I have a professor who is a famous translator and editor. He writes very well. He also helps his talented students if they want to translate books. He also cooperates with big publishers.
Until recently, his mobile phone was not smart. That is, it had nothing to do with technology, internet, social networks and virtual space. After all, he was a person who spent all his time reading, writing or teaching. But, one day I saw that he sent me the address of his Telegram channel.
It is a channel with almost a thousand members (of course, the number of members of this channel increases every day). Sometimes he shares very pure and less read verses and pieces of classical and modern poets on the channel and sometimes he introduces a book. The books introduced in the channel are accompanied by a link. The publisher’s website link that allows you to buy the book online. In addition to introducing books, writing and editing training courses are also introduced on the channel. I myself have bought several books that he introduced on his channel. Of course, I am sure that I was not the only one among the channel members who bought those books.
I had a friend who was overweight. He was working and taking care of his sick mother. He really didn’t have time to go to the doctor and go on a diet. Until he got acquainted with a group that gives applicants their suitable diet through chat and Telegram Bot.
All payments and support are done through the same Telegram and bot. The link of the articles on the website of that collection is also sent to him through Telegram.
At the end of each diet period, the same bot conducts a survey and my friend answers the questions designed in the same telegram.
My friend is satisfied and is now a loyal Telegram customer of this collection.
I went to buy shoes. I finally found a shop that had the model I wanted. He took my mobile number and added me to the store’s Telegram channel. In this channel, they send photos and prices of new models, and announce discounts and auctions. If customers have any questions, the channel admin will answer them.
These were three examples of applications that Telegram has found for businesses, and not just digital businesses. Of course, the applications of this messenger for marketing and digital marketing are not only those three examples. Telegram is no longer just an ordinary messenger. Telegram has capabilities and facilities that can be easily used as a digital marketing tool and in the service of achieving various goals. What are these features and benefits? Does marketing in Telegram have its own principles? What is Telegram marketing strategy? Is it possible to advertise or sponsor on Telegram?
In this article, an attempt has been made to address the above questions and other related questions and issues and provide the reader with a comprehensive guide to Telegram Marketing.
Table of Contents
Telegram marketing or Telegram marketing
The internet space offers a wide range of possibilities for marketing and advertising to businesses. The use of these vast facilities is known as Internet Marketing or Online Marketing.
Currently, more than 5 billion people worldwide have access to the Internet. You will be surprised if you know that according to statistics, more than half of the Internet users around the world are also social network users.
This statistic is enough for social media marketing to become especially important for businesses. Of course, the Internet has provided another popular possibility for marketing and digital marketers: Messenger Marketing. When a business uses messengers to interact and communicate directly with its potential and actual customers/audiences, it means that it uses Messenger Marketing tools in its digital marketing program. If you look at the statistics of messaging application users in the world, you will realize that these messengers are also powerful digital marketing tools like social networks.
In the meantime, according to statistics, Telegram is a powerful messenger whose number of users is increasing every day. For this reason, a new and independent branch was added to the marketing of messengers called Telegram Marketing or Telegram Marketing.
So your business benefits from Telegram Marketing:
- When he increases the number of his customers/audiences (i.e. sales) through Telegram,
- When he introduces his name and his product to potential customers through Telegram
- When it increases the traffic of its site through Telegram and helps the SEO of its store site,
- When customers are supported and get answers to their questions through Telegram,
- When they are polled through Telegram,
- When he publishes the produced contents and statistics and information and infographics related to the brand, products and services through Telegram,
- When he gets help from Telegram for competitor analysis and also research for persona marketing.
Advantages and facilities of Telegram
Why Telegram when there are social networks? What does Telegram have that they don’t have? Telegram certainly has common features with social networks, but the differences between the two are also significant.
- Installing and using Telegram is free like social networks. Of course, it should be added that Telegram does not receive advertisements. It does not sponsor and does not display advertisements of other companies. Basically, Telegram is not made for profit purposes. Telegram is for direct and personal interaction.
- Telegram, unlike many applications, is completely Cloud-based. That is, if you download something, it will occupy a space to store only the downloaded content.
- Telegram, like other messengers and social networks, has a desktop version and is compatible with both types of operating systems (IOS & Android).
- Telegram allows the user to publish and republish any type of content (text, video, audio, photo, infographic, etc.) without volume restrictions (like WhatsApp).
- In Telegram, in addition to the facilities related to private and personal chat and creating Telegram groups, there is a unique possibility of creating a channel and managing and fully controlling Telegram channels.
- Telegram has another unique feature called bots (robots) that are set to chat with the user like a real person and respond.
- Telegram allows users to create personalized stickers.
- Working with Telegram is easy and has a very good user experience. Telegram allows its users to delete the message, edit it, pin it, copy the link placed in the content, etc.
Telegram marketing strategy
How to use these tools and facilities? Find channels that have a lot of members and pay for advertising there and that’s it (like influencer ads on Instagram)? Or republish the link of our site in several channels and groups?
Yes, of course, if you want to use Telegram marketing at the lowest level and in the most clichéd way possible. But if you want to use Telegram in the best way for the benefit of your business, you should consider the following points in developing your Telegram marketing strategy:
1. Business Type
Are you a large and well-known company or a new startup? How many products and services do you offer? What resources (human and financial) do you have for advertising? Is your business digital? Do you have a website? What is your business digital marketing plan?
2. Goal setting
After clarifying the answers to the above questions, it is time to ask what purpose you want to use Telegram marketing to achieve.
When you are a fledgling startup, why have a group or channel? What did you think of the members of the group or channel?
If you reach a point where you have, say, 300 regular customers, you can create a group to directly communicate with your regular customers and answer their questions.
3. Telegram channel
When you want to continuously inform customers (in large numbers, because the Telegram channel has no limit on the number of members) and you do not need two-way communication, the Telegram channel is the best choice. Look at the telegram channels of news agencies.
Or consider the Telegram channel of a cosmetics company. In this channel, in addition to informing about discounts and auctions, customers are also informed about how to use different products. In the channel, you can set a date and time for the posts to be published automatically.
You can have valuable information about the behavior of channel members and their behavior in the channel. In addition to the number of people who saw each post, if the Telegram channel has more than 500 members; Telegram also provides other information to the channel owner, such as:
- The number of members who joined or left your channel.
- The number of members who muted your channel
- How did the members get to know your channel and join it?
4. Telegram group
If you have a business that requires direct communication with customers, Telegram group can be a good option. Where customers can communicate with you and each other. A Telegram group cannot have more than 200 thousand members.
The best possibility that the Telegram group offers you is to hold a poll (even with anonymous voting) about a question, problem or suggestion. With this possibility, a competition can be held among group members.
5. Telegram bots
If you have a business where many customers want you to support 24/7, then building a Chatbot is the most ideal. Telegram bots can be set as you want so that they have the answers and conversations you want with customers.
Of course, you should pay attention to the fact that the bot is software, so it is not easy to create groups and channels. Some familiarity with coding is also needed to make bots. Bots can be made to do different things in Telegram, even play games with the other party.
I recommend reading the guide that Telegram has published for developers about building bots.
6. Personalized Telegram stickers
Before you think about making stickers for your business, you need to answer some important questions: What images or photos do you want to turn into stickers? Do you have a creative idea?
In addition, you should pay attention to a very important point: the photos that are going to be stickers must be your own and not subject to copyright.
According to the mentioned issues, if you want to make stickers for your business, you can do this with the @Stickers bot.
7. Telegram content management
Telegram content management depends on various factors such as the type of your business, your purpose of Telegram marketing and the resources you have.
Apart from textual content and photos, do you have the possibility and resources to produce videos or infographics? Do you need content other than short text content?
For example, what does that shoe store need to produce other content for its Telegram group except for pictures of new models and their prices?
If your goal is to increase sales and attract more customers, be sure to use hashtags. Don’t forget that the most important part of content management is republishing it as much as possible in related Telegram groups, social networks, your own website, etc.