How to Create and Promote a Telegram Channel for Your Business

Social networks have become a multifunctional product: Instagram has gone beyond a simple service for posting photos, and correspondence and useful posts on Facebook are lost in the mountains of advertising, comments, and events. While some users are wading through the jungle of unnecessary information, others receive messages with useful materials in Telegram.
Organic reach on Facebook is only 7-10%. There are almost no free ways to increase the reach of posts, so you can’t do without additional advertising. Telegram users receive content as regular messages that don’t disappear: even if you don’t open the channel for a month, the chronology of posts will remain there. The reach of Telegram posts is 60-80%.
The messenger is minimalistic and easily customized for users. In channels, you can turn off notifications so that they do not distract from important matters and reread publications in chronological order (in the case of Facebook, you will have to try very hard to find yesterday's post) when it is convenient for you.
The success of your Telegram channel depends on two things: content and promotion method. Let's figure out in order how to create your Telegram channel for business with our Digital Agency.

Step #1: create a content plan

A Telegram channel is not suitable for all businesses. A channel is worth creating if you have something to say, and you are ready to share cases, tips, and details of your success. If your content is not unique, and posts are duplicated from Facebook and Instagram, it will be difficult to attract subscribers (even with good advertising).

Content requirements in a Telegram channel

Telegram has high content requirements, so the usual copy-paste does not work. But even good and unique text, interesting presentation, and reflections on questions that are interesting to users are far from all that is needed for a Telegram channel. Determine the benefit of the content for readers. If the posts are general and do not help solve the problems of subscribers, the channel will not become popular.
For example, if a user is interested in bodybuilding, exercises, and diets, he will subscribe to a Telegram channel about this. If there are several channels, that are similar, but their content is unique, the user will become a reader of two channels. But if you duplicate your competitors' content, it's unlikely that anyone will be interested.

Use the built-in Telegraph editor

If you write long posts, try to make them readable. For this, Telegram has a minimalist built-in editor that will help make your long read easy to read and understand.
In the Telegraph editor you can:

• Highlight important points of the text (using italics and bold);
• Attach pictures, GIFs, and videos to posts (the number of files is not limited);
• Ensure convenient reading of your content for Telegram users and those who have a link to the post;
• Write texts of any length (if you publish a regular post, there is a limit of 3 thousand characters).

Number of posts

If you make 1 post a month, the channel will be quickly forgotten, if 20 posts a day, it is too intrusive and unsubscribes will begin. Develop a content plan taking into account 1-3 posts a day. You can (as in Instagram) set up a delayed posting service.
In our company, the strategy for Telegram channel includes:

• publishing posts once every three days;
• rotating posts (news about Internet marketing, useful cases for subscribers, articles from our blog, selections of useful materials about Internet marketing).

Practice shows that posting on weekends can be the cause of unsubscribes from the channel, so plan fewer posts or set up content publishing without notifying users.

Posting time

Telegram is NOT Instagram. In the messenger, you don't need to guess the right time to post to get maximum reach. Remember, posts don’t get lost in the feed here. No matter how much you choose the posting time, users will still read the content when it’s convenient.

Chat bots

Chat bots will help to distinguish the channel from the competition and simplify the channel management.
Here are some useful bots:

• ControllerBot (allows you to format posts, set up delayed publishing, attach images to posts, view monthly view statistics);
• LivegramBot (allows users to comment on posts);
• @Telegraph (a bot with more advanced functionality for the built-in Telegraph editor);
• PollBot (useful for creating polls and feedback from the audience);
• Channels talBot (allows you to monitor the number of subscriptions and unsubscribes).

By the way, there are many special directories that contain collections of channels and bots. Here are some of them: Telegram Catalog, VIP Catalog, tgcat, add-groups.

Tip. Telegram users appreciate the speed and convenience of viewing content, so don't try to persuade them to switch to other resources. If there is a link, write as much useful information as possible in the caption.

Channel and post design

The first thing that catches your eye when viewing a channel is the logo and name. This is where you should start creating a channel for your business. In most cases, channels are named the same as a company. You can experiment here: remember, people read content created by a user, not a company. Therefore, you can and should develop a personal brand.
All posts on the channel should be designed in the same style. Valuable material is good, but a consistent style is even better. We recommend sticking to:

• the same colors for infographics and diagrams;
• the same filters for photos;
• a single idea and topic for posts (if a bodybuilding channel has posts about table tennis, that’s bad. Remember that your audience isn’t interested in tennis: they like to work out in the gym and gain muscle mass);
• a single style for writing posts (some subscribers appreciate not only the informativeness of posts but also the presentation of the material);
• publishing long reads through the Telegraph editor.

Step #2: Engage Your Audience

It takes 5 minutes to create a channel in Telegram, but attracting users is a longer process. There are many paid and free tools for attracting an audience.

Start promoting when the channel has a small audience and 10-15 posts (admit it, no one will subscribe to a bare channel).

Free ways to attract subscribers

It is quite possible to attract the first couple of thousand subscribers for free. There are many such options for promoting a Telegram channel:

• You can start with a simple one: forcibly add your relatives and friends to the channel (the channel administrator has such opportunities). Keep in mind that people you don’t know well may immediately describe or even complain about the channel;
• Talk about your channel on other social networks (you can also ask your friends to talk about the channel on their Facebook, and Instagram pages);
• arrangements for mutual PR with channels in your niche. In practice, this looks like this: you make a post about them in the channel, and they make a post about you. In this way, you share the audience with each other (some channel owners don’t like to share their subscribers, so mutual PR is not always relevant). You can also conduct mutual PR with several organizations at once and mention them in one post;
• Use channels for channels. They publish the best channels and show their rating, number of subscribers, and topics. It is convenient for the user to choose channels based on their interests. You can publish your channel on the following platforms (the conditions for publication may vary: some publish for money, others for free or on the terms of mutual PR);
• If you are a public person, you can advertise your channel during performances (word of mouth still works);
• Arrange contests and giveaways on the channel.

Paid promotion

Paid promotion works more effectively than free, but if your targeted advertising is poorly configured, the text is not interesting, and is poorly written, the growth of subscribers will be slow. It is advisable to advertise the channel in your niche, in communities with a large number of participants.
The best promotion methods:

• agree and pay for advertising in other Telegram channels. The cost of advertising depends on the popularity of the channel with which you agree to cooperate. The price of one advertising post can be $ 15-100 or even $ 1000;
• Collaborate with popular YouTube and Instagram bloggers. On average, the price of advertising varies from $ 15 to $ 200. The effectiveness of such advertising is lower than when placing a post on popular channels. It is better to cooperate with bloggers of your target audience (even if they have a small audience) than with those who have millions of subscribers, but with different interests;
• Set up targeted advertising on Facebook and Instagram. On average, one subscriber will cost up to 5 UAH, but the effectiveness of the method may be even lower than advertising with bloggers.

Promoting a Telegram channel is a long and individual process. Your budget may be $ 200, or maybe $ 2000. It all depends on your goals and business niche.

You can use the channel as a platform for additional earnings, but this is more relevant for blogging. For your brand, it is about attracting and interacting with the target audience.

Instead of conclusions

A good Telegram channel for business is another source for increasing traffic and trust in the brand, attracting the target audience, and establishing yourself as a thought leader in your niche.
We recommend creating a Telegram channel if you have something to tell your target audience. Remember, there are no random subscriptions in the messenger, so the number of post views depends on the quality and uniqueness of your content.

If you need help setting up advertising or need promotion of English-language websites, contact us. We know how to attract visitors to your website.