How to find out the cost of my future website?

 With the current digitalization and online transformation a lot of businesses are aiming to acquire potential and new clients using online channels. Besides social media pages, an effective online channel of getting leads and customers is the company's website.

 When you as a company’s owner or marketer decide that you need a website, the first thing you want to know is the budget of a future project. Of course the budget is very important, but there are many more things to consider before you want to build your website and find an agency or studio that will do that for you.

Target audience

When your product or service solves a specific problem, people are willing to use it and are willing to pay even a high price. And vice versa, it is pointless to offer a person what he does not need. Therefore, it is so important to understand from the outset who your proposals are intended for and where these people are spending their time online. As a business owner you interact with your customers every day and only you know better who your target audience is and what channels can be used to show them your products or services. 

 If your customers are coming to you from Instagram, you should focus on your Instagram page and maybe you don’t even need a website. In case your audience watches Tik Tok or YouTube, you can create your own video channel or Tik Tok account, make interacting videos and then a simple and small website that will help you to collect requests. Think about your customer journey and the road he or she should take to achieve your offers.

Business goals

Before creating a company’s website you should understand what its purpose is and how it resonates with the purpose of your business. 

The websites can perform one or several goals simultaneously:

Increasing brand loyalty and awareness

Building brand awareness is an important task of a communication and marketing strategy. When people recognize a brand by its name, logo, or colors, they immediately make it stand out from the competition. A well-designed and functional website will perfectly cope with the task of increasing brand awareness and increasing audience loyalty. For this goal you can create a corporate website of a company.

Informing customers

The main goal of a website can be keeping in touch with your customers and quickly informing them about different activities and news of your company, such as seasonal sales, arrival of products in stock, launch of a new service, a change in the cost of goods/services or a new method of payment and delivery. In order to inform new and current customers, you can create a business or a blog website.

Collecting applications or requests

In case you have an upcoming conference or event and want people to register for it in advance, or you plan a webinar and your main goal is to collect client’s data in order to present them later with your product, you might need a landing page. With the help of a landing page, you can sell a product or service, get customer contacts, offer to subscribe to a newsletter, put it on a waiting list, and much more. The structure of the landing should "take the client by the hand" and bring them to the desired action.

Selling products or services

Of course one of the most important goals of any business is to sell goods or services. If you sell goods, you need to create a catalog site or an online store where someone can find product characteristics, see the price, buy, select payment methods and order shipping. If you offer services, then you need to describe each service, its advantages and characteristics. Also, give your customers the opportunity to consult with your managers, leave a request, order a call back or ask a question in live chat.

Website type, structure and functions

Now that we have found out that the company’s website should be created according to the goals of your company, you need to think about its future structure, functionalities and the possibility of integration with third-party services, if necessary. 

 Of course, you might think that this is not something you should know or be aware of, for this there are professional agencies who offer their services in website development and we totally agree with that. In any case, before meeting with experts in the field of website development, it would be useful to know in advance expectations about your company's website, as well as write down all ideas and desires. Even if they are not implemented in the first version of the website, you can use them in the next iterations.

 According to the desired website type, think of the following: what textual, image or video content will be on the website, who will provide it, if you need to prepare photos with your team or video from your production and so on. Next, think about the number of sections and pages. If you have a catalog of thousands of products, create a nomenclature or list all categories and subcategories. This work will still have to be done and it is better that it be ready at an early stage.

 One of the important components of the site is not what the client sees, but what is inside, in the administrative panel and in the backend. If you collect applications, you will need to integrate the CRM system to process these applications. If you sell goods, think about whether sales from the site will interact with the 1C accounting program in the future. If it is important for you that the client can contact your managers 24/7, then you will need to add live chat to the site or integrate another similar service.

 Think not only about the moment you launch the site, but also about how you interact with it and how the site can optimize your tasks and make your work easier.

Selecting website development agencies

When choosing an agency that will develop your website, it is best to trust professionals. Ask your fellow entrepreneurs who appealed to website development services and how satisfied they are with the work of the team. Look at the sites of your main competitors and if you like what you see, contact the same agencies, as site creators usually leave their signature and link in the footer.

 Familiarize yourself with the portfolio of the agency, if the portfolio contains sites with a similar niche or type as yours, then the team will quickly figure out the task and it will be easy for you to convey your ideas. Also, an important aspect when choosing an agency is the company's employees. Some studios do not have inhouse employees and work with freelancers. On the one hand, there is nothing wrong with this if there is a competent project manager, but on the other hand, answers to your questions and problem solving can be long and not very high quality. Before hiring an agency, plan a visit to the company's office, get to know the manager, and make sure that the company has real employees with the right skills for your project.

Discovery and research

This stage is carried out by the company's specialists together with you in order to most accurately determine the problem and find the most effective solution for it. Some may skip this step, but proper discovery and research will help you to better understand your product and avoid unnecessary expenses in the future.

Last question we still didn’t approach, what will be the cost of your website? The answer to this question is trite, but true: it depends. After you will go through all the above questions and will communicate them to a professional web development agency, they will clarify all the necessary points and make the most accurate estimate for the development of a website for your business.