How to conduct and promote the channel in the Telegram — a complete guide

Hello. One of the trends in social marketing last year channels in the Telegram. It is believed that this messenger is now the best audience, high engagement and most expensive advertising. I'm one of the fastest growing and most successful channels in the Telegram and would be happy to share their experiences of promotion.

Promotion in social networks is not my specialty, I don't consider myself an expert. However, the case growth channel t.me/za_bugrom from zero to 7,000 subscribers per month (if someone is not in the subject: by the standards of this Telegram the Grand canal) is very interested in many.
Once there is so much interest in this article I will describe his vision of process, that is just my opinion and may have no connection with reality. I will share all my experience, from beginning to end, no vagueness. For this reason, great article. TL;DR.

About my channel.
I have a channel about life in the United States, in which I talk about the culture and traditions of Americans, the intricacies of life in immigration, as well as share tips on the real use of the English language. The first post was released on March 1, 2017, but the people in the channel I started an invite only March 15 — this day I consider progress.

the Monthly growth channel

so, March 15, I had approximately zero readers, and 20 April with about 7000. It's not mind blowing, but very good growth, about the components which I will detail below.

do Not read this article.
I will save your time. You shouldn't be having your feed to read this article if you:

the

the
• can't write well;
the
• don't know what to write about and I am not an expert in anything;
the
• don't have the budget for the development of channel;
the
• you do Not have the specific purpose of creating a channel.

I will teach you.
If these points don't apply to you, then to create a channel in the Telegram is a great idea, because there is still very low competition and have the opportunity to quickly gain high quality traffic. All the passages in the Telegram can be divided into great and sucks, and the last — the vast majority. Nothing in the middle there, so remember: your channel is either great or sucks. The goal is to make great. It's simple.

to make such a channel, we need to solve four problems: the purpose, product, content and promotion. Below I detail and order will describe each of these problems. They are all equally important.

Contents:

I. Purpose

the

the
• Earnings on advertising
the
• a Channel for their projects
the
• Grafomanstvo and ego

II. Product

the

What is the product the

• the Name and avatar
the
• Community rooms

III. Content

the

the
• architectural style
the
• post Content
the
• Unique content
the
• Usefulness
the
• Virality
the
• Reaction

IV. Promotion

the

the
• Budget
the
• Primary content content
the
• Spread among friends
the
• Advertising on external sites
the
• Advertising on other channels
the
• Vzaemodia

I. Purpose

The first thing you need to decide why you are doing channel.

1. Earnings on advertising.
If your main goal is to "make money" on advertising of other channels, your channel is likely to be crap. Everything is simple: the real earnings of such activities can only be considered a schoolboy, and the average student is unlikely to make a cool channel (forgive me, students).

for this reason @za_bugrom despite the dozens of offers which come out all the time, no advertising other channels: pennies don't interest me, and the reputation of the channel is crucial.

Mathematics is as follows: channels now sell advertising for the price of 50 kopecks per subscriber and lower. For example, if you have 10 thousand subscribers (and this is a very big channel), you will cost about 5 thousand rubles for one post. Even if you are literally giving your readers the advertising and release 10 zakazah per month, this generates an income of less than thousand dollars. Business, quite frankly, moot, unless you have a grid of 10-20 of these channels. But this is unlikely.

by the Way, is in Telegram now overheated: the major channels sometimes exhibit completely inadequate fees, and over time under the action of economic forces, the market will move in a more efficient condition, and the price of advertising will decrease.

the Audience in the Telegram will be diluted less interesting, quality content will also fall. In General, you go, still hot.

2. Create a channel for your own projects.
This is a more noble goal to run. For example, you are a business owner and will be able to competently carry out the marketing of its own projects on the channel store. Why not? The audience of Telegram is very active, people clicking links, doing subscription, purchase.

the You thought they are your channels, and in fact, the monetization has long been planned

Now populated by Russian-speaking Telegram relative to solvent audience, and you will easily find here their clients. Unless, of course, are the really interesting channel and you have something to offer to his readers. Channel with a purpose get off the ground.

3. Create a channel to meet grafomanstva/ego.
This is the non-profit option, but it is likely to lead to better results in growth and audience engagement. Suitable for those who have a lot of time, free money and more desire and the possibility of something good to write. Not suitable for those whose favorite request in Google "make money online".

Decided on a goal? Moving on to the other three issues.

II. Product

What the product is.
Your channel has at least some chances of success only if you approach it as a product with a full range of marketing. Good channels are made on the principle "x%#x#%and in production" — so are born only mediocre channels.

