Selling Cheap Websites: Why Competing On Price Doesn’t Pay

There’s an enormous market out there for cheap products and services—including cheap websites. And while it’s true that most people go for it, joining the bandwagon and being the low-cost alternative isn’t really profitable.

Justin Meadows explains why in this episode of Hassle-Free Websites. He also offered solutions on how websites should be packaged which will give maximum benefits for both you and your clients.

In the video:

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It’s Bad For Your Clients

Great websites take time to build. That’s because every component of the design and development must be customized to perfectly match your needs and help the business grow. QA and testing must be thorough as well to make sure everything is functioning as it should be.

But if you’re going to build one on a tight budget, shortcuts must be made. These compromises could lead to other problems later which could be more expensive to fix had the website been done properly from the start—all because of the need to stay within the budget.

So ultimately, it’s a disservice to your clients if you offer them a cheap website that will cost them more to get to work the way it should.

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It’s Bad For You

You’re not doing yourself a favor either by being the cheapest option in the market.

Sure, clients may come to you in the beginning, thinking they’re going to get dirt cheap pricing. But with such a low profit you’re going to get for each project, you need to have lots and lots of projects just to stay afloat or get a profit you’ll be happy with.

The thing is if you’re overloaded with projects, you won’t be able to give each of your client (or project) the care and attention they need. The result is a final product that’s haphazardly made—which is bad for your portfolio and your reputation.

You don’t want your portfolio to be filled with projects you want to hide in your closet. You’ll be known as someone who builds cheap but mediocre sites. This will hurt your referrals. Finding the “right” clients will get harder while attracting the wrong ones gets easier. How?

These clients you built a cheap website for will refer you to their business circle—most probably “selling” you along the lines of being cheap—inadvertently becoming a magnet for clients after what’s affordable and not what works.

Besides, if something goes wrong with the project—which will most likely happen since you don’t have enough time and resources to build a proper site—it would be hard to bring yourself to spend more time to fix it because you know you’ll lose more money if you do.

You might have all the right intentions to build a great site even for these clients, but it’s really hard, if not impossible, to deliver awesomeness on such a tight margin.

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Educate Your Clients

Now, some clients who go after the price are often just starting to grow their business. They might not really know how having a great website can translate to sales much quicker than other mediums.

In this case, it’s best to convince them that an awesome website is not an expense, but an investment. Once they spend money on it, they’re going to benefit from it for a long time. Websites are not just for show—it has financial returns.

When they see the true value of an awesome site, they’d be more willing to invest in one.

Stop Comparing Your Price With Others

Another way of avoiding the cheap website trap is by simply ignoring how much other providers are pricing their services.

There will always be somebody cheaper as much as there will always be someone more expensive than what you’re offering. There’s no use competing on price.

Instead, make sure your expenses are covered and then add a bit of profit that you’ll be happy with. Most importantly, think of how much your service is worth to the client and how much value you are bringing to them.

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Position Yourself As The Expert

It’s also important to niche down into a smaller market for you to be able to understand that market better.

In our case, we only build WordPress sites; we don’t use other platforms. Thus we can say we know a lot more about WP development than others who also build on other platforms. This is called expert positioning. I discussed this on Episode 5 so if you want to know more about it, check out that episode.

Also, if you go down too low on your pricing, clients might think you don’t really provide the best services. People expect to pay for quality—they know they’re more expensive. So you might lose business because of the notion that the more expensive something is, the higher the quality.

Build Your Portfolio

If you’re at a stage where you’re still building your own business and portfolio, then take on a few of these clients who’s after the price by all means. But don’t set your price too low.

Instead, set it at a high price but offer a “discount” in exchange for using the project as a case study. A few of projects like these and you’d be able to show other clients proof that you can indeed build awesome sites that convert.

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