— September 23, 2021 13:07 — 0 Comments When selling a product or providing services, it is very important to establish feedback with buyers and customers. For these purposes, you can use a special social networking tool that will provide convenient communication. In the article below we will tell you what the VKontakte message widget is, why use it, how to set it up and connect it.
What is a VKontakte message widget in a group?
The VKontakte message widget is a pop-up window on the site in which VKontakte users can write a message to the VK group associated with this widget.
For example, this site also has a messages widget, it is located in the lower right corner, collapsed. You can click on the icon and ask us a question.
After you ask a question, a correspondence with the HOWVK.RU group - VKontakte Encyclopedia will appear in your personal messages.
The messages widget looks like this when closed:
VKontakte message widget in closed form on the website
And so in the open:
What does a VKontakte message layout look like in open form?
Creating a mailing list in Gamayun
Now, so that when you click on the subscribe button, the user is shown a newsletter that he can subscribe to, we need to create it in Gamayun. Let me remind you that you can have several such mailings.
To create a newsletter, go to Gamayun’s website and go to the “Mailout” tab. If you have added several communities to the service, switch between them by clicking on the icon:
To create a newsletter, click on the “Add topic” button.
Enter the name and description of the newsletter. Here you can set the first automatic letter that the user will receive immediately after subscribing . To do this, check the “Send message to user” checkbox.
This could be a welcome message where you introduce yourself and tell them what your newsletter is about. In addition, already in the first letter you can provide some useful information: a link to your lead magnet, article, video, etc. If you click on the paperclip icon, an additional field will open in which you can add links to materials from Vkontakte - documents, videos, pictures.
Finally, click “Create”.
An example of my first letter is below:
Your newsletter will appear in the list of topics on the left.
There are initially two topics here:
“Black list” - you can enter the id of users you want to remove from the mailing list so that they can no longer subscribe.
“No topic” – this includes users who did not select a specific newsletter when subscribing.
Below the newsletter there is a row of icons:
The eye icon is responsible for the visibility of your newsletter in the application, that is, on the subscription page that opens when you click on the “Subscribe” button. If you click on the icon, the eye will become crossed out - the newsletter will not be displayed to users.
The pencil icon allows you to edit the newsletter (title, description, first letter).
The arrow icon allows you to copy the link to the newsletter. It can be given in group posts, inviting users to subscribe, and also used in mailing letters so that those who change their mind about receiving your messages have the opportunity to unsubscribe.
The icon in the form of a man with a plus sign is used to add users to the mailing list by specifying the VKontakte profile id. But this does not mean that you can add absolutely any user this way - this is a violation of the rules. You can only add those who themselves have expressed such a desire!
A man with a cross – removing a user from the mailing list.
Cross – deleting the mailing list.
Pros of the widget
- Increases confidence;
- After leaving the site, the user can continue the dialogue in his messages; he does not have to wait for a response on the site;
- Clients do not need to register anywhere else or enter their data to ask a question;
- Through the widget you can send attachments, pictures, videos, in general, everything you need;
- Site administrators receive the user’s contacts and can add him to the retargeting database to show him advertising
Community Posts Widget
This tool is a chat that is built into website pages and allows you to simplify the process of communicating with clients. A person can write his question once in the widget window, and conduct all further correspondence with a company representative through the “Messages” section within the social network.
Among other things, the client will not need to register on the company’s website and verify his email address. Authorization is carried out automatically through the VK profile.
Along with the text, directly through the widget, you can send an image or document, which significantly expands the possibilities of the dialogue.
How to get the code for the VKontakte Community Messages widget
To install such a wonderful thing on your site, you need to do the following:
- You must have a group. It seems like an obvious point, but...
- You need to enable messages in the group.
- To do this, go to Management in the group menu (column on the right).
- Go to the Messages section;
- Enable community posts;
- Check the Add to left menu box;
- In the Message widget line, check the box Allow the use of widget
- Fill out the sections Welcome, Brief information, Offline status, be sure to write the address of your website in Allowed domains;
VK community message widget settings - Follow the link https://vk.com/dev/CommunityMessages, select settings and receive a code to embed on the site.
Let's take a closer look at the settings.
How to send a message on behalf of a VKontakte group
The newsletter can be done manually (but this is too long), through the VK application or through special services. Let's consider the last 2 methods:
Newsletters application
The application is in the official catalog. Go to “Community Management” - “Applications” section, open the catalog, scroll down and find what you were looking for.
Select a group.
You can leave everything as it is; by default, the widget is accompanied by a “Subscribe” button.
The settings here are minimal; it only makes sense to set up a snippet if you have an online store. To do this, in the applications section, find the one you just added and click “Configure the application” - “Community settings”.
