How to Get Web Design Clients Fast (Part 1) — Smashing Magazine

Once you start thinking about your work as an ongoing service, everything changes. Instead of one-off sales with inconsistent cash flow and constant selling, you’ll be generating income each month with minimal maintenance work, like site refreshes and seasonal updates. And instead of a big project taking all your time, you’ll be able to sign on new clients quickly.

When you create your pricing, it’s a good idea to have more than one tier. Have at least two options: a basic plan and another package with more features. Different customers have different budgets, and you want prices that are attractive to everyone. We’ve done well with three plans priced at $30, $50, and $100 USD per month.

We also recommend against ever charging web design agency services by the hour—if that’s how you do it now, consider changing your pricing method. As a designer, your goal is to get faster at designing great websites, and you shouldn’t be punished for this! For example, we developed the website builder Sitejet for our team. It cut our design time by 70%—but we still get paid the same. Our pricing scheme rewards us for efficiency, so we’re always trying to design great sites in less time.

The key to great marketing is to show how a website leads to more sales. When you work in the web development business, it’s easy to focus on the technical details behind the sites you create, but that’s a mistake. Don’t talk about a custom theme or better UX design. Instead, talk about getting featured on search engines or attracting customers who expect a modern website.