Have you ever over simplified someone else’s job while over-representing the complexities of yours?
I’m guilty and I think if we’re honest with ourselves then most are. Sometimes it’s important to take a step back and see the true complexities of other’s jobs.
Well, there’s also the opposite problem. Sometimes people oversimplify jobs that we’re used to doing. Maybe we’ve done it so long its become mechanical and we miss the intricacies of the job.
That’s what this post is about. I see a lot of people come to me for a quote and I’m much higher than what others have given them.
That doesn’t mean I don’t get the work though. It more often than not means the other quotes were lacking in their details. Whoever put the quote together lacked in information gathering skills. That means the other quotes weren’t taking into account the whole problem.
Essentially we were competing on a different level.
Plugins seem really simple on the surface but many of them have a lot more to them. There are more requirements than simply installing and configuring a plugin.
What could possibly be important beyond simply installing and configuring them?
What Plugins Do Beyond The Plugin
There’s a lot more to many plugins than simply installing, configuring, and calling the job done. Not many plugins are built for optimal performance for your website and industry even after configuring it.
I’ll use as an example a plugin used to connect websites to an email list. I use a MailChimp plugin that ties my forms into my MailChimp list.
It’s not as simple as that though. In fact, the configuration goes beyond just the plugin and into configuring MailChimp itself. When you ask for a plugin installed you probably want the entire customer experience configured. That’s a lot more complex than the plugin would have you believe.
That means MailChimp email alerts for new subscribers have to be configured properly, all settings in the plugin must be configured properly, and verbiage for each part of the subscription has to be just right.
People won't sign up for your email list unless there's a good reason to do so. Click To TweetYes, getting someone to subscribe to your email list is more than simply putting a form in and expecting people to use it.
Why in the world would someone simply put their email address in a box on some random website?
Answer: They wouldn’t. Nobody’s going to subscribe to your business email list without an incentive of some sort. You have to give them something special.
In the case of my client, we talked about it and decided that a 15% off coupon for customer’s first purchase for subscribing would be a good incentive and it works pretty well.
So as you can see there’s a lot more to the plugin I installed than just installing the plugin and configuring the API. Needless to say, my quote was a lot more expensive than others but I was still the one that provided the best value.
And I found out that other companies were quoting that client (before they were a client) for the literal installation of the plugin. There’s so much more that went into it than simply installing the plugin.
Accounting For The Details
Somebody who is really invested in your business and wants to provide value will get into details. Plugins and projects aren’t simply a means to a paycheck.
When a company installs a plugin or builds you a website there’s a lot of planning and detail that goes into it all.
There are a lot of business details that go into every project you need completed as a small business. That’s what the experts account for.
No DIY website will make sure you account for the details and neither will many companies.
Plugins are more in-depth than most think which is why you’ll get quotes that only account for the few minutes it takes to install. You need more than an installation.
Configuring the WordPress website plugin right?
Is configuring a plugin the details?
No, configuring a plugin isn’t all there is to it. Of course, that’s an important part of it and most companies will do that along with the install, it’s still a small part of the job.
After I worked on installing and configuring the MailChimp WordPress plugin I knew that was only part of the job. There’s also the goal the client had in mind that the plugin was supposed to accomplish.
Without a plugin meeting the goal of the project then the plugin is absolutely useless.
Goal Flow
There was a goal with my client, it’s to reach his customers and be able to sell more to them later on.
That means I had to make sure the plugin was installed, configured, and integrated 100% into the website.
For an email list subscription plugin, that means putting subscription forms in places that makes sense. It also means including signup options on all forms such as when the customer orders.
Not only are forms needed but there is copy that needs to go along with the forms. Customers need to know why they’re signing up which means a reason needed to be given to subscribe. All of these things required consulting with my client to figure it out.
They're more than a plugin, they're a means to a business goal. Click To TweetThen there’s the email flow after my client’s customers subscribe. A coupon code is sent to them via email so I needed to make sure MailChimp was configured to send the proper emails and with the proper information
The entire goal flow for customers needed to be 100% seamless. That requires more than just installing and configuring a plugin.
Every plugin requires integration into the overall website goal too. A seamless integration in every way is more important than the installation and configuration.
Now you can see the details of what needs to go into a WordPlus website plugin installation.
Complete The Job
Anybody can install a plugin but not everybody can properly implement it into every aspect of the website.
It should be a bit easier to see that there is a lot more to installing a WordPress website plugin than it seems on the surface. It seems on the surface that it’s only about installing and configuring the plugin. That can be done in less than an hour. It’s not that simple though.
Because there’s a lot of integration into your site beyond the plugin, it’s not as simple as even developers will tell you. You want to work with someone who wants to do more than the minimum.
Having someone who is invested in your project is important.
Understanding your business and website to fully implement a plugin is more important than the installation itself.