Everyone is an expert in their field, which is why we want our clients to receive a solid education on how to build their website. We focus on knowledge because we want you to make an informed decision about working with an agency, regardless of whether you choose us or someone else. We believe in this, as our 10 years of experience have shown. It is better to show that we are not the best partner for a project than to try at all costs to persuade a client to buy something from our company. I must admit that this approach has paid off many times in the future, thanks to which over 75% of our clients come from recommendations.
Customers often receive quotes ranging from a few thousand to tens of thousands and do not understand where such a gap comes from. Cars are a good comparison. Often, enquiries are of the nature that we would like a website with such and such tabs, which is a bit like walking into several car showrooms and asking, “Please give me a quote for a car with a 1.8 engine, four doors, a large boot, automatic transmission and, most importantly, it must be white.” These differences in prices usually depend not only on the brand, but also on how each dealer interpreted the rather vague description. If we have rather vague specifications, how can we compare them in a meaningful way? Even if we received offers, how can we compare the proverbial Mercedes for several hundred thousand with a Fiat for several dozen thousand without ever seeing the cars and only comparing these few parameters?
The starting point is the design assumptions, including technological ones.
We focus on the most modern, reliable and safest technologies, which in terms of price/quality completely outclass the competition and, most importantly, translate into our clients’ business goals. As standard, front-end pages (what the customer sees) are built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript technology. For many years, this was the standard, but today Facebook has promoted a different technology, React.js, which has become the new standard in website development. We have described this in detail here https://adream.pl/blog/strony-internetowe/dlaczego-twoja-firma-zyska-realizujac-projekty-w-opraciu-o-gatsbyjs, and I recommend reading it to explore this topic and find out whether it is better to do this project the old way or using new technologies. There is no clear answer, because it depends on what is best for our company today, not what is best in general.
The second step, which has a huge impact on the price, is the processes used to build the website. Whether you buy a £50 template that is customised, or go through the full design process. We explain why professionals do not build websites based on £50 themes here https://adream.pl/pl/blog/strony-internetowe/dlaczego-profesjonalisci-nie-robia-stron-na-motywach-za-50/
We still lack a full article on how we design websites in full processes, but we have prepared a tabular summary showing the most important differences. I think that after reviewing the table below, you can assess for yourself whether it is better to have something reworked for us to make it cheaper, or whether it is better to do something from scratch for our company, first by mocking it up, then creating dedicated graphics, creating functionalities, adapting the website for SEO, and implementing procedures to improve the quality and security of the project.
Adjust your budget to the real capabilities of your company.
It is also important to consider what the company’s current capabilities are. Just because Mercedes, Audi or BMW are cool does not mean that every company should buy a fleet of cars of these brands. At one time, there was a flood of cheap website developers on the market, but then a campaign was directed at these websites and it turned out that the website “did not convert” and it was necessary to start the project of “acquiring customers from the Internet” all over again. We are usually the ones who do projects from scratch after unsuccessful attempts, but that does not mean that all other websites are bad. If we have two salespeople and it is crucial for them to acquire customers in the field, it is probably better to have two lower-class cars than one premium-class car. Sometimes it is also better to have a $50 template-based business card website and launch it in a month than to have no website for several months while working on a premium version. There is also a large market where a website does not have such a big impact on the choice of contractor, because, for example, no one expects a local shoemaker to have a premium website, and it might even suggest expensive services.
What is the best approach to this topic?
Determine the rational economic possibilities of the company and communicate them directly in the brief. When we enter a car showroom, we set “mental limits” on how much we are willing to pay for a car, e.g. in the form of leasing. It is worth approaching the design of a website for our company in a similar way. Often, agency briefs include a question about the budget. Polish clients in particular tend to believe that if we write, for example, 20,000, we will get an offer that we could have had for 15,000, and it will be increased by 5,000. Nothing could be further from the truth, although we understand where this belief comes from. At our agency, when we have information about the budget and the client’s assumptions, we consider how to combine them. The information about 15,000 only tells us that if we charge x PLN per hour of work at the agency, we have to complete such a project in a maximum of y hours, and we consider how, in which processes and with which technologies we can do it. Sometimes the budget provided by the client is too large and we transfer the savings to other activities, but there have also been situations where we send information that this is not possible and we agree with the client on what we can do about it, e.g. increase the budget or change expectations, which may also be initially inflated or overestimated. We always prepare at least two variants of our proposal.
We also receive enquiries from clients who would like a website, but this is not possible because the company is not prepared for such a project. There is no strategy, which, however, after analysing the client’s assumptions, is already necessary; there is no consistent visual identity because, until now, it was the graphic designer who had to come up with something that the CEO would like; there are no slogans, and it would be best if all this were to be determined at the website stage. An attempt to collaborate on a project defined in this way would probably end in conflict, and the mistake is not in the intentions of both parties, but in the incorrectly defined collaboration process.
The last thing I would like to mention is the criteria for selecting an agency. When sending enquiries to many agencies, we always receive a lot of offers, but we personally want our clients to make an informed decision and not have to learn from their mistakes. We believe in learning from mistakes, but we recommend that these be other people’s mistakes, which is why we have prepared a document that will allow you to independently compare agencies in terms of over 15 different criteria that you probably would not have thought of. Just ask for it when filling out the brief and we will add it to our offer.
