Where do you get your web design clients?

[adwebdesign]

How do you acquire your web design clients in the beginning? Most people's obvious answer would be through search engines - but the industry is so competitive actually gaining any results costs a lot of money and with so much competition I cannot see the actual conversion been very high.

Word of mouth is obviously fantastic when it comes along but in this industry do you find that is your main source? Does traditional advertisement such as adverts in newspapers work for you?

 

[S-Marketing]

How do you acquire your web design clients in the beginning? Most people's obvious answer would be through search engines - but the industry is so competitive actually gaining any results costs a lot of money and with so much competition I cannot see the actual conversion been very high.

Word of mouth is obviously fantastic when it comes along but in this industry do you find that is your main source? Does traditional advertisement such as adverts in newspapers work for you?

Web design is easier than almost any other business to market. My advice would be to take 1 step back and look at marketing from a strategic point of view, before cracking on with the promotional marketing.

If you get your marketing strategy right you will already have a huge advantage. Generally, web designers know very little about marketing.

 

[Leo-InstallingIT]

I don't know how most web design businesses do it as it's not something we do. However we do recommend a few designers when our IT support or Hosting clients ask about design.

So it might be worth approaching some IT firms.

 

[SalinaRoy]

Most Web designers get their new clients through recommendation from their existing clients. So it pays to keep your existing clients happy.


I think a good way of finding new clients is to trust services that are dedicated to that, like portfolio.com. It's almost like leaving "client-finding tasks" to third-parties services. Creating a facebook and linkedin page is also a powerful way of getting new clients.

 

[mierzwin]

I don't run professional web design company but 100% of my jobs come from recommendations, always keep your clients happy and they will pass your info further.

 

[zookx]

Word of mouth from existing clients has always been our main source.

Other than that it seems to be local searches on Google which bring in outside enquiries, though I must admit we've had less enquiries over the last six months coming in, presumably due to the economic climate.