I Can’t Afford A Website

Price-driven clients aren’t bad people. They just need a little more TLC than the average bear. They also might need a little encouragement to re-prioritize their business goals according to what they value most, and why.

In reality, some business owners might not have the slightest idea of what a website can do for them until somebody explains how it can move the needle for them. So it’s no surprise if some of them live and breath by this mantra.

Because for the record, if “I can’t afford a website” is the stance before there’s ever a conversation about money (which is often the case), it’s not a money problem (which is often the case).

Turning The Tables

Instead of putting a dollar sign on a website investment, let’s talk about the assets that a website brings to the table.

• • Reach. 4 in 5 consumers use search engines to find local information (Think with Google) and 97% of them make informed buying decisions specifically from the website (How Clients Buy benchmark report, Rain Group). These stats represent a highly proactive audience for your product/service.

• • Leads. In exchange for an email, all you have to do is give away useful information (industry secrets maybe) that solves a problem. 80% of businesses experience an increase in lead generation using automated emails and CRMs, with 77% seeing increased conversions (VB Insight). Them’s pretty good odds.

• • Sales. It’s not enough to dangle the proverbial sales carrot and expect people to bite. Take a chapter from Rain Group’s, What Sales Winners Do report and explain the “how” behind problem-solving (in addition to the “what”) because a significant 68% of buyers are influenced by sellers who show them how to solve a problem. This form of “solution sales” has 71% of businesses conducting more than half their sales online (Virtual Selling report, Rain Group).

• • Brand awareness. The loyalty of family and friends only goes so far. The more you’re in the face of the rest of the world searching for your product/service, the more familiar you become on a larger scale. Know that, before making a purchase, 94%! of buyers research items online (Marketing Profs), and if they don’t find your business, you don’t see their money.

• • Revenue generator. In addition to your own product, there are many opportunities to cross-promote 3rd-party related wares.

• • Better time management. Automate tasks that you can’t possibly do 24×7 and recoup time for more meaningful things. 80% of businesses think marketing automation generates more leads (Apsis).

• • Analytics (market awareness, traffic/demographic behaviour). For marketing attribution, content creation, and smarter ad spend (if ads are in your budget).

  If you can’t afford a website, how do you incorporate these assets into your business model? What percentage of your business goals do they represent?

  Let’s Talk Money

  If you approach a website investment in the context of a legitimate business expense and you agree that their assets bring value to the table, we’re in a good place to introduce the math.

  In a nutshell, the cost of building a website involves three non-negotiables.

  1. Hosting (~$25/mo)

  Lo-level shared hosting accounts are a dime a dozen and I can’t stress enough: read the fine print! After the first year, $2/mo jumps to $9/mo but the service remains the same with minimal band width, shared C-class IP, no firewall or malware protection, questionable customer support, etc.

  It only takes one malware experience to change your hosting priorities (ask me how I know this). The safest way to steer clear of a negative experience is with a managed cloud-based hosting provider built for speed, security, and customer service. Cheaping out on this is like buying minimal car insurance and having it written off after the first seasonal hail storm (ask me how I know this).

  2. Domain Registration (~$14/mo).

  This is a regulated price. Everyone pays this same amount-ish.

  3. Development (~$3,000-$10,000⁺/project)

  Why so much? Frankly, because the industry supports it. In the same way that education supports teachers wages or real estate supports agent commissions, these are industries that command large salaries (along with a higher level of training).

  As a loose frame of reference, Glassdoor.com puts the annual salary of webmasters in the $120K/year range. It takes roughly 3-6 weeks to build a website, depending on the availability of the owner to provide and proof content, and barring no unforeseen problems. That means that a single web designer can expect to build 8 ($15K ea) -17 ($7K ea) back-to-back websites in one year.

  Consider the analogy of the mechanic who takes twenty minutes to fix your car and charges $500. When asked to justify the invoice, he explains that it cost $150 for parts and labor and $350 to know which part needed replacing.

  Hardly seems fair but the alternative is to spend the better part of a day sourcing parts yourself and paying retail for them (you don’t get discounted journeyman pricing), then spending untold hours watching YouTube how-to videos and possibly troubleshooting why things don’t work the first time. And then there’s the lost time in work, play, or whatever you planned to do before embarking on a DIY fix-it problem. (How much is your time and peace of mind worth?)

  In the same light, a seasoned web designer knows the ins and outs of hosting platforms, website frameworks, software integrations, design principles, web vitals, and analytics. They have licensed access to commercial plugins, addons, and 3^rd-party solutions, all of which are passed down to you at a fraction of the cost.

  They have a working understanding of online marketing strategies (organic reach, funnels, lead generation, ecommerce, revenue streams, influencer outreach, marketing attribution, etc.) and enjoy brainstorming ways to move the needle from organic growth to strategic growth in a way that sets clients up for long-term success.

