What are your costs?
- Design and development of your website
- Domain name
- Hosting
- Fees for online software services (e.g. for email management)
- Maintenance and updates of content on the website
Consider not only the amount of money – but also the time committment – your time, and your staff time.
The time factor is a significant one. What is the value of your time and if you are working on an unfamiliar area such as programming a website is this a drain on your time that you could be spending with clients.
ROI – Return on Investment
When considering the return on investment on your website consider the following factors
- Each time a person uses your website to find you when they are in need – what would be your AVERAGE that you would charge
- For each NEW customer that you get – what is the LIFETIME value of the client (i.e. what would they pay you over 5 years, 10 years,)
- For each question that can be answered via the website vs calling a customer service person – how much of your staff time do you SAVE
- For each inquiry on the website where the person fills out the details e.g. on a Request a Quote form – how much time do you save? Also consider the convenience and accuracy of the details.
- How much more PROFESSSIONAL do you look in the eyes of your customers to have an up to date and professional looking website that is available to them 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week?
- For each REFERRAL that you get from someone that refers new business to you by forwarding your email news – think of the VALUE of this as a new client.
- For the relationships that you build through your website, email newsletter and social media – how many new clients and customers do you create?
Each business and organization is different. You may be a sole proprietor, a small business or have a staff. You may want to do all the work in-house or partner with an outsource individual or company that specializes in Internet work.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. davies@alephinc.com or post your comment here.