Marketing A Web Development Company

[S-Marketing]

Proctor & Gamble have a $26 billion marketing budget to 'go for everyone'. I'm not sure the op is in this league yet.

And even with that kind of budget they will be spending a lot of time and effort on targeting.

 

[AlexanderR]

Wow...

you have just saved me countless man hours with that nugget.

I shall now proceed to chase sales blind and waste 99.9% of my working day calling random numbers without structure or focus.

I never said blind, if your targeting companies, most have some sort of website or are parked on google maps. It's easy to find out a little about the people your calling while the phone is ringing. Finding out a little about people can be done through facebook, linkedin and other social media.

Of course, you could waste hundreds of pounds and hours on market research, defining who wants a website. Because of course, bloggers don't need design services, nor do schools I guess, what about retailers? Oh I don't know, lets research the lot...

After all, how do you think the guys who work in sales do it? do you think they have the patience, time and budget to research every prospect they approach? No, they spend their time pitching.

P&G also have no relevance to this at all, every penny of their market research budget goes towards improving products, and sourcing new ones.

 

[ukwebdev1984]

Proctor & Gamble have a $26 billion marketing budget to 'go for everyone'. I'm not sure the op is in this league yet.

Somehow i don't think i have that budget, let me check the bank!

I think i now am starting to put together my focus point for the business moving forward. However I am still reading and finding the start point.

I didn't want you guys to start *****ing at each other, everyone has a different opinion and point of view. I wish just all of you said the same thing , would make my life easier ha ha

 

[S-Marketing]

Somehow i don't think i have that budget, let me check the bank!

I think i now am starting to put together my focus point for the business moving forward. However I am still reading and finding the start point.

I didn't want you guys to start *****ing at each other, everyone has a different opinion and point of view. I wish just all of you said the same thing , would make my life easier ha ha

All you have to do is ignore those of us who are wrong, and take the advice from those of us who are right. Simple as that.

I could tell you who is right and who is wrong, but I am a little biased.

 

[businessfunding]

Somehow i don't think i have that budget, let me check the bank!

I think i now am starting to put together my focus point for the business moving forward. However I am still reading and finding the start point.

I didn't want you guys to start *****ing at each other, everyone has a different opinion and point of view. I wish just all of you said the same thing , would make my life easier ha ha

Rule 127 in the MTJ almanac of business wisdom ' Don't take advice from multiple sources; it will lead to confusion and lack of focus'

Most of us share a core belief in the basic approach but differ in execution.

Either use the basic modeland build an approach which suits you (for example it doesn't really matter whether you call people whilst building your plan or wait until it is completed before you call - there are arguments either way)

Or select someone whose advice you would like to follow - either n or off this forum - and stick with them.

This will work if you stick with it...

 

[ukwebdev1984]

All you have to do is ignore those of us who are wrong, and take the advice from those of us who are right. Simple as that.

I could tell you who is right and who is wrong, but I am a little biased.

LMAO loving this comment

 

[ukwebdev1984]

Rule 127 in the MTJ almanac of business wisdom ' Don't take advice from multiple sources; it will lead to confusion and lack of focus'

Most of us share a core belief in the basic approach but differ in execution.

Either use the basic modeland build an approach which suits you (for example it doesn't really matter whether you call people whilst building your plan or wait until it is completed before you call - there are arguments either way)

Or select someone whose advice you would like to follow - either n or off this forum - and stick with them.

This will work if you stick with it...

Think this is the most concrete advice i have had yet!

 

[S-Marketing]

Think this is the most concrete advice i have had yet!

I agree with it in principle, but be very careful which advice you take. Just sticking with one piece of advice is good in theory, but make damn sure that you are fairly sure that the person giving it is worth listening to.

 

[ukwebdev1984]

I agree with it in principle, but be very careful which advice you take. Just sticking with one piece of advice is good in theory, but make damn sure that you are fairly sure that the person giving it is worth listening to.

" Listen to your balls" lmao

 

[Successukdotcom]

In an effort to help and indeed from personal experience over the last 20 odd years as a website designer, the scatter gun approach works - its kind of luck of the draw. Clients come from a variety of avenues, some from networking events, some from searching using the appropriate words applicable to service and some just appear. Sometimes mailshots work, sometimes they dont and sometimes email works and sometimes it doesnt. Also cold calling works periodically when the moon aligns.
I guess what I am getting at is dont close any avenue, do networking events and carry business cards wherever you go. Learn about SEO and do it - if you cant in todays market you will not survive.
There is plenty of room for good website designers, hence my candid response.
Might I suggest you break your days down to doing all of the above, targeting different market sectors each day as today they need it tomorrow they have it. The day after they might need it revamped and above all dont give up.

