HOW TO GAIN FOLLOWERS ON TELEGRAM?

About 15 billion messages are sent daily via Telegram. The total number of users exceeds 800 million and is expected to reach 1 billion by the end of 2024. This makes Telegram a promising platform for business promotion where you can sell products via chatbots, implement multi-level sales funnels, share authentic information with like-minded people, and develop a community of brand followers. The ways and methods of using the messenger depend on the specific goals of the company or expert, so we will look at several options for gaining subscribers on Telegram.

What will we discuss?

Advantages of promoting on Telegram

Telegram is available in 155 countries, making the messenger suitable for international business. It is confidential and does not use user personal data for advertising, so business promotion in a commercial channel cannot violate European legislation.

How to gain followers on Telegram?

In recent years, Telegram has been actively used for regional media.

The most popular category of products for sale on Telegram is Chinese goods. The total volume of e-commerce of Chinese goods through the social network exceeded $12 million. Digital equipment and consumer loans follow.

  • You can share files of different types and sizes. Unlike Instagram, links in posts remain active, and unlike Viber, the quality of images is well preserved. There are many such comparisons, as Telegram is indeed stronger in many aspects.
  • Published materials do not get lost in the news feed, as happens on Facebook and others, but appear as a separate message. This minimizes the risk that new messages will be missed or deleted unread.
  • Messages do not go into spam and are always read. This advantageously distinguishes the messenger from an email inbox, where promotional and informational letters may remain unnoticed until they lose any relevance. In contrast, phone notifications and the “Unread” icon prompt the desire to immediately open the chat or news feed.
  • In most business sectors, there are already leaders, usually about 30 popular channels, which can be monitored before entering a new promotional platform and used for competitive analysis for successful development of your own channel.
  • Posts on Telegram are viral. They are shared even if the author does not ask for it and offers nothing in return. Contests in the messenger usually have very simple conditions, so you can quickly and freely attract participants.
  • Кnce the channel audience exceeds 1,000 readers, advertisers begin to take an interest. Specifically, in the “Marketing” category, placing an advertising post can earn between $2 to $150.

A Telegram channel with active subscribers is a versatile platform for promoting products and services. It is very convenient for posting useful information, as it can include podcasts, videos, links to articles, or texts with images. The possibilities are numerous. Each reader is a potential customer, and the better you “warm up” the audience, the more orders you can receive in the future.

If you delve into the technical side of the messenger, you can not only promote but also automate your business. Marketplaces and large stores, in addition to channels on Telegram, create chatbots for collecting contact details, consulting, and helping with order processing.

How to gain your first subscribers on Telegram?

Your friends, colleagues, or existing clients can become the first subscribers to your Telegram channel. You are allowed to add up to 200 users yourself, and even this number is a good start for a brand new channel.

It’s important that invitations are sent after the initial content is uploaded. This process can be compared to launching a website. Only after testing and filling it with content should you start running paid ads and work on SEO. Otherwise, visitors will be unpleasantly surprised by the “rawness” of the web resource.

Similarly, with a Telegram channel: set up your profile card, ensure settings are correct (e.g., disable notifications if you don’t want to annoy subscribers), and most importantly — publish several high-quality posts.

Consider Telegram’s limits: the name and description of the channel can be a maximum of 255 characters. Interestingly, deleting a channel without technical support is only possible if the number of subscribers does not exceed 1,000 users.

If there is significantly more important information for all new readers that cannot fit within 255 characters, you can always write a separate post and pin it. You can also add a contents section in the form of links to individual publications.

Use a professional username that reflects your brand or business and is easy to remember. If you plan to run the channel as an expert and regularly show your face (one of the most effective ways), provide your real full name so new subscribers can easily find you in Telegram search. For this, the channel settings must be set to public, not private.

Avoid using numbers or special characters that might complicate the search. Choose a clear and appropriate profile picture that visually represents the brand and helps create a positive first impression.

Highlight what makes your Telegram channel or group unique and emphasize the benefits of joining. As with any online platform or marketing tool, it’s important to have a clearly defined unique selling proposition (USP).

