Should You Put Prices On Your Website?

This is a question I get pretty regularly and the vast majority of B2B companies we work with say the answer is no. I say they are wrong and here's why.

Surprise astonished woman. Headshot portrait woman looking surprised in disbelief wide open mouth isolated grey wall background. Human emotion face expression body language. Funny girl with question.jpeg If someone is searching for a price for your product or service they will find one on someone's site. So we figure why shouldn't you be the one helping them answer the questions they inevitably ask including the one about price. The more helpful your content on your site it the more likely people will reach out to you when they identify the type of solution they are looking for.

By putting prices on your website I do not mean you mimic an e-commerce store and list all of your products and services in a chart and line item them with a price. What I do mean is that you should provide context for the pricing question and get them in the ballpark at least. You can always say something to get of jail like this. "Each solution we provide is determined by the particular needs of our buyers so these prices are meant to give you general budgetary guidelines on what this type of solution costs."

If you do not provide context for the cost of your solution you leave a giant hole in the ability of your site visitors to understand if your solution is the right type for them. Of course, right along with this context of price you provide evidence of value and ROI that makes that price seem attractive. Your solution is attractive in terms of ROI and you can easily communicate that calculation, right?!?!

One of our clients makes really amazing capital equipment for high volume production applications. Many hobbyists also want this type of equipment for their garage to use as a hobby. My client does not target hobbyists and they are not his ideal buyer persona. Large manufacturing companies that makes lots of things is the target persona. So along with great case studies, application stories, and other content that shows that my client understand large manufacturers they add this line to their home page and on product pages - our systems start at $50,000 per unit.

That number scares off all hobbyists, they never call or fill out a contact us form on the site. That number does not scare the large manufacturers. In fact, it builds credibility for our client. How would that work? Well, we know the persona and what they value. Large manufacturers value up time, product reliability, low maintenance, and ease of use and service. None of which are cheap and the large manufacturers know it. If we tried to sell them a $20,000 unit they would be skeptical and know that this was too good to be true and would not trust the offer. Or they would discount it since it was perceived as cheap. No production manager can afford to shut down a line because they bought cheap equipment.

If my client did come out with a lower cost unit, say for $10,000, they could promote it on their site but we would make sure the personas for each machine were clearly identified and that the site would quickly segregate these visitors. They would not try to sell it to large manufacturers or they would risk harming their brand in the mind of their market. Think of Mercedes buying Chrysler.

Buyers searching online look for certain things like how do I (fill in the blank), reviews, ratings, rankings, who the best (whatever) is, comparisons, social proof, and of course pricing. A good B2B website is built on the understanding of the issues the target persona deals with, creates content that helps them understand the issues, guides them to consider the options, and ultimately influences them to make a decision.

Notice I didn't mention your product or service in that list. Visitors to your site want to read about themselves and their issues. Your product or service is secondary to those considerations. You need to include your products and services but make sure you build your site with an emphasis on them and not on you.

Trying to figure out manufacturing marketing? Dig deeper here.