Cost Expectations Vs Hidden Costs of Growing Small Business Online
We have extensively written and discussed cost expectations of starting and growing small businesses online in our previous post. We have even gone to a length detailing the cost breakdown for small electrical manufacturers to build an e-commerce website.
But there is often more than what meets the eyes.
Just like how the GDP of a country alone cannot be an adequate measure of development as it fails to include social, cultural & political indicators, your strategy for scaling up your small business online may be riddled with contradictions leading to hidden costs. Explore them all here.
Hidden Cost of Growing a Small Business Online
Here are hidden cost trends for small businesses who are without investors or expensive PR teams but who want to grow online must note:
Website Related Hidden Costs
Online business owners seek cost estimates on domain names and hosting fees but neglect to research how their business website will handle feature integrations as they begin to attract more traffic.
For instance, small businesses like Coaching Centers or Personal Trainers may want to increase their live video streaming bandwidth or offer live chat support depending on the number of subscribers.
Alternatively, businesses like Clinic & Medical Centres would like to have a membership website giving exclusive access to their patients. There can be Small Boutique Stores that want to sell to a global audience but don’t understand the importance of customizing the shopping experience for consumers in different markets.
Small business owners often miss out on the trick in choosing and optimizing the best feature integration to save on cost. That’s why you need an expert who can give you genuine advice on planning your website from scratch eliminating all hidden costs that usually follow.
#1 Bottomline: DIY website builders have democratized the website building space for small business owners without tech knowledge but at the same time, limit the approach based on the monthly subscription cost.
Hidden Costs Related to Digital Marketing
No surveys or conversion estimates for any small business or new business online can exactly predict the cost associated with driving traffic to their online presence.
We had small business owners approach us after they had spent about $1000 without having a single conversion online and still trying to find the right audience!
Even though conversion estimates can be established through surveying potential customers, these predictions frequently fall short.
#2 Bottomline: Finding the right target audience is your hidden cost. Entrepreneurs and small business owners must account for several months of advertising spend without reaching the break-even point for return marketing.
An online business has to put a lot of time, money and effort into driving visitors to its website.
Most believe that the most effective way initially is to purchase traffic from sources such as Google, Facebook and other social media. But then,
98% of your site visitors will leave without leaving any contact information, making it difficult to nurture leads.
You may have read several other strategy blogs and are already aware of content marketing and organic traffic generation as the best alternative to reduce marketing budgets in the long run.
However, you most definitely lack experience in its practical implementation and this is where most small business owners miss accounting for its costs in their budget, lose morale over organic traffic generation and switch to paid search ads for instant results, thereby adding to the cost and the cycle continues.
#3 Bottomline: Building organic search traffic requires time, innovation and patience which is also your hidden cost.
1 in every 3 small business owners will start out by using free design tools
More often, they realize at the last minute that social media engagement posts are getting repetitive due to lack of creative free templates or website with free stock images experience an almost 100% bounce rate.
#4 Bottomline: This lack of judgement forms a hidden cost when you try to scale up online. Don’t forget to have professionally designed branding done for your business – to make you look genuine, legitimate and distinguished.
We Offer Honest Price Quotes
Partnering with a digital agency will help you delegate marketing and tech-related maintenance while you can concentrate on your core business. However, it should be a one-time affair but a strategic investment for long-term results.
| Services | Quick | Pro | Bold | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website Planning | $679 | $869 | $1289 | Includes webpages & contact form |
| Logo Design | $195 | $245 | $325 | Includes logo and branding package |
| Graphics Design | $279 | $469 | $849 | Includes niche-based graphics for social media posts & others |
| SEO Pricing | $180 | $260 | $450 | Includes Local SEO & On-page SEO |
| Digital Marketing | $478 | $568 | $768 | Includes keyword & location targeting |
By strategic investment, we mean a full-service digital agency like smallbusinessweb.co that gives regular feedback on the campaigns and devises a scalable website strategy as your business grows.
Get in touch or schedule a screen share with our core expert team to devise an online growth strategy.
About the Author - Manav Gupta
Manav Gupta is a full-time CopyWriter at Small Business Web, where he works to benefit both professionals & enthusiasts in the field of Digital Marketing, Branding & Web Development by creating engaging content. Prior to joining Small Business Web, Manav was responsible for managing & executing content projects ranging from sales collateral to web content, ad copy to letters, business proposals to sales plans, and training manuals.