You should clearly understand what your channel's basic idea, why it is interesting and useful, who is his reader. The channel is not only the posts that you write. It's aesthetics, rhythm, design, community, your style and much more. All this must be properly packaged and presented as a finished product.

2. The name and avatar.
Here is a simple example, without narcissism, but the easiest way to prove yourself than to look for examples elsewhere. In the Telegram a huge number of channels about travelling, and they are about the same: "travel the World", "Our planet", "Wonderful world", "Countries of the world." I'm sorry if I mentioned someone's channel: these names I have just invented himself for 3 seconds, and because they're so banal and bad.

in addition, all of these channels will look like avatar — or the palm tree and the sun, or the flag of any country, or a photograph of the airplane. In General, stamp, stamp, stamp-pam-pam. Nobody will remember, all will pass. Poor aesthetics to subscribe, but isn't that kind of audience you're looking for? No, not like this. You are looking for people with good taste, because you have a cool channel.

I stand in this long list of travel channels along with all, but the name "Over the hill" — easy to remember, and the avatar of the channel directly correlates with this name and may even bring a smile:

the Name and avatar work as a whole

Yes, it seems that it's not important, but the avatar of the channel I chose for a few days and from 15 different options. I even did some testing on friends before starting and found this picture and immediately remembered always visible in the conversation list.

3. Community.
Take away your own ego: the channel is not only you, but all of its readers. They constitute the value of the channel. Community should be actively involved and target.
How to create it? First, it is necessary to unite people around a common problem or interest. Your content should be aimed at a specific audience rather than all of them: do not try to write about cars, art, and incidentally to give business advice.

secondly, add interactivity. For example, reactions to posts (using the Controller Bot), reposts, links to the public chat channel where readers can communicate with each other on General topics.

In the Telegram is large, but it is completely dead channels, and there is a small (1-5 thousand), but very active: they are full of life. Read more about assessing the quality of the channel and its community will be written in the section "Promotion".

III. Content

1. The author's style.
You can write arbitrarily illiterate, but if you have your own recognizable style — you have a chance. Narrative in the Telegram should be easy and nice to go into the ears and eyes of readers, otherwise, who are you going to read? Only your friends, but it's not the largest audience on the Internet.

For a good start read five books on how to write lyrics. It only takes a month, but definitely will not be a useless reading. In your letter you should get rid of clichés, bureaucratese, empty claims and water.

the Read this book before you write the first three words in your channel

Start with the books by William zinsser "on writing well", and the other four select in its sole discretion. All my life interested in writing and still believe that incompetent and do not know how, because in this area can grow indefinitely. Well, because I really incompetent. Develop.

2. The content of posts.
Usually it is the content referred to by the word "content", but actually the content is a broader concept that includes all of the subsections of this Chapter. The content of posts is only part of the content, though very important. This is what you are going to tell your subscribers, and it is here that problems arise most authors, because it turns out that to tell something to them about, though very desirable.

@za_bugrom I held a contest, in which readers send me in PM your channels. I just received links to 83 per channel. You know what a common problem in 90% of them? The complete lack of content. That is, the posts may be many, they can be very long, but essentially they said nothing. There is no story. I don't want to read the previous posts and do not want to wait for a new one — I don't care because the product has no content.

Before you start a channel, make sure you have something to say. Check out this very simple, there is a special test. Write a typical post that you would have published in your channel, and think — would tell you the story when meeting his friend? It would be interesting to you to discuss it? If the answer is negative (most of it will be), close the Telegram, browser, notebook cover and set aside the idea of a canal to better times. the You have nothing to say.

3. The uniqueness of the content.
You have no right to expect even a tiny success, if you are not ready to create unique content. All these channels with collections of links to other materials can achieve an arbitrarily large size (20-30 thousand readers), but essentially remain lean Laje, uninteresting even to its creators.

the Reader wants the author and narrative, not an aggregator of links.

by the Way, in the twenty-first century content aggregation are better algorithms newsmen, Victorov and other mediamonster. To do this manually is to breed the fire in the middle of the room to warm up. Uu-u-u-u, scratching my hairy chest and collect another selection of "interesting materials in a week."

the once upon a time people lived in caves and manually selected interesting content

No, I'm not saying that your channel may not be external content. Can. But if your contribution is always limited by the design of the posts and their release schedule, it's time for you to get out of the cave. The sun is shining outside, and full of life.

by the Way, share an important experience: God forbid you to buy advertising in these channels-aggregators references (do not confuse them with the channels-directories, other channels, such as @rugram are comes is just fine)

the People they subscribe to for the record, posts are viewing only to in the Telegram gone the unread icon, and the links in the posts no longer pay any attention. The impact of advertising in these channels is low, but the prices they charge the full height of their caves. The caves as they are, you know, usually in the mountains there.

