How Telegram Works for Companies

Telegram is a messaging app similar to WhatsApp, but with many more features. Its developers consider it halfway between the messaging app and the email channel.

In this post we want to explain all those features that make Telegram a complete marketing channel for companies.

Telegram is a versatile and open source application, therefore it is customizable thanks to the API. Precisely this openness allows companies to mold it to different marketing goals and objectives:

• Customer Care
• Internal communication, to update all employees
• External communication, to reach customers and potential customers in a conversational marketing perspective

Let’s gointo more detail, and take a look at the most valuable functional resourcesthat Telegram offers companies.

A greater degree of flexibility

Unlike WhatsApp Business, for example, Telegram is cloud-based: that means you can enter and view chats from different devices simultaneously thanks to instant synchronization.

There’s also another fundamental difference between Telegram and Whatsapp: the Telegram account is not tied to a SIM card, making it possible to use the app without a smartphone. By associating the account with a user name, Telegram lets you connect from different devices, keeping the message history intact and updated on each device.

In addition to being multi-device, Telegram is also multi-account: you can manage multiple accounts simultaneously through the app, so that an administrator has unlimited freedom to move between one group and another, each dedicated to a different objective.

Channels and mega-groups

WhatsApp is behind Telegram in this case as well: already for some time now, the latter allows sending unidirectional messages where the administrator alone can write and deliver content.

From a marketing point of view this is no small advantage: a company can create an environment in which it can send its communications plan in broadcast mode, giving users the possibility to voluntarily register through a shared link (we’ll explain how later).

Here’s another impressive detail: only the administrator can see the list of subscribers to the channel. This is a way to maintain user privacy while ensuring that subscribers can read all the messages previously sent by the administrator.

Telegram also offers another level of aggregation: the mega-group, i.e. the possibility of creating very large communities of up to 100,000 users/members. This feature seems to fit like a glove for companies, allowing them to quickly communicate to a vast audience of clients and potential customers.

Unlike the channels, the mega-group allows bidirectional messages: companies can use this feature to create customized help desks.

Content sharing capacity up to 1.5 GB

Like all other messaging apps, Telegram lets you share any kind of file: mp4, pdf, images, GIFs, and much more. The point here is that Telegram allows sharing files with a maximum of 1.5 GB: a threshold so high that it practically has no sharing limits.

Not only that, because Telegram also offers the possibility to compress the file sent, to speed up the upload for the sender and the download for the recipient.

The potential of chatbots

Another differentiating element of Telegram is the chatbot: a non-human Telegram user which automatically carries out more or less complex actions based on the command received  (in the form of an HTTP request).

Telegram hastwo types of bots:

• Stand-alone bot: an autonomous chat window in which the user can issue commands. An example is the Netflix news bot, which tells us which movies and series will be released soon
• Inline Bot: called up from other chat windows (single or group) using the @namebot command. An example is the @gif bot: by typing the command @gif keyword within a chat window, the bot proposes animated GIFs corresponding to the keyword entered, taken directly from the Giphy portal.

Did you know?

According to the New York Times, Telegram will launch a new cryptocurrency which will be called Gram. According to the source, it will be available to around 200-300 million users all over the world who can use it through the Telegram application and a digital wallet to buy goods and services directly within the chats, channels, groups, and bots.

1. Download Telegram

• For Android
  Go to the PlayStore page and click on Install or Get, accept the conditions, and wait for the operation to complete. Once installed on the device, all you have to do is click on Open (or the Telegram icon on your smartphone) and enter your data.
• For iOS
  Go to the AppStore page and carry out the same steps above for the Android version.
• For desktop
  As previously mentioned, you can also use Telegram on your PC, directly from the browser or by downloading the appropriate desktop app; then open the file you just downloaded and follow the App’s installation procedure.

2. Rely on Messaging Apps

Companies that want to exploit Telegram for marketing and communication purposes have technological support in MailUp that takes advantage of and expands the potential of the application: it’s called Messaging Apps, and it’s the channel that lets you connect Telegram (and Facebook Messenger) to the MailUp platform and set up a communication strategy in a professional manner. In short, Messaging Apps allows companies to:

• Connect Telegram bots to their MailUp platform
• Collect subscribers through multichannel forms
• Set automatic replies
• Use the intuitive editor to create messages that include texts, images, videos, audio files, PDFs, and external links
• Send broadcast communications immediately, or plan them over time
• Set up recurring automatic campaigns
• Analyze results in real time

Our advice is to request a free trial of the platform: you’ll have 30 days to discover what Messaging Apps can do for your Telegram strategy.

It takes just a few simple steps to connect Telegram to Messaging Apps. They are listed below:

1. Enter Telegram and type @BotFather (the Telegram bot, father of all the app’s bots)
2. Select the chat with the BotFather
3. In the conversation that opens, click on the Start button
4. As the BotFather suggests, write /newbot in the conversation
5. Write the name you want to give to the bot
6. Copy the token generated by the bot
7. Enter MailUp and select the following items: Messaging Apps > Channels > Add channels > Telegram > Connect
8. Paste the token in the dedicated field
9. Go back to Telegram and in the chat with the BotFather, write /setuserpic to configure your company’s profile
10. Drag the image of your company logo into the conversation field
11. Go back to MailUp and go to Messaging Apps > Telegram > Settings. Here you define the two basic automatic messages: presentation message (triggered with each new subscription to your channel) and default response (to reply to all users who write you with a standard message).

The basic configuration of your account is ready and you can start communicating via Telegram.

Along with other instant messaging platforms, Telegram is and increasingly will be a key tool for conversational marketing: that set of techniques that allows brands to reach customers and prospects in digital places where the real conversations between people take place.

Our hope is that this article helped you understand the potential of Telegram for companies and the necessary steps to put the theory into practice: a Telegram account and MailUp Messaging Apps are sufficient, which you can request a free trial of for 30 days.