Video messaging is now available on Viber. You can launch bulk video dispatches, as well as supplement text messages with a video.

Video message layouts are already available on your Messaggio dashboard. In this guide, we will show you how to create and send video messages as well as effectively use video content in customer chats.

How to create a template with video
Requirements for video layouts
What kinds of videos are best for messaging campaignsм

How to create a template with video

1. To create a message template with a video, go to the “Templates” section in your Messaggio dashboard and click “Create.” Then enter the template name and select a Viber Sender ID.





The Sender’s ID must be registered and approved in advance. To learn how to create a Viber Sender ID, go to the Viber Sender ID Requirements guide.

2. Choose a layout for your messaging campaign. Add image cover, video file, and text/button if needed.



3. Test video display on any device. Click “Create”.
4. Submit the message template for moderation. Once the template is approved, it can be launched.

Requirements for video layouts

Viber offers these video message layouts:

• Video
• Video + text
• Video + text + CTA button

The video file size should not exceed 200Mb and should be in 3gp, m4v, mov, or mp4 format. The cover image should be no more than 1600x1200px, and up to 2Mb.

You can upload files when creating a template in the Messaggio constructor, or you can choose from the ones you uploaded earlier.

What kinds of videos are best for messaging campaigns

Send messages with video to make your dispatches even more attractive and effective. Videos will help solve in many ways: from increasing sales to solving user technical issues. You will be able to send clients:

• Instructions for using the service or paying on the site.
• Video about the product with a demonstration of the details: material, color, texture, etc.
• Promotional videos, including conditions.
• Commercial offers.

Test different video formats to find the most engaging ones, using Messaggio’s special functionality. You can read about it in the guide “How to improve messaging campaign results: A/B testing.

You can track the click-through rate for each campaign, sending messages through Messaggio. To do this, use static and dynamic links in your dispatches.

Learn more about why static and dynamic links are useful, how they work, and how to add them to messages, in this guide.

Difference between static and dynamic links

Static and dynamic links replace the destination URL for the recipient.

In Messaggio, you can use static links to hide long, unremarkable URLs or UTM tags from recipients by replacing them with the desired custom URL. Click statistics are assigned to a static link.

Dynamic links are URLs are generated for each subscriber. Pages with dynamic parameters do not actually exist on the site, but the URLs lead to the landing page. In Messaggio, a click on such a link is recorded and saved in statistics for a specific recipient.

In which templates can static and dynamic links be used

Static links are available in any text message layout.

Dynamic links can be added to, for example, Viber and SMS text layouts by generating variables when creating a template. Also, dynamic links are automatically integrated into Viber buttons in «text + button» and «text + image + button» layouts.

How to add a static link to a message?

To set a static link that will be displayed to the recipient of the message, follow the «Settings — Short link» section and click «Create link».

Specify the name of the link, select the project in which you will use the link. In the «Link shortening» field, specify the real URL, select the displayed domain from the drop-down list below, and set the displayed URL. Click «Save».

Start creating your message template. Read more about working with templates in the «How to create a message template» section. Specify the channel for sending messages: SMS or Viber and select a layout. Static links are available in any layout with text. In the text area, click «Short Link — Static Link» and select the display URL you created. Click «Select». This link will be seen by the recipients of the dispatch.

You can create a static link during template creation. To do this, click «Short link — Create link» above the text field and specify the parameters of the displayed link. Click «Create». Add the created link to the message template according to the instructions above.

If the template already contains a link that you want to replace for recipients, select the link and click «Short link — Create link». The original link will be inserted into the appropriate field automatically. It remains only to set the display URL.

The click-through rate of the URL will be displayed in the «Settings — Short Link» section: hover your cursor over the blue indicator to see the number of clicks on the link. Clicks on one link, which was used in several dispatches, are summarized. Therefore, we recommend creating a new static link for each dispatch to count conversions more accurately.

How to add a dynamic link to a message?

Dynamic links in a Viber button
Dynamic URLs are automatically integrated into the Viber button. Short links are generated for each recipient to register the conversion. Clicks related to the exact dispatch and are counted in the statistics in the «Clicked» column. Only unique clicks on the button are counted. This allows you to measure the conversion of your dispatch.