📌 Read in the blog: How to Create a USP

Plan for regularity in your publications. Reach on Telegram, like in other messengers and social networks, depends on the frequency of new content. Use a posting schedule to plan your publications and maintain a consistent schedule. Include various formats in it, such as text, images, short loop videos, and links to full-length YouTube videos and polls.

The last mentioned type of content allows engaging the audience in participating in the creation of the content plan. Ensure to provide feedback to subscribers and involve them in shaping the content plan. This way, you can better understand your target audience, learn about popular requests and issues that readers face.

Once you’ve added the first 200 subscribers, ask them to invite acquaintances who might be interested in your content. At this stage, we advise against simply increasing subscriber numbers for the sake of numbers, as later on, you might suffer from unsubscriptions and low reach due to users archiving the channel.

A good way to attract more participants is to offer discounts and gifts for subscribing. However, this should not be the only method; to keep subscribers on the channel, you need to create an atmosphere of anticipation for new beneficial offers. You might consider a strategy of periodically conducting sales or giving away prizes, for example, for activity.

Share your channel on your personal and commercial social media profiles, add an active link on your website if you have one. You can also place a QR code for channel access on your business card, catalog, or other printed material.

Participate in chat groups, avoiding spam. Start by identifying popular chat groups related to your industry. Spend some time analyzing discussions. Determine what content your potential subscribers exchange and where else they spend time online. Later, join the conversation and focus on providing value rather than self-promotion.

You can add your channel link to messages only after you’ve shared enough other useful resources or interesting news related to your topic. Channel owners can propose mutual subscriptions.

Similar to SEO for a website on Google, you can optimize your Telegram channel or group for easy search in the messenger system. Optimization here will be much simpler. Just research keywords, identify the most relevant ones for you, and include them in the name, description, and posts of the channel.

Always look for opportunities to obtain backlinks to your Telegram channel or group from authoritative sites in your industry. Links can boost the authority of the channel and increase organic traffic.

How to promote on Telegram?

If you have gathered a few hundred subscribers, it’s time to develop a more extensive promotion strategy on Telegram. First, we recommend reaching out to thought leaders in your niche and forming a plan for paid advertising. If the budget does not allow for spending on posts on popular platforms, start with small groups and channels whose owners you can negotiate mutual promotion with. We advise not to publish advertisements at the exact same moment or even on the same day. Someone in the collaboration should wait at least a day to make the advertising less obvious to subscribers who follow the link.

There are several quick promotion methods on Telegram that, however, do not provide long-lasting results and can even be harmful. Primarily, this includes artificially inflating subscriber numbers. As in social networks, this method is guaranteed to fail because advertisers are primarily interested in activity and reach, not just the number of readers. And for the blog owner, there is little benefit from inactive pages.

Recently, a large number of low-quality “black” channels have appeared, publishing harmful content or misinformation. They gain an audience through hype or clickbait.

“Clickbait is a term that describes web content with the aim of generating revenue from online advertising, especially at the expense of quality or accuracy of information. It uses sensational headlines or attractive images to increase the number of clicks and encourage the distribution of material through the Internet, including social networks”. — “Clickbait”, Wikipedia

Black promotion methods are used by channels and groups with dubious affiliations.

You can gather subscribers using the free Telegram Subscribers Bot. It can target a specific audience and automatically increase engagement on your channel. However, subscribing people to anything without their knowledge is not the best strategy. There is a high likelihood that subscribers will leave the channel on their own, considering it intrusive.

To better understand the preferences of your target audience, use the analytics tools provided by Telegram. A minimum of 50 subscribers is required to unlock the statistics. Metrics such as subscriber growth, engagement level, and reach of posts help determine which content is relevant to the audience.

An effective but not budget-friendly strategy for promoting a channel is to launch an advertising campaign on Telegram. You can register on the official platform to start ads at promote.telegram.org.