Tensen: to this rule there are exceptions. I know some great channels-aggregators of links, but there the authors put into the process the whole soul.

If you want to buy advertising, look for a good more channels with the involved audience.

4. Utility.
Even if you do have something to say and you have a recognizable authorial style, it's possible that your content will still not be useful. The usefulness is the ability to solve any problem.

Why is the channel @za_bugrom useful? Because many are interested to learn how people live in the United States. Because people are planning their own immigration. Because many wish to obtain their education abroad. Because people can improve your English and find like-minded people. Because... I can go on and on, but you get the idea.

Look at your feed and ask a simple question: "why is it useful?". Useful not you and your friends, and the General public. What problem it should solve? What we need to satisfy? If you can help at least one person? Yes? No? How?

5. Virality.
The ability of the channel to support the organic growth one of the main success factors. If you have a steep channel, at some stage it will start to grow by itself, without any advertising investment. And it's not a myth @za_bugrom is growing at 40-100 people a day even if I don't buy ads at all, and only write the posts.

On your channel begin to talk, discuss it and suggest friends, readers forwarded posts to his contacts in the Telegram and other major channels for free mentioned you. By the way, some times I just "woke up famous", when my channel is free and without any coordination advertise two of the coolest project @dailyeng and @penthaus. Guys, hi, if you read, and thank you.

If your post was really interesting and useful, he can catch the snowballing effect of reposts, which will result in tons of free traffic and subscriptions. Here's a post from my channel, which has raised almost 60 thousand views, with 6 thousand subscribers at the time of publication:

the Coverage of the post were 10 times higher than the number of my followers

This is successful post can bring hundreds of new subscribers absolutely free. It can not only repost readers to your friends, but other channels, which will cause even more of a cascading effect.

Experiment with formats and choose those that have the greatest viral effect. Due to this post, I got about 400 new readers who found him outside of the channel.

6. Reaction.
To understand how the channel is steep — look at the response under the posts. Now many channels add likes, smileys and vote under each post. It is possible to assess how involved the channel audience, whether people read the posts and whether they take part in the life of the channel.

the Good

Many of the posts on @za_bugrom gather thousands of likes, the most successful has gained 2 thousand reactions. Trying hard not to brag, but I have not seen any channel with such an involved audience. On a comparable amount of channels the number of reactions under the posts below 4-10 times.

I recommend everyone to use the reaction to gauge the engagement of your audience and test new formats. If a new category gets too many dislikes allowed, do not continue it. It is just like you. And the music did not order you and your readers.
Council. If the channel with low correlation of responses to number of subscribers, do not buy there is. It's a bad channel, the subscribers which is quite interesting that it is happening, and thus your advertising will also go bad.

the following Landmark: on my channel, with 7 thousands of subscribers each post for 2 days collects from 500 to 1,000 likes (not taking into account the most successful posts). Even if the channel, this ratio below two times, you still a cool channel. But if 7,000 readers collect posts just 50-150 reactions, apparently, you don't cooperate with him.

the Advertising on channels with a low number of responses and views — all the same that is in the cemetery. A lot of people, but they are all long dead

so far we have defined the goal of the channel (Chapter I), made it a product (Chapter II), created good content (Chapter III)? Where are my subscribers? Master, I did everything right, but damn it didn't!

Left liberally all the money. More about that in the next Chapter.

IV. Promotion

1. Budget.
I don't work in the Telegram, if you don't have at least a minimal budget. The minimum budget I estimate $2.000 — with this amount you can quickly go and start a good growth. Of course, if your channel is weak in purpose, product, or content won't work, you will merge the budget and get another dead channel-giant who does not need anyone except its Creator. However, if you grease the money was originally a good product, you will come to the target quickly and relatively inexpensively.

the Ready to launch your channel

the more interesting your feed, the cheaper it will cost each subscriber. The average standard — about 20 rubles per subscriber, but at this price get your audience boring channels. Mathematics is as follows: at 20 rubles per subscriber channel development to 10 thousand readers will cost 200 thousand rubles. Again, if you have an interesting channel, this figure will be much lower.

Consider the money before you start investing. If your budget is 5 thousand rubles, you can spend them anywhere.

2. Primary filling content.
Frequent error is the empty channels. The author wrote three and a half posts, but have bought advertising on all the major platforms. Potential subscribers pass on is, get on an empty channel and close the tab.

Remember: investors don't give money to teams without a product, so readers don't subscribe to channels, which in the future will be interesting, and now the desert.

People, which goes on advertising, need to see the finished product.

the I promise, soon there will be a thriving metropolis so buy my land now!

