For an expert, a website and a Telegram bot solve two different tasks: the website explains what you do and leads to booking in one tap, while the bot collects the contacts of people who are not ready to book yet and gives them useful material in return. This is how we built the project for Awakening Academy — sauna rituals and body practices for women in and around Moscow.
Key takeaways
Awakening Academy runs sauna rituals and body practices for women in and around Moscow: steaming, breathing, meditation, retreats and women's circles. There was interest in the practices, but nowhere to send people.
The master had no website. To find out what the practices are, how a session goes and how to book, people had to send a private message and wait for a reply. And those who were interested but left to think it over were gone for good: their contacts weren't saved anywhere.
Two things were needed. First, a clear website instead of chat messages, so a person can read what the practices are and who they suit, and call or message right away. Second, not losing people who are just looking: even someone who isn't ready to book today should leave a contact so the conversation can continue.
The website and the bot cover different moments of the client's path: the website works with people ready to act, the bot with those who are still just looking. With only a website, the people who are looking leave without a trace. With only a bot, a person has nowhere to calmly read what is on offer.
| What we compare | Website | Telegram bot |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | For those ready to learn the details and book | For those who are still just looking |
| What it does | Tells about the practices and leads to booking | Gives away video practices and introduces the master's approach |
| The person's action | Call or message the master on Telegram | Pick a practice and leave a name and phone in one tap |
| What the master keeps | Booking in one tap | A contact in the master's database |
| The master's involvement | The website tells people on the master's behalf | The bot replies on its own, 24/7 |
For a solo expert this matters even more: there is no sales team to win back a client who left. A contact in the database is a way to do it. We covered the general logic of a company website in the article on a corporate website; here it is a lighter version for one specialist.
The website tells people about the practices and leads to booking, and it has just two buttons: call or message the master on Telegram.
The idea is that the website replaces the first questions the master used to answer personally: what the practices are, how they go, who they suit. A person reads the answers alone, without waiting, and if it fits, takes one step — calls or writes. Booking happens in one tap.
Tip The fewer buttons on an expert's website, the clearer the next step. Two buttons — call and message — cover both usual ways to get in touch and don't make anyone choose from a dozen options.
Four answers are worth putting on such a page: what the practices are, how a session goes, who it suits and how to book. They replace the first questions that used to start the private chat.
The website and the bot were built together, end to end, from domain to launch. For an expert this is convenient: there is no need to look for a website developer and a bot author separately, and the parts of the project are designed to work together from the start.
For those not ready to book, the bot gives away the master's video practices and takes a name and phone number in return. A person's path in the bot takes four steps.
Picking a practice comes first for a reason: a person first decides what interests them and only then leaves a contact. That way the contact is left for a specific interest, not blindly.
The bot works around the clock and replies on its own, without the master. If someone looks in at night or at the weekend, they still get the practice, and the new contact is saved in the master's database. The bot also introduces the master's approach: a video shows how everything works better than any description.
Mistake Asking for a contact and giving nothing in return. In this case the exchange is fair: the person gets a video practice at once, so leaving a name and phone doesn't feel like a loss.
More about what a bot can do in general is in the piece on developing a Telegram bot for business.
Everyone who takes a practice in the bot stays in the database with a name and phone number, and this turns a one-off interest into a channel the master manages herself.
Messages about new practices, retreats and open dates can be sent to this database. There is no spend on targeted ads, and no need to search for clients from scratch every time.
For a mailing to work, write about something specific. In this case there are three occasions: a new practice, a retreat and an open date. Each is a clear reason to remember the master.
Separately, on what worries every client: the database belongs to the master. The contacts are in her database, and they can be exported to Excel at any time, without our involvement. The database itself is hosted on a server in Russia.
We didn't just build a website; we built the master a path from first interest to booking. The website tells people about the practices for the master, and the bot introduces her approach and collects contacts, even at night and on weekends.
What changed compared with the old scheme:
The main result: the master now has a clear client path that used to rest on private messages.
A contact base is a beginning, and further steps can be built from it. Next, the base can be turned into bookings.
Each step is added on top of a ready base, so there is no starting from scratch. The order depends on the expert's goals. If the main pain is missed bookings, start with booking in the bot and reminders. If you want to give people in the base more material, add new video practices, and online payment once booking runs steadily.
The scheme works anywhere personal expertise is sold: the bot gives away expert content in exchange for a contact, and a coach, tutor or consultant can run it the same way. Only what you give away changes, not the logic.
If you want to know where a person came from, the website or social media, a link to the bot solves it. Telegram opens a bot at an address like t.me/bot_name and lets you add a parameter of up to 64 characters to it. How such a tag works is covered in the article on deep links and the user's source.
These mistakes are easy to spot if you compare the "before" and "after" schemes in the Awakening Academy case.
One thing unites all five mistakes: the person's interest is there, but there is no place where it turns into a booking. The website and the bot in this project are that place.
A company website costs from $1,900 on the service page, and a bot for taking enquiries and bookings from $1,200. We give the exact price after reviewing the task.
We build the website and the bot end to end, from domain to launch, and start with a question: what should a person do at each step from first interest to booking. Then the website gets a short path to a call or message, and the bot gets a gift for a contact and a database from which mailings can later be sent. If you need the website as a single page, see the article on a landing page for business.
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A company website starts from $1,900, a bot for taking enquiries and bookings from $1,200. The exact price is given after reviewing the task.
It would. The scheme works anywhere personal expertise is sold: the bot gives away expert content in exchange for a contact, and a coach, tutor or consultant can run it the same way.
It does. The contacts are stored in the master's own database, and they can be exported to Excel at any time with no involvement from us. The database itself is hosted on a server in Russia.
The bot replies: it works around the clock without the master, gives away a video practice and saves the contact. The conversation can continue later.
The master's video practice. The person picks a practice, leaves a name and phone in one tap, and the video arrives in the chat right away while the contact goes into the database.
About new practices, retreats and open dates. This needs no spend on targeted ads and no searching for clients from scratch every time.
