How-to · 4 min read · Savina Bansal
Contact groups: build a WhatsApp audience once, use it everywhere
Everyone in Pune, everyone who bought last Diwali. How contact groups work in Ohanvi, hand-picked or filled by a rule, and how to broadcast to one in two clicks.
Building the platform this article is about
Most broadcasts go to the same handful of audiences: regular customers, everyone in one city, last season’s buyers, people who enquired and never bought. Rebuilding that list with filters before every campaign is how the wrong people get a message.
A contact group is that audience, saved. Build it once on Contacts → Groups, and a WhatsApp broadcast, an email campaign or a CRM list can all target it, because they all read the same contact record.
Two kinds of group
Hand-picked. Create the group, then tick people in All contacts and add them, or use “Add contacts” on the group to search for people. Good for a list you curate: wholesale buyers, a VIP list, the committee.
Filled by a rule. The group holds whoever matches its rule, such as an account type, and fills itself as contacts arrive. You do not add or remove people by hand; edit the rule to change who is in it. Good for anything that should stay current without anyone remembering to update it.
Broadcast from the group
Open a group and the first button is “Broadcast to this group”. It starts a broadcast with the audience already chosen. The group also shows whether a campaign has used it yet.
Tidying up is safe
Remove people from a hand-picked group by ticking them and choosing Remove from group. Delete a group you no longer need: the group goes, and every contact in it stays in All contacts, untouched.
A few groups worth making
Customers who bought in the last festive season, for the next one. Leads who enquired but never ordered, for a gentle follow-up. Your city or area, for an in-store event. And one small group of your own team’s numbers, to test every broadcast on before it goes out.
Keep reading
Questions this answers
- How do I send a WhatsApp broadcast to a group of contacts?
- In Ohanvi, open Contacts → Groups, pick the group and choose “Broadcast to this group”. The broadcast starts with that group as its audience.
- Does deleting a contact group delete the contacts?
- No. Deleting a group removes only the group. Its contacts stay in All contacts.
