“Your Websites Are Too Expensive”, she said!
I had a very interesting phone call with a lovely lady this week who got in touch with me about designing her start-up business website.
We had a great chat!
Her business sounded brilliant, and we got on really well.
She explained what she wanted from her website: 5 pages, a blog, and no e-commerce functionality.
Her main criteria was that it had to have a prominent email sign-up box on the front page with a snazzy “Hero” landscape image to promote her free e-book.
Oh, and would the price of my website include me “jazzing up” her e-book and converting it to PDF?
ALL FAIRLY STRAIGHTFORWARD…
…and I knew I could do a great job interpreting her brief.
And so I gave her my price for the project: £700
£650 for the website & £50 for the e-book design work.
There was silence on the other end of the phone…
after a brief pause, she replied…
“But I’ve seen website design advertised on Twitter for £199. Your websites are TOO expensive!”
What did you think my response was?
Well…I definitely didn’t take any offence, didn’t take it personally, or offer her a discount simply to get the project.
I simply thought “OK, no problem: she’s NOT my Super Customer“.
The best way forward would be to offer her a list of useful questions to ask her £199 bods and then move on!
My advice was:
- Get in touch with the £199 web company and find out if that is the actual final price, or if there will be any extras that they haven’t mentioned in the advert?
- How much will they charge for the e-book proof reading and “jazzing up” design/formatting?
- Will her website be a design that is bespoke, and perfectly tailored for her business like mine would be?
- Or will they be using a generic design template that they simply adapt for each client? You know what I mean: it will have a different colour palette, images and text content BUT the website framework looks exactly the same – they simply overwrite the template. This is how they can churn out website after website very cheaply.
Who wants to be churned out?!
And have a website that’s an imitation of thousands of others out there?
I know I wouldn’t.
Other important questions I advised her to ask:
- Establish if it IS actually built using WordPress: it could be on a different CMS platform i.e. Joomla or Magento (which are much trickier to maintain)
- Will the website be designed by one, dedicated contact? Or will you have to talk to different people? And, are they just at the other end of the phone in the UK ready to talk things through (as I am), or will any client/designer contact be via email only? (I’ve had a client who had this happen!)
- Will the website be designed in this country by the UK business offering the service? Do you know how many website design agencies outsource overseas, pay them a pittance, and not inform the client about how they do business? Personally, I find that unethical practice.
- Can you do your own website maintenance after handover?
- Will you have access to your website WordPress Dashboard?
- Will you have to sign up to an expensive year-long or rolling monthly Maintenance package?
- How much will they charge for SEO?
- Is it a condition of buying the £199 website that you have to take their SEO package?
- Would your website have to be hosted by them; is 3rd party web hosting allowed?
- If they have to host the website: would you have full “back-end” access for maintenance?
- How long will you be tied into their web hosting contract for, and how much will they charge for “transferring away”?
- Can you keep the “theme” if you decide to “transfer away”?
- How much is their hourly rate for simple development work if there is no “back-end” access?
So you see, there’s a lot to consider when shopping for a new website.
my divi themed wordpess web design pricing, and T&cS ARE VERY TRANSPARENT:
- Sales/Landing/Squeeze Pages: from £100-£170 depending on amount of section/content and styling required, and if you need e-commerce or webinar connections built in
- Mini-sites (3 pages) are £500: HOME page, plus a Contact page + Blog or Service page.
- Standard Brochure Sites (5 pages) are £650 and include a Lead Magnet email community list builder set-up.
- E-commerce Sites/Full Shop functionality; up to 7-10 pages + 25 products start from £1000.
- SEO Package is an optional extra at £150.
- 12 months Web Hosting via Stablepoint is an optional extra at £30 and you are not tied in after that.
- If you don’t want the hassle of maintaining your new WordPress website, I offer a monthly maintenance service for £30 – your website Dashboard is checked on a twice weekly basis for updates to plugins, theme and core WordPress version. I also check your website stays secure.
- Any bespoke design/artwork/banners/icons that I create for your website are included in the price (with the exception of logo design).
- You get a 30 Day Handover Guarantee, and a lovely friendly personal service.
- Website project payments can be split over 2 or 3 months for even more flexibility.
I don’t think my websites are TOO expensive, and neither have my Super Customers who chose me to create their beautiful online presence. I’d be delighted to talk to you about your website project, and transforming your ideas into reality.
Bye for now,
Trace x
PS: I have a sneaky feeling that this lovely lady will be back in touch, once she’s had her chat with the £199 chaps!