As a freelance web developer or designer, the main challenge you’ll face is establishing your brand name to the general public. But as someone who’s more fascinated with the technical side of this field, your strengths aren’t marketing but rather being creative and provide your clients with graphic and web design services. Therefore, the thought of marketing yourself might not sound fascinating. After all, it isn’t something you have the knowledge and experience of doing. 

With that said, learning how to promote yourself as a web designer is essential as this is the only way to make potential clients know of the services you offer.  If you fail to do this, then your venture as a web designer is bound to be one filled with lots of setbacks. To avoid such scenarios, check out this blog on valuable tips on promoting yourself as a web designer. 

Meanwhile, here are some ways to advertise your skills and expertise:

1. Find Your Niche

Web design is extensive and entails numerous different kinds of projects and services. This includes e-commerce websites, social media marketing, search engine optimization, web development, logo design, illustration, print design, website maintenance, package design, and custom WordPress themes. Therefore, it’s vital that you first identify the service you’re looking to provide your potential clients before marketing yourself. 

Choosing the service to offer helps you optimize your products and services around the niche. This is recommended instead of providing a broad range of serveries. Otherwise, you may not be very convincing to prospective clients because they may not be fully convinced of your ability to handle their projects. You need to specify the particular niche you’re skilled at, which will help you develop more targeted queries. 

2. Create A Blog 

When promoting yourself as a web designer, your goal should be to increase your industry exposure and maximize your online presence. Starting a blog helps you attain this goal without breaking a sweat, as it’s an excellent platform where you can build your brand. This is possible since a blog enables you to generate the needed traffic and even land well-paying clients. 

But for your blog to be effective, it needs to be updated with great and insightful content constantly. Doing this is necessary as you want to rank higher on search engines, and it’s because of this, the phrase ‘content is king’ has become very popular. Well-written blog posts on your blog will help build your brand’s positive image, proving that you’re a professional web designer without a doubt.  

3. Ask For Customer Testimonials 

Potential clients usually love seeing reviews on products or services before they proceed to make a purchase. Knowing this, it’s best if you’d reach out to your current client base and request that they post honest feedback on the quality of your products or services. 

Some of the platforms they can post this review include:

  • Yelp 
  • Google 
  • Facebook 
  • Your site 
  • Better Business Bureau

Seeing these testimonials from previous clients gives your prospective customer the added confidence that you’re indeed a talented and skilled web designer. This strategy is a lot more effective, unlike directly marketing yourself that you consistently deliver high-quality services. The best part about customer referrals is that it’s a very effective marketing strategy leading to increased sales despite being simpler to retain, cheaper, and boasts greater lifetime values. 

4. Create An Online Portfolio 

Your prospective clients want to see your work before they can hire to gauge whether the quality of your work is acceptable. An effective way of clear displaying such information is by building an online portfolio that showcases your skills and expertise. 

Some of the things you need to include in your portfolio include; 

  • A logo: This should be a graphic representation of who you are, your values, and the services you offer instead of a decorative symbol that holds no meaning. 
  • An identifiable domain name:  Because you’re looking to build your brand, it’s best to use your domain name if possible. If not, your company name is equally effective. 
  • Your previous work: This is a portfolio of your projects you’ve completed successfully in the past for your potential clients to check out and gauge your credibility.  
  • Your professional site: When reaching out to your new clients, first impressions last. Therefore, you must ensure that your site is simple to navigate and boasts an appealing look by incorporating attractive color schemes.
  • Call-to-Action: Prospective customers always want that nudge to convince them into doing business with you. This is what including a call-to-action helps you accomplish.  

Having an online portfolio is thus recommended as it allows you to showcase your expertise to your potential clients. 

5. Networking 

Like with any other business, a network is indispensable to propel you towards success as a web designer.  You can do this in different ways, including; 

  • Offering free webinars: This technique effectively reaches out to persons who aren’t in your local area. You should use these webinars to provide valuable information to the interested parties rather than necessarily promoting your services.     
  • Meeting your clients face-to-face: The effectiveness of face-to-face meetings shouldn’t be underestimated in helping you land new clients. Knowing this, you should organize such meetings with potential clients within your locality. This way, you’ll be in a position to build a rapport with such clients and convincing them to buy your products or services.    
  • Attending local networking events: You also should prioritize attending local events as these are ideal places where you can meet different people. These events are usually sponsored by local organizations or the local commerce chamber, hence attracting many small business owners. Therefore, you should capitalize on this as an excellent opportunity to boost your brand as a web designer.
  • Attend workshops or seminars: Another great way of meeting new clients is by attending local workshops or seminars. Your goal at these seminars should be to showcasing your knowledge and capability of delivering quality work to your potential clients and not market your services. After seeing this, you’ll no doubt be approached by an interested client. 

Takeaway 

Promoting yourself as a web designer doesn’t entail the use of sleazy sales tactics or needless self-promotion. Instead, it starts with you understanding and being self-aware of your brand. It’s only after grasping this that you’ll be in a position to consistently land clients who pay you relatively well for always delivering quality work on time.

Also Read: 11 Tips To Become A More Creative Web Designer

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