In 2018 companies and brands keep directing their resources at promotion of business through online messengers.  Telegram is one of these channels. From a typical text sharing messenger it evolved into a resource full of useful information..

Telegram has a different approach to  news feed. Here users intentionally select channels of interest and allow them to send notifications. The reader receives content of choice from prefered sources, whereas at Facebook or Instagram timeline is packed with direct advertisement.

Let’s look at Telegram from perspective of business:

1. Direct sales do not work here

Telegram channels are useless for that. The brand risks losing customer loyalty. Readers seek to subscribe to interesting content instead of the brands endless advertisement flow. That’s where company has to become a friend and communicate with the consumer through interesting and trustworthy posts.

With the right approach to content composition and presentation the channel will have success with target audience.

Channel devoted to learning English. Post about personal experience and useful resources to learn the language. It is helpful for target audience since they get new learning materials.

2. Word-of-mouth

The app is based on a referential marketing principle where consumers share their experience and information about the product with friends and so on. This way of promotion is based on consumers’ mutual trust and it is free. Users simply share posts they like with their friends, therefore readers tend to be more lenient to such content. People are more likely to read such posts and subscribe to the channel.

Channel credibility and interesting content ate the key factors to determine whether readers will share Your information with others.

Reader likes the post and shares it with the friend who also finds it useful and subconsciously forwards it to the target audience, and so on.

3. Content

So what do people like to read about in Telegram? The Rockin’Robin media hub analyzed the most favoured subjects:

  • Media

  • IT
  • News
  • Digest
  • Author’s channels

Telegram also allows to trace effectiveness of Your content strategy and it compliance with readers’ interests. Telegram uses a simple and free tool - emoji poll and the end of the post. Reaction of the reader clearly reflects whether they want to receive more of similar posts on this subject or not. Channels monitoring this stats have higher organic reach.

Reach (in advertising) is a number of people exposed to the post, who have seen it at least once.

Tracing and analyzing these polles which subjects of the posts work best for the brand channel. The more relevant the subjects are the sooner Your channel will win trust of the target audience.

At the end of the post users can leave their opinion about the content in a short poll

4. User’s attention

With Telegram it is easy to catch and hold readers’ attention to Your channel. According to Combot analytic service a single post in Telegram gains reach of 60-80% from entire audience of the channel, whereas at Facebook it is only 5%.

Images, video and animation open directly in the messenger. The link to YouTube, for example, will open in Telegram itself. Since there is not need to switch to external resources, users stay at Your channel and keep viewing its content. Number of reviews for the posts grows and so does the reach.

5. Native advertising

In Telegram there is no room for targeting advertising, banners and other ads which irritate readers. Instead brands use ‘native advertising’ where marketing messages are hidden in the content which appears interesting and useful for the end user. Native advertising is in line with the general format and content of the channel. This kind of advertising does not cause rejection from readers side.

Advertising in a blog in a form of author’s personal experience with weight loss.

Companies can order native advertising at channels with brand’s target audience and channels of opinion leaders. Advertising through opinion leaders usually involves additional funding but it certainly pays off with time.

Native advertising about the marketing agency routine at one of the comic channels

6. Sticker pack

For brands and companies stickers became a great tool of viral advertising. Telegram offers numerous collections of stickers for any situation and emotion. People use stickers everyday and have their preferences for certain sets. Similar to users any brand can create their own sticker pack. The more popular Your sticker pack is - the more people use it - the higher brand awareness You get. 

7. Chat-bot

Automation processes and introduction of chat-bots simplified operating Telegram both for users and companies. According to Facebook, they utilize up to 100,000 chat-bots in their Messenger app and the audience has positive experience interacting with them.

One of the vivid examples is the novaposhta_bot. This bot is quite popular mainly because it is simple to operate. It takes chat-bot few minutes to track your shipment and find the nearest branch.

Facebook research discovered that 53% of consumers want to be able to make a purchase directly in a dialogue window of the messenger.

RailwayBot is another example of Ukrainian chat-bot. It helps to find train tickets and also offers to pay for booking directly through chat. This way the company cuts expenses on call center staff. Due to simplicity in operation interaction with with consumers is smooth and effective. It helps companies to save funds and at the same time raise customer service quality.