With the emergence of new technologies and in the midst of a pandemic, taking advantage of tools and leveraging the opportunities available is a great idea. According to several statistics, the average person spends 6 hours and 42 minutes every day online in this digital age. As a result, we can safely conclude that the internet and mobile devices have altered everyone’s life, allowing for seamless communication and stress-free work.

There are several advantages to owning a web design business. After all, there has never been a better time to run and scale a digital agency using the internet. Online solutions that allow for more efficient project management and networking with clients and team members provide cutting-edge techniques to build an efficient workflow and communication process. When done properly and intelligently, starting a flourishing web design firm from the bottom up can be quite rewarding. Let’s take a look at some tried-and-true methods for turning your design studio into more than just a fun hobby.

#1. Establish a Strong Marketing Strategy

In order to stay afloat, every web design company needs a long-term marketing strategy. Customers will not know about you until you have strong marketing. A great marketing strategy ensures that new clients come to you looking for your services on a regular basis, and it is the lifeblood of any business.

There are numerous marketing options available to web designers, some of which are available online and others that are available in person. Depending on your situation and the cash available, not all of these solutions will be the greatest fit, and some will provide a much higher return than others.

Dan Close, Founder & CEO at We Buy Houses in Kentucky says “I strongly believe that Companies should budget up to 40% of annual gross revenue for marketing and advertising in order to scale.  As you get off the ground, you might have to pay these fees out of pocket until you start seeing ROI that confirms its value and enables you to pay your employees from business profits instead.”

#2. Reach Where Your Clients Are Active

While there’s no doubting that social media has a wide reach, it’s also true that not all of your clients use it. As a result, for your web development company’s continued success, you must look beyond social media. Listing your company on online B2B platforms is a sensible way to ensure this. Make sure to display your company’s rate chart so that potential clients can contact you with their project requirements.

Email marketing or providing proposals to clients via email is another feasible option. You should directly contact your desired client base if you have quality leads and the ability to reach out to them in person. To avoid spamming others, take some steps.

Tyson Stevens, Founder of EduRef suggests “Online tools let you monitor social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest for mentions of your brand or industry. You can then use these tools to engage with people talking about what you’re doing and respond quickly with helpful information for people looking for it.”

#3. Learn How to Sell Your Services

According to Adam Fard, Founder & Head Of Design at Adam Fard’ UX Agency “The first thing you should learn is how to sell your services to people who are looking for them. Even if you have a lot of knowledge with UI, UX, CSS, and HTML, if you can’t persuade any client to pay you, your business will most likely remain stagnant for a long time”

There are numerous ways to market something; we are constantly offered something on television, on our social media accounts, and even on the streets. Each seller has his or her unique style of selling, and you must always keep in mind that what worked for someone else may not necessarily work for you.

Daniel F. Carter, Marketing Manager of Loanx adds “Putting out content whenever you can is an excellent strategy to advertise your services. The more people who know what you can do, the more customers you’ll get.”

#4. Focus on a Specific Area of Interest (Niche)

Choosing to service a particular niche for your web agency has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. Although not being able to market to every type of organization may appear to be a drawback, specializing can lead to greater closure rates since clients believe you are the greatest fit among all of the more generic firms. After all, when you focus on serving a specific sector of the clients, you build more trust. They believe you have a greater understanding of their particular business.

Mark Valderrama, CEO & Founder of Aquarium Store Depot says “When it comes to organizing your online marketing campaign, drilling down to a target market can be beneficial.” You may target those who are already interested in the niche you want to serve through advertising networks like Facebook. It’ll also be easy to personalize your landing pages and website to those users, making them feel more at ease with you.

#5. Great Customer Service

A service agency can not last long if it does not provide excellent customer service. Unhappy customers lead to negative reviews, a terrible word-of-mouth reputation, and, ultimately, a company that drives prospects away. Just one angry influencer tweeting about their bad experience with your brand can prevent thousands of potential customers. Don’t be fooled: newbies who are contemplating employing you will want to look at your Google My Business or social media reviews page, and they will be put off if they find out that others have had problems with your company. Because of that seemingly one-star review and the comment made beneath it, they may reject you outright and hire someone else.

