Your website is a reflection of your real world business. What do you see when you look in?
“Your website is the centre of your digital eco-system, like a brick and mortar location, the experience matters once a customer enters, just as much as the perception they have of you before they walk through the door.” - Leland Dieno, Marketing Guy
I'm a marketer who builds websites.
If you are looking for someone to develop a new website I totally get there is SO much choice out there. Where do you start!!!?? You could hire a dedicated digital agency that will throw a few people at the job from client service managers to designers to copywriters let alone the actual techies building the code and may charge anywhere from $15,000+. You could engage a stand alone dedicated web developer for much cheaper but you'll need to really support them with your branding, copy writing and customer web experience and conversion strategies. Or, you could jump on Fivrr and find someone from across the globe who will build something for $500.
As a marketer who builds websites I really care that your website actually works for you and serves it's purpose, whether that be a brand extension, lead generating tool, booking tool or influential enough for someone to buy your product or service.
What does this process look like? It looks like me understanding your business, why it exists, who you are targetting, what they are looking for when they visit, how they find you. It means knowing what value or information they might seek in advance of trusting your business enough for an actual purchase. It means getting a feel for what you want from your website and ensuring you are proud as punch when you look at the finished product. Yes, your business is AMAZING and we need to reflect that in it's online-self.
New clients sometimes ask me for a price for a 'basic' website. But basic can mean so many different things. I always have a 15 min phone consult or email back and forth before providing you with a price - there's nothing worse than surprises so I do my best to provide a quote that accurately reflects what you are looking for.
Okay, okay, you REALLY want just a ballpark price, to understand what a basic website costs and budget accordingly and vet quotes to ensure you are not getting ripped off. Gosh and I have heard of people getting ripped off right royal! Righto. So, if you wanted a single scroll website with say a couple of additional pages and you came to me with all your website copy written, a brand colour scheme with hex codes and logo sorted as well as some basic stuff like a selection of images of you, your product and service (and they are all web ready images and all neatly waiting in a shareable Dropbox), you could maybe getaway with circa $2k. If you need to add on things like:
a blog,
contact forms,
connecting said form completions to your database
the need to fix logos or create them,
writing your copy,
selecting images for your site or editing the ones you have
purchasing your domain name
managing a custom photo shoot,
developing more than say 4 pages...
...and bam - we start moving into a more time intensive scope of work. Most of my custom quotes come in under $5,000 but the amount of work that is needed for each varies greatly.
So with that much variance of scope available, I highly recommend spending the time to getting a custom quote.
Also factor in the costs for domain name registration - around $20 per year from the likes of Netregistry, Go Daddy, AWS etc plus the cost to host your website. I build in Wix and it is around $180 per year but if you want eCommerce or Booking or Online Training functionality expect to pay a little more.
Things that should always be included in your website costs are - 2-3 few rounds of feedback/changes, testing on different device sizes, linking your domain, setting up basic search engine optimisation (SEO), training or at least an understanding on how to update your website once it is handed over - ie will it cost you each time you need updates or are there elements you can do yourself?
Go with a marketer and you might find some optional extras that work beautifully to turbo charge the ability for customers to find you online and for you to advertise effectively online in the future. These optional extras include things like:
setting up your Google My Business profile
setting up google analytics, google ads, google tag manager into your web code
adding that little Facebook pixel to your website - or starting with setting up your Business Facebook Page so you can even advertise!
setting up any conversion funnels along with automated responses (yup, sorry this article is peppered with pesky marketing jargon. Instead read: "a reason for them to leave their email with you and then an immediate 'thank you' note sent to them")
If you feel you need even more than a website, you can add a Marketing Deep Dive package to your scope or any of the additional marketing services I offer such as email marketing, social media content strategy, advertising on Google or Facebook. Like the quote at the top says, your website is the centre of your digital eco-system therefore I believe it should not be built in a silo to the rest of your marketing efforts.
To help you get started with your website, in advance of getting quotes, check out my one page, free downloadable: 5-Step Website Prep Checklist.
Your website is an exciting investment in your business, I'd love to help you bring it to life. If you are interested in a quote, please contact me on livthemarketer@gmail.com
Please note I specialise in brand based, non e-Commerce websites. Some of my recent creations are:
Note that I only work with a limited number of clients at any one time for maximum focus so get in at the right time and your website could be live from 3-4 weeks.
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