How to launch your first Viber campaign

Users have grown accustomed to sending messages to friends and family, and now they expect the same level of convenience from the companies they engage with. Currently, Viber is used in over 190 countries worldwide, making it a useful platform for promoting your business.

Advantages of Viber campaigns

• High delivery speed. Statistics show that Viber users engage in over 70 million interactions every hour, ensuring that your message will be received.

• Editable template. You can modify the username, loyalty card number, or order amount to personalize the communication. When editing, adhere to the requirements set by Viber, available via this link.

• File attachments. Viber offers several customizable fields: up to a thousand characters of text, an image, and a button. This makes Viber campaigns more engaging for recipients compared to SMS, which is limited to 70 characters for a message in Russian, without the ability to add images or buttons. Attachments can include images in various formats, GIF animations, stickers, buttons, and links. There are specific requirements for these attachments.

• Security. Sending campaigns from an official business account that has undergone verification increases user trust in the sender.

• Cost-effectiveness. The cost of sending Viber messages is significantly lower than sending SMS.

• Analytics. Data for analysis and campaign optimization are available for export in Excel reports.

• Legality. Viber is not banned in Russia, unlike the American messenger WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta*.

Step 1. Setting up integration

Open the "Integrations" section in the menu and select the type — Viber.

Activate the integration by toggling the switch in the top right corner.

Click on "Add connection" to create a new connection. A new window with available connections will appear on the right. This connection allows linking the Devino provider account with Altcraft Platform. Click "Create" to set up a new connection:

In the new window, specify the name and description of the connection. Choose your preferred method for authorization in the Devino account:

• API key: using the generated API key.

• username and password: a combination of the login and password for the Devino.Online account.

Enter the authentication details and initiate the validation check by using the "Check" button. If the details are valid, information about the successfully identified account will appear below:

Click the "Create" button in the bottom right corner to save the connection. You'll return to the list of connections. Choose the required connection:

Clicking on the created connection will display the information within the integration. Ensure that the connection status is "active." If not, check the status of your account in the Devino Telecom personal account. Please note that the account might be suspended if the subscription fee is not paid.

Save the integration using the buttons in the top right corner. In the Viber integration panel, it will display the status as "Configured."

Step 2. Subscribe сlients to the Viber сhannel

To send messages to users on Viber, you need:

• the user's phone number in the database;

• a subscription to the Viber channel on the user's profile.

Make sure that the phone number to which you are sending messages is recorded in international format: +79001234567

To subscribe clients to the Viber channel, follow these steps:

1. Create an empty database.

2. Create a new resource or edit an existing one, adding the Viber channel.

To configure the channel, select the previously created Viber connection and specify the sender's name. Subscribers will see this name when they receive the message. You can find the sender's name in the Devino Telecom personal account and it needs to be agreed upon with your provider beforehand.

3. Import customer profiles into an empty database.

In the "Profiles databases" section in the menu panel, select "Import customer profiles" and choose the most convenient method for you, such as "File". Drag and drop the file into the upload area.

4. Subscribe customers to the Viber resource.

To do this, in the "Subscription settings," click on "Add subscription."

Select the previously created Viber resource from the dropdown list under "Subscription resources," and specify "Subscription source" as "Phone."

Click on the "Import" button to complete the database operation.

Check the subscription status for a random user.

Step 3. Create a template for the broadcast

Message templates are the content that you send to subscribers in the broadcast. You need to create a new template for the Viber channel by selecting the required message type. The following types are available:

• text;
• text + button;
• text + image + button;
• image;
• video;
• video + text;
• video + text + button;
• file.

Then, fill in the template content step by step. You can fully configure the template by following the “Working with message templates” guide.

Step 4. Set up the campaign.

The campaign defines the method of distribution. The type of campaign that suits you depends on the goals of the distribution.

Broadcasts are used for one-time message distribution to a specific segment.

Regular campaigns distribute messages to a specific subscriber audience on a regular basis.

Trigger campaigns automatically send a message to a subscriber as soon as a specific event occurs. You can read more about types of campaigns here.

For example, let's create a broadcast notifying customers about available purchase bonuses. After choosing the campaign type, give it a name, and make sure to activate it.

Next, from the drop-down list of channels, select “Viber,” and in the “Subscribers” tab, select “Resource,” “Subscriber source,” and their dependent fields. Why configure them? In short, “Resource” organizes customer subscriptions for specific content through specific communication channels, in this case, Viber. The “Subscriber source” can be either “Profile base” or “Segment.” It's essential to prepare the source based on the distribution goal in advance.

The next step will be choosing the created template.

Then configure the “Schedule.” There are various options available in the drop-down list. For a one-time notification, select “On a specific date at a chosen time.” Specify the exact date and time for the distribution.

Finally, click on the “Done” button to finish the setup. Click “Save” to exit the campaign editor.

Step 5. Test the newsletter

Send a test message to yourself or colleagues to ensure everything is ready to start the campaign. It's recommended to test any type of campaign: broadcast, regular, or triggered distribution. This allows you to verify the template's display, the links and buttons' clickability, dynamic content substitution, and interaction with the provider.

To launch a test campaign, click on the testing icon in the list of saved campaigns:

Select the profile base, then the test profile within it, and click on the “Test” button. The test message will be sent to the selected profile.

Step 6. Launching the campaign

In step 4, we activated the campaign, which means that once the launch day arrives, the newsletter will begin being sent.

Step 7. Evaluate the results

Be sure to analyze the results to improve your metrics. To do this, navigate to the “Analytics” section, select the relevant menu item, then choose “Channels.”

“The channel report” displays data for all events tracked in the campaigns: sends, deliveries, opens, clicks, returns, subscriptions, unsubscriptions, and more.

In the Viber channel report, you'll see the following metrics:

• Deliveries and % deliveries

• Reads and unique reads

• Content clicks and unique content clicks

• Unique Link Clicks

• Content CTR

• Link CTR

• Generation errors

• Transport errors

• Suppression list

• Policy exceedances

• Unsubscriptions

• Undefined