It’s a familiar question, one that 95% of prospects lead with but if you’re about to embark on a new website project can I encourage you to join the 5%?
Yes? Great let’s dive in…..
Rather than looking for a cost, work out the value of the site to you and go armed with a budget.
Start with this question:
What do I want my website to do? This will likely fall into 1 of 4 categories, possibly multiple:
- Provide information to visitors
- Provide a professional presence that reinforces your brand and philosophy
- Generate new leads
- Sell items online (e-commerce)
The last 2 we can easily put a value on. How much are your products worth and how much do you anticipate to sell in a year? If it’s lead generation how much is a lead worth to you? How many do you anticipate in receiving and what’s your conversion rate?
It’s not an exact science but once you know what you want the website to generate, in terms of revenue per annum, work out 5% & 10% of that and use that as your budget. Ask the web development companies, you approach, what could be done for each of those budgets.
You may find for the 10% value you’ll get SEO included, a copywriter or videographer to enhance the website. You’re not committing to it but you can assess the value of both options.
You’re now in control and have a clear picture of what a website is worth to you. Any quotes you receive can be judged on the value you gave it.
So this leaves the first 2 categories. How do you put a value on a site that isn’t designed to generate income? It doesn’t stop there being value. For example, if you don’t have a website does it stop you putting yourself forward for tenders? Would a professional looking website reinforce everything you’ve been doing in meetings with prospective clients? Could it be the final piece of detail that pushes a client from decision to taking action with your company? If so, there’s your value.
Don’t underestimate the value of having a professional, consistent brand across all your marketing.
Am I in the 5% now?
Well yes but you’re on a roll now so let’s not stop there. Don’t throw away all the good work and follow up by asking to see a portfolio of designs!
Any decent web designer will have a range of designs and styles, that’s their expertise – bespoke is best after all! You could spend hours going through a portfolio deciding what you don’t like but without understanding why they created that design it’s a pointless exercise.
Instead think about who your target audience is and refer back to what you want the website to do.
- What language would your customers understand?
- Would images and videos be more use than text?
- Do you have multiple target audiences, each with a different journey?
- How would you navigate visitors through each of their journeys?
It may be that direction to each of your services would be best or perhaps your site needs to separate industry sectors first and then promote the relevant services at the next stage.
If it’s an e-commerce site how many products will you be selling and how many categories do you need?
Now let’s revisit our opening question.
‘I have a £3k – £6k budget for a website redevelopment, what is possible within this range? My target audience are structural engineers within a commercial setting that understand the technical aspects of what we do and are really looking for additional value organisations offer. We focus heavily on the environment and sustainability and that’s important to us. The website needs to encourage visitors to book a meeting, either online or face to face. We are happy with our brand and it’s already well recognised within the industry.’
Now you’re giving you web development company something to work on, it’s a great place to start the discussion. This is how Ampersand Studio would respond:
’Thank you for thinking of us for your website redevelopment, it’s great that you’ve already identified the value of your website and we’d love to be part of your journey. For the lower end of your budget we could build a website with up to 10 pages & a bespoke design and for the upper end it would be a 10+ page website, an SEO audit to define the navigation based on real user searches and we can include a copy writer to write your case studies for you. We love that you want to promote sustainability and this can be a key section for the home page. To demonstrate your value we’ll also include a projects section and your accreditations.’
In Summary
Before you approach a web development company answer these 5 questions:
- How much value is the website worth to us?
- Who are our target audiences?
- What do we want each target audience to do on the website?
- What would success look like if we launched tomorrow and reviewed in 12 months time?
If you have the answers to these 4 questions and would like a chat you can contact Rich at Ampersand Studio via your preferred method:
Call: 01295 533544
Email: richard@ampersandstudio.uk
Webste: ampersandstudio.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-holmes-wordpress-website-developer/
