What is DM marketing, and who has to write first?
DM marketing is marketing done in private one-to-one chats: answering questions, sending offers, following up on orders, and booking calls. You will also see it called direct message marketing or direct messaging marketing. The three names describe one practice, and the practice lives or dies on one fact: who opened the conversation.
When the customer writes first, a DM is service. They asked, you answer, and the chat usually converts better than any feed post because the question is already on the table. When the brand writes first to a stranger, the same DM is a cold message, and every platform treats it with suspicion. That split is why we describe our cold outreach approach separately from inbound DM work, and why a first-message template with a named sender matters more than any sending tool.
So the useful question is not "how many DMs can we send" but "how do we get more people to write to us, and how fast do we answer them". The rest of this page follows that order: the rules for each platform, a strategy built on them, then the money side through the Telegram affiliate program.
Who may you message first on Telegram, Instagram, X and TikTok?
Each of the four platforms we work on sets its own line for a brand writing first, and the lines are different enough that one playbook cannot cover all of them. The table below is what we read in each platform's own rules and developer pages on 19 October 2026.
| Platform | Brand may write first? | Official automation limit | What usually ends it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telegram | From a personal account, yes, but strangers can press Report spam | A bot cannot start a chat; the user has to press Start | Spam reports, then a temporary or permanent sending limit |
| Manually from the app; message requests land in a separate folder | The Messaging API answers people who wrote first, inside a 24-hour window | Action blocks and restrictions for repetitive sending | |
| X | Only to people whose DM settings allow it | X's spam rules ban bulk or aggressive unsolicited DMs | Locked or suspended account |
| TikTok | Only to people whose privacy settings allow it; DMs are off for users under 16 | No public tool for first messages to strangers | Spam enforcement under the Community Guidelines |
The pattern is the same everywhere. The official route is built for replies, and first contact with strangers is either blocked by design or tolerated only until people complain. Telegram's spam FAQ is the plainest about it: unsolicited ads, links and anything about commerce are the messages people report most, and a moderator who agrees can limit the sender for days, longer after repeats, or for good.
Where we stopWe do not buy or scrape contact lists, and we do not send first messages from rented accounts. If a channel's rules say the user writes first, the campaign is built to make them write first.
A DM marketing strategy in five fixed decisions
A DM marketing strategy that lasts fixes five things before the first message goes out. We write them on one page with the client, and the page decides more than the copy does.
- The door. Where the conversation starts: a "message us" button, a bot with a Start button, a comment keyword, or a link in a channel post. People who use the door chose to write.
- The opener. The first reply names who is writing and answers the question asked. No "DM for price"; the price sits in the post, so the DM is about fit, not about extracting a number.
- The window. How fast someone answers. Instagram's reply window is 24 hours by API, and on every platform a reply after a day reads as a brush-off.
- The handoff. When a person takes over from a bot or a saved reply, and who that person is.
- The stop rule. The number of blocks or reports that pauses the campaign. One report in fifty conversations is a signal; we pause and rewrite.
For outbound lists that already gave consent, such as customers or event sign-ups, the same five decisions apply, with pacing added. The detailed version of that plan, including which channel suits which kind of outreach, sits in our outreach marketing strategy template, and the pacing side is covered in what to automate and what to keep manual.
How does the Telegram affiliate program work?
The Telegram affiliate program pays a share of what referred users spend in a mini app, in Telegram Stars. Telegram announced affiliate programs on 4 December 2024. A mini app or bot developer opens a program; any user, a bot they own, or a channel they own can join it and share a referral link. When someone opens the mini app for the first time through that link and later buys something with Stars, the affiliate gets the agreed share.
The developer documentation on bot referrals sets the terms as two numbers. Commission is stated in permille, so 150 permille means 15% of each Star purchase. Duration is set in months, or left open for a program with no end date. Once a program is live, the developer can only raise those numbers. To cut them, the developer ends the program and starts a new one, and referred users keep paying the old affiliates for the original term.
| Input | Example value | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Commission | 150 permille | 15% of each Star purchase |
| Subscribers who open the link in a month | 400 | 400 referred users counted once each |
| Share who buy anything | 5% | 20 buyers |
| Average spend per buyer | 250 Stars | 5,000 Stars spent |
| Affiliate earnings that month | 15% of 5,000 | 750 Stars, repeating while those users keep spending and the term runs |
The last row is the reason duration matters more than the headline rate. A lifetime program at 10% can outearn a 12-month program at 20% if the mini app keeps its users. Read both numbers before you post a link, and remember the Telegram affiliate scheme pays only on Star purchases inside that mini app. It does not pay on Premium, on outside shops, or on traffic alone.
