Despite what you may think, web design is still one of the most requested services. Being able to create websites, sales pages, social media assets, is a golden skill to have.
The only problem sits on finding and convincing clients.
Even if there is a lot of demand, there is a lot of offer.
The Web is full of designers with more experience than you, a better portfolio, or lower prices.
In this jungle, how can you get in front of the right web design clients beating a wild competition?
In this article, I’ll show you my technique to find those clients and convince them to work with you, using my favorite website builder: Elementor.
If you want to watch the video version of this post, you can watch it here.
Getting clients is always a complicated matter in every niche, especially in web design, because of the massive competition on the Web.
So what can you do to get ahead of your opponents?
Let’s start with the basics: you need to have a portfolio showing previous works.
Most of the people don’t have anything to show or anything they’re proud to share.
I solved this problem by working for free, but you don’t have to get that extreme. It’s enough to lower your prices in the beginning and reach clients who are right for you.
But where can you find web design clients? Let’s tackle this problem.
Clients are all around you.
Having the possibility to reach the entire world at our fingertips, we usually forget that we can look for clients around us.
I’m sure hypothetical clients surround you, and if you don’t know them, you could ask a connection in common to introduce you.
Maybe you have a friend who goes to a gym that needs a website redesign. Or maybe your mother knows the owner of a restaurant that doesn’t even have a website.
Trust is one of the most potent triggers to start a collaboration, and being introduced by a connection, builds trust straightaway.
Otherwise, look around your city for shops, hotels, bars, and check their websites. Opportunities are all around, and you just need to be a little more open-minded to spot them.
Getting Clients Online
As I said previously, finding private clients online is a lot more difficult because of the vast competition.
That’s why we need to think outside the box.
If you want to build websites as a service, you need to think about who needs a new website or a website rebuilt.
Here’s what I did at the beginning of my career. I’ve joined a few Facebook Pages for online business pitchers. In those groups, new startups launch their web apps, offering lifetime deals for new customers.
I knew many of these startups were formed mostly of developers, and they rarely think about how much design is essential to growing a user base.
My role was to show them how their websites and web apps would look with a great design.
I visited every single website of these startups, and I took note of those that needed a website or a web app redesign.
I discarded the ones that had a stylish or modern look&feel.
Propose a solution
The next thing to do was reaching out via email.
I use different ways to reach my potential clients, and if you want to use a fancier one than email, check this video where I explain how I used video letters instead.
How to Reach Out to Potential Clients — My Bulletproof Technique
Talking about cold emails instead, I guess you’ve already heard about avoiding them cause they don’t work.
Well, it depends on how you use them.
As I said earlier, you need to differentiate from the crowd. The wrong approach is to talk about yourself, how great you are, how good you are in your field, with whom you worked in the past, yadda yadda yadda.
I prefer instead to put the spotlight on the addressee. I highlight my client’s problem, and I propose an immediate solution.
And this is where Elementor comes into play.
In case you’re not familiar with Elementor, it’s one of the best website builders on the market, and it allows you to create a great-looking website within minutes.
You can use one of the hundreds of templates available, and create a sleek page without the slightest design skill.
And this is exactly what I did for my clients. I recreated their homepage with Elementor, and it took me not more than 20 minutes per client.
In my presentation letter, I explained why their website needed a redesign, and I’ve attached the mockup to give them an idea of what they could have.
Why this system works
If you want to outmatch the competition, you need to think long-term. Instead of chasing money immediately, plan your strategy.
1% of people spend time to create something for a hypothetical client, even before getting paid. That shows a significant commitment.
Is this enough to convince all the clients? Obviously not.
But this system gives a better success percentage than doing what everyone else does.
If you don’t know what to write to the clients in your presentation email, you can download 3 distinct emails I used in the past.
These are real case studies that gave me great results.
You can take a look at them, personalize and re-use them.
Download them here.
What about you? How do you reach out to clients and convince them?
The only problem sits on finding and convincing clients.
Even if there is a lot of demand, there is a lot of offer.
The Web is full of designers with more experience than you, a better portfolio, or lower prices.
In this jungle, how can you get in front of the right web design clients beating a wild competition?
In this article, I’ll show you my technique to find those clients and convince them to work with you, using my favorite website builder: Elementor.
If you want to watch the video version of this post, you can watch it here.
Getting clients is always a complicated matter in every niche, especially in web design, because of the massive competition on the Web.
So what can you do to get ahead of your opponents?
Let’s start with the basics: you need to have a portfolio showing previous works.
Most of the people don’t have anything to show or anything they’re proud to share.
I solved this problem by working for free, but you don’t have to get that extreme. It’s enough to lower your prices in the beginning and reach clients who are right for you.
But where can you find web design clients? Let’s tackle this problem.
Clients are all around you.
Having the possibility to reach the entire world at our fingertips, we usually forget that we can look for clients around us.
I’m sure hypothetical clients surround you, and if you don’t know them, you could ask a connection in common to introduce you.
Maybe you have a friend who goes to a gym that needs a website redesign. Or maybe your mother knows the owner of a restaurant that doesn’t even have a website.
Trust is one of the most potent triggers to start a collaboration, and being introduced by a connection, builds trust straightaway.
Otherwise, look around your city for shops, hotels, bars, and check their websites. Opportunities are all around, and you just need to be a little more open-minded to spot them.
Getting Clients Online
As I said previously, finding private clients online is a lot more difficult because of the vast competition.
That’s why we need to think outside the box.
If you want to build websites as a service, you need to think about who needs a new website or a website rebuilt.
Here’s what I did at the beginning of my career. I’ve joined a few Facebook Pages for online business pitchers. In those groups, new startups launch their web apps, offering lifetime deals for new customers.
I knew many of these startups were formed mostly of developers, and they rarely think about how much design is essential to growing a user base.
My role was to show them how their websites and web apps would look with a great design.
I visited every single website of these startups, and I took note of those that needed a website or a web app redesign.
I discarded the ones that had a stylish or modern look&feel.
Propose a solution
The next thing to do was reaching out via email.
I use different ways to reach my potential clients, and if you want to use a fancier one than email, check this video where I explain how I used video letters instead.
How to Reach Out to Potential Clients — My Bulletproof Technique
Talking about cold emails instead, I guess you’ve already heard about avoiding them cause they don’t work.
Well, it depends on how you use them.
As I said earlier, you need to differentiate from the crowd. The wrong approach is to talk about yourself, how great you are, how good you are in your field, with whom you worked in the past, yadda yadda yadda.
I prefer instead to put the spotlight on the addressee. I highlight my client’s problem, and I propose an immediate solution.
And this is where Elementor comes into play.
In case you’re not familiar with Elementor, it’s one of the best website builders on the market, and it allows you to create a great-looking website within minutes.
You can use one of the hundreds of templates available, and create a sleek page without the slightest design skill.
And this is exactly what I did for my clients. I recreated their homepage with Elementor, and it took me not more than 20 minutes per client.
In my presentation letter, I explained why their website needed a redesign, and I’ve attached the mockup to give them an idea of what they could have.
Why this system works
If you want to outmatch the competition, you need to think long-term. Instead of chasing money immediately, plan your strategy.
1% of people spend time to create something for a hypothetical client, even before getting paid. That shows a significant commitment.
Is this enough to convince all the clients? Obviously not.
But this system gives a better success percentage than doing what everyone else does.
If you don’t know what to write to the clients in your presentation email, you can download 3 distinct emails I used in the past.
These are real case studies that gave me great results.
You can take a look at them, personalize and re-use them.
Download them here.
What about you? How do you reach out to clients and convince them?