On the other hand, strong customer service leads to a positive reputation and, in many cases, client referrals, which leads to more high-quality work. Clients will return to you for their website and design needs as a consequence of exceptional customer service, as well as a great working relationship each time there is an interaction. It distinguishes you from competitors who do not prioritize it. Tim Parker, Director of Marketing at Syntax Integration says “Customer service excellence will ensure that your company maintains the greatest levels of professionalism and dependability, as well as generate more five-star reviews to entice potential new clients.

#6. Offer Referral Rewards Programs

A well-designed referral rewards system is built around incentivizing prior customers to promote you to their friends and colleagues. Having such a program in place can help you build a network of high-quality clients who trust you right away. After all, so-and-so came highly recommended you. You can thank your clients for giving you more work by providing services at no cost to them. Also, send them follow-up emails to remind them to collect their incentives once their tasks are finished.

Edward Mellett, Founder of Wikijob.uk says “Despite being in a digital world, one of the most effective ways we have grown our business has been through recommendations. We have always prided ourselves on maintaining a high standard of customer service, and we make sure we make the most of our happy clients by asking for feedback and testimonials we can share in our marketing. We also keep existing clients up to date with new services through our newsletter, leading to repeat business and referrals.

#7. Build a Strong Team

Every day, there are new businesses looking for a website, as well as established businesses looking to update their outdated ones. In fact, if you start getting a consistent stream of business, it can quickly become overwhelming. Are you trying to complete all of the tasks on your own?

Jay Bats, Co-Founder & Developer at ContentBASE says “Many business owners or web design freelancers who are trying to expand their web design business continue to try to handle everything themselves, confident that they will get the work done correctly and will not have to worry about delegating responsibility.” He further adds “This is the most significant impediment to scaling. They quickly get overwhelmed by work and their own limitations, and they are obliged to turn down new tasks because they are physically incapable of taking on any more.”

#8. Create a Blog

One of the reasons why web design is such a competitive business is that clients have acknowledged that the number of web developers they can hire is limitless. They can acquire web developers for half the price of a professional thanks to the thousands of freelancers out there.

With so much competition, you’ll need to set yourself out from the rest of the pack. Creating a blog is a simple method to accomplish this. Personal blogs enable you to stand out in a big manner. You can write 3 to 5 weekly pieces regarding web development methods or weekly tutorials; the choice is entirely yours.

Aziz Ash, Head of Marketing at Rewaa says “You’ll need user-generated content that demonstrates your agency’s social side. This can be accomplished by authoring blog articles that invite readers to respond to questions or by sharing images of your team participating in events and discussing their work. This aids in the formation of a link between web design businesses and their clients, which can be easily exploited in future sales pitches if someone is considering working with you without first meeting you.”

#9. Continue to Learn New Skills:

It’s no longer enough to know how to write or paste ready-made plugins onto a framework in the world of online design and development. You’ll need to understand the fundamentals of web design and development before you can effectively grow your business to new heights.

Before you can genuinely call yourself a master of the trade, you’ll need to immerse yourself in everything there is to know about design and development. Sure, you might be able to get by with some basic design and programming skills at first, but if you actually want to succeed, it will not be enough.

Bradley Bonnen, Founder & CEO at iFlooded Restoration adds “Having a basic understanding of computer languages such as HTML, JavaScript, CSS, DotNet, and PHP, as well as above-average design skills using Photoshop or other design applications, will help you grow your agency. The greater your knowledge, the more it will show in your work.”

Technology evolves at a rapid pace, which can be both beautiful and stressful, especially if you’re struggling to keep up with it. You’ll want to remain ahead of most trends to keep your web development agency thriving and solvent. The suggestions in this post are some of the easy ways to grow and expand your business.