Viber is one of the most popular instant messengers in the world, has become not only a means of communication for ordinary users, but an effective tool for business. The site has wide functionality for the company’s interaction with its potential customers and increasing brand loyalty. Digital Agency Portland told about their experience. 

 

Statistics

According to official statistics, the audience has 1 billion users worldwide, while:

 

  • 30% of the audience use stickers in their messages;
  • 50% of the audience send photos and video files every day;
  • in average, 1 user opens the application 12 times a day;
  • more than 7 million users interact with the messenger every minute.

Impressive performance. If you have not yet connected this channel of communication with your audience, then you should think about this issue. This is true when your direct competitors are running successful campaigns, especially via Viber.

 

Business Solutions

  1. Advertising. You can apply for advertising on Viber by filling out a special form on the official website of the messenger.

 

  1. Communities are the so-called group chats, where users exchange messages and messages. There are no restrictions on the number of members in communities. Separately, I would like to note about the convenient search for communities – they can be found by entering the name in the search bar.
  2. Branded stickers. Designed to create original content. Download stickers from the app catalog and use them for your own purposes. The most interesting thing is what users do with your brand, thereby popularizing your brand.
  3. E-commerce is a tool that helps increase sales and user loyalty to your brand through a common online shopping platform.
  4. Business messages. Thanks to this feature, you will be able to personally communicate with each customer on behalf of the brand.
  5. Viber Out resellers. By offering your clients access to quality voice communication, you will receive financial rewards.

 

Additional Features

  1. Sending secret messages.

After the expiration date specified by the sender, the message will be automatically deleted. For example, you can use this option to notify customers about promotions and sales. When receiving an SMS, the user will see a blurry picture, which is displayed correctly when clicking on it. How to send a secret message: select an image or video, set a timer and send.

  1. Audio messages.

Quite a non-standard method of communication between the company and the client. However, such an idea will help you significantly stand out from the competition. To do this, you need to use the Push-To-Talk function by clicking on the microphone icon. When you hold it, the recording is in progress. When you release the button, the message is sent automatically.

  1. Installing the application on a stationary PC / laptop.

Go to the official Viber website, download the messenger and launch the application. The program will ask you to specify the phone number that is registered to the installed messenger in your gadget. After identification, a window with a QR code will appear. Next, you need to read this code with the gadget’s camera, while the mobile application must be activated.

  1. Artist services.

In this option, you will have access to a brush, eraser and colors to choose from. To do this, you open the picture you need, click on the 3 vertical dots located in the upper right corner, select “Draw to this photo” and the zone in which changes will be made manually. By clicking “Save”, you will open a special panel with a set of tools and you can start creating. When finished, click on the checkmark icon in the upper right corner.

  1. We delete the unnecessary.

In the general chat, you can delete individual messages using one of two options: “Delete from me” / “Delete everywhere”.

 

Messenger Functionality

Let’s briefly summarize the main messenger tools:

 

  • sending text messages, photo and video content;
  • video / audio messages, video / audio calls;
  • stickers and GIF animations;
  • communities with an unlimited number of members;
  • deleting sent messages;
  • synchronization of Viber between a mobile gadget and a stationary PC.

 

Viber Bulk Sending: A Comprehensive Guide

So, let’s move on to the most powerful messenger tools for business. Let’s start with the main thing – how will you benefit from mass mailing.

 

Advantages:

 

  • wide coverage of the audience, among which there will definitely be your potential customers: every year the number of messenger users continues to grow;
  • favorable cost of sending messages in comparison with mailing through mobile operators;
  • the ability to send messages to any country without restrictions, as opposed to using the services of mobile operators;
  • the ability to send capacious messages (up to 1000 characters) and media content, insert a link to a web resource.

Viber mailings can be conditionally divided into 2 categories: for solving personal problems and official advertising mailings.

 

Viber Mailings for Personal Purposes

This solution is optimal for communication within the company between employees. To do this, you have 2 tools – mailing to a list and creating a group chat.

 

Group chat has a limit of up to 250 participants who can read messages in it and give their answers. Creation of a group chat is as follows: select the “Chats” tab, click on the blue window (located in the lower right corner), then “New group”. We add the contacts you are interested in from the phone book and you can start correspondence.

