[mdsllc]

Hi! I don't know if this post belongs in this section, but after browsing around, this seemed like the best spot for it.

For starters, I am new to this forum (about 2 weeks here), I read it almost everyday and this is my second post. I am hoping to get some advice from other established web design companies/freelancers.

I have been in school for web design for many years and I've been designing for the past 8 years, for myself, family, friends and friends of friends. My intentions have always been to build up my own web design company and I have registered my company about 1 month ago. Over the course of the month, I've got two clients (small projects) through friends of friends. After these two projects, I've been at a stand-still as far as getting new clients.

What would anyone who's been through this before suggest I try to get more clients?

What I have done so far:
-Flyers
-Business cards to my contacts and acquaintances
-Yellow pages
-Local classifieds

I would love to send out personalized letters to local businesses who don't have (but could use) a website and businesses that could use a refresher on their current design. However, my partner and I are not that good at writing said letters. I have tried to research online for sample letters, but unfortunately I have't had much luck. Does anyone know where I could find a good example of what a letter like this should look/sound like?

I do not want to get into bidding wars on freelance websites, as I have taken the time to look some over and it seems that there are too many firms in India that are bidding pennies.

[Ste Hughes]

Hire a copywriter for the letter. They are not OTT

When you say you did flyers what did you do?

Go get some business cards and walk into the local businesses and introduce yourself.

Just something simple like:

"Hi I'm (your name), I've just started a local web design company and would like to just say hello. This is my card and if I can help you in the future with any web projects or know of someone that needs a web designer I would be greatful if you can call me or pass my card on"

Be confident and happy!

Another option is getting your cold calling on. Just phone round 100 businesses. If you do it well you can expect a 5% enquiry rate. Rather than sell on the phone land a meeting and sell in the meeting.

Close the meetings and you have a client!

Another good option is to run an refferal program. You simple offer a 10% discount if the company is referred by another AND the person that reffered them gets 10% or so.

It really does work.

[mdsllc]

Ste Hughes, on 04 September 2011 - 12:28 AM, said:

Hire a copywriter for the letter. They are not OTT

When you say you did flyers what did you do?

Go get some business cards and walk into the local businesses and introduce yourself.

Just something simple like:

"Hi I'm (your name), I've just started a local web design company and would like to just say hello. This is my card and if I can help you in the future with any web projects or know of someone that needs a web designer I would be greatful if you can call me or pass my card on"

Be confident and happy!

Another option is getting your cold calling on. Just phone round 100 businesses. If you do it well you can expect a 5% enquiry rate. Rather than sell on the phone land a meeting and sell in the meeting.

Close the meetings and you have a client!

Another good option is to run an refferal program. You simple offer a 10% discount if the company is referred by another AND the person that reffered them gets 10% or so.

It really does work.

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely give some of those a try! What I did with my flyers was just pin them up on advertisement boards. I know it's not the best idea, but it was just something while we figure out what else we could try.

As for the calling, I've thought about that before, but it didn't sound like something a professional would do. I personally cannot stand telemarketers and I just did not want to be one of those people, but I guess I'll have to do what I have to do to get my business going, eh?

[Ste Hughes]

I hear what your saying on the cold calling but it gets results - they don't have buildings with 100's of people calling others if it didn't get results.

[Garyw24]

As you say, you want to send out a "personalised" letter, keep it simple, to the point and friendly. Don't make it too formal or it'll just go in the bin. Always try to find out who makes the decision so you can address that person specifically, rather than another "Dear Sir" letter.

I think you have to point out the benefits of a web site, but be specific to their type of business. For example if they sell products or services, you can outline the benefits of e-commerce and accepting payments online, as well as creating a whole new marketplace.

Use your imagination and be creative, and most of all try to be different. Don't just use any old template of the net, I bet there are probably hundreds of other business using the same one.

Perhaps target a specific market, add something unique to your selling, perhaps offer a free on site consultation etc etc. Sell yourself but be honest and be yourself.

[neilp]

I agree about the cold calling being 'unprofessional'! I have spoken to a few business owners who get more than two cold calls a week from web design companies and it bugs the hell out of them. You will only give yourself a bad name - specially if it's fairly local to you?

I haven't started promoting myself as a business as yet - now working on it. But as a freelancer, I contacted several web design agencies offering my services and hopefully landing some of their overspill work. I have now been given two projects to do remotely and at a decent price. I have also been assured that if I do a good job they will supply me with ongoing work.

So, that's something to think about. It's also a bloody good way of meeting people that you wouldn't normally meet - networking I suppose.

This post has been edited by neilp: 04 September 2011 - 06:32 PM

[bocaj]

Canvassing for work/contracts is just a numbers games.

We used to work on the principle that we'd knock on 150 doors, 15 people would keep the door open long enough to hear you you, 10 would let you into their house to talk, and you'd sign 3-5 contracts (so what's that, a conversion rate of 4-7%). If you could push yourself to do more doors in a day, you'd sign more contracts.

It gets results, but alot of people get put off by the sheer amount of rejection.

If you're going to cold call, you need to learn to sell your product though, and this means devising a solid pitch, and then pitching it to the right person - The decision maker.

You need to look at things like impulse factors, and then practicing how to overcome objections (the easiest way to do that is to say something positive, ignore the question and push a related benefit of your product - It works better than you'd think) and then most importantly is always be closing (pretty much every line you say should end with a close). The more work you can put into a pitch the better, and planning for as many eventualities as you can the better.

Take for example you start pitching to someone and they quickly pipe up that they have a website that's bringing £500/m. How would you respond to this?

Just some food for thought, based on personal experience. I didn't close my first sale 'til my 5th day, but once i was confident with my pitch, and attained the right attitude. It was a doddle, and i'd say i'm pretty mediocre at sales.

Quote

I agree about the cold calling being 'unprofessional'! I have spoken to a few business owners who get more than two cold calls a week from web design companies and it bugs the hell out of them. You will only give yourself a bad name - specially if it's fairly local to you?

This only happens if 'Territory' is worked improperly. It's quite common with telesales from different agencies, as they tend to only track it internally (so getting multiple calls, all from different agencies is likely).

Or some companies just don't seem to bother tracking it at all.

This post has been edited by bocaj: 04 September 2011 - 07:24 PM

[Source206]

If there is one thing i learnt with freelancing and doing business - people dont buy from companies, they buy from people they trust and that have credibility.

Flyers and business cards dont exactly establish credibility - so doing those bidding wars will get you decent clients if you offer a good rate - and believe me, they dont all go for those cheap indian companies - the perception of value declines so offer a reasonable rate, just to get feedback.

This is my experience - maybe it will help you.

[pandadoodle]

1 in 10 works for me.

Put up a copy of your flyer and business cards lets have a look at what you done? Ditch yellow pages and classifieds waste of time IMO

Do you go to any networking events? Business Breakfast meetings and so on? See if there is a local web club in your area you can join if nothing else it gets your name out there and you get to sum up the local competition

Flyers on notice boards don't get noticed! I've sent out a few 1000s either handing them out or by mail shot to local business I wanted to target, I used to do things a little different as I'm not trying to be a company I used to put quizes, q&a and all that jazz on the back of my leaflet. Or even create the "Phone doodle" you know when your on a call and you start to write on paper, let them do that with your leaflet but plaster the back in your logo etc.

Another one of my tricks was to have a website review on the back which was something like :

Do you need to hire me? Take our quick review (tell the client to write down all the things that they think are COOL about the site, and all the things they think are CRAP)

Cool or Crap

More crap than cool give me a call

So its cool eh? Give me a call if I agree ill send you a pair of sunglasses

Little fun things like that, anything they never seen before works. Calling with "Hi I'm Joe and I'm a web des......" unless your a top sales man / woman does not work today

[gay design]

Spreading leaflets and cold calling will work best in your local/regional biz area only. Expand your traffic reach on-line by doing SEO techniques like press release, Article submission, directory submission, social media marketing and more. By doing so in the long run, your website will increase traffic, web presence and reputation.

[newsvend]

You know I don't think you need to sweat over what to put in a long letter. Just state your case succinctly saying how you are a local web designer helping local business (people like to deal with local suppliers), links to sample sites (I would ask for that) and how people can contact you.

[Sogo7]

You don't say where in the world you but generally every town no matter how small has an association comprised of local small business that meets up at regular intervals. From previous experience most these will either no website or really bad ones.

So why not see if they would be interested in a little 'show and tell' at a meeting you can explain about the how a website could be good for them (or how you can make an existing one better)and answer any general questions they may have about the design process or web in general.

They get a free masterclass/ consultation and you hopefully walk away with some contacts to follow up on.

[icecube_media]

You can surely go for Social media marketing and distribute your business card to as many people as you can. You can also try offline affiliate marketing, establish relationships with people and give commissions to them for their referrals. This work well and people keep sending you the clients for the money.