its recipients. This is especially important for time-sensitive campaigns such as limited-period offers, payment alerts, or product launches.
Compare read and click rates between WhatsApp and SMS to understand which channel drives stronger engagement. Use these insights to improve your SMS marketing automation strategy for future broadcasts.
Every message that fails to reach a customer is not just a technical issue; it’s also a customer service issue. It is a wasted budget, a lost opportunity, and a reduced campaign ROI. Wati’s WhatsApp and SMS system protects your investment by ensuring every message reaches its destination.
Get your messages delivered to almost every customer with the smart fallback feature that reaches contacts who could not be reached on the first try.
Stay compliant and connected across regions, including places where WhatsApp marketing is limited. With the SMS marketing feature, your messages still reach customers through a trusted and reliable channel.
Manage WhatsApp and SMS campaigns from a single dashboard. Track delivery, performance, and engagement without switching between tools.
No wasted campaigns and no missed customers. Every message sent is an opportunity realized, not lost in transit.
Reliable delivery is more than a technical win. It directly impacts engagement, retention, and every metric that drives business growth.
The SMS marketing solutions and fallback features are included in the Wati Business Plan, designed for teams that prioritise reliability and scalability. Both features integrate seamlessly with Twilio SMS, ensuring carrier-grade performance without adding new tools or technical complexity.
You get complete WhatsApp and SMS functionality in one place. No additional setup, no hidden costs, and no need to manage multiple vendors. It is a unified, enterprise-ready system built for global communication and consistent message delivery.
With the Business Plan, your campaigns not only reach more people, but they also perform better, stay compliant, and deliver measurable value from every message sent.
Reaching your customers should not depend on luck. It should be built into the way your system works.
Our Fallback and SMS marketing features help your messages reach the right people, at the right time. Whether it is a campaign reminder or a product update, every interaction stays consistent and trackable.
Try Wati for free today to experience smarter, compliant, and reliable communication across WhatsApp and SMS.
SMS fallback automatically sends an SMS message to a contact if a WhatsApp message fails to deliver within a set time window. It ensures every customer receives the communication, even in regions where WhatsApp marketing is restricted.
No. Wati’s system checks the delivery status before sending any fallback SMS. If a WhatsApp message is successfully delivered, the SMS is automatically suppressed.
No extra tool is required. The SMS Marketing and Fallback features are available within the Wati Business Plan and work through Twilio SMS integration. This means you can manage both WhatsApp and SMS campaigns from the same dashboard.
Yes. Wati supports blended campaigns in multiple regions. SMS delivery follows carrier and regulatory requirements, while WhatsApp templates remain Meta-compliant.
Blended campaigns eliminate delivery gaps that cause lost engagement. Every message that reaches a customer increases the chance of response, conversion, or repeat interaction. Over time, consistent delivery directly improves ROI and customer trust.
Setup is fast. Once you are on the Wati Business Plan and have an active Twilio account, the feature can be configured, tested, and launched.
Yes. Wati’s unified dashboard shows delivery rates for each channel, including how many contacts were reached through fallback SMS. You can monitor campaign performance in real time.
Blended campaigns are ideal for time-sensitive updates such as promotions, order confirmations, delivery alerts, payment reminders, or event notifications. WhatsApp handles rich engagement while SMS guarantees backup reach.
The Wati Business Plan is designed for blended campaigns. It includes WhatsApp automation, SMS Marketing, and Fallback capabilities with enterprise-level reliability and support.
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