Questions about promoting Web Design

A

Alex-SydrialWDS

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Feb 18, 2013
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Hi everyone. I've been lurking here for a while before making an account here. I'll try to keep this short as possible.

Basically me and my gf(who is an awesome web designer) have decided to make our own business, and decided to really focus on quality of service.

I've been doing some classifieds advertising(free ftw) and got a few customers(still not nearly enough given the time), but it's tough to get high serp ranking in web design with so much competition around.

I've starting doing some PPC since yesterday, got a few clicks but not any results.


Now my question is, whats a good way to go about advertising web design, in a overcrowded market.

I believe we can produce high quality designs, we just need to market properly, and alot of the stuff on the forum is for advertising content driven websites.

Thanks for any feedback, it's most welcome.
 


I would guess most people dont google for a good designer, as you're unlikely to find the style you want that way?

Put yourself out there, get on all the design forums, spread your example work, keep a fresh portfolio showing diversity, get your existing clients to promote you, word of mouth is good in your industry I would guess.

When I've looked in the past, I've looked on deviant art or remember a certain page with a design I liked on it. There are plenty of design blogs that offer "free" sample stuff, a good way to get people interested. I was looking for icons btw.
 
AdamC said:
I would guess most people dont google for a good designer, as you're unlikely to find the style you want that way?

Put yourself out there, get on all the design forums, spread your example work, keep a fresh portfolio showing diversity, get your existing clients to promote you, word of mouth is good in your industry I would guess.

When I've looked in the past, I've looked on deviant art or remember a certain page with a design I liked on it. There are plenty of design blogs that offer "free" sample stuff, a good way to get people interested. I was looking for icons btw.
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That's not bad advice.. deviant art makes alot of sense since we are going for more creative kind of web design.

I will definitely look into it. Thanks.
 
Finding quality web designers is always difficult for everyone. Most designers are lazy and full of shit. That being said, go where business owners go and pass out business cards and converse. Make sure you have an awesome looking portfolio. And ALWAYS set your pricing fixed. Invoice hourly and conduct yourself professionally.

With that being said going where the type of business owners go that you want means offline and online. Since the competition is fierce and super saturated, you have to think outside the box. Most of these dickhead web designers are scared of in-person interaction, so use that to your advantage. Create a small press kit, business cards in side a FedEx envelope, trust me everyone opens Fedex envelopes. Put bullet points on your skills and examples of your work in your press kit. Take 50 of those everyday and pass them out to local businesses. Keep doing that, and after about 10, you should have conversations already from people that do not have a web site or reliable web designers.

Go to chamber of commerce meetings with your FedEx kits, pass them out. (you can get them customized with your company's logo, instead of Fedex, for more creativity).

Forums, participate in industry forums. Example, an insurance or mortgage forum (mortgage grapevine). Don't be stupid and simply advertise your business, but actually create rapport abd converse there. Put in your signature you do web design.

Don't go to a web design forum, to advertise for web design, it full of web designers. Go to business forums. Tradeshows are huge too. Go to them. Industry specific conferences, people are always looking for a web designer that they can meet one on one. If you go the seo/ppc route you are going to be competiting on pricing, and trust me, you'll lose.

Word of advice, avoid the penny puncher discount clowns like the plague. They will ask for a discount, call you every 5 minutes, and are going to be the biggest headaches of your life. The people paying the lowest amount in fees are always the biggest headaches, always.
 
CCarter said:
Finding quality web designers is always difficult for everyone. Most designers are lazy and full of shit. That being said, go where business owners go and pass out business cards and converse. Make sure you have an awesome looking portfolio. And ALWAYS set your pricing fixed. Invoice hourly and conduct yourself professionally.

With that being said going where the type of business owners go that you want means offline and online. Since the competition is fierce and super saturated, you have to think outside the box. Most of these dickhead web designers are scared of in-person interaction, so use that to your advantage. Create a small press kit, business cards in side a FedEx envelope, trust me everyone opens Fedex envelopes. Put bullet points on your skills and examples of your work in your press kit. Take 50 of those everyday and pass them out to local businesses. Keep doing that, and after about 10, you should have conversations already from people that do not have a web site or reliable web designers.

