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Small Business9 min read

Telegram Bot Instead of a Website

Plenty of real businesses run entirely on Instagram and a phone number. They do not need a website so much as they need somewhere to put the answers, at any hour, editable from a phone. A bot is often exactly that somewhere.

What a small business website actually does

Strip a typical small business site down and it is five things: what you sell, what it costs, where you are, when you are open, and how to reach you. Everything else is decoration. People do not read the About page.

All five of those work at least as well in a chat, and two of them work better, because a chat can ask a question back and a page cannot.

Where a bot fits best

A bot converts the audience you already have. People find you through Instagram, a maps listing, a sign on the street or somebody telling them about you, and the bot is what turns that attention into an answer, a price and an enquiry, at any hour.

For a local business the strongest combination is a maps listing plus a bot. The listing is what people search, with your phone number and your reviews, and the bot handles everything that happens after they find you. That pairing costs nothing and covers most of what a five page site was doing.

If search is your main source of customers, keep your indexable pages and let the bot do the converting once people land.

The five commands that replace the site

Build these in this order. It takes an afternoon and the first three do most of the work:

  1. The welcome message. One sentence on what you do and who for, then four buttons. This is your home page and it needs to answer "am I in the right place" in two seconds.
  2. What we do. Your services or products with prices. Photos attached. If you have more than six things, group them behind buttons rather than sending a wall.
  3. Prices. Give real numbers, or at least ranges. This is the most requested and most avoided answer in small business, and refusing to answer it reads as expensive.
  4. Where and when. Address, a map link, opening hours, and the days you are closed.
  5. Get in touch. Either your phone number or a short enquiry form, depending on whether you want to be called.

Add keyword replies on top so people who type instead of tapping still get an answer. "How much", "where are you" and "are you open" cover most of it.

Where a bot beats a page

  • It asks questions back. A page cannot find out that this customer wants the two bedroom version, next month, in the north of the city. A five question form does, and hands you a qualified enquiry instead of "hi".
  • You can message them again. Every visitor to your website is gone forever unless they act. Everybody who opens your bot is reachable from then on, for free. This is the difference that compounds.
  • You can update it from your phone, in a minute, without calling anyone. Opening hours that are right all year is a low bar that most small business websites fail.
  • It answers at 23:00. Same as a page, except it can also take the enquiry and tell you about it.

A realistic afternoon

  1. First hour: create the bot with BotFather, write the welcome message and the four buttons. See the BotFather guide if you have not done this before.
  2. Second hour: write the services, prices and location messages. Add photos.
  3. Third hour: the enquiry form and five keyword replies.
  4. Then: put the link in your Instagram bio, your maps listing and your WhatsApp status. That last one gets more taps than people expect.

What to measure

  • People who pressed Start, which is your traffic number.
  • Start to first action. If most people press Start and then nothing, your welcome message is not answering "am I in the right place".
  • Enquiries per week, the number that pays for the afternoon.
  • Which command gets used most, because that is what your customers actually came for, and it usually is not what you assumed.

Frequently asked questions

Can a bot replace a small business website?

For services, prices, location, hours and contact, yes, and you can edit all of it from your phone in a minute.

How do people find my bot?

From your Instagram bio, your maps listing, a QR code and your email signature. For a local business a maps listing plus a bot covers most of it.

What does it cost?

No domain, no hosting, no maintenance, and you build it yourself in an afternoon. A website is a build plus a domain and hosting every year, plus somebody to change the opening hours.

Do customers need Telegram?

Yes. Where it is a default messenger that costs nothing, and it is worth checking which messenger your customers already use.

Put your answers somewhere in one afternoon

Services, prices, hours and an enquiry form, all editable from your phone. No domain, no hosting, no code. Paste your BotFather token and it is live.

Build Your Bot Free

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