Dynamic links in a text message
To record a click on a link in a message without a button, generate the LINK variable: in the text layout of Viber or SMS, click «Short link — Dynamic link». A variable will be added to the text. A dynamic URL will be inserted into this variable to track clicks.

After saving the template, dynamic URLs will be linked to the dispatch. This means that data on conversion per click will be collected by dispatch and displayed in the «Statistics» section along with the «Sent», «Delivered» and «Seen» message statuses.

You can create a link using one of Messaggio’s domains or use your own, which should be bound to your account. To bind your branded domain, please contact support.

WhatsApp is the world’s №1 messaging app — the messenger reaches over 2 billion users. For many businesses, such as beauty, horeca, small retail and others, WhatsApp is one of the main sales channels. A business profile on WhatsApp allows you to stay in touch with your customers in the messenger they use for personal communication. To build trust with your audience using WhatsApp messaging, you need to pay attention to the content of the message. In this guide, we’ll show you what you can do in Messaggio to create WhatsApp message templates.

You can use 4 layouts for your message template:

• Text
• Image
• Text + button
• Text + image + button

It is only necessary to verify the text of the message.

WhatsApp allows you to send very long messages — up to 4096 characters in any language, including emoji.

When you add emoji to the text, remember that each emoji takes several characters. For example, a smiley is 8 characters long, a heart is 7 characters long, etc.

Important! Emoji messages cannot be registered in service and transaction messages. Emoji can only be used in promotional dispatch.

Important!

WhatsApp allows sending service and non-transactional messages. Before sending, it is necessary to go through WhatsApp moderation. If the subscriber responds to a business message, a 24-hour session begins, where the company can send any messages, including promotional ones, without approval.

The maximum image size that you can use in a WhatsApp message is 1600x1200px, up to 2MB. The image can be uploaded from the device when creating the layout, or selected from the gallery of previously uploaded images.

Video materials requirements: file size up to 200 MB, 3gp, m4v, mov, mp4 format.

For information on the rules for a WhatsApp Sender ID, see the «WhatsApp Sender ID Requirements» section.

The active audience of VKontakte is 97 million people. It is the most popular social network in Russia. VK messages are sent by phone number to any country. To receive a message, the client only needs to have a profile on a social network with a mobile phone number linked to it.

You can use 2 layouts for your message template:

• Text
• Text + Image

It is only necessary to agree on the text of the message.

The allowed length of a business message in VK is no more than 2048 characters, including emoji. You can attach up to 5 images to a message.

When you add emoji to the text, remember that each emoji takes several characters. For example, a smiley is 8 characters long, a heart is 7 characters long, etc.

Important!

Emoji messages cannot be registered in service and transaction messages. Emoji can only be used in promotional dispatch.

Emoji messages cannot be registered in service and transaction messages. Emoji can only be used in promotional dispatch.

For information on the rules for a VK Sender ID, go to the «VK Sender ID Requirements» section.

All mobile device users receive notifications about new SMS. Even if the user is offline at the time of sending, he will still receive the message. Bulk SMS is a good way to deliver a short offer and get over 98% open rate.

In SMS you can send only text messages. Images and buttons are not available.

Allowed SMS length:

• in Latin — 160 characters
• in Cyrillic — 67 characters

If the message exceeds the specified length, then it is split into 2 parts.
The first part of the message in this case should take:

• in Latin — 153 characters
• in Cyrillic — 67 characters

The second part of the message and the following are of length:

• in Latin — 153 characters
• in Cyrillic — 67 characters

When you add emoji to the text, remember that each emoji takes several characters. For example, a smiley is 8 characters long, a heart is 7 characters long, etc.

Important!

Emoji messages cannot be registered in service and transaction messages. Emoji can only be used in promotional dispatch.

Chars used field shows how many characters are used in your message, including emoji transliteration.

For more information on the rules for an SMS Sender ID, go to the «SMS Sender ID requirements» section.

Viber is one of the most popular messengers in Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, as well as the Philippines, and Vietnam. Viber users send each other over 20 messages every day. Use the opportunity to reach a huge audience with bulk messaging and Viber message templates. And if you want your messages to be moderated without difficulty, we recommend to check out the requirements of the messenger in this guide for templates.