“Telegram Ad Platform is a tool for creating sponsored messages in public ‘one-to-many’ channels with 1000+ subscribers. With this tool, you can easily manage your ads and budgets, choose where they will be displayed, and track their effectiveness”. — Telegram Ad Platform Explained, — Telegram Ads

Before launching an ad, you should familiarize yourself with the advertising policy of the Telegram Ads Platform. At first glance, the ad campaign is quite affordable, as the minimum price per thousand impressions is €2. However, the company has set a minimum entry threshold for advertisers at €2 million, which must be deposited to start advertising. Half of this amount will be frozen as a deposit, and it can be returned after spending €10 million on advertising within a year.

Telegram Ad Platform

The need for such large deposits indicates that the platform is interested in collaborating with large companies and advertisers. Some marketing agencies specializing in promoting on Telegram partner with others and offer clients the service of setting up and managing ads on Telegram Ads for smaller amounts. In one ad account, you can run a large number of different campaigns.

Official paid advertising is quite noticeable: it appears on the channel without the owner’s knowledge and looks like a short ad with a “Sponsored” note and a button to go to the advertiser’s website or channel. It is impossible to predict on which channels the ads will be shown. The platform independently selects popular platforms that can bring potential customers to the advertiser.

How to Boost Activity on Telegram?

If you have gathered a sufficient number of subscribers and decided what and when to publish, where to advertise, and with whom to exchange subscribers, don’t forget to communicate with people who have been with you almost from the beginning. They will expect not only ads and informational posts, but also interaction, communication, and incentives. There are several common ways to activate your target audience on Telegram.

  • Use User-Generated Content

Encourage subscribers to share their experiences using your product or creative content related to your brand. Occasionally publish user-generated content in your Telegram channel or group, as this can help build a strong community. People like to see their texts, photos, and videos on their favorite online platforms. High appreciation of their content generates pride and a sense of community belonging, which are two of the five main emotions that influence decision-making about further cooperation or new purchases.

  • Inquire About Your Audience’s Opinion

Do not hesitate to ask for feedback and engage subscribers in discussions and even in creating the content plan. For example, you can create a survey with several options for post themes for the next month. Give users the opportunity to suggest what they would like to read or watch next. You can enable comments, allowing readers to interact with each other.

  • Host Live Sessions

Conduct free webinars and video reviews or tutorials, where the only condition for participation is subscribing to the channel. This method is very effective in the fields of online education, mentoring, services (for example, for teachers, psychologists, nutritionists, etc.).

  • Hold Giveaways

This method is slightly more effective than a similar strategy on Instagram, as Telegram may not have likes or other signs of activity, other than reach. So, it’s very simple: the more participants, the better the result. Stretch the contest over time and after one giveaway ends, announce the next one if it is financially feasible for your business. Usually, large companies, marketplaces, and online stores take this approach.

  • Use Various Formats and Types of Content

Videos remain popular if we’re talking about Telegram. You can upload videos directly in the messenger or add a link to YouTube.

Active buyers will appreciate useful compilations. You can add links to specific products that lead subscribers to the website. Such publications should not be daily, but approximately 20% of the content can be promotional.

An alternative to the usual promotional post is a compilation of goods or services with discounts.

Conclusions

A Telegram channel is a powerful tool for broadcasting messages to a wide audience. Channels can have an unlimited number of subscribers, today they do not contain a lot of ads, and new messages are read immediately..

You can choose one of two paths:

  • make the Telegram channel public so that it can be found through the messenger’s search;
  • or keep a private channel, which can only be joined through an invitation link.

In some industries, especially in online goods trading, it makes no sense to keep the channel private. A public platform can be supplemented with a chatbot to assist with consulting and ordering. However, a private channel may be attractive in the educational field or any niche related to service provision or useful content.

Developing a Telegram channel requires a thorough understanding of the target audience. Once you determine what interests potential subscribers, you can use other groups and channels for advertising by agreement. Social networks are also great platforms for promoting your channel. Add a link in your Instagram profile header or in your Facebook page description. On a business card, it can be a QR code that everyone can scan to go to Telegram and subscribe.

It is important to interact with your audience, respond to their comments and messages. This will help properly build strong relationships with subscribers.

Oksana Korsun
Editor in Marketing Link

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