In today’s competitive landscape, growing your web design business can be difficult because you have to spend more time, resources, and energy on finding (and wooing!) those new clients. You do this in hopes that they’ll enjoy working with you and more importantly, continue to work with you. It can seem like a daunting, time-intensive task to tackle.
Luckily, growing your business can be achieved in a few different ways. You can create a rewarding referral program to increase referrals, find new ways to create recurring revenue for your current clients, or consider adding new services to your business.
Oftentimes the services you’ve already offered clients on a one-off basis are the ones you can be offering to all new and existing clients! You probably have given some thought about what services would be great to add to your business that could take it to the next level. Either way, you know your business best and know better than anyone what services can help you continue to scale. This article will help you narrow down what services you should add and create actionable steps towards adding those services.
Here are the top services to add to your web design business in 2021:
- Content marketing
- SEO strategy
- Mobile applications
- Analytics reports
- Video production
- Social media content
- Marketing research or deliverables
According to The business of web design report, the top service most digital creatives are considering adding to their business is content strategy and creation. Content marketing is the creation, publication, and promotion of web content, that’s usually monitored so its results can be tracked, measured, and in this case shared with the client.
Content strategy is a great service to add, especially if your client’s website can profit from having a blog to better inform their visitors or to drive more visitors to the site with organic SEO. Consider crafting a content strategy for them. Depending on your client’s knowledge of content marketing, this may be a super valuable service that they may not even know they need.
Creating content may seem like a bigger task to tackle, but chances are if you’ve been able to navigate this for your own business, all you have to do is replicate and apply it to clients!
Drew from Funkhaus, a web design agency in Los Angeles, recommends adding content strategy and creation as services for several reasons.
“Whether the goal is to build community, grow brand recognition, drive higher conversion rates, or grab a competitive edge, the advantage of delivering a consistent narrative and developing a digital persona that speaks directly to an audience across platforms is crucial in today’s environment.”
A great way to introduce content as a service would be with new clients! Funkhaus has a seamless process of selling content as a service that helps both them and the client get on the same page.
“When we first sit with a potential client we ask one simple question…who is your brand? If they hesitate, or don’t have the answer, we know that doing a deep dive and developing a brand ethos that speaks for the company to both internal and external audiences is step one. Everything will spin from that document; copywriting, company positioning, voice and tone, and a foundational content marketing strategy.”
Have a basic understanding of how to create content for your clients but need to brush up on a few skills? Here are a couple resources to get you started:
Implement an SEO strategy
Adding an SEO strategy may be just the service your business needs this year. As you know, great search engine optimization can create an increase in traffic to a website. If optimized correctly and effectively, these visitors will be a part of your target audience which can result in more leads and more conversions for that site!
If you’re a web designer, chances are you’re already designing and building a site that may already be optimized, so adding SEO as a service may not even be additional work on your part! Clients may already have their content ready to go for their new website that you’re building. However, maybe their content isn’t optimized for SEO, which means they’ll have a tough time ranking on Google. They may not understand SEO or how to optimize for keywords, so this is a perfect opportunity for you!
Make sure you have a solid understanding of how to optimize a WordPress site for SEO. Then, do some research to see what your competitors are charging for SEO as a service to price match.
There are more ways to make sure your WordPress site is optimized. Check out our free lesson on HubSpot Academy to learn more about how to optimize your site.
Note: If you need help selling this service to a new or existing client, be sure to mention that it creates a better user experience, which can be the difference between gaining a customer or losing an opportunity. Plus without proper optimization, customers and search engines might struggle to find their site.
Develop mobile applications
Mobile is becoming more and more popular, which means more visitors are relying on their phones for information. If you consider yourself a coding wizard, developing mobile apps is the perfect service to add to your business. While there are beginner resources and tools out there to help anyone create an app, you’ll find most people will outsource because they simply don’t have the time to learn a new skill. That’s where you come in.
Because mobile is growing in popularity, the need for talented, mobile app developers that can code is too. Do some research and see how many of your local competitors are offering this as a service and how much they’re charging for it. If none of them are offering it as a service, this is the perfect opportunity to create a unique selling point between you and another agency.
Supply analytics reports
Analytics and data are some of the most valuable reports for any business owner, no matter the profession. From these reports, you can find clear indicators of what’s working on a site and what isn’t. If your client is already asking you to create a new site for their business, it’s because they care about traffic and visitors; and if they care about those two things, they (should!) care about analytics reports.
