My Website Design Services... No passive sales..

11 replies
So I've been running my website design service for nearly one year
And Almost 99% of my client are friends, relatives, recommended by friends.. etc

This is really a big issue for me, because there's an end for this kind of way i get sales
I've been reading a lot online, but still not sure what's the best I should focus in.

Please give me advice

1) Do SEO for my website design service website
There's too many competitors, It'll take alot of investment and time for getting myself rank, and it's still not a sure thing, and even if it's ranked, i doubt ppl in my country will hire me just after found me on Google.

2) Email marketing
I seriously had no knowledge about this, what I do now is just write a good content about intro my service and send it to any people i could find online, which most of them got ignored or just rejected..

3)SEM / local website advertising
So, another thing that I personally think it's effective, but need advice if i am on the right way of thinking, i plan to paid top forums, b2b, business, news website in my country to advertisemy sservice, they're quite expensive, like a tiny spot cost me $100-300 for a month..

4) Cold call / Offline marketing
I tried this, i am not good at talking and PR, basically i never success on this.

What should i do ? Anything else is suggested ?
Thanks for any help !
#design #passive #sales #services #website
  • Profile picture of the author miklanderson2
    First, stop spamming people by sending e-mails to addresses you've found online. That isn't email marketing. It's spam and you aren't going to drum up much business that way. I would forget about SEO also, for the reasons you listed and because Google is constantly making algorithm changes that could wipe out your business in one swoop.

    Have you tried selling your services here on the warrior forum? You could get some testimonials from happy customers and set up an ad here.
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  • Profile picture of the author razorz18
    I would suggest you to use previous past work to be as your testimonial. Ask them to share it in your Facebook profile and probably you need to do fanpage for your website. Start doing promotion slowly to your friends. You can start advertising or get likes as low as $5/day. Surely its not that great but if you do correctly you will see the result in no time. Use email marketing as tool to promote your offer. Ask your fan/anyone to optin and give them special price for first order. At least, you get their email and make a sale. Both win-win situation for you and customer. Provide a clear navigation on your website for your customer to purchase or contact you. Optimize your website for keyword that related to your service. Focus on the buying keywords.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Selling web services isn't normally very successful passively. You're going to have to get good at selling offline to local and other businesses.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Pagulayan
    I've once planned a promotion for a web design company and first thing that you really have to do is to know who your prospects are.

    Are you targeting businesses? Blog owners? ecommerce? others?

    Web design companies have this misconception that they have to target every website owner out there ... which is not supposed to be the case (unless you have a budget big enough to burn).

    You can't say everyone because your marketing needs to be targeted to a sub set.

    Once you find out who your prospects are, it's time for customer acquisition. This is where you're efforts should be 80% of the time.

    How?

    Let's say you're targeting blog owners. What do you think would make them sign up and give their email? you can set up a squeeze page asking for their email and in exchange, give them a free report or manual like "32 ways to increase blog engagement".

    A sneaky trick would be to include "good web design" as one of the ways to increase blog engagement with a link back to your site. That's just one of the ways to promote your site.

    Once they opt in you can now promote your business anytime you want without being spammy because now you have their permission.

    I encounter these scenarios quite often as a consultant and I always tell my clients that their business is no different than others and same marketing principles apply whether you're promoting a product or a service.

    Instead of investing $100 to $300 on a small ad spot, hire someone who will create and plan your marketing for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    When I was actively taking on web and print design customers, I got most of my customers from freelance boards (Elance). I also got a lot of customers from Craigslist. Got quite a few from word of mouth from happy customers. I don't believe I ever got one just from having a website sitting around on the web passively.
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    Put up your own site with a portfolio. Open a thread in Warrior's For Hire. Get a Twitter account and tweet about Web designing. Get a Facebook fan page and write about Web design. Show off your best creations. Create nice Web template packages and sell them as WSOs. Create a sig file on one of the busiest forums in the world. You're on it now.

    Advertise on CraigsList. Yes, you can actually offer services there without spamming. Advertise for free on eBay's free classified site. Have kids pass out flyers for you. Call local businesses where you live and offer them sites. Put up business cards and small flyers on supermarket bulletin boards. Join the chamber of commerce in your town and attend meetings. This ain't exactly rocket science.

    Pick up a five dollar book on bootstrapping marketing tactics and do the stuff that appeals to you. Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nathan Kruz
    I recommend that you post ads on craiglist or a classifieds website. Thats where I use to get TONS of clients.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dbm811
    In april 2014 i started a web design business in my home contry and i had the same issu, there are so many competitores and how do i get noticed and i found out that making cheap offers on sites where people can sell used things made it possible to get customers but i wouldent make any nice profit from it, but thats not important in the beginning, when the site is build i made sure to include my url in the footer (brand name) this will help my ranking and my customers let others know about my business, that will in time make my business grow and make you more profits.

    Do local promotions on sites that allow listings and sell your service cheap in the beginning, Door to door promotion and contacting other local businesses is the best way to get started.

    Be confident and helpful when speaking to a potential customer, they need to feel confident about your service. Good Luck
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  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
    Business networking.

    Get out from behind your desk and go meet people.
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  • Profile picture of the author Manish Sapkota
    Sell your service in freelancing site like odesk, elance, fiverr, etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author cyberzolo
    That is not a very good business to build passive income because most of the time you have to be there to make money.
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