Conducting keyword research with SpyFu, our favorite Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tool, we discovered a lot of searches related to "website cost":
Have you read Simon Sinek's book Start with Why or watched his TED talk? If not, you should. It's the third most-watched talk on TED.com, with over 40 million views from this world-renowned visionary thinker on how people think, act and communicate. We've embedded that TED Talk below. Taking a lesson from Sinek, asking how much a website costs is the wrong question. First, understand and communicate your passion, joy, and purpose.
The goal is not to do business with everyone who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe. Simon Sinek
Communicating from the inside out, starting with why engages the limbic brain where emotion and feelings live. 'We buy with emotion and justify with logic' is another way of explaining why human behavior is shaped by our emotions and feelings and not only with logic.
Your limbic brain controls decisions, not language. Ever felt something is wrong, but you can't explain why? That feeling is your limbic brain at work.
Our brains, Sinek explains, are organized like his "Golden Circle".
Here's how our brains are similar to Sinek's Golden Circle:
Buying or joining decisions come from our limbic brain's How and Why, so features and benefits (What), no matter how convincing, don't drive behavior. Features, benefits, and facts don't create empathy, trust, and loyalty. Compassion, confidence, and loyalty come from connecting with people who believe what you believe.
We live in noisy marketing times. We pay attention to things, people, websites, cars, computers, and phones we care about, trust, and love. We search for and grant loyalty to people, companies, brands, and products that believe what we believe -- things, people, or companies that are "like us."
Talk about what you believe and how those beliefs formed, matured, and evolved. People don't buy what you do; they buy what you believe, Sinek says. People don't JOIN what you do; they join your beliefs is another way of communicating Sinek's core message.
Early adopters don't wait online for hours to buy an iPhone because of what it is. They wait online because Apple believes what they believe. They JOIN Apple because the company has clearly stated why we (Apple) challenge the status quo. I'm writing on a MacBook, there's an iPhone in my pocket, and my iMac is at home. I purchased my first PC in 1984 and built my first website in 1999. See why I'm writing on a MacBook? Apple's WHY - challenging the status quo - is "like me." I've joined Apple because they believe what I believe.
Asking questions such as 'what do websites cost' or 'what is the best website platform' creates logical fallacies - a false belief or trust in decisions we've made. We buy with emotion and justify those decisions with logic. When costs express value, we're lost because real value always comes from connection, from purchasing (or joining) products, brands, and companies whose beliefs, loyalties, and empathy we share. People don't buy what you do; they join because of why you do it.
WTE fixes "Sinek wrecks" daily. Sinek wrecks are WordPress, Shopify, or SquareSpace websites that aren't doing what their owners want. How much WTE will charge to fix the problem is how those conversations usually begin because when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
We see ourselves as creative digital and marketing problem solvers, and after twenty-five years, we've helped customers solve thousands of problems, from the simple to the bizarre. The web platform isn't the problem - usually the problem is that the company's content doesn't share passion, belief, pain, and joy.
People don't buy what you do; they buy what you believe, and 99% of the "Sinek Wrecks" we fix thought their rational features and benefits content would win customer hearts and minds when it never does. Instead, customers believe in and join brands, products, websites, and companies "like them" or "like they want to become."
We are sentient beings capable of learning, and growth is one way Apple taps our aspirations, the better self we aspire to become. However, because you can do something doesn't mean it is the right thing to do. This is a hard lesson our Sinek Wreck customers discovered the hard way.
You can't bottle your beliefs, passion, joy, and magic; put them on a shelf and forget about them. That's why we are refreshing our own About page again. At this very moment, we are working on how we communicate our beliefs, and our new About page will change every WTE page (eventually). The honesty, clarity, failure, pain, and empathy you share define why you do what you do so others can join, contribute, and love you.
Anyone can say anything online, but our technical obsessions mean we've become good belief checkers. When an About page says one thing while other pages seem to say something different, dissonance happens. It's confusing when a website says one thing while doing another, and confused customers rarely buy or join.
Saying you are easy to work with on a complicated website is self-defeating. No one's perfect, and no one joins a brand, company, or website who thinks jargon and stock photography express their perfection.
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When in doubt, ask for help. Don't be disappointed when you aren't overwhelmed with responses. Building an online community is one of the hardest things, and I'm a cancer survivor. Building an online community is also challenging because of the 1-9-90 Rule.
Contributors 1% of your site's visitors will contribute when effectively asked and rewarded (most contributors want recognition more than money).
Social Shares 9% of your site's visitors will share content, especially when the content comes from one of your 1%ers.
Readers 90% of visitors will read your content.
Be sure to share passions, beliefs, failures, pain, and joy BEFORE asking for help. Treating the active 10% of visitors with care is crucial. Here are a few of our favorite ways to "reward" contributors and those who share:
Contributor Profile Pages Giving contributors a piece of your website is a powerful reward for existing and future contributors. Contributor profile pages clearly state how much you value contributions and those who make them.
Social Follows Following and engaging contributors and those who share on social media is a tangible and accessible thank-you. They've joined you, so returning the favor is a good idea.=
Ask Questions We end this long post with a question about how it landed to learn from our visitors.
Allow Comments Comment spam is a pain, but find ways to encourage comments because today's commentators are tomorrow's contributors. You can comment on our blog posts by creating or signing into your account.
Email Comments - if comment spam is driving you crazy, you can still ask questions and provide an email for a response as we did below (note the xxxx (at) format so bots can't read the email).
Contact Form Include ALL of your contact points from telephone to social media on your contact form. Be sure to faithfully respond to all of those methods.
What is your company's why? email martin (at) WTE.net