 

Mailing list allows you to unite up to 50 users in a messenger. Creating such a mailing list is similar to a group chat, but at the last step you need to select “New mailing list”. In this case, the message will reach each user of the application individually.

 

Mailings via Official Channels

Viber works with companies that are legally entitled to send bulk emails. To them, the messenger makes demands on non-proliferation of spam and respectful communication with users.

 

A list of significant advantages when working with official channels for mass mailing:

 

  • user confidence in your brand thanks to the authorization of the channel on the platform – a green check mark next to the logo;
  • guarantee for spending your finances – you pay only for delivered messages;
  • obtaining statistics on the current campaign, access to which is in the personal account of the service;
  • in the body of the message, you can insert photo content, active links and a button leading to your website;
  • the ability to send a large number of messages due to the optimal delivery speed;
  • no routine work in the service – you just create an account and set the mailing parameters.

 

How to Build a Telephone Base for Mailings?

It is important that customers who are sent messages on behalf of your company give consent to this. Otherwise, such mailing is considered spam.

 

You can collect a contact database in one of the popular ways by requesting a phone number:

 

  • when filling out the registration form on the website;
  • when making a purchase to a phone number;
  • when sending a promotional code for a discount via a message, etc.

 

Public Bots: What are They?

It is a tool for interacting with users – quickly answering their questions. Bots often work according to established algorithms, as well as based on artificial intelligence, which is extremely rare.

 

Public Account: Latest News

Public accounts resemble social networks – users can view content like a news feed, while there is no opportunity to leave comments. At the very bottom of the application there is a line with a “Public” section, entering which you can use one of the search options to find the page of interest by name.

 

Important: to date, the Viber management has suspended the acceptance of applications for public accounts. I wrote to the “Support” of the messenger and received an official confirmation of this information.

 

Communities: a Guide to Creating and Managing

 

Since we did not have time to use the Public Account tool, we will deal with the communities.

 

The community is created through a smartphone messenger.

 

  1. Open the “Chats” section, click the “Create” option, then “Create a community”.
  2. Fill in all the required information – name, icon (image) and description of the community.
  3. Click “Save”.

Ready. You can now add members.

How Do I Add Members to Your Community?

You open the main page of the community, where there is an option “Invite members”. Click on it, and a screen with a link to the community will open in front of you.

 

Ways to send invitations:

 

  • send a link to your contacts in the messenger;
  • post a link on your website, social networks and other Internet resources (this function is available only for open communities);
  • activate the button “Everyone uses the link” so that community members can invite friends by giving them a link.

Community Administration

The community creator is a superadmin. It can give individual members the admin rights, who are usually involved in moderation – upload content, remove obscene / unwanted messages, add / remove members, and much more. At the same time, participants can write messages to the feed and correspond with other users. This option can be disabled if necessary.

Examples of Successful Messenger Marketing Campaigns

The Coca-Cola Company released branded sticker packs 3 times – in 2014, 2016 and 2017. The first marketing campaign produced impressive results. In just 15 days, stickers with the image of a polar bear and Santa Claus were downloaded by 2 million users, who shared them 20 million times. The stickers released in 2016 were downloaded 1.6 million times and shared nearly 30 million times.

 

Bots are less commonly used for marketing campaigns. However, there are those who have managed to get the most benefit. For example, the Hrusteam company, together with Mosaic, launched a “detective bot” as part of the “Guess the Secret Taste” campaign. The main prize of the competition is £ 20,000. The chatbot gave users explanations of the conditions of the promotion, tips, intermediate prizes by the barcode from the packaging of crackers, and also subscribed the participants to the brand’s public account. Users came to Secret Chat via a post-call banner. During the contest period, 92% of the company’s subscribers communicated with the chatbot, and the average number of messages from one user was 4 messengers.

Conclusion

Viber can be classified as an effective business marketing tool for its affordable bulk mailing cost, ad placement, the ability to create communities and buy sticker packs. Of course, it is not encouraging that today the application does not accept applications for creating public accounts. Perhaps the developers are preparing even more powerful features for marketers. It remains to follow the news in order to get ahead of their competitors in time.