How to increase inquiries to your web design business!
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Do you wake up in the morning and feel disappointed straight away?
You know you shouldn't, but the first thing you do is check your inbox, and yet again you see that no new clients inquired for your services.
You're struggling to get clients to show an interest in your services and it's leading you to feel stressed, anxious and fearful.
Will my business work?
How long can I keep this going for without new clients coming in?
Should I just throw in the towel already?
The good news is, many service providers have overcome this and you absolutely can too!
I actually FAILED at my business the first time I tried going full-time.
I wasn't getting the inquiries and therefore client projects I needed to keep my business afloat, so within after a grand total of two weeks full-time in my business, I went running back to the safety of a normal job.
But thankfully, I picked myself back up again, looked critically at the mistakes I made the first time around and made a plan to change it for try #2.
I took a second crack at going full-time in my web design business a few months later, and by implementing what I'll teach you in this post, that second try at going full-time was a runaway success.
I started receiving a CLIENT INQUIRY A DAY, I was able to book out my freelance services months in advance, and I even became so in-demand I doubled my prices too.
So what EXACTLY will change the game for you and lead to client inquiries coming in DAILY?
You need to truly understand what marketing is, how it works and how to pick a marketing strategy that fits YOU!
Not the marketing strategy that all your competitors are killing it with which you feel pressured into doing because it's "the thing."
If I asked you "what is your marketing strategy" the answer can't be "every social media under the sun, plus a bit of ads, blogging, posting in groups and in-person networking too."
Or I guess it could be your answer... but if it is, that's probably why you're struggling and waking up every day STILL without a client inquiry coming in!
Why doesn't this work? Well because there are 4 key ingredients to getting those client inquiries rolling in daily.
Step one to increase your client inquiries - master one strategy only
The first ingredient is exceptional mastery of one marketing strategy (and only one!).
Every platform is different. What will make you successful on Instagram is different from what will make you successful with a blog which is still different from what will make you successful with in-person networking or podcasting or PR.
Each marketing platform has it's own STRATEGY.
Not to mention if you're doing any online marketing strategy, the platforms are changing daily. What worked on Instagram 2 years or even 6 months ago isn't the same as what works today.
So if you're a solo business owner and not a marketing strategy, don't set yourself up for failure by trying to keep up with the best strategy for a zillion different marketing strategies at once.
Pick one.
That's truly all you need. Myself and all my most successful freelance friends all had this in common, we picked ONE marketing strategy and learned it like the back of our hands, studied it in our free time and took note of what was working with that strategy or others.
Step two - choose a marketing strategy you enjoy
This brings me to ingredient 2… genuinely liking the marketing strategy that you choose!
My husband could smash in-person networking every day of the week. People love him and the man is as charming as it gets.
Myself on the other hand, when I walk into a room full of people I don't know at a co-working space, conference or event, the only thing I want to do is walk directly back out the door I came in from!
Introducing myself to new people and striking up conversations with strangers does NOT play to my strengths!
I also HATE social media and showing up on it, posting my life on it, so that's not really for me either.
I did however come to the realisation, I absolutely ADORE creating long-from, helpful content, like this video or blog posts!
Turns out, writing blogs or video scripts plays to one of my strengths too, I learned I have a natural skill at explaining educational topics in a way others may easily understand.
And when you have a natural talent for something, it's easier to stick with it.
Not sure which marketing strategy is for you. Take the free quiz to find out! 👇👇👇
Step three - be consistent with your marketing strategy
Consistency! You might not like it, but you know it, anytime you watch a video or interview on the secrets to incredible peoples success, consistency is mentioned.
Consistency is the magic ingredient that separates the people who are successful at business, fitness, and honestly life in general from those who aren't, and this key ingredient is also vital for a marketing strategy too.
Now mastery, liking the strategy and consistency might all be well and good, but it all won't work without step 4...
Step four - Choose a marketing strategy which is somewhere your ideal client is likely to find you.
Marketing isn't honestly that complicated.
For the longest time I told myself "I hate marketing, I'm bad at marketing, I don't understand marketing." and the truth was, I was totally overcomplicating the whole thing.
Marketing truly is just is getting in front of your ideal clients. That's it.
It's figuring out who your people are and where they hang out and then showing up in their world.
So for you to smash it with marketing what you need to do is figure out who your people are, where they hang out either online or in real life and find a way to get in front of them and let them know you exist and can serve them!
So if your ideal clients are younger guys, Reddit could be your ticket, whereas if females are your target, you'd be a lot more successful at getting in front of them on Pinterest than Reddit.
If your people are commuters working a 9-5 job, hosting your own podcast or guesting on other people's podcasts would be perfect to get in front of busy people who listen to a podcast on their commute to work.
