Why Paying Less for Web Design Actually Costs You Money
May 19, 2009
If you’re establishing your first online presence, it’s tempting to cut corners by hiring the least costly web designer you can find. We’re all for price shopping to get a good price on a design you love, but heading straight for the lowest bidder can actually cost your business more money in the long run than you initially saved.
Here are a few reasons to consider design quality before you start comparing prices:
Poor-Quality Design Makes Your Business Look Bad
Imagine your website is a regular office space. If your customer walked in and saw old paint, no pictures on the walls, and tacky plastic office furniture, what kind of business would they think you run?
Your disinterest in your professional appearance shows that you’re not the sort of business that cares enough about your customers to put your best face forward. Now, of course you wouldn’t have a terrible-looking space in the real world. Your office would be professional and you would be well dressed to greet your clients.
So why would you make the mistake of allowing your website to have a shabby appearance?
Customers who aren’t impressed with your professional appearance, offline or online, won’t do business with you – period. If you want to keep their business, you need to put some energy into creating an impression that gives them confidence.
How Much Are Your Customers Worth?
The difference in price between a great website and a mediocre one often isn’t as much money as you think. Figure out the price difference between the best website design you can imagine and the mediocre designer you were willing to settle on hiring.
Now figure out how many customers you need to buy you that website.
Often, if your fantastic website design convinced just five customers to stick around and do business with you, your website will have paid for itself. Think about all the websites you’ve passed by because they weren’t up to your professional or personal standards. You passed them by because you weren’t willing to risk your money on them.
If those websites had invested in a better design, you might have bought from them.
That shiny website you buy for your own business needs can probably pay for itself inside a month. Every month after that, those extra customers your website brings in are more money in your pocket.
Getting a return on your initial investment every single month for the next year? That’s a no-brainer.
Design is Your First – and Often Only – Impression
They say you shouldn’t judge by first impressions, but the fact is that most online customers do just that. If your website doesn’t immediately give potential customers a good impression, they’ll move on in search of a business whose website does.
When you browse the web, the first thing you look at is the website’s design. Your eye takes in the whole look in a split second, and you get an immediate impression of the business. You might think, “Eh, these guys look pretty slapdash,” or you might land on a website that makes you think, “Wow, that’s impressive!”
Which do you want your customers to think about you?
The problem with that first impression is that you often never get another chance to make a second impression. Even if you come back with a better design next year, that customer has already dropped by – and left. Your potential client knew they didn’t like what they saw then, and they have no reason to believe anything has changed now.
The longer you wait to upgrade your web design, the more customers you’ve lost forever. Contact us today to start gaining customers, not losing them.