How to get Clients for Web Design ?

Hello,

I live in a country where there are many companies which do not have a website.

I would like to know the steps to get web design clients .. is there some ways like cold calling, sending letter, emails etc ?

All of those work. You will get many more No's then Yes's at first but when you get better at your cold calling, or your emails or your snail mails you will see better conversions.

One thing that can't be beat is networking. Businesses deal with other businesses on a daily basis. So if you can get close to one and maybe give them a bit off their work if they refer you some work, that will grow your business.

If you do good work it will snowball as businesses share with their buddies about their great new website and how they have noticed an increase in business and awareness. Other companies will want this product as they have to keep up or get left behind.


Another tip, represent yourself honestly but aim high! I mean, don't lie and say you are some big company to try and justify your rates. Let em know if your just starting out , everyone starts out at the bottom. But if you show that you have what it takes to get the job done, they will be inclined to hop on board before you are too successful and they can't afford you!

Most important... do not give your service away. It just hurts you in the long run. Ask for deposits on agreement of a job ( make sure you have contracts ready to sign at all times) and don't do a bit of work til you have seen some payment.

I can't tell you how many times I got hosed when I started out. I would bust ass, do a site expecting to be paid after it was done and then hear that their cousins, sisters, boyfriend is a computer whiz and is gonna do their site. Arrrrrrrgh!! What about my time?? Tough luck.

Good luck with you business!!

Do a good job on promoting your site via Local SEO, target the area you are in. I get at least 2 calls a day just from my organic placement.

Do you have a portfolio? Any local SEO success?

If not, do what I did and offer a friend some help with their business. Get their site ranking well and get a nice testimonial from them saying how they get x amount of business since you made the site.

Its much easier to sell 'a nice website that WILL make you a profit' than
'a nice website'

When running my local advertising company I used to pre-sell prospects by postal mail. Though most business owners have an email account nowadays, I found it to convert better when getting to their desk through a nicely packed mailing combo (envelope +formal letter +business card +brochure).

Today, most competitors are going the easy cheapo road, spamming businesses to death. Then, you take the effort to set up a professional looking mailing and this makes a difference.

@ OutsideGroove : thank you very much for the nice reply, very helpful indeed

thanks stoichen and kenwithblue

kenwithblue thanks a lot, you are right, it is the approach that counts, are you into offline business a lot ?

I have made a business directory and i am trying to get clients to it

if they don't have a website it means they are not online very often. Considering that, you should go by foot and tell them about your business.

Another tip that works well for me, if you go someplace that isn't online to see the owner, bring your laptop and have it so you can show him a few things to wow him. Stuff he won't really understand but not so complex that it scares him. Its the old sell the sizzle not the steak thing.

If he sees a nice fancy site with good reviews and sees how it could be putting him at a disadvantage by not having a similar or BETTER site then he will really want that and will be putty in your hands.

When you start doing this you will find yourself ALWAYS thinking of ways to better someone's business. So make sure you have business cards, flyers, etc with you, in your car, etc. You never know, you may go in for a pizza and come out with a lead that could lead to the pizza place owner getting ahold of you to pay you lots of money. Every single business is a potential client. Every business owner is a potential client.

Start with places with no web presence and then go after those with crappy presense and then move to those that you have now left in the weeds with your first two batches.

Also study what big businesses do to drum up new business. Cable TV often says you pay only $20 a month for 12 months! then the fine print is you have to agree to 3yrs with the last two being at full price of $99 a month and if you break contract you owe $300 or some such thing. They make big money over the long haul and entice with a great deal. You just have to think long haul. So if you can give them a "deal" on the web design if they sign up for a contract for hosting or web updates for a set time, you make back the money you gave up on the front end and probably make more on the back end with recurring money.

I recently implemented a strategy that I saw from Taktikal's thread. It's to ask your family and friends to refer you and offer them a 10% (or whatever) commission. I just received my first Php 25,000 check (almost $600) thanks to a referral by my mom. I made the client a website, fan page and Twitter account along with some targeted fans and followers.

Now, two of my client's friends want websites of their own as well. I never do any hardselling. They come to my home office and I just explain to them the benefits of having a website.

The other day, I received a text message from my sister's friend asking about my SEO services.

To think I haven't asked my friends yet to send referrals my way.

I pretty much gave up on web design since it's so hard to find clients. If you're lucky and do find clients, however, most of the time their idiots who will take advantage of you and make unreasonable demands. I've moved onto IM fortunately.

If you insist on web design then I'd focus on local SEO. There are probably numerous businesses in your town who don't have a website. You can have them charge an initial fee for the development and design of the website and then subsequently charge a recurring monthly fee to maintain the site (that way you still have money coming in when you're looking for new clients).