  They love doing competitive analysis and positioning client websites to outperform their competitors by creating a sustainable growth strategy that compliments your business model without compromising the customer journey. (OK, they don’t all do these last two paragraphs, which will be reflected in their reduced fee.)

  These are only minor insights into how a “multi-stack” website designer earns their macaroni, not to mention the amount of time saved by doing it right the first time.

  You’ll know whether your web designer is deserving of their fee based on a sampling of intangibles:

  • They understand your business goals and know how to intuitively improve upon them via specific website functionalities

   

  • They can confidently explain how your website will fulfill those business goals in layman’s terms

   

  • They can explain the technical setup before they broach the subject of design

   

  • They can justify their choices for the tools they use with reasons why

   

  • They sometimes have options for building a website in stages, complimentary to your budget

  Optional Costs

  1. Email Server for business email addresses and email marketing – can’t beat AMZ SES for this (but not very DIY-friendly).

   

  2. Marketing (eg. display/native/social ads, AdWords/PPC, SEM) – sometimes timelines may dictate paid ads but personally, I find that organic SEO is more effective over the long haul. Especially in light of an experiment that resulted in 70% – 80% people ignoring paid ads.

   

  3. Ecommerce setup & management – DIY can be complicated.

   

  4. Monthly Maintenance (updating software, adding content, tracking analytics, etc.) – DIY is totally do-able but problems are guaranteed when neglected.

  Unnecessary Costs

  1. 3rd-Party Autoresponder (eg. Salesforce, Mailchimp)
  2. 3rd-Party CRM (eg. HubSpot, many 3^rd-party platforms)
  3. ClickFunnels – funnels are simple structures based on ads, landing pages, email, and payment options. 100% unnecessary with a self-hosted website and strategic outreach.
  4. Shopify – there are free or less expensive ecommerce solutions for digital and physical products.

  The point of this list is to underscore the fact that a self-hosted website eliminates the expense of subscribing to these services, ensuring that you’re not spending money needlessly.

  Second-Guessing / Stats Speak Louder Than Words

  So, if after reframing the conversation about the affordability of a website, you’re still not convinced that it’s a bonafide business expense worth budgeting for, ask yourself these questions:

  • • If you don’t have a website, how do you acquire leads? How do you secure sales?

   

  • • If you do have a website, same questions. Are you happy with the quantity and quality of both?

   

  • • What would your dream website do that’s currently lacking in your business?

   

  • • What essential features would you automate?

   

  • • What does your biggest competitor pay for a website and what does that include (this requires a phone call)?

   

  • Are you eligible for a grant? (eg. AB small business grant; Business Development Bank)

  Then consider these stats that track consumer shopping behavior and the influence that websites (and website design) have on their purchasing decisions:

  • Consumer Research: 85-97% of consumers research shopping options online before making a purchase (also here) and 70% of consumers will follow-up with in-store visits because of the information they find online (also here), resulting in purchases 28% of the time.
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  • Business Credibility: A Verisign/Merrill Research study showed that 65% of consumers believe that small businesses with websites are more credible than those without.
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  • ROI-Driven: A Forrester study found that design strategies (branding and websites) resulted in companies getting their products to market faster by a margin of 35%. Adobe also found that companies who prioritize website design have a 10% higher revenue growth compared to those that don’t.
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  • Mobile Responsiveness: “Google uses the mobile version of a site’s content, crawled with the smartphone agent, for indexing and ranking. This is called mobile-first indexing.” And with the growing number of smartphone users, Google also reports that 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing. In other words, Google indexes and ranks websites based on the mobile version only but it has to be user-friendly or visitors leave the site and don’t revisit.
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  • Business Growth & Scalability: Your website is a hands-free tool that can automatically govern UX scenarios along the customer journey and simultaneously scale the building and management of a growing client base. It can help you reach a global audience, generate leads, and convert them into customers.
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  • Cost-Effective Omni-Channel Marketing. Traditional marketing channels (print media and billboards) are costly with limited reach. Inbound marketing (via organic SEO) costs 61% less per lead than outbound marketing.
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  • Competitive Edge: Your competitors are online too. 85% of small businesses believe they face more competition than ever before, according to a survey by Wasp Barcode Technologies.

  It’s Not Rocket Science

  “Almost everything worthwhile carries with it some sort of risk, whether it’s starting a new business, leaving home, getting married, or flying into space.” (Chris Hadfield)

  Or hiring a website designer to build a website to grow your business online.

  Yes, the initial cost of a website can be a significant investment, but when working with a web designer who knows how to marry their web design savvy with your business savvy, a website has the very real potential to pay for itself in a short time.

  And in a digital age where an online presence is expected by consumers, budgeting for a website as part of your business’ growth strategy should be a no-brainer.

  Because in the long run, the real question is, “How much does it cost to not have a website?”