Telegram has recently launched Telegram Premium, a new subscription service that offers an exclusive experience for users. The paid service will offer additional features and new resource releases first hand, and costs between $5 and $6 per month.
According to the company’s statement , the goal is to “deliver all the resource-rich features that users have asked for over the years, while preserving free access.” In other words, Telegram has found a way to offer a more exclusive and improved version of the application, without compromising the free version, so appreciated (and downloaded) around the world.
In numbers, Telegram ended April 2022 with more than 500 million monthly active users and was one of the 10 most downloaded applications in the world. To give you a quick perspective on its growth, the app grew its user base by 25% in just two years (remember we’re talking millions of people). To date, the app has already achieved 700 million total users.
And what I like most about the growth of Telegram and Telegram Premium is the story behind it. Telegram has never paid to advertise its apps. All the growth was the old (but golden) personal recommendations. People invited their friends to join the app and one by one they decided to be a part of it. Does it give you a sense of community? For me, it does. Telegram was able to build its own brand community, just by providing a good and useful service.
Going further, one of the reasons why Telegram launched the Premium version was because many users expressed their willingness to support their team: they wanted to support the continued development of Telegram and were willing to pay for more features. Again, I can’t describe this move in words other than a strong sense of brand community.
What can Telegram Premium mean for your Marketing strategy?
All of this is great. But how can you, as a marketer, take advantage of the benefits of Telegram Premium?
Well, the first thing (and as strong advice) is to learn from the same brand. Telegram shows us the power and importance of having a strong brand community and how you can grow your presence with its help.
A brand community gives you the opportunity to foster an environment that supports strong loyalty and allows people to emotionally connect with your brand.
Learning to build a committed and loyal community is the first lesson that Telegram leaves you. The second thing is about the new features available. If you use Telegram as part of your strategy, the Premium version includes new tools to organize your chat list.
Additionally, public figures and organizations can verify your group, channels, or bot, which can give your brand more authority.
And speaking of bots, bot developers can now include a photo or video in the “What can this bot do?” to display its features.
Unfortunately, not everything is rosy for sellers using Telegram as part of their paid strategy.
In some countries, the app displays sponsored messages on large public channels.
If this is your case, it is important to note that this option will no longer appear for Premium subscribers, only for free ones.
There are other features available in Telegram Premium that you can explore and test in your marketing strategy and, who knows, also use them to start a conversation with your brand community.