Primary content content @za_bugrom took me almost a month of posts every day. Yes, all this time the channel was one reader — me. But the first is supposed to lead nowhere, or I salt budget.

3. The spread among friends.
In a perfect world, the money you earn yourself, Tinder is not matchit you with bots, and the channel in the Telegram it is possible to unwind using friends. In the real world otherwise.

Let your friends know about your successes. Do not beg them to subscribe on an empty channel.

4. Advertising on external sites.
Before writing this post, I tested all available types of advertising. Initially it was obvious that advertising Telegram channel anywhere outside of the Telegram is ridiculous, but I try to tell you. My merged budgets — your free experience.

Immediately to conclusions: is Vkontakte, Facebook, LiveJournal, YouTube and other venues has almost no meaning. I have put out ads in the suitable on the subject of the public Vkontakte 3-5 million subscribers, and the effect was several times lower than that of advertising in the rotten channel with funny symbols in the Telegram. Stay within the platform.

5. Advertising in other channels.
The only working way to promote channel — advertising in other channels. You can't even test the other ways, because I've already done it for you. Spend the savings on something nice or put it on my bill.

Easier said than done. It turns out that to select a channel for advertising — a complex and demanding task, because most of the channels, as has been repeatedly said before, sucks, and ads to place on them unprofitable.

Call it advertising if you want, but I still advise the best, in my opinion, the place to start is the channel of my friend @rugram. I got a nice effect on it, and most importantly — the administrator selects for publication only interesting channels and post them rarely, and therefore, the value of each placement is very high. Suggest.

the My ad @rugram collected 33 hits per month — and have brought a lot of subscribers

the Measure, which do not need to watch when buying advertising, the number of subscribers. It is uninformative indicator, which is not talking about anything. Yes, a lot of some people, they may once read the channel. You really need to look at how fast new posts are typed views (in two days the post needs to recruit about 100% of the audience of the channel or more — then you are in the right place), as well as the number and dynamics of reactions under the posts.

Another important aspect is the density of the publications and the degree of credibility of the author. If the author thrived 5-10 posts a day or every other post on the channel advertising the value of advertising is zero.

let's Say you found a good channel for advertising. How to communicate with the admin? Remember: the price that calls the admin, he's invented himself and, in principle, designed for a sucker. Nobody really understands how much should be advertising in the Telegram, so everyone sculpts what he wants. You can call these numbers you will lose the potency for the week ahead.

the Cure: normally communicate with the admins and agree on adequate conditions. I have a big budget and I can buy expensive advertising, but I don't want to be a sucker, so I have never bought ads at a nominal price. If the seller is not willing to discuss terms, I have ten other sellers that are ready. Market hell, and I'm an economist by education.

the Buying in large channel — a course for beginners

Channels in a Telegram of ads not suitable for all. Choose interesting channels with unique creative content and involved audiences. Bypassing aggregators of links, footy news, all language channels and those in which the author writes too much or too boring. The less readers see links on the channel, the better will come your.

Looking for a virgin audience, don't go on advertising brothels.

6. Vzaemodia.
There is such a thing — vzaemodia, or abbreviated as EAP. Works in the following way: do you agree with the comparable amount of channels and do free advertising each other. Many people think this way a perpetual motion machine: no need to pay, and the return is. But such people do not see the deeper implications of VP — reputation. But there is nothing more important.

the Vzaemodia similar machine Harrison — it can propel you forward, but at what cost?

As the GQ magazine will not be allowed in the room is some muddy, uninteresting mess, and you don't have to place a second-rate channels, even if they are in 2, 5 or 10 times more the number of subscribers. It seems that it is profitable, but you betray their readers and their own sense of beauty.

the Just a minute you can earn several thousand — and forever lose the respect of subscribers

Vzaemodia is only possible with the best channels. If you have read the canal and respect its author, you have to consider VP, but even this type of accommodation you wish to incorporate the maximum native. Zealous treat your efforts. If you make great content, advertise only cool products.

Remember: advertising is a personal recommendation of the author. Advertise what you really believe is worthy of your audience's attention, and she will respect you. Anyone who advertises sucks, no respect for himself.

V. conclusion

the volume is written pulls on the thesis — I hope and content someone will find useful. The main question remains: what to do with the channel on, if you managed to make it great? Because this vision takes a lot of time and effort, and I want to return to see.

But that being said, up to you. I aim to tell you about the components of success in the launch of the new channel.

If you have an interesting case of start in the Telegram, I'd appreciate it if you talk about it in the comments. There is nothing more interesting than learning about someone else's experience.

Telegram.

Article based on information from habrahabr.ru