How to get web design clients for your IT company
As an IT services provider, your clients place a high degree of trust in your company. After all, you’re responsible for securing their data and ensuring they’re correctly set up to operate their businesses safely and smoothly online. This position as a valued and trusted partner means that your relationships with your clients are likely long-lasting. However, it can also make it difficult to win new clients since their relationships with their existing IT services providers are entrenched.
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Demand for IT services isn’t going away any time soon, and it will likely continue to increase as more business takes place online. However, there are also more competitors in the IT space than ever before. This means that if you want to scale, relying on word-of-mouth referrals from your happy clients likely isn’t as effective a strategy as it may have been in the past.
To grow your IT business, adding related revenue streams is an excellent strategy that can help you overcome the problem of competition in the IT space.
One revenue stream that is always in demand and can add a slate of new customers to your roster is web design. We’ll go over why you should consider offering web design services, the common challenges IT companies face, and how to get web design clients so you can see your revenue grow.
Benefits of providing web design services as an IT company
Given the limited opportunities available to you if you stick to the core IT company offerings of hardware and software installation and maintenance and managed security services, offering web design can help you grow your bottom line and protect the future of your company without risk.
Get a competitive edge
With new competitors in the IT space popping up all the time, differentiating yourself is more important than ever. If you offer web design services and your competitors don’t, prospective customers have an extra incentive to choose to work with you. After all, you’ll be a one-stop shop for their digital and IT needs.
Leverage your relationships
One of your greatest assets as an IT company is that you’re a trusted expert. Your customers have already demonstrated a high degree of trust in your professionalism, competence, and ability to meet their needs. They may have already asked you in the past if you offer web design services. Now, you can leverage that trust by selling more services to each customer, increasing their overall value to your business.
Create an additional revenue stream
Resist the effect of eroding profits in an increasingly competitive landscape by building an additional revenue stream for your business. Not only can you increase the value of your existing clients, but you can also add new clients to your list.
Challenges of adding web design services
One of the most difficult aspects of growing your business is hiring the right people for the job and offering new services at scale. Since your IT clients trust you, it’s particularly important that you deliver web design services that they’re satisfied with. Hiring and managing a team to deliver web design services can be costly, and if those staff members don’t work out, it can be risky as well.
White-label web design is the solution to these common issues faced by IT companies looking to expand their offering. Instead of hiring in-house designers, you can rely on a team of experts fulfilling your web design services under your IT company brand. You don’t pay until you’ve secured a web design client, so you can avoid any potential financial risks altogether.
Since experienced professionals deliver the design work on your behalf, you can be confident that your reputation with your clients is in good hands. By using a white-label web design service, you can focus more of your efforts on sales.
How to get web design clients
Once you have your white-label web design services set up, all you have to worry about is how to get web design clients. Here are some ways to build your web design clientele alongside your core IT business.
Start with your existing client base
Your existing client list is the perfect place to start selling web design services because it’s the lowest-hanging fruit. Those clients already know you, trust you, and may have already inquired in the past about whether you can help them with their web design needs. Now, you can say yes.
Implement a referral program
Referrals may already be part of your business strategy, but if you don’t have a formal referral program yet, it’s worth putting in place. Rather than figuring out how to get web design clients on your own, you can have your existing clients do some of the work for you by offering them incentives if they successfully refer a web design client to you. This can be a discount off their next invoice or even a cash amount.
Market your new services online
Since web design will be a whole new offering for your business, focus on creating content on the subject. Add content to your website advertising your new services, such as a product page, a portfolio, and blog posts designed to improve your SEO rankings for web design services in your niche or area. You’ll also want to think about sharing social media posts to advertise that you’re now offering web design services. LinkedIn is a particularly good platform for B2B content marketing.
Cold call
The time-tested approach of prospecting for leads and cold contacting them isn’t going anywhere. Part of how to get web design clients is just playing the numbers game, and the more people know that you offer this service, the more likely you are to show up in someone’s inbox at the right time when they’re looking for web design help. Again, LinkedIn can be a good place to identify the right people to contact within an organization.
Bundle your services
By bundling the services you offer, you can incentivize existing IT clients to give their web design jobs to you as well as encourage prospective customers to consider you for both their IT and web design needs. The idea is to offer several bundles that grant clients a bigger discount the more they work with you. You don’t need to overwhelm them with a ton of options, but a few bundles can go a long way in helping you get web design clients.
Create a lead magnet
A lead magnet is usually some kind of freebie that you offer prospective customers in exchange for their email address, allowing you to market your web design services to them. This will work especially well if you address a specific niche or industry since the more specialized your lead magnet (and services) are, the more likely it is to appeal to your target audience.
For example, if you specialize in IT services in the legal sector, you might want to do the same with your web design services. Your lead magnet could be an e-book about must-have features for legal websites.