In the snippet section, select the desired name, for example, “Buy a ticket” or “Contact”.
Since VK applications tend to malfunction, it is safer to use the services, especially since many of them also have their own widgets in the VK catalog.
Services
We list the most popular:
Senler . Service for mass automatic mailings. There is a ready-made widget for VK. You can use variables in messages (name, gender, country, city, marital status) to personalize messages. High email deliverability is guaranteed, since people subscribe to the newsletter voluntarily. There is a delayed mailing function and detailed statistics on sent messages and subscribers.
VK-Postinger . Program for promotion in VK. Newsletter is just one of its functions. You can send messages not only in private messages, but also on the community wall, in comments, under photos and videos. In addition to mailing, functions such as searching and collecting target audience, liking, inviting, reposting, and delayed posting are available.
SocialSend . Auto funnel service for VK. Allows you to create a chain of letters in the mailing list. There is an internal CRM with detailed segmentation of the subscriber base according to 33+ parameters. As well as detailed analytics, where you can see the dynamics of attracting subscribers, their activity, and sources of subscriptions.
PS You will find even more useful services for VK in our article - in addition to software for mailings, we listed parsers, deferred posting programs, and mass activity services.
Community Messages widget settings in VK
Community Messages widget settings
link to the page
Select your group from the list on behalf of which you will respond.
If everything is empty, check which account you are currently logged into in contact. If you have several of them, then your other account may be the group administrator.
Location
This refers to the location of the widget on the site.
There are options:
- In the lower right corner
- In the lower left corner
It all depends on what kind of website template you have. Consider the location of other blocks so that the widget does not overlap them.
Expand via
There are options:
- do not disclose;
- straightaway;
- after 5 seconds (minimum value);
- …
- after 120 seconds (maximum value).
Here you need to keep in mind whether the appearance of the widget will annoy your audience.
On the one hand, if you do not disclose it, then it certainly will not cause negativity, but it will be noticed less. If you open it right away, it can block the information the user needs, distract him and irritate him, but then the likelihood that he will notice the widget and ask a question if one appears increases.
This is what the widget looks like when closed:
Widget closed
And here it is in the open:
Widget in open form
Open with sound
It is better not to check this box, especially if your widget opens on its own, because it will make a squeaking sound. If the user has the sound turned up to full volume, he may be very surprised. In general, this function causes negativity.
New message sound
If you check this box, the widget will make a sound when it receives a message from you.
You can check this box if you are not the first to write a welcome message and this setting should not cause negativity, because the user himself contacted you and most likely your answer is important to him and he is waiting for it.
If you are the first to write, then it’s better not to include it.
Tooltip text
This is the text next to the closed widget. It tells the user what this circle is for. The standard text offered by the widget is: “Have a question?”
Use standard text, or write your own.
Embed code
After you fill out all the fields and copy the widget code to the site.
Depending on what cms your site uses, the options may be different.
How can you use this application?
The same as email newsletters, but only within the VKontakte social network. At the same time, the open rate of such mailings is high, since they come directly to the user’s inbox. The topic is not yet hackneyed; there are still few newsletters on VK, and they do not get lost in the flow, like email letters.
I’m not going to say that this will completely replace email marketing. After all, there are still people who do not use social networks or go there rarely, but use email. Although it is definitely worth using this tool as another channel of communication with your audience.
Using the Gamayun application, you can create different thematic mailings , segmenting the audience. You can add a subscribe button directly to the community. When you click on this button, the user will see all your existing mailing lists and will be able to subscribe to the one that interests him.
You can build a full-fledged sales funnel inside VK - your or partner products, or use a mixed strategy.
To actively create a subscription base inside VKontakte, you can make a special lead magnet (free product) for the topic of your group and give it away for a subscription . It’s very simple to implement – the post announcing the lead magnet is pinned at the top, under the community header. In your post you provide a link to the subscription page. First create a newsletter for this lead magnet and give it an appropriate name. In the first letter that arrives immediately after subscribing, you give away the promised freebie (you can already embed an affiliate recommendation or an additional paid offer into it). And then you build a chain of letters so that it contains both valuable content and your/partner offers on the topic.
In order for the base to be replenished with new subscribers, your task is to promote the community (group) and, in particular, a post with a valuable free product for a subscription.
In addition to the automatic message chain, you can send periodic newsletters . That is, you have a new post, you want to share important news or some materials, invite subscribers to an event or make them an offer. In this case, send the corresponding letter to the mailing list, indicating the date and time of sending.
I think it’s clear with examples of use. Now let's move on to practice and figure out the mailing settings.
Important: now mailings are created through the Gamayun application directly on VKontakte, the gmun.pro website is no longer supported! See this instruction.
Watch my video tutorial on setting up a newsletter in VK below:
