Just because you own a web design business, doesn’t mean clients are automatically going to find you. If you want your web design company to be successful, you need to know how to go about marketing it.
Fortunately, there are many ways you can market a web design business.
Keep reading and I’ll show you what these methods are. If you use these methods, it won’t be long before your web design business is attracting so many clients, you’ll need to hire help.
Let’s begin!
Should You Narrow Down?
No matter what kind of business you run, it’s always a good idea to narrow down your offering.
This means you need to spend some time really drilling down who your target market is. This is important as it will make marketing your web design startup a lot easier.
Decide which kind of clients you want to work with. What do they all have in common? Do you want to work with dentists? What about doctors? Maybe people who own landscaping companies?
What about your offering? Are you only going to work with people that pay you upwards of $2000? Are you only going to do specific kinds of web design?
It can take a lot of time to narrow down who you’re going to serve and what you’re going to help them with.
But if you go through these steps you’ll be able to tell your ideal clients that you have a specialized offering. This will then make your company seem more appealing, as you’re now a specialist. People who are willing to pay top dollar for web design work, often prefer to work with someone who is a specialist, rather than a generalist.
Using Paid Search Ads
If you have a marketing budget, then you can make use of paid online advertising. This can work very well if you know who you’re targeting. That shouldn’t be an issue if you’ve gone through some of the steps mentioned earlier.
There are typically two platforms you can use to promote your web design company. The first is AdWords. AdWords gives you the chance to promote your business when people type in specific keywords.
You want to find out what keywords your target audience is typing in and then target them. More specifically, you want to find the keywords your target audience is typing in when they want to spend money with a business like yours.
One of the simplest ways to go about this task is by using the Google Keyword Planner. That tool will provide you with a list of keywords you can use to market to your ideal audience. You will also be able to see how much it costs to bid on a certain keyword. The keywords that cost a lot of money, are generally going to provide the best return on investment.
Using Facebook Ads
You can also use Facebook Ads to promote your web design business. If you want to succeed with Facebook Ads, again you need to know how to target your ads properly. But targeting with Facebook is different than targeting with AdWords. With Facebook, you need to target based on demographic data and interests.
If you need help narrowing down this information, consider using the Audience Insights tool. This will help you find out a lot about a specific kind of audience, even if you only provide the tool with small amounts of data, to begin with.
If all else fails, you can always use the services of a company like Direction Inc. to help you market your business.
Building up a Reputation
As you work with more clients, you will want to take steps that help you build up a positive reputation.
One of the best ways to do this is by asking people to provide you with testimonials. You can then host these testimonials on your own website. Then when potential clients want to find out more about your services, they can read/watch the testimonials. These third-party endorsements will go a long way in convincing them that you’re someone worth working with.
You might also want to have some case studies on your site. Case studies are like short stories that detail the issues a client was facing and how you helped them overcome these issues. These can be helpful as they can carry a bit more substance than a testimonial. This is because, as mentioned, they detail exactly what you did.
Keep in mind you should always seek the client’s permission when publishing a case study or testimonial. Some clients will place a high premium on the information found within a case study. If you just promote this information, you’ll be putting yourself in a position where you might upset the client. This can lead to a negative series of events which can harm your reputation, not help it.
Review Your Offering
Perhaps the best form of marketing is to provide a good offering in the first place. With that being said, you should always review how happy clients are with your work.
You should make it a point to use their feedback to improve things for future clients. If you can do this, clients will talk about you and tell others how good your offering is. This will help you market your business, without much effort on your part.
Whenever you’ve finished working with a client ask them what could’ve gone better. You can do this over a short phone call or you can send them an email.
Do You Know How to Market Your Web Design Business?
Marketing a web design business is definitely challenging. But if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re going to end up closing shop.
In this post, we’ve reviewed how you can avoid that from happening. You need to think about narrowing down your offering. You also want to think about how you can use advertising to help promote your business.
Word of mouth can be incredibly powerful. You want to get your business in a position where your offering is so good, clients can’t help but recommend you. But you’ll only be able to do this if you consistently ask them what you can do to make things better.
Need help choosing a name for your business? Check out this post for some tips!