Expected duration: 1 day or less I need to set up an automated system to deliver a weekly sound recording to my subscribers via Whatsapp.
The RAT (Rawlings Agency Tips) is a subscription-based series of weekly soundbites, whereby subscribers receive a motivational/educational voice recording (about 2-5 mins duration) from me by Whatsapp Business every Monday morning. Soundbites are recorded on iPhone Voice memo, and then stored on Dropbox.
Objective: To fully automate the delivery of this service. When someone subscribes by supplying their cellphone number and email address on my Wix form, this triggers a weekly Whatsapp message that contains a greeting message and soundbite, pulled from a Dropbox spreadsheet. This commences on the Monday following subscription, when the subscriber will always initially receive the first RAT (RAT no.1). They then receive RAT no.2 the following Monday, and so on, until cancelled.
Notes: 1. People subscribe to receive the service via a form on my website, which is hosted on Wix. 2. I have a dedicated Whatsapp Business number used solely for this purpose. 3. I believe I should use Broadcast list, not group for privacy reasons. 4. As soon as someone subscribes this should trigger a welcome confirmation by email and Whatsapp that includes details of the dedicated Whatsapp number that they will need to add to their contact list. They will then automatically be added to the distribution schedule which should run itself. 5. I’ll provide an excel spreadsheet with RAT.1, RAT.2, RAT.3, etc with the topic description and a link to the recording. 6. The automation should add the date the subscriber joined to the spreadsheet. 7. As this will be a free service, I expect the number of users to be maybe 1000 eventually. 8. I have a (entry-level) Zapier account 9. Ideally the soundbite itself would download and play straight from the subscriber’s phone, but initially it’s probably ok if they click on a link to the recording in Dropbox. (I believe removing the extra click to Dropbox might involve the expense of WATI/Whatsapp Business API ??) 10. Must comply with Whatsapp guidelines. 11. If someone changes their phone number and informs me, I need to be able to continue their series where they left off, as resubscribing would re-set them to Rat No1. So I need to be able to update a phone number without breaking their schedule. 12. As this is a free service, I’m keen to keep costs to a minimum. Once set up, I imagine it should be cost free, apart from the occasion phone top-up to maintain my number.