If you offer a service which requires meeting your clients in person and being in their local area, like photography, or even if you offer a service like web-design but you only want to serve people in your country or language, your time would be best spent on an in-person marketing strategy, and then your next task would be to determine which physical locations, events, markets, cafes, clubs, and maybe even co-working spaces they attend.
Coming back to that time I tried and failed to go full-time with my business, let's look at what I was doing wrong.
Common Marketing Strategy Mistakes
Doing too much!
I made a big long list of potential marketing strategies and did them all.
This meant I didn't master any platform.
I was too busy running around like a chicken with my head cut off and rushing through my list to be "as productive as possible" because I needed clients "now" that I didn't take time to learn what the deeper strategy and best practices was behind the marketing strategies I was attempting, like pitching clients, blogging, being "active in Facebook groups," Instagram, and Pinterest because honestly I was just too darn busy trying to do everything that I did everything badly.
Doing a strategy that makes you miserable
I followed that up with flopping hard on ingredient number 2, liking the marketing strategy.
I figured I wasn't in some luxury position here, I needed clients NOW so screw my joy, I needed to work and put my nose to the grindstone, doing every strategy under the sun, even if I hated it.
At least that's what I thought.
What happened however was super counterproductive. I would look at my long list of marketing strategies, DREAD doing them and then start procrastinating.
I updated my portfolio, changed my pricing and tweaked the copy on my website instead.
All of these were useless as no one was going to the website in the first place and THAT was the actual problem.
I needed to be marketing, but instead I was avoiding it because I didn't like the marketing strategies which I felt like I had to be doing.
And do you know what avoiding these marketing strategies and procrastinating led to?
A lack of consistency.
The snowball was not building, I was not gaining momentum in any one area because I wasn't consistent with anything.
The one thing I was kindaaa doing correctly was showing up in front of my ideal clients.
I did know where my people would mostly be… Instagram, Facebook groups, Google and Pinterest and so I tried to do all of them.
Of course, now I know, while my people were in those places I had chosen to show up, I still wasn't seeing progress because I had chosen to do too many strategies.
So how to you determine this magical unicorn marketing strategy which you can master, which you genuinely like, which you'll be consistent with AND which gets you in front of your people?
You could either…
Spend a coupla hours writing out a list of all the potential marketing strategies out there and then rate each by the criteria I mentioned,
or … you can make your life easy and take my quiz. Within 60 seconds you'll know which client finding method matches your personality type! 👇👇👇
You're not done yet however! Picking your marketing strategy is just Step 1!
When you pick your marketing strategy I want you to commit to it, fully.
That means no flip-flopping back to something later. So when you pick your strategy I want you to commit publicly to it.
Step 2 to being successful with your new found marketing strategy is to learn allll you can about it.
My strategy which I picked back in the day which really turned things around for me and led to the client inquiries coming in daily was blogging!
Once I picked that strategy I went all in learning about it.
I took courses on it
sought out those who were also doing this strategy exceptionally well
and studied them and their blog. What was it which made me interested in it? What posts most intrigued me? What did I like about some blogs but dislike about others?
Success leaves clues, so go find those being successful with your strategy and study them.
If that person has been on a podcast and explains how they implement their strategy, that will be a gold mine too! Get obsessed with learning about your strategy and implement what you learn accordingly!
Step 3. Is to do your marketing strategy consistently.
In order to do this however, you need to decide what consistently means for you.
Does daily, weekly, monthly or some other frequency feel right? You decide!
And once you decide, make the space in your calendar for it.
Choosing to post on Instagram daily but not setting aside any space in your day to do so is a guaranteed road to failure.
So pick the frequency, estimate how long it'll take you and set that time aside in your calendar.
The final bit I'd suggest to stay consistent.
Decide this is your priority.
There's so much power in a decision like that.
When I decided blogging was my priority, I suddenly felt okay to push other projects, or spend whatever amount of time it took to complete a blog post because I knew this was genuinely the most important work I could be spending my time and energy on. If you currently don't have client inquiries coming in, it's pretty safe to say that this should be your top priority!
Now I do hate to break it to you, but even after you work through the ingredients and complete the steps I've shared it still might not be enough to get those client inquiries coming in daily.
Here's the thing.
Nailing your marketing strategy will indeed get clients coming to your site. BUT in order for them to inquire, there's 1 vital piece that needs to be on your website and be done well!
And that is a portfolio of drop dead killer work.
But how exactly do you create a portfolio if you don't have paying clients right now? Watch this video next and I'll untangle that conundrum for you too!
Pst… no inspiration for creating mock portfolio pieces? Grab my free mock client briefs to get started!