How to start affiliate marketing on Telegram from a channel you own
Affiliate marketing on Telegram works when the audience subscribed for deals or advice in one niche and the links match it. If you are asking how to do affiliate marketing on Telegram from zero, this is the order we would follow for a new channel.
- Pick one niche. Budget tech, skincare, crypto tools, travel deals. A channel that mixes all four gets muted.
- Build the audience first. Two to four weeks of useful posts before the first link. Our notes on channels, broadcast groups and bots cover which format fits.
- Choose programs that allow messaging apps. Telegram's own program for mini apps, then outside programs whose terms allow chat traffic.
- Disclose on every post. The FTC's endorsement guidance wants the disclosure close to the recommendation, so one line per post beats a pinned note.
- Track by link, not by feeling. One tracked link per post, so you learn which kind of post sells.
That is how to start affiliate marketing on Telegram without burning the channel. Affiliate marketing through Telegram and affiliate marketing with Telegram are the same activity under two names, and so is any affiliate program on Telegram run by an outside shop: the link lives in your posts, and the subscribers decide whether it stays welcome.
Amazon links, groups and bots
For amazon affiliate marketing on Telegram, the Associates Operating Agreement allows links in direct messages only when the receiver opted in, and it does not name Telegram. A public deals channel is the safe reading; an amazon affiliate Telegram bot that pushes links into DMs is a question for Associates support before you build it. An affiliate marketing Telegram bot, or any Telegram affiliate bot, is fine when people start it to search for deals and it answers with tracked links. Affiliate marketing groups on Telegram are the risky shape: most ban members who drop links unasked, so join only groups whose stated purpose is sharing offers.
Growing the subscriber base is where many affiliate channels cut corners. Adding people to groups they did not ask to join is the pattern Telegram reports punish, and our page on adding members by headcount explains which routes are safe at which size.
Which Telegram marketing tools help, and which ones get accounts limited?
The Telegram marketing tools worth paying for save admin time; the ones that cause limits send what people did not ask for. Here is how we sort the market for clients asking for the best Telegram marketing software.
| Job | Free option | When paid makes sense | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduling and stats | Built-in scheduled posts and channel statistics | Several channels with a shared calendar | Low |
| Bots and replies | BotFather plus a no-code builder | Order flows, payments, CRM sync | Low; bots only answer people who pressed Start |
| AI drafting | A general assistant for post drafts | An AI marketing Telegram bot that drafts replies for a person to approve | Medium if replies go out unread |
| Sending to lists | None worth trusting | A message sender with honest speed limits for opted-in lists | High with cold lists |
| Scrape, add, invite kits | Often sold as free Telegram marketing tools | Never | Telegram's Terms of Service prohibit data scraping |
A Telegram marketing tool that promises a fixed number of DMs a day is quoting its own guess, because Telegram publishes no allowance. If you do need volume to an opted-in list, read how our opt-in mass DM service paces it, and compare the costs per channel in our bulk messaging cost breakdown.
Real Telegram marketing, the kind that still works in month six, is mostly a channel worth reading, a group worth staying in, and fast answers in DMs. Telegram influencer marketing, paying for a post in another owner's channel, fits on top of that: it borrows an audience with the owner's consent. Scale is there for it. Pavel Durov said in March 2025 that Telegram had passed one billion monthly users, as TechCrunch reported. That is how to use Telegram for marketing in one paragraph: earn the subscription, then sell to it.
What our direct message marketing service runs, and what it turns down
Our DM marketing services cover the inbound side and consented lists on all four platforms. Marketing with Telegram is the most common request, with Instagram close behind.
| We run | We turn down |
|---|---|
| Doors that make people write first: bots, comment keywords, message buttons | Bought, scraped or "extracted" member lists |
| Saved replies and handoff rules written with your team | First messages from rented or farmed accounts |
| Affiliate channel setup with disclosure on every post | Undisclosed affiliate links or fake reviews |
| Paced sends to customers and sign-ups who opted in | Promised reply rates, sales or DM counts |
Before you sign with any DM marketing agency, ask three things: where the recipient list comes from, which accounts send, and what the stop rule is. Vague answers to any of the three predict a limited account.
Two searches in this space are not what they look like. "DM Pharma Marketing Pvt Ltd" is a pharmaceutical franchise company, not a direct message business. "DM Lair campaign creation" also appears in searches; we could not verify a product by that name, so treat any campaign tool sold under it with the three questions above.