Today’s business owners know a great website is an important part of their marketing toolkit, and since this is your career you should have an awesome website yourself. While a great site is critical for a web designer, don’t depend on it as your only marketing tool.

Whether you are a novice designer or already have a good book of existing clients, gaining new clients is vital to the ongoing success of your business. Use these offline and online tips and tricks to find clients in unusual ways and keep your freelance web design business growing.

Disclaimer: Yes, these methods require some old-fashioned face-to-face communication. However, they are effective, especially when coupled with some new-fangled technology tricks.

Make a List of Your Centres of Influences

“My whats?” you say. Centres of influences are people you know whose standing or success in the community can influence the decisions of others. They are often asked for recommendations to other professionals. For example, doctors, dentists, real estate agents, accountants and lawyers.

The next time you see one of these fine folks, give them a business card and let them know you can help them set up a new website or spruce up the one they already have. Centres of influence can be a wonderful source of referrals to others who need your services.

Target Businesses in Industrial Parks

Drive to an industrial park and actually check out the businesses or stores. New businesses and those undergoing renovations make great web design clients because they are enthusiastic about their new ventures and want to promote them. Older, more established businesses may not even have a website, especially if they started before the internet! Make a list of five to ten businesses and contact them by email, phone or in person to offer your services.

Join Business Networking Organizations

Join a breakfast club where other small business owners discuss the joys and difficulties of running a business. Mingle. Make small talk. (Don’t shudder.) Offer to look at websites, and if you have time, use your mobile device to take a quick look right there. Give one or two suggestions and your card.

Research Resources Catering to Small Businesses

Look for classes, workshops or seminars for new businesspeople. Inquire about speaking to a class about setting up a website for new businesses. Better yet, offer to design a website for the resource itself. If they are happy with your work they are more likely to promote your web design services to the students.

Also look for programs offering municipal or federal funding to new businesses. Small business owners who have just received a grant from the government have money to spend on marketing, including a professionally designed site.

Local Restaurants or Coffee Shops

Seriously. Target establishments in business districts. Begin by looking at the website for the restaurant itself, and get in touch with the owner to offer your services to update or design the restaurant website. Ask to put up a poster, brochure, or leave paper coasters with your logo or QR code on them.

Tradesmen are Good Sources

As more people turn to the internet to find local tradespeople, these professionals need websites. Leave marketing material in building supply stores, lumber yards, plumbing supply outlets, and any other places you think they will hang out – even your neighbourhood pub.

Go Old-School & Print a Stack of Notices or Posters

Include a QR code leading to your website or a coupon for a discount on your web design services. Post these notices on the bulletin board at your local post office and business supply stores, where all the local entrepreneurs end up sooner or later.

Libraries Often Offer Free Talks on a Variety of Subjects

Contact the information desk at your local library and offer a half hour presentation on websites for businesses. This is your chance to speak loudly in the library without getting kicked out.

Pre-Emptive Referrals

When a client mentions a problem – for example a leaky faucet in the lunchroom, suggest the name of an area plumber you like and trust. Write the name and phone number on the back of your own business card. You are more likely to get a referral back or even get work from the plumber himself.

Ongoing Online Marketing for Web Designers

Not all of us are fantastically proactive and outgoing marketers in the real world. In that case, be proactive online, especially if you prefer to avoid or limit your offline marketing techniques.

Introduce Your Business to Online Organizations

For example, engineers, doctors, lawyers or veterinarians belong to professional national or regional organizations which grant them their licenses or designations to practice. They pay fees to these organizations which often have websites, newsletters, and blogs for their online readers.

Write a guest post for the organization blog aimed at the membership – something along the lines of “5 Things to Remember When Designing Your Veterinarian Website.”

Many entrepreneurs say “I’ll do my own website, thank you very much,” not realizing the work involved and expertise required. Soon they discover they are too busy designing bridges or neutering cats to worry about getting their websites up and running. They will read the post, think “yikes, I have to remember all that?” and decide they need a professional website designer.

Send Warm Emails to Businesses You Regularly Visit

Personalize the email so it stands out, and begin by pointing out a product or service you love. For example, ” I just wanted to tell you that your new butter pecan lattes are fantastic.” Mention you looked them up online to find something – (hours, other locations, whatever) and offer a tip or two to improve their site.

I noticed x y z – I can make it better. If you change a and b you will increase your traffic. I can help you with this. Let me know. Be nice, and don’t tell them their website is awful, even if it is. Instead, focus on what you can do to help them improve the site. Keep your email short and friendly.

Ask For Referral as Part of Your Email Signature

“We value your business. The greatest compliment you can give ABC Design is to tell your friends, family and business colleagues about the services we offer. Thank you for trusting us with your web design needs!

Write a Guest Blog Targeting Specific Groups

You are probably sick of being told to write guest blogs, but you know what? It works, and it works better to specialize in a specific niche and market yourself as an expert in designing plumbing sites, or recipe sites, or landscaping sites.

Even better, target a specific professional niche of individuals that are likely too busy to nickel and dime you over your fees, such as architects, engineers, doctors, lawyers, dentists, investment professionals, and real estate agents.

Become an Online Authority

People want to deal with an expert. Build your reputation as an expert online and offline. Become active in forums and discussions around marketing and small business and entrepreneur issues. Open a Quora account and answer questions on web design issues.

Write in Your Local Newspaper

Okay, this may be offline, but it requires minimal face to face interaction. Provide a free weekly or biweekly column. It establishes you as a local web design business, and as a reliable professional.

Read your local paper (online or offline) for announcements about new businesses or other places that may need a website revamp.

Join LinkedIn Business Groups for B2B Sales Leads

They can be location-based or represent a niche or demographic you would like to specialize in. Join in conversations, provide thoughtful and insightful information as well as links to websites you have created (or your own website) when suitable.

Connect With Other Technology-Related Businesses

Web hosting providers, IT support businesses, graphic artists and content writing professionals all serve customers who are likely to need web design services. It is well worth developing a relationship with professionals in these fields as they can be an excellent source of referrals to new clients, as well as provide opportunity for you to branch out into other areas if you want to spread your wings beyond a career as a freelance web designer.

Provide Great Service to Existing Customers

How many of your clients are serial entrepreneurs, the kind of people who always have a new idea? More businesses mean more websites. Do an awesome job on the first one and you’ll have more work to come. Ask clients what they are working on, and tell them about new techniques, technology or other tips that could suit their new projects – Mobility First, anyone?

Ask For Referrals From Existing Customers

at the end of every meeting or interaction. Provide incentives for referrals that result in new clients, such as a discount on a future site upgrade.

Finished!

These are just a few techniques used by successful freelancers to find new clients and new work. Use them to inspire your marketing and networking techniques. If you have a really fantastic story of what works for you, please feel free to share it in the comments section!

The post Some Useful Tips For Finding New Web Design Clients appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

In addition to making choices about choosing the colour, fonts, elements, layout and the design elements that really make your site unique, don’t forget about your blog.

I know you probably prefer the design and development aspect of your website, but blogging is an excellent way to demonstrate the knowledge and value you bring to potential clients.

While many experts suggest publishing at least two or three original and unique posts each week, it can be challenging to come up with snappy headlines and useful content to engage your readers.

Guess what? We’re here to help. Use these tips and 50 nifty blog post ideas to jumpstart a new web design blog or revitalize a more established one. Bookmark this page and come back often!

Who Is Reading Your Blog?

Visitors to your web design blog are either people you’ve attracted using one of these awesome methods for finding new web design clients or those who are directed to your site via online search results. You probably check on the traffic for your clients’ websites from time to time, so don’t forget to analyse your own site’s traffic.

Make note of the keyword phrases people search for, and use them as ideas for future blog posts. It is a lot easier to come up with useful and shareable web design posts when you have a good idea of who your audience is and what they want to know.

Anticipate Questions and Answer Them In Blog Posts

This is a lot easier if you have a web design niche. If you specialize in designing websites for real estate agents, you expect questions about how you will incorporate their listing images and video into their site.

If website design for restaurants is your area of expertise, write about does and don’ts of showcasing menus with mouth-watering images. The more you know about your target audience, the easier it is to put yourself in their shoes and figure out just what will grab their attention and keep them returning to your site until they become your clients.

Use a variety of techniques in your posts including lists, question and answer formats, and infographics. Don’t forget to encourage comments and sharing of your posts through social media.

Bravely Go Where No Business Blogger Has Before

Don’t be afraid to tackle the tough questions in your blog. Put on your big kid undies and address past, current and future controversies in web design issues, and common problems facing website owners and designers. Talk about customer service issues and variances in fees, rates and services.

Don’t forget that as a business to business (B2B) enterprise, in many cases your clients are also your peers, and the more you can show you face the same challenges that they do the more comfortable they will be with you, improving your long-term relationship.

Too many business owners make the blogging mistake of only writing about what interests them, and miss the opportunity to really connect with their audience by talking about issues their competition will avoid.

The following list is provided to get you started creating blog posts for your web design site.

It is written to appeal to readers who are considering web design services to either set up new websites or overhaul their existing site. Lengthen, shorten, tweak and customize as desired to develop a title that suits your business, style, and target audience, and don’t forget to keep a thesaurus handy to search for more appealing synonyms when desired.

Remember that your post title must be compelling enough to capture the readers’ attention, and that it should accurately reflect the content of the post.
Read on for some titles to get you started:

50 Blog Titles Worth Considering:

1. Why Isn’t Anyone Coming to My Website?
2. Why Do I Need a Web Designer?
3. What’s the Big Deal About Mobile First?
4. How Web Designers Price Their Products and Services
5. How Much Does it Cost to Design a Site?
6. How Much Does it Cost to Redesign a Site?
7. What is Responsive Design and Why Does My Site Need it?
8. Which Colours Should I Use for My Website and Why?
9. What’s Wrong With Using Design Templates?
10. Why Using a Framework is a Great Idea
11. 5 Things We Need To Know Before Designing Your Website
12. 10 Ways Your Website is Driving Customers Away
13. 5 Things Your Website is Missing
14. 5 Signs Your Website Needs Works
15. The Top Three Things Your [Niche] Customers Can’t Find on Your Website
16. Case Study: 3 Websites We Designed For and How They Improved Sales [This could be done as a weekly blog series]
17. Why Do I Need a Website When I Have an Offline Marketing Campaign?
18. What Is the Difference Between Web Design and Web Development?
19. Web Design on a Budget: What Are the Must-Haves for My [Niche] Site?
20. Why Does my [Niche]Business Need a Website?
21. What Makes a Great Website
22. The Latest Web Design Trends We Love
23. The Latest Web Design Trends We Hate
24. You Know You Need a Web Designer When…
25. The Single Most Important Thing About Your Web Design
26. Our Process for Creating Unique [Niche] Web Sites
27. 5 Ways to Save Money When Setting Up a New Web Site
28. The Top 5 [Niche] Websites in [City, Region, Province or Sate] and Why They Work
29. Mobile First and How it Affects YOUR Business
30. How Your [Niche] Competitors Get Website Traffic
31. What Your Business Misses by Not Having a Web Site
32. Web Design “Service” What is it?
33. Why Should My Business Care About Cloud Computing?
34. What Kind of [Images, Videos, Information, Social Media icons] Should My [Niche] Website Include?
35. How Often Should I Redesign My Website?
36. How Do We Prevent Our Website From Being Hacked?
37. 5 Features That Will Make Your [Niche] Website Stand Out From The Crowd
38. Professional Qualifications to Be a Website Designer (or Developer or SEO Guru or whatever)
39. Web Designer Rock Stars and The Sites That Made Them Famous
40. Why Your Website is More Important Than Your Business Card
41. How Can I Make My [Niche] Website More Effective?
42. 25 Web Design Definitions You Need to Know
43. What is Hubspot?
44. Biggest Mistakes of DIY Websites
45. Web Design: Tools of The Trade
46. 5 Signs Your Website is Boring
47. Biggest Problems With Web Designers
48. What Can A Professional Web Designer Do That I Can’t?
49. How Long Will it Take to Build My Website?
50. Why Isn’t My [Niche] Site on Google’s Front Page?

And there you have it. Somewhere in this list there should be at least a few titles that inspire you. Choose one, and start writing!

The post Blog Posts Your Web Design Clients Wish You Would Write appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

What they care about is what it can do for them. Truly great web design supports the purpose of the site, focuses on what the client wants and needs, and most of all makes it easy for the user to meet their goal in finding the information they are searching for. This can be a difficult concept for a web designer to embrace, as creative individuals often have a fierce love for their own creations.

Site Design and Site Purpose

A website’s purpose defines the structure of the site. Identifying and clearly stating the purpose of a website provides direction for the design work and helps establish the stages required in site construction. It also helps in estimating the scope of the project, and your fees.

Informational or content sites may include hundreds or thousands of articles, requiring a robust search and navigation system as well as interactive tutorials or videos. Transactional websites and eCommerce sites may act as digital catalogues utilizing shopping cart features and more sophisticated digital image or slideshow capabilities. Other websites simply exist as a sales tool to drive readers into a bricks-and-mortar business, and require a very basic website with a homepage, about us page, portfolio, contact us form and a blog. Site design sets the stage for the star of the website show, which is the web content that fulfils the purpose of the site.