 

[ITsoldUK]

In an effort to help and indeed from personal experience over the last 20 odd years as a website designer, the scatter gun approach works - its kind of luck of the draw. Clients come from a variety of avenues, some from networking events, some from searching using the appropriate words applicable to service and some just appear. Sometimes mailshots work, sometimes they dont and sometimes email works and sometimes it doesnt. Also cold calling works periodically when the moon aligns.
I guess what I am getting at is dont close any avenue, do networking events and carry business cards wherever you go. Learn about SEO and do it - if you cant in todays market you will not survive.
There is plenty of room for good website designers, hence my candid response.
Might I suggest you break your days down to doing all of the above, targeting different market sectors each day as today they need it tomorrow they have it. The day after they might need it revamped and above all dont give up.

Thanks for the insight which reads very well.

I shall bookmark this and show it to all my clients and tell them that they no longer need to plan or develop a strategy to succeed, just pick up the yellow pages, yell, thompson locals etc and call, email, mailshot and knock doors.

It is all in the numbers.

 

[Successukdotcom]

Thanks for the insight which reads very well.

I shall bookmark this and show it to all my clients and tell them that they no longer need to plan or develop a strategy to succeed, just pick up the yellow pages, yell, thompson locals etc and call, email, mailshot and knock doors.

It is all in the numbers.

Actually there is a calculation based upon prospects to fee paying clients - But our business is unusual in its aspects and covers many different business sectors, virtually none are taboo. And you can never tell who needs you because it is so varied. One week its a butcher, the next a carpet company, the next a recruitment company. So for us scatter gun IS the plan. That is why you only expend a small amount of energy upon any sector.

 

[businessfunding]

Actually there is a calculation based upon prospects to fee paying clients - But our business is unusual in its aspects and covers many different business sectors, virtually none are taboo. And you can never tell who needs you because it is so varied. One week its a butcher, the next a carpet company, the next a recruitment company. So for us scatter gun IS the plan. That is why you only expend a small amount of energy upon any sector.

Many businesses make the mistake of seeing everyone one as a client and, for the most part they miss their market by trying to capture 'everyone'. You won't succeed

get a niche and some specialism or you will always be 'just another web designer'.

 

[Successukdotcom]

Many businesses make the mistake of seeing everyone one as a client and, for the most part they miss their market by trying to capture 'everyone'. You won't succeed

get a niche and some specialism or you will always be 'just another web designer'.

Hmm, interesting, 20 odd years of running the business doesnt qualify as success. Trouble is unless you do the job day in day out peeps do not understand the niche is in being a great website developer/designer creating sites that generate business for your clients and continuing to be innovative after 20 years and counting.... Its a continual learning curve as technology changes - with many languages and now many different platforms from a desktop pc to a laptop now to a iPad and iPhone / smart phone. No technology has moved so fast. So Microsoft should have stuck to dialups and PCs with 2mb of ram..... lol Just as well they continued to diversify then....

 

[businessfunding]

Hmm, interesting, 20 odd years of running the business doesnt qualify as success. Trouble is unless you do the job day in day out peeps do not understand the niche is in being a great website developer/designer creating sites that generate business for your clients and continuing to be innovative after 20 years and counting.... Its a continual learning curve as technology changes - with many languages and now many different platforms from a desktop pc to a laptop now to a iPad and iPhone / smart phone. No technology has moved so fast. So Microsoft should have stuck to dialups and PCs with 2mb of ram..... lol Just as well they continued to diversify then....

I'm sorry to say there is precisely nothing about your site that would lead me to choose you over the numerous other designers I meet at every networking event. (actually I would be slightly hostile because it doesn't conform to the E-commerce legislation which after 20 years I would expect you to be aware of)

You might have a core of good clients & referrers - which is great (and which probably means that you have unintentionally created a geographic niche) - but it won't help you to create additional interest in your business

You might be great at your job and you might have loyal customers, but without a clear target you will always be stuck in the crowd.

 

[Successukdotcom]

I'm sorry to say there is precisely nothing about your site that would lead me to choose you over the numerous other designers I meet at every networking event. (actually I would be slightly hostile because it doesn't conform to the E-commerce legislation which after 20 years I would expect you to be aware of)

You might have a core of good clients & referrers - which is great (and which probably means that you have unintentionally created a geographic niche) - but it won't help you to create additional interest in your business

You might be great at your job and you might have loyal customers, but without a clear target you will always be stuck in the crowd.

It amazes me that instead of assisting the OP you keep trying to prod someone who has been successful and is passing on information that has led to success.

As you must be aware it is client's responsibility to undertake E-commerce legislation, and I can only advise. Some clients resist even change of law for fear of putting clients off a regular revenue stream.

It is also logical to select those nearest you to offer services - indeed I do have clients in 2 different geographical areas, both of which I have canvassed.

