Since the beginning of the web design industry, the process has always been the same. You request a quote from a developer, you pay a large upfront payment to get started, and then owe another large payment once the project is complete. This is the traditional method of website creation. While this method does work, it has several disadvantages like taking too long to complete a project and get it live and showing any kind of ROI (return on investment.
Many business owners got the short end of the stick here, feeling frustrated, stressed about the process, and rarely seeing any type of ROI in a timely manner. It’s also not really a good process for developers either. Projects took a long time to complete which hurt profit margins. When projects take a long time to complete, small agencies can lose money as it is very difficult to manage several website builds at a time.
Now comes the modern, website subscription plan. These don’t come with large upfront payments and solve a lot of the problems with traditional methods, all for a low monthly cost.
A website should always be improving, moving forward, and giving its users more information in order to convert them into a customer. A website is never truly finished, it is always expanding, scaling for the future. If built properly, a website can move forward into the future, adapt to new technologies and change over time to better serve your visitors.
Older, traditional methods take a different approach. A website would have to be finalized before being published live for the world. This is after months of work, revisions, updates, etc. This takes too long, time is money. A website subscription plan however is built for a more realistic approach which gives the website the ability to adapt, change and become superior over time. This is done using customer feedback, analytics, and true real-world experience. This data can be used to further the features of the website, future-proofing it for years to come.
Below are 5 of the top benefits of choosing a website plan over a traditional website development model.
1. Fast ROI (Return on Investment)
Probably the most important factor here is your ROI. When you have a professional, custom website developed, its average cost is approximately $7k at least. That’s a lot of cash upfront you will have to fork over. No cash, no live website. Once the website is up, it could still take about a year or longer to see any ROI, unless you are running an e-commerce system. That’s a lot of time to not see any returns.
With a website subscription plan, which starts at only $195 per month, you can get your website up and see returns faster. This also gets rid of any large upfront payments, keeping you out of the financial red zone.
2. Lower Risk
The old way of doing things is risky for several reasons. For example, you hire a developer to build you this super snazzy website for $6k. Well, now you have to pay all that up front, sometimes you may get lucky with only having to put 50% down, but that is still $3k. That isn’t easy for a small business. The site has to be built based on what you think it needs, which is dangerous for many reasons. Things you think the site needs may or may not be correct and can be very costly to fix.
A wrong assumption can cost you hundreds, or even thousands to correct as it wasn’t in the scope of the original quote. So more development time has to go into the updates, costing you more cash.
When you have a website plan, it can be developed in a stress-free way. The website is built in small stages, adding all the small requirements and then going back to add content and any other feature as needed. No worries about adding and removing features that will cost you and put you deeper in the red. All this is done with a small monthly fee.
3. Fast Turnaround Time
Remember when I mentioned a traditional method can take a long time? They can take at least 5 months to a year. I’m sorry, but that is crap and should not be like that. A lot of that time is digging deep into the project scope, making sure everything that is needed is listed, more negotiations, more planning, and prototyping. It’s nonstop and takes too damn long, especially when mistakes can be very expensive.
A website plan is different. It allows us to work in small steps, phases if you will, and can launch the first version of your new website in less than a month. It really is that simple. Once up, the website can be continually updated and improved over time, without the extra hassle and cost of the old outdated methods.
4. Future-Proofing
As you know, if you own any technology like phones, computers etc, you can see how they can change instantly after purchasing. Tech is always changing. A website is no different as the technology used to build them is always improving and changing. This basically makes the average lifespan of a website approximately 2 to 4 years. Why is this important to know? There are a lot of websites out there that look dated, that’s because they most likely are. Updating them can be very expensive, it’s like starting over. It’s just too much, so, they let them age way past their expiration date.
A well-built, great website will improve and evolve over a period of time as the industry and markets change. Website plans give you a way to future-proof your website so that when improvements are needed, the costs that come with them don’t. It’s all part of your small monthly rate.
5. Warranty
Finally, the website warranty. Whenever a website is published live, it will always need ongoing maintenance to keep it running smoothly. What type of maintenance do you ask? Well, things like server maintenance, core updates, software updates, security, backups, etc. This may be something that you are not comfortable dealing with and would have to outsource to another company. This can average about $1000 per year, on top of your website costs. Not to mention knowing how to fix issues like website errors when software gets updated, server problems, etc. This is getting pretty expensive!
With a Castle website plan, all your maintenance is included at a low monthly price. We keep your website running smooth, like a hot knife through butter.
Is a Website Subscription Plan The Right Way For You?
Knowing what you know now, is a website plan right for you? In a majority of cases, a website plan is perfect for small to medium-sized businesses over the traditional methods. They allow you to see a faster return on investment, they are financially less risky, totally future-proof, and get you much faster turnaround times.
Now with that said, sometimes these plans will not work for some. Those who are in need of some crazier, high-level stuff like deep integrations with other applications and platforms, or something highly customized that goes beyond the scope of what our plans offer, may need to go the traditional route. That can be up for discussion though!
You can easily see what our plans include by visiting the website plans page. For most of you, this would be the best way to get a professionally designed, FAST, website up and running.
If you are not sure though, let us know and we can chat about it. We’d love the opportunity to see what we can offer and what would be the best fit for your business.
