What does it cost to have a Web site professionally designed?

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What does it cost to have a Web site professionally designed?

Well thatâ??s a loaded question â?? and one of the most common ones in our industry. Iâ??ll try to tackle this question and give you the honest, straightforward answer you are looking for.

Like anything else in life, good things donâ??t come cheap. It isnâ??t cheap to own and operate a top branding and design firm, trust me. It takes creativity, technical know-how, marketing skill, and a significant investment in talent, ongoing education, and infrastructure to build an industry-leading Web site â?? the only kind of site we build.

Step 1: Start with a realistic overall marketing budget.

If you run or manage a company that sells more than $1 million a year in products and services and think you can get a high-quality site for less than $5,000, you need to either realign your thinking or go make a $5,000 mistake. And then revisit this article.

Your marketing budget, depending on your industry, should be between 3% and 12% of GROSS sales. This is for ongoing advertising and marketing for an existing brand. That means a $1 million company should budget a minimum of $50,000 to build its brand, and then plan to spend $30,000 to $120,000 in ongoing marketing and advertising. Here is a good article that gives more details on how to set an effective marketing budget:http://www.imageworksstudio.com/client-lounge/articles-tips/setting-a-marketing-advertising-budget.html.

Iâ??m not giving you this information so I can jack up my rates as a marketer. These costs are publicized by organizations like SCORE and the USSBA. They are benchmarks based on real statistics and actual business case studies. These benchmarks are the reason why any venture capitalist worth his or her weight will make SURE he has a reasonable marketing budget â?? or risk failure. Start with a realistic overall marketing budget, and youâ??ll be ready for the next step.

Step 2: Realize that you are doing more than designing a Web site. You are building a brand.

Budget for the full scope.

Your Web site is not a stand-alone marketing tool. It is, in many cases, prospectsâ?? first impression of your brand. It is also the place your prospects go to form or validate an opinion about your company before they decide to take the next step. It is the most important element of your brand image and overall sales process. But itâ??s not the only element.

You are looking for Web site design or maybe even a complete Custom Web design for your business. But itâ??s not that simple. Not even close. Just getting to the design phase requires an in-depth marketing discovery and strategic plan. To build a site without this plan is like building a house without a blueprint â?? itâ??s going to fall apart.

Here are a few of the basics that need to be discussed with marketing professionals outside your internal team (inside-out thinking must be combined with outside-in thinking):

• Your marketing goals and objectives â?? measurable, specific, and realistic. (If we donâ??t know where weâ??re going, how will we know if weâ??ve arrived?)
• Your value proposition from the customerâ??s perspective and how best to reflect that value proposition in the Web site strategy.
• The step-by-step conversion process â?? from entry to conversion and everything in between. Consider the four major personality types and their varied buying processes.
• SWOT analysis: how the strengths and weaknesses of your company, combined with the opportunities and threats, affect your Web site strategy.
• The current AND desired position of your brand in relation to your competitors, and how that affects your Web site design strategy.
• An analysis of what your competitors are doing and how you can outperform them.
• A clear assessment of the benefits conferred by your products and services. Features are cool, but people buy benefits.
• Your sales arguments â?? why should people buy what youâ??re selling?
• Calls to action â?? how will you get prospects to act and what actions do you want them to take?

Ah, now youâ??re ready to start designing something â??dz almost.

Step 3: Understand the full scope of your true needs.

To be successful, your Web site will need to include some of the following components and media. To build a site without them is like going game hunting with a pocket knife: itâ??s just not smart.

Components and media needed for an effective online brand:

And the list goes onâ?¦

Since most of the above items cost $2,000 to $5,000 or more each, you can quickly see that building a highly successful online brand and custom Web site is going to take a serious investment. Yet, a Web site that is built correctly will grow revenues and awareness of your brand more than you can imagine. Who wouldnâ??t invest in building and marketing their brand when the result increases sales exponentially?

Whatshould you look for in marketing and advertising firms that can build highly effective online brands and sales conversion processes?

Itâ??s not about design, so donâ??t hire an art major. Itâ??s not about coding, so donâ??t hire a developer. It about building a brand and being able to persuade prospects purely through their online experience that they have a substantial interest in your products and services. You need a firm with a full-time creative staff, marketing experts, graphic designers, Web marketing specialists, project managers, Web developers, copywriters, and a network of proven contractors to help facilitate the many areas of successful branding.

OK, OK, I get it! So what does it cost?

The cost should easily fit into the budget guidelines mentioned above. The bigger your company, the more you should invest in your online brand and the more features and functionality you can afford to enhance your online presence. If you invest the way a $5 million company does and youâ??re a $45 million company, youâ??re going to fall behind your competition and fail to impress your customers. Allbusiness.com (see link below) states that a name and logo alone by a professional agency costs between $25,000 and $40,000 on average. Yes, thatâ??s just the name and logo! http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing-advertising/branding-brand-development/1040-1.html

Madison Avenue and other high-profile agencies will charge mid-six figures and more to build an online brand. On the other hand, you could hire a freelancer or a small Web design team to build something for less than $10,000. But that would be more likely to hurt than help. Putting the right assets in place to build an effective brand is costly, but the rewards are substantial and ongoing.

Depending on the size of their company, our clients typically pay us $25,000 to $100,000 to build their offline and online brands. The determining factors are whichbranding elements will be required, the features and functionality of the web site and the complexity of each.For example: a FLASH animation for a online tour of a product could eat up a substatial portion of a budget, but could also be a huge conversion tool for valued prospects.

Remember, your ongoing budget for advertising, search engine optimization, Web marketing, social media, print advertising, trade shows, direct mail, PR, etc., should be based on a percentage of revenue multiplied by your industry multiplier, as referenced here: http://www.imageworksstudio.com/client-lounge/articles-tips/setting-a-marketing-advertising-budget.html

The power of your new brand:

Hopefully, you now realize what it takes to build an effective and conversion-oriented custom Web site and online brand. The rewards will be tremendous. Here is what you can expect with a Web site done right:

Scott Margenau is the founder and CEO of ImageWorks Studio, an award-winning Web design and branding firm.