How to find website clients.

[RonyKing]

Well reading your post and a thought come to my head.
I can feel what you are going through brother. but i want to ask, have you engaged some "greyhat-generated-leads" to try market your services to?

tbh, i have a belive this will work. but on a worse scale scenario, maybe you need to start looking at doing something different from then norm. that i cant say. Its obvious, web designing, SEO stuffs are saturated market.
But i still fell you can be on top of this market.

 

[ethical PR]

Well reading your post and a thought come to my head.
I can feel what you are going through brother. but i want to ask, have you engaged some "greyhat-generated-leads" to try market your services to?

tbh, i have a belive this will work. but on a worse scale scenario, maybe you need to start looking at doing something different from then norm. that i cant say. Its obvious, web designing, SEO stuffs are saturated market.
But i still fell you can be on top of this market.

What is 'grey hat generated leads' ?????

 

[Annoying Donkey]

What is 'grey hat generated leads' ?????

Leads from "Gandalf the Grey"...

 

[RonyKing]

What is 'grey hat generated leads' ?????

They are database dumped leads.

 

[GazNicki]

Sorry I am in late.

It's a cutthroat industry for sure, but that's because of where your business is sitting. If you're utilising Facebook - you're up against some kids fresh from (or still in) college that are doing this from their bedroom in their mum's house.

There are a few web businesses on here, who have weighed in on the thread, so you can see there is a lot of competition - but it's not all bad.

You have some options. You can expand and offer a lot of services to clients making your offer more varied, or you can streamline and specialise.

Have you considered running reports on target clients' websites and showing how you can improve their website and how much for?

Have you got any case studies on how your services can benefit their business? Any information on ROI from past clients perhaps?

Networking certainly works. Getting out to local businesses will see you busy if you market the offering in the right price point - but it won't make you massive money either.

You may also want to have a look at developing apps. For example, there are a lot of apps starting to appear which offer food ordering to small independant takeaways whilst avoiding the markup form the big players like JustEat - so maybe finding a niche in the area the you could tap into would help.

For example, can you develop an app that offers a service to an industry locally - where businesses sign up, get a website, backend to the app, and their presence with an annual subscription that includes hosting?

Whichever way you see yourself going, I wish you all the luck buddy.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

Sorry I am in late.

I wouldn't worry too much. Simong hasn't re-visited since the day he wrote the opening post.

 

[Aleksander_Gramm]

I am marketer/SEO at web agency from Ukraine. So, I understand your message "I can market, I can get people to the site or interested my issue I always seem to find is the people I am attracting are looking for a deal so I explain why I'm good, what I do but time company B beats me by £100 and I've lost the deal as if I go any lower it's pointless."

Many years ago I was in a similar situation. I quit manager position (CEO of a trading company at local holding company) I chose freelance. It allowed me to get experience and choose my way.

As many people said, you need a good website. I recommend you to segment 'target audience' and learn more about them (pains, gains, hidden needs). It takes time (and you can't make money). But you need to do it.

 

[antropy]

Have you got any case studies on how your services can benefit their business

This is a key part and when you start talking to clients, your portfolio page is where clients are won and lost quite quickly. Alex

 

[Michael Beaumont]

A good place to find clients to build new business websites is your local business start group usually run by council funded organisations. They offer courses such as branding and marketing and usually good for making contact with people looking at starting their own business.

 

[Glen Wheeler]

Hi-

What is your social media content like in general may I ask? Do you post regularly and incorporate stories as well as posts? Having consistency with this will benefit the ads you paid/will pay for.
Displaying reviews, links, hashtags, shoutouts, polls will all benefit - However It can be hard to stick with it and find the time to create and keep up to date with content.
Understand you target market and do some more market research to show your best interest in the customers wants and needs.
You may find facebook doesn't make as many impressions in comparison to Instagram or LinkedIn instead. Its all about exploring further and giving it time. Ads will only be beneficial if your pages are appealing and engaging. Maybe invest your money in a tool online which allows you to send automated emails to bring back leads and make them warm (keeping them in a sales funnel) - try using analytics as well to see who is clicking where on your pages and gather metric data to then adjust to this!
Hope this helps - Good luck!

 

[deadpixel]

Try Google My Business. Get on Google Maps. It's free and very effective.

Maybe consider becoming a freelance developer and working with an agency. Theyll help find you temp work with big companies.

 

[Colin1986]

Hey @simong93,

Option B) is where things get a little more interesting. It's definitely easy to see that you've got a lot of in-demand skills! Why not take those skills where they're needed most? Freelancer Marketplaces like Upwork and People Per Hour have a ready-made customer base of business owners from around the world who need tech-related things done and don't mind paying for it if you've got the portfolio for it (some people earn up to £200/hourly).

I would avoid using freelancing sites if at all possible. I have done quite a lot of Excel/VBA work on Peopleperhour. You're competing with workers from India etc, who are prepared to work for very little money, and when you do eventually find work, Peopleperhour take a large chunk of it. It's very demoralising.

 

[apricot]

Just find another company to work for! ... Selling yourself, your work and do the actuall work is a hell job unless you are surrended with ready customers

 

[Brandstorydigital]

Good Morning all, so you probably here this all the time but hey im in a bit of bother so i need some advice (Lost my job eeekkkk).

I am a website designer and i have been for years, i have built websites but up untill last year i didn them via another company so they of course got all the repeat buisness. I know do them my self and since being forced out of my job last month i am more determined then ever to get this to work, It must work (baby number 2 on the way ) I also offer mobile repairs on phones etc, i did this as a great little bit of side money and to get the name out there but the competition copied what i was doing and under cut me and my appoitments dropped and dropped unless its repeat customers or from referals.

So what i have tried and the outcome:-

Free websites to influencers - They where happy but didnt work for me, everyone would rather pay peanuts then my prices.

Email Marketing - Worked but now thanks to GDPR has become nearly impossible.

Google Adwords - Put £200 on and got nothing back, maybe it was me but i did alot of research (Im broke so thats not a option now)

Facebook Adverts - £400 later i got likes and a few comments and i am marketing to them every day on facebook but no appoitments, my prices are good but there is always Mr A doing it on the side so is happy to make £20 for a few hours work

Changed pricing - I now offer monthly plans and lowered my prices but the issue im finding is you get Wix designers or theme users or square what ever the heck is called user, they build websites for people that take a few hours and charge £100-£200 where mine are from scrach at take longer.

Can anyone think of anything else i can try or any other way i can improve, I am skint thanks to my other job just getting rid of me with no warning, im doing long days marketing on facebook emails etc but nothing seems to be working for me.

So you need to look at SEO since most of the above options you have already mentioned. Yes there are freelancers selling SEO but then they are like a room full of people with cellphones and if they switch off their phones then you cannot find them.
Perhaps as the industry has exploded we have felt the need to try and maintain USP's in what is now a ridiculously overcrowded market. Every one-man band and his dog jumped on the SEO agency bandwagon when you could set up Wordpress & a themeforest theme in a day, add a load of award-winning logos, a London virtual address and phone number and boom - you became an SEO agency.
Except you didn't. In fact, there are very few true SEO agencies out there because an SEO agency is only as good as the SEO's that make it what it is. To be an SEO you have to be passionate, willing to work those extra hours, testing things until you find that perfect spot of what does and does not work. I've seen the whole landscape change, now everything is "Something Digital". Now the industry is too full of people trying to make a quick buck in what was once a specialist niche.

Let me know if we can help you in anyways.