Site Design To Please Your Client

Unpopular though this idea may be, good web design is about pleasing people. First, please your client. Secondly, please the readers who are going to visit your client’s site.

While it is arguably more important to please the user than the client, the client is paying you and keeping food on your table, so it’s best to keep them happy. In order to create a site that makes them smile and meets their expectations, it is imperative that you have a very clear understanding of what they want and need on their website. This is much trickier than it sounds.

Ideally, a client’s vision for a website goes hand-in-hand with the purpose, but this isn’t always the case. Sometimes, what a client wants doesn’t line up with what is needed to achieve the goal of the site.

Many entrepreneurs and small business owners hear that their peers and competition have websites, “so we better get one too.” They may have a general idea of what they want in terms of including their logo and basic information about their businesses, but be prepared to ask a lot of questions of your web design clients to ensure your project meets their requests.

An experienced web designer realizes that often client needs may be different from their wants, and through questioning the client they can skilfully extract the necessary elements of the site.

Ask your clients about their biggest competitors and then visit their sites. Find out what it is that that the client likes most and least about their competitors’ websites. This may help fine-tune their vision for their own site. If not, a few carefully worded questions can point out the discrepancy between a website dream and the more practical reality of a site that will achieve the desired purpose.

With practice, an experienced web designer can develop phrases and questions to delicately suggest to a client that what they want may not appeal to their readership.

Site Design to Please the User

The longer a user remains on a website, the more likely they are to perform the action the site owner (your client) wants them to, fulfilling the purpose of the site. Sadly for designers, complex, over-the-top website design that makes use of the latest innovations is not enough to keep users on site, unless of course, the users are website designers themselves and the purpose of the site is to illustrate the latest and greatest design techniques.

Keep your design clean and simple, but don’t worry, you can still put your creativity to work by finding a way to make your project stand apart from competitor sites.

Remember that good web design creates a user experience that enables readers to immediately determine the purpose of a site, and that whitespace is not to be feared, but can be used effectively to draw the reader’s eye to important content on the page.

Effective Example of Whitespace: Bagigia.

Once they confirm that the site meets their needs and contains the answers to their questions, readers need to be able to quickly find the specific piece of information required. Nothing frustrates online users more than not knowing how to find the information they need. While you may be tempted to get creative with navigation and search capabilities, please don’t.

Effective site design allows users to find the required information quickly, and solid web content is what keeps them onsite once they’ve found that information.

The best user interfaces are designed with the target user in mind, and website designers should always be cognisant of just who will be visiting the site. Many designers and clients forget that users may require different words and phrases than those used by the web designer and the client, especially if they don’t know the acronyms and nicknames for industry norms, products and services.

Websites designed without consideration for the user may be marvels of ingenuity yet completely useless to the target user and the client.

Once the typical user is identified, it is easier to set the guidelines for what type of content is best to populate the site. Text may appear in one or more forms including blog posts, product descriptions and articles. Images, infographics, videos, slideshow galleries and interactive components may also be included. Great site design seeks to accommodate and highlight the identified web content that will most appeal to the target user.

Web Design is the Framework of a Web Content Vehicle

It can be tough to confront the idea that your design isn’t the centre of the universe, but the fact is, it isn’t. Your most recent web design may be awesome, a thing of beauty to you and your peers, and it may even garner a grudging compliment or two from your competition. The fact of the matter is that your digital creation that went through revision after revision and kept you up late at night and drinking far too much coffee, is simply the frame of a vehicle for a client who wants to entice readers to take an action that will likely result in a sale.

Getting your head wrapped around this idea of web design as simply a vehicle for web content isn’t meant to belittle your talents, but rather to provide a filter through which future web design decisions are made.

What You Like Does Not Matter and This Should Make You Happy

Another hard truth about web design is that what you like doesn’t matter at all. What the client wants matters. How well the site design supports the purpose and content matters. What matters most is what the online user needs, because if they find it on the site that you designed they will buy something, making the client happy.

You may find the site bland and boring, but if it meets the requirements, fulfils the purpose and meets or exceeds the client’s goals, you will have a happy client. A really happy client will refer their friends and family members to you so you never have to do any marketing for your website design business ever again. And that should make you happy.

And there you have it. Web design is secondary to web content, and exists to support the purpose and content of a site which in turn exists to encourage users to take an action. While a great website design may not win the Best Actor award at the website Oscars, it can always take home Best Supporting Actor!

The post The Truth About Web Design appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.