Choose a target market (find a niche)

When starting out, it's tempting to try to appeal to everyone.

The general line of thinking being "having 1000 potential leads for work is better than having 100 potential leads". Unfortunately, the thinking is flawed.

The thinking is flawed because not all leads are created equal: a local, small business might use a freelance web designer to create a web site for them whereas an international bank probably won't, for example.

And there we have it - we've already started to define our target market. Rather than just offering "web design" perhaps "web design for small businesses in Leeds" is more appealing to companies we are trying to reach?

The trick is to narrow your offering until prospective clients feel you are more relevant to them than the competition. Always consider the following when thinking about what you can offer and who you want to reach.

- Place
Where you are is important. If you want to reach companies in York, then tell York!

- Price
Are you hoping to find a £800,000 project with an established multi-national or can you help startup companies with a more conservative budget?

- Product
Do you have one or two key products to offer? Perhaps you specialise in creating online brochures, online animations, online shops or sites optimised for search engines. Perhaps you offer sites based on templates that can be up and running the same day?

- Promotion
Could you offer a promotion to your target market? For example "10% discount to new startup businesses".

- Past performance
Boast about your past achievements, especially if they form a niche. For example "we specialise in online shops for clothing retailers" or "we have built web sites for more than 25 different yoga instructors".

Write a fantastic sales letter

First impressions count. If you'd rather not enlist the help of a copywriter, one of these books might prove helpful:
  • How to Write Sales Letters That Sell by: Drayton Bird
  • The Ultimate Sales Letter: Attract New Customers. Boost Your Sales by: Dan S. Kennedy
  • I Want To Buy Your Product... Have You Sent Me A Letter Yet? by: Carol, AE Bentley
  • The Complete Sales Letter Book: Model Letters for Every Selling Situation (Sharpe Professional) by: Rhonda Harris, Ann McIntyre
  • Streetwise Sales Letters (Adams Streetwise Series) by: Sue Reynard, David Weiss



Build a portfolio

Most prospective clients will want to see a portfolio of your work. It's important your portfolio shows a wide range of your working styles: if all your example work has a very 'corporate' feel, for example, the owner of a toy shop may not be confident you can produce something 'fun'.

When you are putting your portfolio together, think about practical considerations:

- Print hardcopies
Print screen grabs of your work onto good quality paper and leave them with your prospective client. They are far more likely to pick them up and show colleagues, friends and family. This also is advantageous if certain visual elements of your site are deprecated in some browsers.

- Provide a link to your portfolio
Your prospective client is busy with other things. Provide a direct link to your portfolio, so they do not have to navigate through your site.

- Know the numbers behind the examples
If you're asked how long an example site took to build or how much it cost, make sure you answer the question succinctly and set realistic expectations about what you can achieve within a budget or timeframe.

- Know the people behind the examples
If you are including a site in your portfolio, ask the owner if they would be willing to act as a reference or write a short paragraph endorsing your work.

If you need to build the number of examples in your portfolio, consider designing a site for a charity.


Hope someone finds this useful :-)


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