- Where do I find more web design jobs, projects and clients?
- How do I get leads for my webdesign agency?
- How can I promote my web design business?
- Where can I find design clients?
- How do I get my first web design clients?
- How can I get web design clients fast?
Well, every freelance web designer or a design agency asks themselves these questions at some point. Whether you are a freelancer who has just started a career in web design, or you are a professional with several years of experience in the industry, you need financial stability and the number one factor that ensures financial stability is an increased inflow of leads and returning customers.
To find long term and regular clients for your webdesign business, you need constant marketing efforts. Ideally you should have at least one full time resource whose job is to generate more leads, nurture them and turn them into loyal customers.
Alternatively, you might want to get a few b2b lead generation companies or a niche specific digital marketing agency to help you out, however, the in-house resource or a virtual assistant is a far better and more result oriented approach.
If you have a good budget, you can hire a professional B2B marketer, however, if your budget is limited, hiring a virtual assistant and guiding him through lead generation procedures can work really very well. This article will explain three key areas to focus on to find and get new clients for your web design business either on your own or with the help of a virtual assistant.
1- Freelancing Websites
Upwork is one of the popular market platforms formerly known as Odesk. But unlike other websites of the same nature, you are only allowed to bid on client’s projects but can’t post your own services.
Freelancer is somewhat similar to Upwork but you can choose between two different job types: contests and projects. Contests allow web designers to submit their work and interested clients will pay for the work they like and projects allow web designers to bid on a certain job posted by the client.
Fiverr is another well-known platform to get clients by posting your gigs and bidding on projects posted by clients.
If you are doing it yourself, better is to stick to one platform at a time, because it requires a lot of client communication even before getting a project or job, and it’s technically not feasible for one person to do all the client communication on multiple portals and work on design projects at the same time.
However, if you have a marketer or a virtual assistant onboard, you can have a presence on all three websites and work extensively on lead generation.
2- Business Website
Building your website and elaborating your field of work so that when a client’s searches for you they come to know about each and everything.
Other than your business website, you must have a presence on portfolio websites for designers which will surely give you more exposure.
One of the good ways to have an impressive portfolio is to make a free website of a reputed football or basketball club or a local charity and put “designed by you” on their website.
2- Email / Cold Pitching
The third essential way is to directly approach your clients and email and in person pitching are the perfect options for this. Growing your professional network over LinkedIn is a great way to get connected with potential clients and pitch them your service right there using LinkedIn messaging.
Email marketing works wonder, but building a great mailing list is the key. You must not buy an existing mailing list; rather get your virtual assistant to harvest fresh email addresses of potential clients and use email marketing automation to get your message delivered to hundreds of potential clients with a single mailer.
The Bottom Line:
There can be tons of other ways including Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, etc. to build a web design brand and gather a bigger audience. However, all these methods require a lot of effort, substantial investment and a significant waiting time to show results.
While big agencies and established web designers with significant marketing budgets can do all these, the new designers and small companies can make the most out of the above three strategies.