Why You Should Publish Pricing on Your Website

In This Article

    Many companies shy away from listing their prices front and centre online, or even making them available at all. This is particularly true for B2B vendors. This is based on the traditional belief that your competitors will use this information to undercut your price points; and for products and services that require contact with a sales rep at some point, it is better to engage with a lead before slapping them with ‘sticker shock’.

    In the world of digital information, this is crazy. Your competitors already know your pricing. If you want to know your competitors’ prices, simply pose as a lead and ask.

    ‘Sticker shock’ is real. People can be turned away by high prices viewed out of context. But those most likely to be scared away by steep prices will be equally concerned by empty prices – nothing screams a hefty price tag like no price tag at all. With secrecy, you miss the opportunity to explain why you are worth the cost.

    Customers want information. Pricing is half the reason they are on your website. By providing potential customers with the information that they are searching for, you will increase your website’s retention rate while establishing yourself as transparent and helpful. It will build a customer-led notch in your online sales funnel and increase the volume of high-quality leads.

    If you still leave your prices off of your website, here are 6 reasons why should change your policy.

    Reason 1:

    People will find out pricing somewhere

    Information is always available online. People looking to make a purchase want to know how much things cost. If they can’t find that information from you, they will check out your competitors. People are unlikely to call your sales team when they could just go look at another website.

    All questions regularly asked by customers should be answered online. The first thing a serious customer is likely to ask is – how much does it cost? In order to be part of the online conversation within your industry about pricing, you need to list your prices online. To do otherwise will drive those inquiries to your competitors.

    Reason 2:

    Putting prices online will give you an SEO boost

    You might be thinking, “no one in my industry lists their pricing online, customers will be forced to call our sales teams.” In this case, fantastic – publish your price points online right now.

    Potential customers want to know how much things cost. Their search terms reflect that. Putting pricing on your website is an SEO long tail keyword strategy. The fewer people in your industry using this technique, the better. This is how you get to the front page of Google.

    For the uninitiated, SEO long tail is the method of mimicking the words and phrases on your website that your target market audience is likely to use when searching for your products, services or content. These results will be maximised if you create dedicated landing pages or blog posts within your website devoted to pricing.

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    Writing about pricing options online will rank your website for search phrases such as ‘how much does ____ cost’ or ‘the costs of ____’. If you can get out ahead of your competitors, you will build up traffic history. That will boost your search engine ranking in general, and may get you to the top of Google for ‘pricing phrases’ in particular.

    The people inquiring about the price of your products or services are exactly the people you want to draw to your website. Make yourself as visible to them as possible by answering those questions. For more information about how to use SEO long tail keywords, check this out.

    Reason 3:

    You will save time through adding your prices online

    The people most likely to be turned away by high prices are people that can’t afford your product. Every time a sale has fallen apart because of surprises about cost, your sales team has had their time wasted by your poorly constructed website.

    Listing your prices online limits surprises and leads to higher sales conversions through allowing potential customers to actively segregate themselves into realistic buyers and people with a wish list. Publicising your pricing is a valuable part of your online sales funnel.

    Reason 4:

    Price transparency provides you with an opportunity to get specific about results

    If you can showcase studies of before and after examples of your product, you create a compelling narrative for potential buyers. If you can detail those results in actual figures, you will generate an even more powerful outcome.

    Demonstrating that what you are selling is worth the cost, in the context of your actual prices, gives you the opportunity to display in detail how and why you are good value for money. In fact, you can go one step further and publish the baseline prices of your competition as well as your own. You can do that openly, or as ‘Leading Competitor #1’ and ‘Leading Competitor #2’.

    Price comparisons allow you to differentiate your product in a monetised way. You don’t have to worry about being the cheapest. You simply have to have a product or service that is worth its cost. That is something that you should worry about anyway. Explaining your value in the context of your competition is one of the most compelling ways to get that point across to potential customers.

    Reason 5:

    You will build trust through honesty

    This point comes back to the reality that pricing is information that customers want. People will look at your upfront attitude to costs as an indication of an attitude towards straightforward honesty. Particularly if selling long-term services or high-end B2B products, that kind of transparency positively reflects on the type of experience customers will have when working with your organisation over time.

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    Do not pass up the opportunity to develop goodwill between yourself and your customers by being upfront about cost. As long as your delivery is worth the price, you have little to worry about. In fact, if you leave the price blank, you will probably seed doubt in the minds of customers as to whether your products and services are fairly priced.

    Reason 6:

    Complicated billing models are NOT an excuse to avoid online pricing

    The complexity of billing models for B2B services and long-term or tailored products is another reason that companies avoid putting their pricing online. This, however, misses the point.

    Any company that has, at any point, not listed their prices online, sells something complicated enough that customers can’t just ‘click-through’ to purchase. Interested buyers will have to get in contact and discuss specific requirements.

    Providing an average figure gets you what you want. Just make it clear that the prices listed are estimates based on average requirements. You only need to deliver the most accurate information achievable to engender goodwill from your customers. Variability will be expected. Be prepared to explain the reasons behind the cost.

    NOTE:

    DO think about WHERE you place pricing information on your website

    You should think about where you place pricing information on your website. It doesn’t have to be on the homepage. You could create a specific landing page that has the pricing of all of your products. Another strategy is to place pricing within product pages, but after customer reviews and/or technical specifications. That allows you to first provide potential customers with information about why what you offer is fantastic. But, it is important to follow through and tell them how much it costs.

    Summary:

    Listing prices on your website is a must for online competition

    Listing your pricing on your website has few downsides. It will deliver positive results in the form of onsite retention and SEO ranking. You will build trust with potential customers through transparency and create a customer-led step in your sales funnel that will save you time and increase conversion rates.

    Listing your prices provides an opportunity to detail, in real terms, what you deliver. You can make this even more specific by publishing the prices of your competitors as well. You don’t have to worry about being the cheapest, you just have to make sure what you sell is worth the price. Making pricing available online gives you the opportunity to display how and why you are ‘good value for money’.

    It is, however, a good idea to think strategically about where you place your pricing information on your website. To avoid ‘sticker shock’ fall out, make sure that information on why and how you deliver value to your customers comes before an explanation of your pricing models.

    For complex products and services, it is good to explain that prices are an estimate and the final value will depend on specifics. That general information, however, will deliver the desired positive results.

    Your competitors already know your pricing. Why not let your customers in on the secret and use that as an opportunity to explain why you are worth the cost, increase your SEO visibility and close online sales?