My main point is in fact that you are not grasping what we do offer the OP and myself - The type of business we offer is becoming more like getting a computer. Everyone has one, everyone wants one sometime and we all have to replace them periodically, there are good, bad and fantastic suppliers and many do not have a clue on how to select - hence the reply to the OP post.

To select a niche at a time when diversification is no longer a dirty word is extremely risky - perhaps the niche is providing what people need?

 

[Alan]

Hmm, interesting, 20 odd years of running the business doesnt qualify as success.

I noted too that in your other post you had over 20 years experience as a web designer so you started in 1993.

So Tim Berners Lee created the first website in 1991, and he got a knighthood and to be a major part of the Olympics opening ceremony (that is success!). it was not until 1992 that legislation was passed that the internet could be used for commercial use (as opposed to academic & research).

Given at that stage the demand for web designers must have been tiny, so you must have been a real pioneer? What went wrong?

So what has driven you to come onto forum that caters for small businesses and generally take abuse for the limitations that your current website has, that you are trying to promote through your username and signature?

 

[Successukdotcom]

I noted too that in your other post you had over 20 years experience as a web designer so you started in 1993.

So Tim Berners Lee created the first website in 1991, and he got a knighthood and to be a major part of the Olympics opening ceremony (that is success!). it was not until 1992 that legislation was passed that the internet could be used for commercial use (as opposed to academic & research).

Given at that stage the demand for web designers must have been tiny, so you must have been a real pioneer? What went wrong?

So what has driven you to come onto forum that caters for small businesses and generally take abuse for the limitations that your current website has, that you are trying to promote through your username and signature?

Lol! I was actually here to offer some free advice, to startups as recession has hit so many businesses, it is good to try to help establish new shoots. Admittedly, I have shown who I am, with interest I have sat and waited to see how many vipers tried to bite and I have to say it is disappointing to note that some are very angry. I actually started in a recession, when as you say there were not many and no call for my services and when the internet was not really known. It was hard then to get work, but in recent years I moved with the technology, selecting tools to best do the job and have accomplished much, raising businesses from small turnover to multi million pound. Among my clients (some of which have been with me from year 1) I am queen. But if we do not help those at the bottom of the stack, they will find it equally hard. To me, sometimes a free helping hand given pays rewards, not maybe financial, but I for one can sleep at night.

 

[businessfunding]

@ successuk - not sure who you see as angry - personally I'm keen to protect people like the OP from dreadful advice.

We are all entitled to an opinion but I certainly won't be agreeing with yours!

@OP - and back on thread - Please dpo consider how and where you target your efforts to get best reward for your skills.

 

[williamwilkinson]

To promote a web development company the best method is to use the online techniques. SEO i.e search engine optimzation mainly have two types: On Page and Off Page of the website. It includes select keywords and submissions.

 

[Alan]

That is just very very very bad advice. It takes 2 seconds to see how crowded the SEO space is for web development, and of course all web development companies should know about SEO so they are not going to be easy targets.

Sure SEO should be PART of your marketing strategy, but it definitely isn't the BEST way.

 

[Anton-JandJ]

I've read through this thread and am in a bit of a similar situation with regards to marketing a web development service/company.

I got my first few clients simply by hit and miss e-mails informing local businesses of our existence. We happened to hit a dental practice at a time they were deciding that they wanted their existing website updated.

Currently we've had some A5 folded fliers printed out to sent to local businesses, we've got a few lists of new businesses from last year. Our thinking behind this was it's something a bit different to a generic letter, which may just get tossed in the bin straight away. It is also a decent quality card, not a flimsy typical double sided flyer, so hopefully it'll stand out. But these still need to get into the right hands, of those people who need our service, otherwise they are just wasted, that's frustrating since they weren't exactly cheap either.

Obviously as a web design company it'd be handy to have a presence on google on the top pages for relative keywords/phrases. But quite frankly it's going to be impossible to get near those company who started out 10-15 years ago.

I know how SEO works, I used to work for an SEO agency doing on page stuff, but off page trends and techniques all seem to be being dismissed. Especially the way to get links back to your own site. Web directory links being rendered useless, article directory submissions useless, blog commenting useless, forum signature links useless. So I am unsure on off page seo strategies and think it might all be going towards social media. That is actively engaging on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and that is something I'm looking more into.

Unlike a company that sells products to consumers, where social media interaction and campaigns are fairly obvious, business to business engagement via social media seems a tricky one.

 

[ukwebdev1984]

Tell me about it! I get a lot of work from repeat business, but again it all depends on if those people need work or not. I usually pick up jobs from forums like codingforums.com, phpfreaks.com and devshed.com but again, all hit and miss.

I sent out an email campaign to a bunch of uk web "design" companies from a scraper i wrote, offering my development services, no responses what so ever! I do work with one but that's because an ex client referred me.

I had some business from flyers once, 500 ended me 1 job!

Social media doesn't seem to work!

