01Find businesses whose website is costing them
Look for problems a business owner can see for themselves: no website at all, a site that breaks on a phone, a blog platform standing in for a business site, or a site that never shows up when customers search for the service in town.
Actually, we are looking to redesign our website. Right now we are just using a wordpress blog platform and we want something more official. We don't need a lot of maintenance on it throughout the year, since we only need to update it when we open auditions (summer and December). We would like to use our current domain:
That owner knew the site wasn't right before anyone emailed them. Your job is to reach businesses like that while they are thinking about it.
02Where to look
- Map listings for one trade in one town: businesses with a phone number but no website, or a website that hasn't changed in years.
- Searches for the service plus the town: who is missing from page one.
- LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook groups: slower, but good for owners who already post.
- Clients you've already built for: ask who they know.
Whatever the channel, the message that works names the business and one thing about its site that it can check.
03What they ask first: price, samples, who you are
We counted every reply in one client's file. Of 85, 33 mention price, a quote, cost or budget; 10 ask for samples, examples or past work; 8 ask who you are or where you're based. Have all three answers ready before your first email goes out.
How much will it cost me
Send me some examples
What company are you with?
If you can keep the price around 200-400$ we can chat more about having a web design from you.
04How to answer each one
- Price: give a range for the kind of site they described, and say what moves it. “It depends” on its own loses them.
- Samples: two or three sites in their trade or close to it, with links that work on a phone.
- Who you are: your business name, where you're based and how long you've done this, in two lines.
- Calls: if they ask you to call, call that day.
05Read the scope in the reply
Replies often describe the job. Quote their words back in your proposal: it shows you read it, and it keeps the quote to what they asked for.
How much? We are a Cleaning company and ideally would just need the website to have a contact form, a way to book appointments and a page or so for our portfolio pictures.
Hey, Can you customize square compatible websites? If so I am interested in a quote.
06What happened when the replies came in
Vishal Sharma runs Web Trend Setter, a web design and development agency in the United States. In his words: “We were able to get 20 qualified leads of booking appointments in a week, and out of that, 3 got converted.” Watch him say it.
07Do it yourself, or buy the replies
Finding these businesses and getting them to reply takes hours of list building and writing every week. If you'd rather spend that time on proposals, we run the outreach and deliver the replies, exclusive to you, at a price per lead. See how our web design leads work.