Web Design
OK I must be feeling brave today as many of my readers have either done this, or currently dabble at some level. I am not going to teach you how to build a website or do anything clever in terms of online marketing. You either have those skills or can learn them; there are plenty of texts out there.
What I do hope to do is to give you some ideas about how to market a web design service and make money from it.
Understand your limitations and work around them. If you are unable to provide features such as forms, or payment gateways then make sure you know where to find the people that can. Understand approximate costs and waiting times if resources are scarce. Most features can be had as free modules from places like www.bravenet.com and can be unbadged for a fee if a more professional look is required.
Most beginners will be daunted by the prospect of building and running a site. If you can land deals with maintenance contracts then you can keep charging ad infinitum and your income will soon start to grow.
You should know about the latest developments in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), and what design styles are in vogue. You do not need to be an expert but equally you don¡¦t want your customer¡¦s 7 year old nephew to trip you up.
In terms of charging, you should know what your competition charges for similar services. I don¡¦t mean that you have to compete with the students on certain forums who will build a site for $50 or less, but that you should know what the professionals charge. A good rule of thumb is to charge 75% of what the most expensive guys charge. If you know who they are and what they charge you have the justification for your pricing structure when customers ask how you can justify that amount.
I have spoken to a few people who do this, and use networking primarily as their method for finding new customers. Apparently for non-sales people getting around to asking for the sale is the killer. The customer may say ¡§no¡¨ and then you have lost the sale and other similar worries abound. Even when pitching for re-design work I would come at it head on, and reasonably fast.
Open with a compliment, ¡§I was looking at your website, because I love your
product¡¨ or ¡§Jimmy told me your website was great, so I took a look last
night¡¨
Follow up with a suggestion or two, ¡§I think you could get more sales if you
made some changes, such as ¡K¡K¡K¡K.. ¡§ If you can quantify this then even better!
Then ask some questions such as, ¡§How long have you had the site?¡¨, ¡§Have you
planned when you would re-design?¡¨ This will give you some information around
how likely you are to get a sale
Notice at this point you haven¡¦t offered to do anything, or sell anything.
If you think now would be a good time to pitch then suggest that you could
put together a dummy site on a CD for a nominal price, if they are interested.
Price the dummy at something affordable like $25-50 and say they can have
a 2 week trial of the new look for $100 all in
If now is not the right time then put a note in your diary a month before when
you think the right time would be and make sure you follow up
You will get some questions, and objections. This is positive not negative. Someone who questions your ability, pricing, sales projections etc is interested in buying. Remember this and don¡¦t be fazed. As a fall back come back to your demo and point out that it is a very small gamble, and that you would knock the price off of the final price if they go ahead and buy.
The above approach looks simple but it is a great way to make a sale look like you are doing someone a favour. If they agree to the demo you stand a good chance of getting the sale, providing your demo is up to scratch.
Networking is just one way of getting web design work, others include: -
Online Forums
Cold Calling
Flyers
Advertising
Affiliate marketing
There are online forums specialising in all sorts of subjects, the obvious ones are anything to do with business, or entrepreneurship but you may find others as you search for opportunities. Don¡¦t push your services too hard, make it clear what you do, carry a signature block and help people out where you can. Business opportunities will come.
Cold calling is unpleasant but can work wonders. If you build a site for a plumbing firm for example; you may want to call all the plumbing firms in the phone book and ask whether they have seen the new site, and are they aware of how much extra business it is driving. Providing you can get to talk to the business owner you may pick up some work this way. You will undoubtedly get a lot of rejections, and not all of them pleasantly phrased, but at the end of the day you are just a voice on the phone and should not take this personally. If it is a big problem for you then hire a couple of students part time to help you make the calls.
Flyers can be great if used in large enough volumes. Place them in letter boxes, under car windscreens, on public notice boards. The more you get out there, the more likely you are to get a positive response. Sure you might take some criticism for wasting paper, or for increased litter but these should be once, or twice a year campaigns and should not cause a public menace. Typically expect ?-1% of your flyers to bring you a phone call or email enquiry. Targeting business districts over residential may lift this, targeting small industrial sites will undoubtedly do so.
Advertising may seem expensive when you are starting out, but what other costs do you have? At a minimum use Google¡¦s adwords and take out a small classified as in your local paper. If you are serious you should negotiate a block booking rate and put your ad in every week for 3-6 months. Consider doing a radio advert and/or using billboards. It is not as expensive as you might think.
Affiliate marketing has a negative connotation on the internet but it should not do. All this means is working with other related firms in each others interests. For example you may work with a small web hosting firm and refer clients to them for hosting, whilst they refer clients to you for web design work. Other examples might be Lawyers or accountants who are used to helping set up new companies. Maybe you could pay them a %age of your take and of course refer any of your customers to them that need their services. Strong affiliates will infer their reputation upon you, and vice versa. If you go down this route with law firms you had better do a good job!
As with every business there are numerous ways to build you brand, create a buzz, and generate sales. If you are not already doing all of the above then give them a try. If you are and/or have better ideas then why not write about them in our forum at www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=102194
If you are not creative and have no background in design then build a few test sites and elicit feedback from friends, family and online forums before you take this any further. An element of talent is definitely required.
Buy some books on sales techniques, or sign up with a local real estate, or life insurance agency. They will train you in selling techniques that will be invaluable for your web business and many will take on part time employees.
If you really can¡¦t get comfortable with the sales side and just want to do the creative bits, then try partnering with someone who is a killer salesman. Pay them what they are worth and they will bring you a tonne of business.