Telegram and messengers: bringing in clients and keeping the conversation

Why a business needs it

The reason is behaviour, not fashion. Part of the audience will not call on principle: it is awkward, noisy, they do not want to talk. For them, no messenger means no enquiry.

• The barrier is lower than a call or a form: they can write at any moment.
• The conversation is saved — they do not have to remember your terms.
• They can send a photograph of the task, which speeds up an estimate.
• A reply does not require both sides to be free at the same time.

How to set it up properly

1. A separate number or accountWork conversations must not mix with personal ones. That is the first cause of lost enquiries.
2. A button somewhere visibleIn the site header, in the maps listing, in your email signature, in your social profile.
3. A greeting that sets expectationsAn auto-reply naming the response time: «we are online 9 to 19 and reply within 15 minutes».
4. Access for several staffOtherwise the channel stalls when one person is on holiday.
5. Counted alongside requestsEvery enquiry lands in the same list as requests from the site.

What to write in the first message

The first reply decides whether the conversation continues. A short structure works: greet, name the company, clarify the task, propose the next step.

• Reply as a person with a name, not an impersonal «Hello!».
• Give the price range straight away if asked: dodging reads as an attempt to inflate it.
• Do not ask five questions at once — one at a time.
• Propose something concrete: a time to visit, an estimate, a call.
• Do not send long blocks of text — nobody reads them in a messenger.

How advertising in Telegram works

The logic differs from paid search and social targeting. The main route is placement in relevant channels where the audience is already gathered.

For a local business, city and district channels usually work best: the audience is gathered by geography, and that is half the targeting.

How to choose a channel for placement

1. Look at views on recent posts, not at the subscriber count.
2. Views under ten percent of subscribers is a warning sign.
3. Check whether there are genuine comments and reactions.
4. See how much advertising is in the feed: a channel with an ad every other post has burned out.
5. Start with one placement and your own tagged link.

Do you need your own channel

Your own channel is not an acquisition channel but a retention one. It does not bring new people by itself, but it helps bring back those who already know you.

• Worth it: when there are repeat sales and something to say regularly.
• Not worth it: when the service is one-off and there is nothing to say — the channel dies in a month.
• Minimum rhythm: one or two posts a week. Less and people forget you.
• What to post: work, answers to common questions, changes in terms.

How not to lose enquiries

The main risk of the channel is a conversation that sank. It appears in no report, and nobody learns about the loss.

• Keep work chats separate from personal ones.
• Mark threads as «unanswered» and clear them at the end of the day.
• Move the enquiry into your general request list immediately, not after the deal.
• Record the source: from advertising, from the site, from the maps listing.
• Agree who replies at weekends and during which hours.

How to measure the return

Measure what you measure on any channel: how many enquiries, how many clients, at what cost. Reach and subscriber counts have nothing to do with money.

1. A tag in every link from a post or a profile.
2. A separate «messengers» row in your list of enquiries.
3. Placement cost divided by the enquiries it produced.
4. The share reaching a deal counted separately — it usually differs from the site.
5. Comparison with other channels by cost per client, not by placement price.

A practical observation: enquiries from messengers are often cheaper but take more of a manager's time. That belongs in the cost too.