Go to chamber of commerce meetings with your FedEx kits, pass them out. (you can get them customized with your company's logo, instead of Fedex, for more creativity).

Forums, participate in industry forums. Example, an insurance or mortgage forum (mortgage grapevine). Don't be stupid and simply advertise your business, but actually create rapport abd converse there. Put in your signature you do web design.

Don't go to a web design forum, to advertise for web design, it full of web designers. Go to business forums. Tradeshows are huge too. Go to them. Industry specific conferences, people are always looking for a web designer that they can meet one on one. If you go the seo/ppc route you are going to be competiting on pricing, and trust me, you'll lose.

Word of advice, avoid the penny puncher discount clowns like the plague. They will ask for a discount, call you every 5 minutes, and are going to be the biggest headaches of your life. The people paying the lowest amount in fees are always the biggest headaches, always.
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Thanks, that's some good stuff. For the part of going to business meetings here in person, I don't trust any of the businessmen in my country. Why ?

Because the CEO of the company that produces one of the most watched shows in my country, asked us to do a design, really liked it and when we actually completed his website he decided it was too much money for him (600euro lol, the design was awesome btw) and wasted our time after meeting him a few times and working for over a week. Schmuck.

And I actually do participate in one business forum, I guess I should go for more. But I'm thinking there has to be a better way.
 
Offline marketing! Have you checked out your local "yellow pages"? I'm not referring to the off-brand people who go business to business selling junk ads. I'm talking the legit stuff. Where I'm at it is the ATT Yellow Pages.

Look in there for a web design section. Last time I checked for the capital of my state ( Indianapolis, IN population of 829,718 people ) there were only like a handful of companies advertising for web design. Naturally looking at companies that sell web design; I went straight to their website. What did they all have in common? HORRIBLE design. They all look like they were built 10 years ago. You can do better than that! I just want to ask them, "Bro, do you even web design?"

Don't be afraid to haggle with yellow page companies either. They WILL come down on price.
 
vinnypolston said:
Offline marketing! Have you checked out your local "yellow pages"? I'm not referring to the off-brand people who go business to business selling junk ads. I'm talking the legit stuff. Where I'm at it is the ATT Yellow Pages.

Look in there for a web design section. Last time I checked for the capital of my state ( Indianapolis, IN population of 829,718 people ) there were only like a handful of companies advertising for web design. Naturally looking at companies that sell web design; I went straight to their website. What did they all have in common? HORRIBLE design. They all look like they were built 10 years ago. You can do better than that! I just want to ask them, "Bro, do you even web design?"

Don't be afraid to haggle with yellow page companies either. They WILL come down on price.
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I like the idea, but as I mentioned before I really don't like the business community here. I have a feeling web design is way unappreciated.
 
Alex-SydrialWDS said:
I like the idea, but as I mentioned before I really don't like the business community here. I have a feeling web design is way unappreciated.
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It's unappreciated because you have 16 year old kids in their parent's basement promising to do somebody's website for 50 bucks. No to mention you're competing with designers from India and the Philippines. This happens just about anywhere you go. If I were you I'd take Ccarter's advice and hit your local chamber of commerce. If that's the vibe you're getting from them change their feelings. You need to start differentiating yourself. Go shake some hands and make up some client horror stories about how the basement kid and foreign designers fucked them before coming to you etc...
 
What's really annoying is that every idiot makes a web design company these days, and its so flooded with useless web designers that it makes it hard for good ones to actually get some work done. What really baffles me is how they even get business.
 
AllBizNiz said:
Go shake some hands and make up some client horror stories about how the basement kid and foreign designers fucked them before coming to you etc...
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That works.

And a lot of the design work I used to get when I ran my web design company would come from people who had horror stories. Those are the ones you want to find. The ones who understand you get what you pay for.

