Many factors influence the price of a website. At PWB, we like to say the cost of a website is like the cost of a bag of groceries. It depends what you put inside it.
Pricing a website – whether B2B or B2C – really comes down to outlining a clear scope of work for the project. Websites can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred thousand. Pricing a B2B website is different than B2C because business audiences’ needs and buying behaviors are different. So, the groceries you put in the bag (that is, the content you put on your website) will be different.
For example, your B2B site may likely feature a white paper library versus an online retailstore. B2B buyers after all don’t buy expensive industrial products and services by clicking a link (eBay’s Business and Industrial category is a notable exception).
Consider the following when determining how much a B2B website will cost.
- Are you providing
copy that is suitable for the web and targeted to your business audience or do you need copywriting assistance? - Will your site require multi-lingual support? One of our clients – Siemens – routinely has web projects that require translations into Korean, Portuguese, German, French, and half a dozen other languages.
- Do you need to collect contact information from site visitors to store in a database? For example, if you offer downloadable B2B white papers, you’ll want to collect email addresses for later follow up.
- Do you have an existing content management system? WordPress, for instance, can be a lot easier to work with than ASP.net.
- Has your copy been approved by legal and compliance teams?
- Do you need an e-commerce solution to track inventory, manage payment processing, run promotions or special offers, run sales reports, and accept PayPal and credit card payments?
- Do you need to integrate social services such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps, Flickr, etc.?
- Does your brand identity or positioning need an overhaul, too?
- Have you already got a specification of features you would like to include or do you need advice and guidance from scratch?
- What level of browser support do you need for your website? Will this include older browsers such as IE6?
- Does your intended audience include small screen users such as those on mobile phones and should they still be able to perform all the functions of your website on any device? More and more business executives are accessing web content on smart phones.
- Do you have a set of measurable goals for your website such as bounce rate, new visitors, conversions, or sales?
- Do you have a plan to promote your B2B website once it’s launched?
- Are you planning on including Usability Testing during the development of your site?
- Do you have suitable images or do you need someone to source images or provide photography for you?
- Do you require any membership features such as members-only content with registration and login required?
- Do you want SEO analysis and optimization performed?
- Is there already market and customer research (to support user and business goals), or will this research have to be done from scratch? Have you identified your target audience(s) and their needs?
- Do you need training on how to use the site once it’s completed?
- Do you need any forms besides a simple “Contact Us” or “Request More Information” form?
- Is this site part of a larger brand campaign or will it stand alone? What are the design considerations?
copy that is suitable for the web and targeted to your business audience or do you need copywriting assistance?What other considerations would you include in determining the price of a B2B website?