You can use 4 layouts for your Viber message templates:

• Text
• Image/video
• Text + button
• Text + image/video + button

Video messaging is now available on Viber. To learn how to create message template and send a newsletter with a video, read “How to send a video in Viber”.

The allowed length of a business message in Viber is no more than 1,000 characters.

When you add emoji to the text template, remember that each emoji takes several characters. For example, a smiley takes 8 characters, a heart – 7 characters, etc. When you hover over an emoji, its transliteration is displayed. Keep this in mind when creating a Viber message template.

Important!

Emoji messages cannot be registered in service and transaction messages. Emoji can only be used in promotional dispatch.

The maximum image size that you can use in a Viber message template is 1600x1200px, up to 2MB. The image for template can be uploaded from the device when creating the layout, or selected from the gallery of previously uploaded images.

The list of industries for which sending business messages to Viber is not available:

• Political parties or organizations with a political nature
• Gambling and Trade – online and offline casino businesses, sports betting, bidding, lottery, bitcoin, binary options and forex companies
• Credit/loan services and pawn shops unless these services are offered by a registered financial institution such as banks and services that are endorsed by banks
• Content with sexual nature and any other adult content
• Tobacco related services
• Alcohol related services
• Businesses that are involved in weapons and drug trade
• Open portals/blogs that have no control over the published content, for example; Internet websites that allow its users to create content and share it
• Religious services including churches, temples, mosques etc
• Online spiritual services such as tarot cards readings, astrological mapping, etc
• Companies that are considered to be Viber’s competitors, as decided by Viber, in its sole discretion

Accordingly, you will not be able to create Viber message templates for these industries. For information on the rules for a Viber Sender ID, go to the «Viber Sender ID requirements» section.

You can use only activated templates in the messaging campaign. Activated templates means the templates approved by moderators.

To send a message template for moderation, go to the Templates section, select a template and click the Send for Moderation button.

A multichannel message template is a content that you send to the recipient using a channel suitable for him. Messaggio platform allows you to automatically fallback messages to the SMS channel if the recipient does not have a messenger app installed. By using multichannel messaging in your marketing campaigns, you can optimize marketing budget and be sure that your message is delivered to every customer.

You should have at least two activated Sender IDs on different channels. The most popular case is Viber + SMS channels. For example, you have clients who most likely use Viber, but some do not have this messenger. In this case, you need to create a multichannel template to reach 100% of recipients. There should be messages from your Viber Sender ID, as well as a message from the SMS Sender ID, which will be received by clients without Viber messenger.

To create a multichannel template, go to the go to the «Templates» section and click «Create».

Specify the name of the template, select a project and Sender IDs on each channel you would like to use. Messages will be sent from the selected IDs.

Then create a message content for each channel using available layouts. You can use variables in the text and links, which will be filled up with the previously imported recipient’s data. Learn more about variables in the «How to personalize a message» section.

You can find the requirements for the content and format of messages in the section «How to create a message template».

When you complete the message template creation click “Save Changes”. The template will be saved as a draft. You are able to edit it anytime.

When all necessary changes and tests of the template are done, submit it to moderation. After some time the template will be activated and ready to use in multichannel dispatch. You can know more about the template activation process in the «How to activate a template» section.

Personalized messages can help you attract users and increase the CTR of your messages. To make the message personalized, address each recipient by name, offer individual conditions for a promotion or sale.

You can use this variables to personalize messages in Messaggio:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Second Name
• Birthday
• Email
• Code
• Amount
• Date

Set data type for variables

For the variables to work correctly, you must have the appropriate values in the contact group for dispatch. So, when you import a contact database, set the data type for each variable — they will be split into columns automatically if params in the contacts file are separated by a comma or semicolon.

You can find a sample of a contact file for uploading in the «Contact groups / Import contacts / Upload CSV file» section.

Add variables to a message template

Now you need to add variables to the text of the message template. To do this, go to the template, and in the «Text» block select variables from the «Template variables» list. 

Check the correctness of the variables — send your message to the test phone. For more information on how to test the display of a message, go to the «How to test a dispatch» section.