With only 29% of small businesses promoting themselves through websites in 2020, demand for skilled web designers will continue to be essential to online marketing. Therefore, it’s crucial that you understand how to successfully market your web design business.
Did you know that web designers like you can adapt existing skills to connect successfully with customers? To help you learn how, in this article, we’ll examine how to market a web design business by using the following strategies:
- Increasing the reach of your business with email marketing
- Using SEO to market a web design business
- Promoting your business through social media marketing
- Going the extra mile with a comprehensive marketing plan
Tools and advice to help you find clients for your web development, IT, or computer systems design business.
Increasing the reach of your business with email marketing
Want to learn how to market a web design business quickly? Try email. It’s relatively easy and will not only reach new customers but also maintain relationships with existing clients.
Email marketing remains the most effective way to promote a small business, with an average return on investment (ROI) of $42 for every $1 spent.
As a web designer, you likely have the expertise to create the elements of a marketing email — like eye-catching subject lines to catch people’s attention. You may even know how to write effective copy. These skills can be used in crafting email marketing campaigns.
Getting in touch with clients through email marketing
Before creating email marketing campaigns, it’s important to remember that you want people to sign up before receiving your messages. Never purchase an email list. Not only can you not trust the quality of such lists, but you’ll likely come across as a spammer and may even be violating the law in certain countries.
How do you get people to subscribe? Usually, by offering something of value on your website — like a webinar or downloadable guide — in exchange for their email addresses. This is a great marketing strategy since the people on your email list will then be interested in your services and expert advice.
To come up with a popular product to get people to sign up for your list, research your clients’ problems and explain how web design can solve their issues — perhaps by making their website easier to navigate or applying search engine optimization (SEO) to improve web traffic.
Types of marketing emails
Once you build an email list, you’ll want to send regular content to your subscribers that they’ll want to read. These emails usually fall into four categories.
Welcome Messages
This is the first email you’ll send. Let subscribers know what they can expect from future emails, and offer them something of value — like a free consultation — to encourage them to use your business services.
Be sure to make your welcome messages friendly and refer to each subscriber by name. By segmenting your contact lists and personalizing your emails, you can enjoy a huge ROI.
Newsletters
Email newsletters provide your readers with the information they want to read. If you’re catering to possible customers, your newsletters should contain articles and case studies on how effective web design helps businesses expand and attract more clients.
While your content shouldn’t be completely self-promotional, you can include a call-to-action (CTA) at the end to point your readers to a solution your business provides.
Educational content
Offer how-to articles on solving website problems, such as improving loading speed or making a website mobile-friendly. Content like this positions you as an expert in your field and makes it more likely that your subscribers will turn to you to solve their problems.
Promotions
Offer deals, discounts, or free additions to web design projects. Follow up with emails indicating when the special offers end to create urgency.
Effective email marketing campaigns
A high-performing email marketing campaign needs to send multiple emails in a sequence to motivate your readers to hire your web design services. While you can do this manually, it would be inefficient. Consider using an online email marketing solution.
Constant Contact offers email marketing tools that help you design professional emails, automate your campaign, manage contact lists, and track your results.
Using SEO to market a web design business
Your clients may depend on you to make their websites attractive to search engines so their businesses appear more prominently on search engine results pages (SERPs). But how SEO-friendly is your own website?
If — as a web designer — you don’t know how to market a web design business, you can’t expect your clients to trust you with creating websites that will be part of their respective marketing efforts.
Continually assessing your own web design business website is an important part of making sure clients can find your services online. Your website is an important tool in generating leads, promoting brand awareness, and more. Regular check-ups are essential.
When examining your web design business website’s SEO, follow best practices and ask yourself the following questions:
- Is your website mobile-friendly? More people are researching businesses on mobile devices, meaning that mobile-friendly websites will rank higher in SERPs.
- Do your pages load quickly? High-resolution images and videos on your pages may look great, but if those features load slowly, they can hurt your Google search rankings.
- Is your blog updated regularly? Search engines love regularly updated content — and your blog is a powerful marketing tool. Add new posts weekly or at least once a month.
- Are you using keywords properly? Using favored search terms helps you rank higher with search engines. Research popular keywords and use them throughout your website.
Promoting your business through social media marketing
Social media marketing is an effective way to attract more clients and increase awareness of your brand. For web design businesses, establishing a trustworthy brand on social media means spending time making sure all your social media posts reflect your business’s high standards.
When using social media marketing to promote your web design services, make sure to do the following.
Use high-quality images on your posts
Using sharp and properly-sized images on social media posts and account details — like headers and profile pictures — is important for all businesses but is particularly crucial for web designers.
Your clients see your social media as a reflection of how your work will look on their websites, so make sure you showcase the high-quality design and branding you want to associate with your business.
Implement SEO in your social media
SEO doesn’t end with your website. Using keyword-rich text in your social media profile can direct more online searches to your business account. Incorporating relevant hashtags on platforms like Twitter or Instagram can also make you more discoverable.
Display reviews
People use social media to research companies, so make sure to display good client reviews on your Facebook page and other social media channels. Offering written reviews can have a significant impact on whether clients choose to do business with you or not.
Going the extra mile with a comprehensive marketing plan
Having web design skills helps when promoting your business through an email marketing campaign, SEO-friendly website, or eye-catching social media posts. But there’s so much more to do when learning how to market a web design business. What’s the next step?
You can create a comprehensive plan that combines email, SEO, and social media marketing tactics. You may even explore other channels, such as direct mail or other strategies such as paid advertising or consider taking a web design questionnaire.
To get you started, check out Constant Contact’s The Download, a marketing guide that helps you make sense of how to use online marketing to your advantage.
