Finding Web Design Clients
This is the biggest question when you start working for yourself. How do you find web design clients? Where do you find clients? And that is the question of the day….
First Impressions
Let’s start with you. It’s important when you’re just starting out to put your best foot forward. To get clients you need to be professional. You should look and act like a professional. Professional dress depends on your niche market. If you’re looking for clients in the legal field (lawyers), you’ll need to appear in business dress suitable for a courtroom. If you walk into a lawyer’s office expecting work dressed in jeans, tennis shoes and a rock band shirt, you’re probably going to be disappointed. A lawyer isn’t going to take you seriously. That being said, if you walk onto a cutting horse trainer’s ranch in the clothing you’d wear to visit a lawyer you’ll look like a “city slicker” and not get the kind of respect you’d need to land the work.
Start With a Network
One of the biggest ways that web designers get new clients is through word of mouth referrals. This is normally done through happy clients who refer new clients to you. If you don’t have any clients then you’ve got to come out of the dark and be seen. People won’t know you’re doing web design until you tell them. And no one will refer clients to you if they don’t know what you do or if they haven’t heard of you. Since web design is a service that requires trust on the client’s behalf, word of mouth is the norm.
If you don’t have an extensive network of clients to refer you to new clients then you need to expand the number of people you actually know. You can start with family and friends. This depends on how well they understand what you do. I still have my mother’s words ringing in my ears “It’s just a little ole website.” Um yeah Mom…. Right. It’s not to say that family and friends can’t help you out but be sure they actually understand something about what you do for a living.
After family you’ll need other resources for meeting people. Some good places to network are your local Chamber of Commerce, various clubs and associations in your region. You can also join organizations like Business Network International where networking and lead generation are the primary pursuits. The Toastmasters organization is a good place to develop your speaking capabilities which can parlay into speaking at your local Chamber of Commerce. You’ll need to have a nice business card when you go to these events so that you can pass it out to everyone you meet. There are excellent business card companies online that will allow you to inexpensively create a business card. The real key is to get some visibility.
Niche Market Networking
All of the above works fairly well. If you think about marketing itself, like commercials, you’ll have an understanding of what I’m talking about. Take for instance a commercial for a toy. Where would you find that commercial? Typically on a TV channel that shows cartoons and children’s shows. The target market is children. In marketing you’re trying to put your product in front of your target market. If you’ve defined toy-makers as your target market then you need to go to the events they attend and advertise in the magazines they read. It’s about being where your target market will see you.
Online Networking
Local networking is a great place to start but you should be doing a variety of networking. Participating in online forums like Xemion’s forum is a great way to network with other web designers and developers. The more you help your fellow web designer/developer, the more authority you gain. I know most think in terms of the signature links seen at the bottom of the posts for search engine optimization purposes but we’re not talking about SEO right now.
The key is to become an authority. Blogs will help lend that air of “authority” to your overall impression. You might think that helping other web designers/developers is counterproductive. The fact is that helping others can lead to virtual teams of designers and developers who develop symbiotic relationships doing subcontracts for each other. In this day and age, no one is an expert at everything. It’s important to realize that concentrating on specialized skills will make you more money over time. As you write about your particular specialty more work comes your way.
James just posted a nice article on LinkedIn. It’s one of the places you can network with online individuals. Some of my best clients and partnerships have been gained through online connections. Facebook, MySpace and others like it can contribute to your finding online connections for more work. The key is to participate and interact in these networks.
Show Them What You Have
I don’t think I can emphasize this enough. You need a portfolio. If you don’t have one, start making one. Build websites for nonprofits and/or dummy sample sites. Make up a city and build a site for each typical business in a city. People won’t know what you can do until they see it.
Advertise
People won’t come unless they know you’re in business. Networks and referrals are generally where most clients will come from but don’t leave out advertising. Lots of businesses don’t know anyone who knows someone doing web design and development. It’s hard for them to find a web designer. A few suggestions are things like putting out fliers at local businesses, running newspaper ads and setting up a yellow pages advertisement. The one thing you will want to do with any kind of advertisement is track where your new clients are coming from and pour money into those advertisements that are producing while cutting out the ones that aren’t producing clients.
Getting Their Names
Building a list of potential and previous clients is one of the most important ways to build a business. These are people who have prequalified themselves by buying from you or supplying their contact information to you. Obviously you need to keep in touch with past clients. This keeps you fresh on their minds when someone asks them for a referral. The other side are new people for whom you haven’t yet done any work. How do you get new contacts on your list? One way is to create a survey. You can survey them about what they know about web design, how they found a web designer if they have one or even if they think they need a website. Normally you’ll have to sweeten the pot with something to entice them to fill out the survey otherwise they may not supply their contact information. A simple one page site from a template with their content pasted into the site is a good way to get the ball rolling. You could also end up with a much bigger client. The key is to get their contact information.
Once you build your list, it’s important to develop a habit of contacting them. Contact them when you have a new website in your portfolio or a new service to offer. You should also contact them about topics in web development that might interest a business. Things like SEO and website marketing. Think about what concerns your current clients might have that you’ve answered. Use that information to create interesting articles to send to your list. Once the people on the list know how much you care, the more likely they are to hire you. It’s part of building trust.
Offer Something Enticing
When I offer services or develop a proposal, I always hold something back. This gives me something that I can offer to a client as a “freebie”. We all know how good we feel when we get a “gift”. It makes us feel special. Making your clients feel special is probably one of the top things you can do for your business.
Clients like good service. If you aren’t responding to their needs daily, you’re not doing your job as a consultant. Over delivery and quick response is part of what will separate you from the competition. It’s also what clients will spread by word of mouth. It’s that fast customer service that can make a difference. You don’t want your client thinking you’re too busy for more work do you?
Job Boards
I’ve played around with the job boards in the past. I’ve actually gotten a few clients off Craigslist. I want to caution you about these places, the clients are generally cheap. They are looking for a bargain. Micah stated before that you can get away with discounts and kickbacks to clients so that you can get your name out there but at some point you do have to stop. The bidding system that works on the job boards like elance can really degrade your morale. Use these sites with caution. You’ll have to be cheaper than the other guys to start out and risk being known as the cheap guy.
I’ve gone over most of the methods I’ve ever used or learned. If you’ve got some other methods that might help other web designers please leave a comment.
Web Out
Des
Vanessa:
Hey Desirea, you wrote a really good summary of how to find clients!
I recently moved over to the states from Germany and found it pretty helpful to get in touch with the local agencies through cold calls. Most of them are very helpful and appreciate your activity. Within a week I got two potential new clients and other agents passed on my resume. If you are new in the area, that’s a great way to get in touch.
Jake:
Another good way is to either Google something like “web design inurl:craigslist.com”, or to google something like “day care” or “plumbing company”, and then you can go through and look for any that may need re-designs, or have news of new upcoming companies.
Steve:
Great article! Another venue (although you touched on it) is to get yourself a Myspace and friend all the local companies who have sites there. I have built up a fairly good base of local companies at Myspace, and soon as I’m finished with my education (probably before), I’ll be extending myself from this online social network to their community activities - I’ll already have a “foot in the door.”
What Do You Think?