Looking for ways to get new customers talking to you on Telegram? You’ve come to the right place. In this first-hand guide, we’ll show you how to generate a Telegram Link (also known as a t.me link) using our Telegram link generator and explore its benefits.
In addition, we’ll go over some of the effective ways you can utilize Telegram links and why you should connect your Telegram account to an AI-powered customer conversation management software like respond.io. Ready? Read on!
What is a Telegram Link?
Telegram links let people contact your business without knowing your phone number. It comprises your username and a t.me link. Like Facebook Messenger links, a Telegram link is the shortest official URL you can get for your profile.
t.me is the URL shortener used by Telegram to create links for channels and groups. These links are used to invite users to join a channel or group on Telegram. Simply add your Telegram username behind t.me (e.g. t.me/yourusername) to generate a Telegram Group Link.
The links open a Telegram page with buttons to initiate a chat session with your business, depending on the user’s Telegram Web logged-in state.
If the user is not logged into Telegram Web, the webpage will show a single Send Message button. Additionally, this button opens a chat window with your business in the Telegram app as long as it’s installed on their phone or computer.
If the user is logged into Telegram Web, an additional Open In Web button will be present. This button opens a chat window with your business on Telegram Web. Either way, both buttons launch a chat window with your business for the user to message you.
Do note that if Telegram is not installed on the user’s device, clicking the Send Message button will do nothing and if the user isn’t logged in to Telegram Web, the Open in Web won’t appear.
Next, we’ll discuss the benefits of the Telegram link.
Benefits of the Telegram Link
Telegram links offer a direct and immediate way for leads to chat with businesses. By clicking on a Telegram link and chatting in real-time, businesses have the opportunity to engage with leads when their interest is at its peak and push them down the sales funnel faster compared to other traditional channels like email.
Unlike other business messaging channels such as WhatsApp API or Facebook Messenger, a Telegram Bot does not impose a messaging window. This means that you can reengage with leads anytime you want to share new promotions or nudge them to convert.
Telegram is known for its strong encryption, which assures users of a secure environment for communication. This security is especially important when exchanging sensitive lead information like payment details.
Last, embed these Telegram links anywhere to capture leads effectively! Since they’re regular URLs, you can place them on your website, messaging channels, blogs, PDFs and social media posts that support links. In the following section, we’ll explain how you can obtain a Telegram link.
How to Create Telegram Link
There are two ways for you to get a Telegram link, manually or by using respond.io's convenient Telegram link generator.
How to Create Telegram Link Manually
The first method requires you to manually add your Telegram bot’s username to the t.me address.
1. Find your Telegram username, which is in your profile settings, or your bot’s username by using the BotFather.
2. Copy and paste the username of your profile or your bot after https://t.me/. For example https://t.me/ContentTeamBot.
3. Display this link in convenient locations.
If you’re not a fan of the t.me/ URL, you can generate your Telegram link with one of the following addresses. These links function identically with the only difference being the addresses themselves. Simply replace username with your own:
- https://telegram.me/username
- https://telegram.dog/username
- https://username.t.me/
Next, we’ll go over respond.io’s convenient Telegram link generator.
Telegram Link Generator by respond.io
Generating a Telegram link from respond.io is a straightforward process with minimal steps involved.
To get started, navigate to Settings > Growth Widgets. Then, select QR Code and click Create Widget.
Under QR code type, select the channel which you would like to generate the link for, in this case Telegram. Then, select the account you’d like to use. This is especially useful if you have multiple Telegram accounts connected to respond.io.
A Telegram link will be displayed under the generated QR code. Click the copy icon next to the URL to store it in your clipboard. Paste this link wherever you wish to share it.
Like with the manually generated link, you can replace the link with one of the following addresses. These links function identically with the only difference being the addresses themselves. Simply replace username with your own:
- https://t.me/username
- https://telegram.dog/username
- https://username.t.me/
In the following section, we’ll go over getting Telegram links for your Group or Channel.
How to Create Telegram Group Link or Channel Link
In addition to linking to your personal or bot Telegram account, Telegram links can point your contacts to any groups or channels you may have. Follow these instructions to get your Telegram Group or Channel links.
