How Much Should a B2B Website Cost for Your Business

April 17, 2014

Whether you are a self-employed one-man show, or an international, publicly-traded company, understanding B2B website cost can be a challenge. You need a site that supports your business, brand, and acts as the catalyst to growing your business.

From large, 1000+ page sites, to 5-page overviews or mini-sites, they all act as your first impression, sales follow-up, and ‘closer’ when it comes to obtaining new business. This can be a unique challenge for many B2B websites, as you probably don’t have a neat clean product to market with clear benefits and features.

Below are things to consider as you plan and shop your next website along with cost breakdowns of different options.

Important factors that Impact B2B Website Costs

What are Your Main Internet Marketing Goals?

In most cases, companies approach us to increase top-line revenue, typically through lead generation, although, this may not be the #1 priority for all businesses, depending on your size.

For a smaller brick and mortar store, lead generation may be low on the list, where exposure, reviews, and listings can have a more dramatic impact on the business.

Before starting, consider how and where the internet can improve your business, some additional goals/services to consider:

• Lead generation to support the sales staff
• Traffic and exposure for a new product or service release
• Industry leadership through resources, thought and content
• Social Media
• Reputation Management
• Search Engine Optimzation
• Search Engine Marketing (paid ads/banners)
• Content generation & syndication
• Map & Listing/Directory exposure

Strategies, KPIs & Overall Measurement of Success

Once you’re familiar with the types of services and how they can increase internet-based revenue, it is vital to include some level of measurement. If just getting a simple B2B website design done, it could be as easy as you like it (but more importantly, your customers like it), and it delivers your brand message appropriately and on target.

In most cases, no matter the strategy, it should increase revenues and profits. In order to accomplish this though, you need to work with your company to develop the correct metrics to track, and KPIs to watch.

Bottom line: ‘You can’t improve what you don’t track’

Just a Website Design vs. Ongoing Internet Marketing Support

Another consideration that can impact design/development prices is to hire an agency, or internet marketing company to do continued support and marketing on your new website. A beautiful new website can be great at first, but without traffic and continued improvement, it’s the hot rod that sits in the garage 90% of the time.

A good internet marketing company will take the time to learn your business, needs, and goals, to develop a support plan that makes sense to your business, and ultimately drive profits and revenues. This can be vital if you don’t have the time or capacity to continue to add content, make updates and do the marketing yourself. They can also bring experience and expertise to your particular market to improve the results faster, i.e. they know what works.

Now, onto the prices.

B2B Website Design and Development Costs & Investments

Although the below examples and prices are a good guide, be forewarned that individual costs can vary dramatically. The type of development company, custom designs, custom development, and any type of special feature can impact price. Some companies have very clear packaged products, while others may offer a more ala carte solution that closely matches your business’s needs.

Basic Website (<20 pages)

Equivalent to an online brochure, this option includes basic page set up, a contact form or two, and is typically under 20 pages. The other important item is that this version uses a pre-built/designed template with no custom development or special features. This option can be built on an existing platform that does offer additional options (ie, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc) and can allow for minor updates and publishing (see CMS section below).

Typical Investment: $1,500-$3,000

Custom Basic Website (<30 pages + custom design)

Similar to above, this is a custom-designed online brochure. The big advantage is that you have input on the design, can closely match your brand and colors, and help your business stand out among the competition. This would also be built on an existing platform, and may include the setup of a few custom modules and plug-ins, that wouldn’t require custom development. This is very typical of what we usually offer as a ‘redesign’, since most businesses have an existing presence on the web.

Typical Investment: $3,500-$7,500

Incorporating a Content Management System (CMS)

As mentioned above, most options today are built on some existing content management platform, whether you plan to use it or not. Most web design companies have one they prefer and use more often than others and simplify their own process in development. All have pros and cons, and they can typically reduce development time and costs.

However, preparing and customizing an existing platform to use as a CMS does take time and energy. In most cases, this includes multiple templates, configuring widgets, and style settings for you, or your team to manage (and not break too much).

Typical Investment: $4000-$7,500

Advanced Features/Web Development

The next step up in our web design ladder is to incorporate advanced features and custom web development work. Depending on the nature of the request or idea, this can vary dramatically and is very hard to estimate. But typically a programmer (coder) makes more and costs more than a standard web designer.

Other factors that impact cost are:

• How complicated is the feature?
• Is it from scratch or can an off-the-shelf solution be modified?
• Are there external or 3rd party systems to be connected?
• Custom coding languages required?
• How important is security?
• Who will manage? Does it need a backend/management interface?

Some examples of features that may require custom web development:

• Advanced calculators or configurators
• Integrating CRMs, email platforms, internal ERPs
• Dynamic navigation/content delivery (anything requiring a database)
• Dealer/Store/Location lookups
• Support portals (FAQs) or tracking systems
• User Access Restrictions (‘member only content’, registrations, etc)
• Responsive design/mobile options

Typical Investment: $5000-$15,000 (plus web design costs)

Enterprise Level Custom Site

Here we include everything under the sun, and in most cases, a larger company has had a website for some time, and the marketing department has encountered pieces of the above and has a good understanding of what they need. With that said, it’s easy to see how the price jumps, and covers a wider range.

This also typically incorporates all the pieces from above, with custom development for features, integrating CRMs, content management systems, separate blogs, advanced tracking, and reporting.

Typical Investment: $9,000-$100,000

In conclusion

Long gone are the days of a friend webmaster who can build you a website for a couple hundred bucks (I take that back, that exists, but you get what you pay for).

No matter your company size, annual revenues, or location, your website should be your best dressed, most knowledgeable, smoothest talking [sales] person on your team, and reflect your business appropriately, and there is an affordable option to get the job done for you.

For more information on pricing, how we price, or to get feedback on an existing price you have, please contact us or call at (866) 731-2271.