Web designers spend their days behind the screen, building the many different parts that ultimately come together to create a stunning website. Hours and hours of concentration and communication – that all happens online – are required before the website is complete.
The world of web design requires designers to continually form new relationships with brand new clients who have brand new websites that need building. Quality web designers should work to establish good relationships with potential clients. Here are three tips for growing authentic relationships:
- Anticipate your audience’s needs
- Create a quality product
- Help your clients feel connected to you
If you apply these three tips to your web design business, you’ll be on the way to authentically engaging your audience.
How To Anticipate Your Audience’s Needs
If you already have plenty of experience as a web designer, then you have some familiarity with what needs different clients might have. Clients who have less experience with online business will need more hand holding and will have more questions about the web design process.
Clients who are more experienced with online business might make more suggestions that are or aren’t helpful, or they might be more trusting about the process. Alternatively, you might have a client who’s somewhere in the middle, who needs some reassurance but doesn’t have too many questions about the process.
Whichever type of client you encounter, it’s your job to anticipate their needs. Have answers ready to their questions. Be patient with them and offer them support. Explain how you’ve handled similar issues in past projects. Make sure you are consistently professional and helpful at every stage of the web design process.
Keep This in Mind to Create a Quality Product
More than anything else, it’s your job to make your client’s website shine. By establishing a smooth flow from page to page, you will make the website intuitive for your client’s online customers. A smooth, intuitive website leads to more business for your client, which makes them happy and proves that you did your job well.
Creating a quality product will build trust between you and your client. Earning their trust might lead your client to mention your name when they are speaking to friends who need web design services. Word-of-mouth is a fantastic way to grow your client base.
But word-of-mouth only works if you build a quality product. Take time to make sure you are truly meeting all of your client’s needs, and build a beautiful website that both you and your client can be proud of.
How to Help Your Clients Feel Connected to You
Last but not least, in order to engage your clients you need to help them feel connected to you. This is perhaps the most important way that you can move clients from the “interested” to the “you’re hired!” phase.
Web design services are advertised, of course, online, so your number one priority is making sure that your website proves to your customer that you can build them a beautiful website.
The first item on your to do list is to make sure that you have a high-quality headshot. This connects customers with the face behind the name and establishes your credibility – you are a real person with an online presence who can build this website for them, and they know exactly what you look like.
The second item is to highlight your best work in your portfolio. Make sure that your images are high-quality, but don’t forget the text! The copy on your website is critically important in helping your clients understand how you got from a blank page to the beautiful result they see. Explain what the process entailed and how you brought your own unique flair to the website build.
The third task is to include client testimonials. Seek out previous clients and ask them to provide feedback on your work, and then highlight their comments on your web page. Make sure you include a link to their website, as well as a description of one unique challenge that you solved in building it.
Finally, it’s important that you show clients exactly how to get in touch with you. Make it easy for them to contact you on every page by including a call to action button that helps them start the conversation. A short phrase like “Let’s Chat” or “Work With Me” makes it easy for your potential clients to start a conversation.
In Conclusion
By anticipating your audience’s needs, creating a quality product, and connecting with your potential clients, you can establish authentic relationships. You should always put the client’s needs first while charging a fair rate.
The need for web design services will only continue to grow, and it’s important to show just how you can connect with your clients and deliver the stunning website they need.