AFFORDABLE VS. EXPENSIVE WEBSITE DESIGN

When shopping for website design services for your business, you’ve probably noticed 3 distinct price strategies between different web design agencies. We’ll call these different strategies “Affordable”, “High-End” and “We’ll tell you later”. Ok, now that we’ve named these three different types of web design companies, you’re probably wondering what the differences are and which one is the best fit for your business. Let’s take a closer look.

A lot of web design companies will market themselves as “Affordable” and “Low Cost”. A lot of these companies will have hidden costs and extra fees for popular “options” you want on your website. There are really two types of companies you will find here.

First off, you will find the younger web design companies that are legitimately looking to grow their business and their portfolio. Their plan is to be in business and helping clients for the foreseeable future. They understand that as the new guys & gals, they don’t have the social proof to compete against established companies with big portfolios of previous work and lots of positive client reviews. So they compete against these established companies the best way they can, in price. You have to be careful though, even if this web design company beats the odds and is able to stay in business after the first year, you need to be sure you don’t mistake this young company for the next type of web design company.

The second type of of web design company you find in this category is one you need to be very cautious working with. This companies plan is to sell as many “low cost” websites that they can with no regard to client satisfaction or retention. They understand that once you’ve paid them, they can copy a website template they have used hundreds of times already, paste your company information on it and provide it to you as your businesses new website. This does get your business a website, but it could end up doing very little to help your business. If your website is not properly optimized for mobile devices, search engine optimization or if it has too many errors on it, your clients won’t like it and Google will not rank it highly in searches. Maybe it crashes and is down constantly and has no ongoing support.

This means your investment on your website with that company turned out to be a bad one and now you will be out even more if you have to hire someone else to make a new website.

Everyone knows that just because something is more expensive, does not necessarily mean it’s better. Companies learned long ago however that public perception equates expensiveness with higher quality.

The fact of it is, usually, the website your company just purchased for $10,000 from a “High-End” design company, could have been purchased much cheaper. The price they are charging you does not always directly relate to the amount of work and effort that they are putting into your project. I’ll touch on this again in the “We’ll tell you later” section.

This is very common and when you are looking for designers you will come across a lot of this. You will usually find it in the style of a contact form that asks you for information before you can be provided a quote for services.

The truth is, when you fill out that contact form, you’ve been added to a sales funnel which means there will be follow ups from that company, at the very least one. However once they have your contact information, you’re at their mercy and it’s not uncommon to be subjected to high-pressure sales tactics. No one likes that.

Another reason that some designers, not all of them, ask for this information first is to see what your budget is. If you’re looking for a 5 page standard website and you have an expected budget if $5,000, the company may not tell you the usual price for that package is only $2,000. They will take the $5,000 and deliver the exact same result you would have got for $3,000 less if they would have had their pricing posted on their website.

I’m a big believer that there should be, at least, some sort of estimated pricing on the web designers page to give you basic pricing information. Even if it's as simple as an hourly rate. It’s something that reduces anxiety and increases client satisfaction.

It’s important that as a business owner, you’re able to trust the marketing & design agency that you choose to work with. The development of an ongoing business partnership means that both businesses will continue to grow together and help each other succeed and achieve their goals.

We at Viral Growth Marketing + Design provide our affordably priced services because we always put you, our clients & partners, first.

Our clients, business owners just like you, know that they will receive a high-quality, mobile optimized website that performs great and delivers results for a fair, reasonable price. Every single time. This is how we’ve come to make a name for ourselves and why our #1 way of acquiring new clients is referrals by previous clients.

If you would like to see our pricing, you will find it on the website design section of our website. If you would like to talk about how we can help you get noticed online, drop me a line from the contact page.