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One of the most difficult tasks for a web designer is finding that initial group of clients to get your business off of the ground. Once you have a strong base of satisfied clients under your belt and you’ve built up a nice portfolio of sites, it is quite easy to keep a steady stream of income going on the referrals alone. Word-of-mouth will get you more leads than you can manage at times but how do we get that first batch of clients?

Too many web designers make the same mistake (I did too). You see a new business sprout up and you search Google to see if the business has a site already. They don’t! There’s a potential client that desperately needs your services, right? Not exactly.

Who Should You Market To?

In the example above, it seems like common sense to seek out the new business that doesn’t yet have a website but there are a number of reasons why that business is unlikely to hire you:

1. The owners of the business are knee-deep in bills for their equipment, labor, lease on the building, inventory, insurance and so on. Even if you were going to design a fully functional site for $100 (which I don’t suspect you would), that $100 can seem like a huge expense to the new business owner.
2. New business owners may want to wait to see if they can stay in business before investing even more money.
3. First-time business owners haven’t had a site before so they probably can’t see the value in creating one.
4. Every other company in town is calling, writing, faxing and visiting the new store to sell them something. You’ll likely just be more noise in their view.

Just because a company doesn’t have a website doesn’t mean that they are in the market for one. After all, new home builders don’t market to the homeless, do they?

Dig Where There Is Gold. Target Businesses That Have Sites!

I have always found that the easiest clients to earn are those that already have a site. They already know the value of having a site and if you can convince them that an update will make their site even more functional while bringing in more business, you will have a new client on your hands. Don’t market to someone that just paid for a site though. Seek out businesses with sites that haven’t changed in a long time. You can easily check out their history by using The Internet Archive.

You’ve Found A Good Target For Your Efforts… Always Give Before You Receive!

I like to start the process of earning a client by sending a custom letter. Many companies will fire off a template letter or a flyer; those are instantly thrown away 9 out of 10 times. Be different here. Send them a custom letter with a first sentence that is sure to catch their attention. I once earned a restaurant client here by starting my letter with the sentence, “I absolutley love your restaurant–especially the key lime crème brulee!” I’ve shown them that I am a customer that knows about their business already and enjoyed their service. The little touches go a long, long way.

The trick to writing a successful letter though is to always give before you receive! I will take a look at their code and give them a bulleted list of items that could use improving in phrases that they will understand. If I’m looking at a restaurant’s website that has a number of common errors, I will write something along the lines of:

• Your restaurant specializes in Italian food but those two words do not show up anywhere on the first page. We can fix that and you’ll see your results fly up the Google rankings!
• I’ve noticed that a lot of your business comes from carry-out orders. Visitors have to click through a couple of pages to find your phone number. Let’s make it stand out on every page with the heading, “Order Now.”
• The menu on the site is in a PDF format. That’s great for printing and downloading but let’s make the menu an actual web page so people can easily view it within the site.

These tips don’t sound impressive and don’t use technical terms like “search engine optimization,” “header tags,” or “Acrobat Reader” and for good reason. That’s our language. Your future clients probably don’t speak that language so show them that you’re down-to-Earth and easy to talk to! Once you start talking to the owner of the business, you might find that they do speak your language. At that point, feel free to use your usual vocabulary.

Follow-Up On Your Letter Any Way You Can

You’ll hear statistics in marketing textbooks about how it takes nine contacts with a client on average before they use your service. I don’t know if that’s true or not but there are things you can do to increase the chances of earning that business early. You can try to send a second letter shortly after you’ve sent your first with information on a new competitor that just launched a site or perhaps a printout of a site you’ve just completed to show off your work. What I think works better though is a face-to-face meeting.

Prepare yourself with a new set of tools to talk about. You’ve explained already in your letter that you can help that person get more business so be armed with some additional selling points. Talk to them about how you can help them set up an advertising campaign or how you can redesign their business cards at no additional fee to include the website address. Come up with an outstanding new feature for their site that you haven’t told them about already. One way or another, you have to show them that you’ve continued to think about their business.

You’re likely not going to be able to write a letter and then walk in their store a week later and leave with a signed contract. It may take more letters or phone calls but the important thing is to not give up.

You have to walk a fine line to stay in the potential client’s radar without becoming pushy. Remember that face-to-face contact is “pushier” than letters, postcards or emails so try taking those routes. As long as you always have something new to say, you’ll add value in the eyes of the business owner.

Once You Have That Client, Get The Contract Signed Immediately!

It took me a while to learn this but the second I have a potential client agree to use my services, I get the contract printed and I drive over with a pen in hand. Tell your new client that you’re really excited about the project and want to get started right away. That way you don’t seem pushy. Instead, you seem enthusiastic and actually reassure the client that he or she picked the right person for the job!

The Site Is Done And It Is In Your Portfolio. Are You Done?

Just because their site has launched and you’ve added it to your portfolio doesn’t mean that contact with the client has ceased. The best thing you can do is give them a call once every month or two and ask them if there is anything else you can do for them. Start the call with a direct question like, “Hi, Dave. I was just thinking about your business and decided to call to see if you’ve made any changes to the menu that we need to update on the site.” Most of the time, your services aren’t needed at that point but you’ve accomplished two important things:

1. You’ve demonstrated excellent customer service by showing the client that you’re still thinking about them.
2. You’ve opened the door to asking for referrals.

That client on the other end of the telephone might not need your services but he or she may know another business owner that does! By no means should you ever feel bad asking for a referral. It is an extremely easy question. “Well, Dave. If you ever need anything do not hesitate to give me a call. By the way, do you know of any other businesses out there that need a website or something done to the one they already have? I’m always looking for more business.”

Plant that seed in the client’s head. Now whenever they hear of someone opening a business or a company in need of a site redesign, you’re solidified as their first referral.

How Do You Do It? Where Are Your Clients Coming From?

I hope I’ve given you some ideas as to how I get my clients but I’d love to hear from you as well. Any tricks up your sleeve that work? Who’s your target market? Drop me a comment below!

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