In order to get a personalized Telegram link for your group, you need to change it to a public group. Since groups are private by default, use the following steps.
How to get a Telegram Link?
- Open Telegram and navigate to your group or channel
- Tap on the name of your group or channel at the top
- On the top right corner, click on the edit button (pencil icon)
- Click on 'Group Type' and make your group or channel public
Next, we’ll go over the benefits of connecting your Telegram bot to respond.io.
Benefits of Using Telegram with Respond.io
For growing businesses, there will be a point when you need to capture and manage more leads. And using the Telegram app or Web app will not be enough. To effectively handle the increasing volume of conversations, businesses will need to upgrade to more sophisticated systems that can handle teams of agents and support advanced features designed for larger operations.
By using a Telegram bot and a customer conversation management software like respond.io, you can do the above and more. Respond.io is a platform designed for conversational sales, automation and more to increase the efficiency of your teams. Here’s a quick rundown of what you can accomplish.
Respond AI: Reply to Leads Intelligently
As you increase the number of touchpoints with features like Telegram link, the number of Telegram conversations will grow. When that happens, it only makes sense to rely on conversational AI to handle them without dramatically increasing your agent count or load.
Configure your Respond AI Agent with your business’s knowledge sources. Then, it will be able to collect customer information or answer preliminary questions, to name some benefits. Imagine how many Telegram conversations you could resolve without any human input!
However, sales agents actively chatting with Telegram leads can also benefit from conversational AI. AI Assist generates replies at the click of a button based on the conversation history. On the other hand, AI Prompts are useful for instantly fixing your messages before they’re sent.
Multi-Channel Support: Capture and Chat on All Connected Channels
With respond.io’s multichannel support, you can connect the instant messaging channels your customers prefer, such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger along with Telegram. Then, you can use these channels’ unique lead-capturing methods to acquire more leads and respond to all conversations from one platform.
Using Contact Merge, consolidate customer details and conversation history to remove duplicates from your contact list. This way, you won’t have to deal with separate contact profiles for the same person with different usernames or emails across various channels.
If your merged contacts have messaged you on Telegram before, you can message them anytime afterward since Telegram has no messaging window. This is handy when messaging windows for other channels have closed before a chat is resolved.
Since you’ll have their combined chat histories in chronological order, you won’t miss any key information.
Workflows and API Integration: Automate Your Interactions
If you have a lot of contacts reaching out to your business on Telegram, Workflows can be used to automate repetitive tasks. Beyond the usual greeting or away messages, automatically route your contacts to the right team and assign them an available Agent.
Are Contacts looking to chat with customer support or sales? Send them to the right department before your Agents are involved. This way, your Contacts are immediately connected to someone who can address their needs.
Respond.io supports API integrations with other apps and platforms to allow information exchange between them, expanding its sales and support capabilities. For example, you can carry out the following:
- Qualify contacts with data enrichment tools such as Clearbit
- Calculate the price quotations for a custom plan during client consultations
- Generate sales deals in a CRM such as Hubspot or Salesforce
- Set up a customer escalation process
- Measure CSAT scores using Workflows
By utilizing integrations, you reduce the number of errors introduced when reentering data. You also improve the efficiency of your Agents since they don’t need to leave the platform to use another tool.
Reports: Monitor Agent Performance
It’s one thing to have all the tools at your disposal but are they being used effectively? Respond.io’s Reports Module provides you with insights into how well your Agents are communicating with your Contacts.
Lastly, using the Reports Module, evaluate the efficiency of your Agents by tracking their first response time, resolution time and more. With these metrics, you can analyze and improve both individual and team performance.
You also have the option to observe your agents’ conversations and step in at any time if needed. Don’t leave your customers waiting for a reply!
To sum up, now that you know the benefits of Telegram links and connecting your Telegram account to respond.io, it’s time to take your conversations to the next level. Don’t have a respond.io account yet? Sign up for a free trial.
Further reading
To conclude, if this first-hand guide was helpful, here are additional articles on Telegram you might find of use to you and your business: