[Jason Dexter]

I see these sort of threads all the time; be it on here or on other forums and I often read them think I know all the answers.

BUT...

90% of my clients run seasonal businesses and often the work is fantastic during the summer months, when they feel they can afford to contract me in to do the work. Then the end of August comes and things start to take a downturn. Thats fine, I understand that they have to tighten their belts and the work is slow and steady over the winter to create promotional material and such like for the coming season.

Anyway, this winter is looking a little bleaker than normal and because I've never really had to go out and get the work as I've had plenty over the last few years to keep me going, I haven't really looked outside of what I consider the norm with these seasonal companies. It was a nice status quo.

But I digress. As I mentioned, this winter is looking bleak and I was wondering what people's marketing strategies are; how they gain work, their ROI's on different methods such as cold-calling (ergh), leaflet bombing, flyers, personal letters, refferals, portfolio websites and basically how they go about surviving slow work. Do you guys have many fingers in many pies, to coin a terrible phrase.

If anything, it'll be interesting to see what people do to ride out the rough

[oakleaves]

I know this might not answer your question entirely but maybe you could look at some sideline projects?

Being a web designer with knowledge of SEO puts you in a good position. You should utilise your skills for yourself once in a while..

In regards to cold-calling, there are telemarketing companies that do 'pay on results' services for you. You could buy the data (I will PM you the company I know if you wanted) then either call these yourself or give this data to one of the telemarketing companies. When you buy the data you can specify who you want to target and they will also give you advice.

The data you buy will be cleansed and you will avoid the legal pitfalls of calling businesses who have specified not to call (You can get fined a few thousand pounds)

You could aim for small businesses who might be looking to upgrade their basic website for a CMS website for example.

This post has been edited by oakleaves: 25 September 2011 - 10:10 PM

[Jason Dexter]

I'm kind of half-heartedly looking into some sort of on-line project. Either selling stuff or something which involves ad sense but I just need to come up with a rock-solid idea.

Is telemarketing a worth-while prospect and decent ROI? Not that I'm being a tight-arse, I just want to make sure I focus on a worth while strategy

[smoothonline]

My methods:

Word of mouth
Networking meetings
Promotional postcard design which I had deliver to businesses
Website advertising such as gumtree
Email marketing existing clients to see if they need any graphic design

[pandadoodle]

Hire sales staff?

I don't cold call as such I drop email, leaflets then ring. Be interested in what people have to say also.

Most of my work comes from my niche area and mainly referrals from that niche!

[smoothonline]

Something people forget is people often put leaflets in the bin but if you go about it the right way you can create a memory in a potential clients mind. I've had a higher success with this than a random leaflet e.g.

send letter telling client about Apcore with branding prominent on letter head> wait 3-6 weeks > send leaflet.

I've had people contact me and go yes you wrote to me then I got the leaflet and remembered I had seen your business before....

You have to entice the buyer in.

You don't need sales staff unless you're really turning over the big money.

[pandadoodle]

smoothonline, on 26 September 2011 - 06:22 PM, said:

Something people forget is people often put leaflets in the bin but if you go about it the right way you can create a memory in a potential clients mind. I've had a higher success with this than a random leaflet e.g.

send letter telling client about Apcore with branding prominent on letter head> wait 3-6 weeks > send leaflet.

I've had people contact me and go yes you wrote to me then I got the leaflet and remembered I had seen your business before....

You have to entice the buyer in.

You don't need sales staff unless you're really turning over the big money.

I got sales staff bringing in plenty of work for me and as a result am planning on expanding 2012... nothing gets a memory going than a 7ft blue and white panda cold calling

[smoothonline]

I've worked in sales and cold calling.
I really don't think this method is a good idea for a person working on their own because they are going to lose any first year profit on paying other people.

Why not pick up the phone and cold call yourself? Sounds a bit like trying to run before you can walk.

And also never underestimating the power of the printed word and not trying a mail campaign and leaflet campaign. Remember, when a client gets a cold call they will probably mostly think your company is a bunch of idiots, if a client gets a letter they will probably put it in a bin, you need to earn repuation work with some local big boys and earn the status.

This post has been edited by smoothonline: 26 September 2011 - 06:29 PM

[pandadoodle]

smoothonline, on 26 September 2011 - 06:28 PM, said:

I've worked in sales and cold calling.
I really don't think this method is a good idea for a person working on their own because they are going to lose any first year profit on paying other people.

Why not pick up the phone and cold call yourself? Sounds a bit like trying to run before you can walk.

And also never underestimating the power of the printed word and not trying a mail campaign and leaflet campaign. Remember, when a client gets a cold call they will probably mostly think your company is a bunch of idiots, if a client gets a letter they will probably put it in a bin, you need to earn repuation work with some local big boys and earn the status.

I been doing this for 11 years, no walking is needed. Also from a sales background Putting a self employed sales agent on a 4 weeks trial on commission only is fine if your starting out you get to weed out all the crap and pay for set results its simple really.

I've assumed Jason been going longer than 1-2 years also...

[smoothonline]

you know what they say about assuming

This post has been edited by smoothonline: 26 September 2011 - 06:52 PM

[oakleaves]

smoothonline, on 26 September 2011 - 06:51 PM, said:

you know what they say about assuming

Yes.. It 'spoils the broth'


no, wait a minute


is worth two in the bush?

errr...

is the best medicine?


is just a bowl of cherries??

I give up..

[smoothonline]

a*s-out-of-you-and-me

[oakleaves]

smoothonline, on 26 September 2011 - 07:21 PM, said:

a*s-out-of-you-and-me

ha ha your the a*s you assumed I didn't know the answer

(just kiddin )

[smoothonline]

bothered

[Jason Dexter]

Sorry, neglected checking this post for a while. I've got a few years experience, the last 2/3 being the ones that have really pushed me forward but unfortunately I've unwittingly gone down the route of doing a lot of work for seasonal companies and this seems to have bit me in the rear. I'm not stressing out about it, but I just wanted a few ideas.

Something about cold calling that I want to avoid, but the sales team is an interesting idea. Or maybe a promotion? Send out a few letters to businesses saying that I'm running a promotion? We have something in Mansfield which is the "I Love Mansfield" campaign, basically trying to get the area more funding. I might jump on that bandwagon. Although my office is just outside of the catchment area, I might just say as part of the campaign, I'm running an offer? I understand that webdesign is different to any other product where they think 'oooh, 50% off? I'll have two of them' but I just need to get my name out there more and I think this might do it

[pandadoodle]

The problem with a promotion is you need to be cleaver how you do it. As soon as you start doing web site £1000 now limited time 50% off £500. It will devalue you and your skill in no time at all and people will start to assume if you can knock 50% off a grand you can take at least another 25% off that...

[brightonmike]

I've only been working in web design for 18 months or so and to be honest despite having a full time web development job I don't seem to struggle to find freelance work. It just seems to be word of mouth to me. Be a social whore.

And the leaflet idea is spot on - leaflets can work great if you hand them out properly.

This post has been edited by brightonmike: 27 September 2011 - 06:49 AM

[pandadoodle]

Why not start to target some online stores, sell them on a fresh redesign with a bit of "its more important than ever during these hard times to promote your online business and get the Christmas sales coming in early, a important and targeted changes could improve this years takings*" or something like that anyway.

Few years ago when there where 4 of us we used to target adult stores mid november ready for a revamp of sales for feb etc. Offer fixed rate prices on a redesign say 699 or pay monthly 59.99?

Just out of interest when people say leaflets work if handed out correctly, what do you mean? And what is your return rate? Like any advertising I find targeting the customer 3 times with the 3rd time being the call works for me, leaflets though I get around 5% return rate if I don't follow up




* its just a thought not meant to be interpreted as a sales pitch!

[oakleaves]

To be honest I've never tried the telemarketing route myself. One of my acquaintances runs a telemarketing company so I know a little bit about how it works and how they get the data etc.

I did hear that one particular web design company in Darlington made a lot of money from selling basic websites to new companies but the segment has become so crowded that new companies are getting sick of people ringing them asking them if they need a website (apparently). At the same time, this particular web design company has got a bad reputation when you google them for some reason?

The other thing with telemarketing is that business seems to die off between now and Christmas (which is the time you are looking at doing something with!). Something to do with the companies not being bothered with anything like that until the new year.

Best business to have are clients that come to you via referrals or repeat business (in an ideal world!). Approaching people puts you at a slight disadvantage straight away.

Let us know how you get on and what avenue you choose. Will be interesting to hear.

This post has been edited by oakleaves: 27 September 2011 - 07:47 AM

[pandadoodle]

See if any universities or local authorities in your area have any projects or research going on, funds have now been allocated and most of them know what they need to spend before the tax year is up so there is a push for some of the larger projects to finally get started. The hardest bit is most will want a 70+ page tender...

A friend of mine done very well doing just that a few years ago.

I agree with the above that targeting new start up is a pain, few customers who I got when they first started and registered a ltd company got 100s of leaflets through the door. On the other hand see if you can do a talk one night a business link (or similar) event on SEO?

Hand out some cards or leave some cards at any government funded business courses. Here the welsh assembly funds a course on creating a business plan and actively pushes networking.

Ask your bank manager what networking events he / she attends also, if they don't ask of some local events you can attend if they don't know of any change bank now!!

This post has been edited by pandadoodle: 27 September 2011 - 07:56 AM

[Jason Dexter]

Some excellent stuff there panda, definitely a lot to consider and the routes to take. I've set aside today to sit down think properly about this stuff and work out a strategy which should hopefully work. I'll keep everyone up to date with what i decide to do. Thanks again!

[pandadoodle]

If you do a talk just remember to get some feedback forms out where you can get a contact, url, email and phone also do a business card draw. Get everyone to put a business card in a bowl, pull one out and give them 2 hours free consultation. Of course you could rent and market a talk your self before hand, market it, get your clients involved and the bank to refer it to banking customers charge 50-250 for a few hours with nibbles on for anything over 2 hours or £100. Coffee, Tea & Water is a must most of the hotels will do all that for you.

Again if your bank is unable to promote it for you and network the event for you switch bank, plenty of other people want your money. 3 part talk once a month now till xmas 30 people @ £50 or £75 on the day £1500 isnt bad for a few hours work. Although youd be looking at a grand after hotel fees.

If you do that and want someone to look over your topic let me know happy to help

[MikeChipshop]

Jason Dexter, on 26 September 2011 - 10:15 PM, said:

Something about cold calling that I want to avoid,

There's cold calling that we all hate and there's the type of cold calling where you target customers that really need you and what you're offering. If you rattle of 5000 leaflets and dump them on everyone you see, then you've wasted 4998 leaflets and destroyed your reputation. If you print 500 leaflets and target them at the right businesses and individuals using in-depth research then you've hardly wasted any money, time or effort.

Panda posted up some good stuff that i'm going to look into as well but let us know how you get on mate.

[CityCM]

MikeChipshop, on 27 September 2011 - 09:02 AM, said:

There's cold calling that we all hate and there's the type of cold calling where you target customers that really need you and what you're offering. If you rattle of 5000 leaflets and dump them on everyone you see, then you've wasted 4998 leaflets and destroyed your reputation. If you print 500 leaflets and target them at the right businesses and individuals using in-depth research then you've hardly wasted any money, time or effort.

Panda posted up some good stuff that i'm going to look into as well but let us know how you get on mate.

Any suggestions on the best ways to properly research for leaflet drops? It's something we've been thinking of and definately like the idea posted by smoothonline about sending a letter out first, but any further advice would be handy

[pandadoodle]

I think it comes down to picking a target market and check out who your sending to first. No point offering to build a website if they are already online if you ask me...

[ElanMan]

oakleaves, on 27 September 2011 - 07:46 AM, said:

I did hear that one particular web design company in Darlington made a lot of money from selling basic websites to new companies but the segment has become so crowded that new companies are getting sick of people ringing them asking them if they need a website (apparently). At the same time, this particular web design company has got a bad reputation when you google them for some reason?

Webworks by any chance?

<offtopic>
Just noticed your office is about 500 yards away from where I work in aycliffe
</offtopic>

[Sogo7]

Much as I hate cold calling you do get better results when you target a more specific demographic of 'webmaster' or website owner eg: those who used a site builder a couple of years back and haven't touched the site since. A cross browser compatability report specific to them also goes down a treat as additional reading material with pictures.

Something else to consider... nearly all WYSIWYG site builders squirrel in a hidden backlink to the software house responsible for making them or use unique source code annotations so then it's pretty simple for Google's advanced search to produce a list of sites for one to review and approach if desired.

Try this rubric in a Google Search : link:http://www.mrsite.co.uk/

[oakleaves]

ElanMan, on 27 September 2011 - 05:18 PM, said:

Webworks by any chance?

I couldn't possibly say!

ElanMan, on 27 September 2011 - 05:18 PM, said:

<offtopic>
Just noticed your office is about 500 yards away from where I work in aycliffe
</offtopic>

Wow small world! You won't catch me there much tho - just use it to pick up mail and see the odd client. I mainly work from home.