Your right with SEO, too much competition in this field unless you can get some kind of very tight niche, which again is almost impossible.

I am considering Adwords, but boy it's expensive!

 

[Anton-JandJ]

I would steer clear of Adwords unless you get a free vode voucher. I got some free but never got any enquiries, just hits. I think it's most likely other agencies who are doing their own adwords campaign checking their listing and clicking on the others to eat up the budgets lol.

I think you getting work via forums shows that interaction can get you results, and this should translate to social media also. Interact with others, develop a relationship, demonstrate you are in the know re: their web needs, they might ask for your services, or even refer others to you.

I've been signed up to some online freelance boards, but there it seems impossible to compete with 50-100 other peoples bids. Both in terms of others having feedback from past work they've done, plus ridiculously low costs they're willing to work for.

Unlike you, I've had some success when e-mailing local design companies offering my services on a freelance basis. Met up with a few who seemed happy to send some work my way. Only 1 of them has so far used me admiteddly, but it's better than nothing. The only issue with that is they have the rights to the work and it therefore cannot appear in my portfolio, or link back to my website etc.

 

[ukwebdev1984]

I would steer clear of Adwords unless you get a free vode voucher. I got some free but never got any enquiries, just hits. I think it's most likely other agencies who are doing their own adwords campaign checking their listing and clicking on the others to eat up the budgets lol.

I think you getting work via forums shows that interaction can get you results, and this should translate to social media also. Interact with others, develop a relationship, demonstrate you are in the know re: their web needs, they might ask for your services, or even refer others to you.

I've been signed up to some online freelance boards, but there it seems impossible to compete with 50-100 other peoples bids. Both in terms of others having feedback from past work they've done, plus ridiculously low costs they're willing to work for.

Unlike you, I've had some success when e-mailing local design companies offering my services on a freelance basis. Met up with a few who seemed happy to send some work my way. Only 1 of them has so far used me admiteddly, but it's better than nothing. The only issue with that is they have the rights to the work and it therefore cannot appear in my portfolio, or link back to my website etc.

The thing with the forums is, people are actively posting their requirements, its a bit different from social networks. I think the social networks again is a shot in the dark kind of method.

Lets take Facebook for example, you would need to add business owners constantly as friends, and then make sure you keep your facebook up-to date on a daily basis to show that your productive. I mean that could be quite simple, as lets say you have a very large project spanned over 8 weeks, a daily post on your status could show the part you just finished on that project. And put screenshots of past work in profile pictures...hmm some thoughts going round now!

The only issue is, being a developer half of the time i don't do design to show off, which also makes it more difficult as i mostly write software, i can't exactly post screenshots of code all day long lol

 

[Anton-JandJ]

Lets take Facebook for example, you would need to add business owners constantly as friends, and then make sure you keep your facebook up-to date on a daily basis to show that your productive. I mean that could be quite simple, as lets say you have a very large project spanned over 8 weeks, a daily post on your status could show the part you just finished on that project. And put screenshots of past work in profile pictures...hmm some thoughts going round now!

The only issue is, being a developer half of the time i don't do design to show off, which also makes it more difficult as i mostly write software, i can't exactly post screenshots of code all day long lol

I know what you mean, and that's the type of thing to do on a Facebook business page. The idea being you get your clients to follow you on there (or if they are not on Facebook set them up a business page and suggest how they could use it to their advantage, and get their business page to "like" yours). If your clients use facebook often, they will see your posts and always keep you in mind. Business owners generally know other business owners also and so if you keep at the forefront of their mind you might always come up in a conversation.

All web design companies should be blogging and writing content, so you can also set up your blog to link to your facebook page so it shows your blog posts too. If you write articles based around how businesses need x,y,z (services you can provide), your client might take an interest in this post, read it, ask you more about it, and like it/share it with their business owner friends who might want some of the action.

That's at least how I interprate how a FB page should be used as a designer/developer/agency.

It is a long shot, with a lot of ifs and buts, and takes effort obviously, but it is one stream of interaction with business people that might, just might get you a contract.

 

[Anton-JandJ]

and don't forget you can also integrate social media accounts. So you can set twitter to post everything you post of the Facebook page. You could always set up on flickrr, pinterest, storify and any other imagery based network to showcase your designs and ideas, and again these can link to your facebook and twitter feeds.

 

[ukwebdev1984]

It's all a bit of a ball ache really. As I am a developer on my own at the moment, writing code all day, talking to clients and bringing more work in doesn't leave much room for writing blog posts...plus as a non-creative person i would struggle to come up with an interesting 2 word article every day, never mind 500-1000 words; also finding topics to write about every day! Thats 365 topics a year, about what!

 

[Anton-JandJ]

Totally agree mate, it's definitely not a daily thing to do and as you say, what the hell can you write about that's interesting?

Seems a lot of it is a big effort for probably fairly small, if any gain.