Listing Prices For Services On Your Website Is A Good Idea

Posted on | August 10, 2010 | No Comments

Regular visitors to the Writeimage copywriting blog will notice a big change today. I’ve added big clickable buttons in the sidebars listing prices for our copywriting services, from website content to newsletters, blog posts and all the rest of it. I expect this change will be good for my business.

website sales leads ecommerce copywriting content price list There are two schools of thought when it comes to listing prices for services. Some like it. Some really don’t. Let’s start with the latter.

The problem with listing prices on your website: dropped sales leads (at least in theory)

Particularly for businesses that quote per project, some owners think that quoting prices on the website will discourage leads.

For instance, what if a visitor comes to the site, sees a price that doesn’t really fit their budget and moves on? The owner listed a price that perhaps was on the high end of that type of project’s range, say $5000, because they didn’t want to list the lower price of $1000 that they might charge for the smallest project of that type. The customer’s budget was actually $3000 — well within what the business might have charged for this sort of project, depending on the scope of work.

The compromise is typically for the business owner to stress in plain language that the quote will depend on the nature of the project. Hopefully, the client is understanding, decides this business is offering the type of service they need and is willing to call to get a quote — without even knowing a ballpark figure for how much this company will charge.

In reality, few customers are this patient or understanding.

The benefit of listing prices: more sales leads

sell more services from your business website More people will probably buy products and services from your website if you list prices.

Imagine you’re in a real, physical shop. You see one product with a price tag. A competing product with similar benefits and features is right next to it. It doesn’t have a price tag. You’re in a rush to get to the movies to meet your friend. Which product do you buy? The one with the price listed, of course.

The same theory applies to listing prices on your website. Customers know what they’re getting into.

If you’re concerned that customers may get the wrong idea and will want to get a huge scope of work for the minimum price listed on your website, use squishy language (as I have) like “X SERVICE starting at…” or “YZ PRODUCT as low as…” It’s far better than not listing anything at all.

The price of procrastination

If I’m so enthusiastic about listing prices, why have I waited so long to do it? I’ll have to admit that I got a bit complacent. Writing and strategizing are how I like to spend most of my work hours. My business website is based on WordPress and is simple to manage, so I’ve never out-tasked the design. As such, those prominent black and white services buttons listing prices waited and waited and waited. And I’m quite certain I’ve lost sales leads as a result.

So what prompted me to make the change? I was having coffee with the business-development person for Pieoneers, a Vancouver-based website design firm. She was showing me her website and it looked beautiful, funky and absolutely original. She showed me some sites her firm was working on and many of them looked just as eye-catching.

In comparison, my website was relatively free of graphics and buttons — because my strategy was to emphasize the words, the text, the content. Images look great, but the danger is that they can also distract from persuasive copy.

I suddenly recognized my mistake. I’ve always said that great content complements great design. It’s also true when you reverse that order. So I’ll be making changes to the design of my site over the next while. And the first step was adding buttons showing prices for my services.

I should probably add that many websites — including Pieoneers and quite a few of my business colleagues in other industries — still don’t list prices. The debate over how best to boost sales leads and the efficiency of your e-commerce is far from over.

But for now, it seems to me like I’ve made the right decision. And since I’m a metrics-obsessed guy, you can bet that I’ll be able to tell you by next quarter whether or not my ideas about listing prices really paid off.