If you want to just get some quick work that will pay (but not quite as much as you should be paid) you can try some job boards like People Per Hour (good for UK peeps) or Elance. Takes a while to build yourself up but once you do and have a history there you can start to get some fairly good regular clients that pay well enough.

I got out of the business in the end though as the profits were getting lower and lower and people really do expect the earth for peanuts these days.

Aside from the pain of squeezing cash out of them for a site you would have to get them to understand that they had to pay dollar for SEO, that was a real task in itself. I stopped offering that as a service way back as they wanted first page results for £150. Feckin muppets.

But if your serious the Networking route, hand shaking and face to face will be the only real way to go for real money. A buddy of mine started out in the same biz at the same time as I did and was prepared to press the flesh which I was not and he got a real bricks and mortar business out of it where as I ended up scrapping around on the net for work and going up against a vast swathe of the third world.
 
Check your local market meet some growing business stars, and also go for yellow pages and find some clients for you. Give them apart of free trial and make your space in the overcrowded world of web designing.
 
In an overcrowded market its all about being the difference. Not going out and meeting your potential client base because you don't "trust" the local business mindset is just plain stupid. If you started a business and want it to be successful, then go make it happen. Everyone will under appreciate you until you prove your worth. Unless you spend a good chunk of time and money ranking for small and specific geographic areas you're not going to rank. I'd start by submitting your sites and projects to design review sites though. Start to do what you can to develop a digital footprint.
Make such an impact that they'd be stupid not to go with your service. Then do a kickass job. After a few, your business will pick up and you'll be doin just fine.
 
If your local business people are in business to turn a profit and you can show them how your service will help them achieve this then they'd be stupid and on their way out of business if they refuse your offer.

Can your service help them make money? How?
 
First off..Make sure your website has clear cut CTAs (Request a Quote buttons, etc.) That lead to a strong quote request page that also shows testimonials, etc.

1. Design two to three craigslist ads (two images, one plain text with anchors) (Request a quote buttons) and post from different accounts in different categories. Refresh every three days. Make sure your ad shows a local phone number (They won't call .. but they will see your area code shows your local)

2. Link all craigslist ads/anchors to request a quote page on your Business/design website.

3. Craigslist Title Should be "WEBSITE DESIGN | WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT | BUSINESS DESIGN" or something similar. Post in Computer services, Creative Services, Business Ads

4. Respond to all quote requests from website with a reply title like: "Web Design Quote for #####"
#### would be the first name of the person who requested a quote. Reply rate is much higher when subject is like this. Negotiate from there over email or phone.

5. Profit.

I made $xxx,xxx from this model and a few other routines a couple years back before getting into automation and other sources of income. Craigslist is by far the best route you can go for finding local clients and $$$.

Once you have a portfolio.. everything starts to fall in place. Make sure you knock every job out of the park, because each customer could bring you 5 more customers each via word of mouth.

When you're ready.. you can then scale this to surrounding cities, states, domestically.

Services are hell. It's a grind. When you're ready to make real money..

I know you said you're in design.. but local business can be a goldmine at a monthly rate. Find a solid outsource or service for local citations or Google Local optimization (Andrew in BST).

Charge local business $400-$1000/month for Local Organic SEO. This is not much for local business if what you're offering works and generates exposure. They will beg to pay you more to increase as time goes along too.

Get 20-30 businesses (not hard) and you all of a sudden have 20k + coming in every month. Expand. Buy A Ferrari.
 
Alex-SydrialWDS said:
Now my question is, whats a good way to go about advertising web design, in a overcrowded market.
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That's the million dollar question OP. You picked a pretty shitty business to start. I would focus on PPC to get my early clients then try to have them spread the word ( Incentivize them)

Here's some questions to ask yourself:

How much are your websites going to cost?
What level of work will you provide? (coding, applications for website,etc)
Whats your angle? ( Small business, medium sized business, etc)

If you plan on using craigslist and other similar advertising methods you're going to be competing with people willing to work for $300-500 dollars.
 
Right now I am looking for web designers so where do I go? elance.com Maybe you should open an account there and start bidding on work to get a name for yourself. It wont be great money but it is a start.
 
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