As a web designer, this can be a great service to add for clients wanting to see the results and see the impact that the site has on their potential clients. Jon at Cooperata, a small niche web development and branding agency, highly recommends adding analytics reports to all web design clients.
“There’s really no reason not to add it. Adding analytics is like having a 24/7 quality control expert monitor your site. You can really take your site to the next level. Analytics can help business owners determine if a website is really converting to sales or reaching the right customers.”
This service may seem daunting if you’ve never dabbled in analytics before, but don’t fret. Jon’s team has a few pieces of advice for those new to the idea, including the concept of outsourcing to a professional.
“We’d recommend partnering with an agency or SEO professional that knows how to set up and evaluate the information analytics brings to the table. Data analysis can be very complex at times. The average business owner may find it tough to understand the benefit of using website analytics, so find a pro that’s willing to educate on analytics as well as help manage the process.”
Video production is a great, one-off service to add to your business! If you’re looking for an easy service for one-and-done client relationships, videos are it. Why? Because clients looking for videos are usually wanting one video for their new site, for their social media accounts, or for another reason. They’re looking to outsource this skill to show off their business in the best way possible. If you have any sort of videography skills, use them!
Not 100% confident in your video skills quite yet? Not a problem. Try creating a video to market your own business as you would for a client. This gives you some experience and practice. Then, try offering video production to smaller clients and work your way up from there.
Craft social media content
Social media, like mobile, is growing in popularity every day. More brands are moving to social media for brand awareness opportunities, advertising, etc. This is a huge window of opportunity, especially if the clients you work with tend to be less social media savvy.
If you already have a solid following, presence, and engagement for your own brand or business, this is a great starting place! Use your own social accounts as an example when you start selling social media content as a service. If you still have some work to do for your own accounts, do some research, tweak your strategy, and beef those accounts up before you start selling social media content as a service.
Pro-tip: This is a great way to earn recurring revenue because social media is always on and the need for content never runs out.
Do you have an area (or areas!) of expertise but not sure if you have the time to execute those services for multiple clients? Consulting is the perfect option!
You can consult in pretty much any topic. For Evolve-Creative, they package up several services that they know their clients may want consulting for and offer a full package for $149!
Here are the services they include in that package:
- Web design
- Business strategy
- Idea generation for sales
- Social media
- E-commerce software
- Future opportunities
There are other, simpler options for consulting as well. Think about what you feel comfortable consulting for and consider adding it as a service.
Provide marketing research or deliverables
Marketing is such a broad service in general and because of this, many of your clients probably don’t even know where to start when it comes to marketing! HubSpot defines marketing as, “The process of getting people interested in your company’s product or service. This happens through market research, analysis, and understanding your ideal customer’s interests.”
Most, if not all, of your clients have some semblance of a marketing strategy or tactics in place but they may not have the time or resources to do the research to better know who their target market is, how they compare to their competitors, and what their unique selling proposition is. There are many ways to offer marketing as a service but my advice is to make it simple: offer marketing research or marketing deliverables.
The research side of marketing is a great opportunity if you’re a web designer that’s analytical, loves research, and enjoys finding answers to unsolvable problems. This is also a great opportunity if you don’t have a ton of time to dedicate to creating marketing deliverables when one or many clients need them.
I know research isn’t everyone’s forte, so maybe email marketing or graphic design is more your speed. This can be a good fit for clients who need some marketing materials for a specific event or grand opening they’re having.
Whether you choose to offer marketing research or deliverables, you should get to know your strengths and learn how to use those to your advantage for growing your own business.
Utilize your hosting partner by offering hosting
One of our client’s favorite services is offering hosting to their clients. Why? Because it’s minimal work on their end and often the client has no idea that Flywheel is behind-the-scenes. It’s also great to make more money by adding hosting as one of the services in a maintenance plan! You can approach this in a couple different ways.
You can resell hosting and charge more than your hosting provider. Say your hosting provider charges you $25/month for that site. You can charge your client $45/month and pocket that extra cash as additional income for your own business. Some hosting providers even have specific programs to support this model, like Flywheel’s Agency Partners Program. This makes it super easy to cash in on this extra income and provide a great service for your clients!
Another way to approach this is adding hosting to a bigger bundle.
For example, you can include all of these services in one package and charge your client $125/month:
- Backup restoration
- WordPress updates
- SSL certification
There are several ways to add and sell hosting as a service. Know what your clients typically ask for that’s not already on your list of services and consider bundling those up with hosting to create incoming recurring revenue for your business.
Another way to create stable, incoming revenue is by adding WordPress maintenance plans to your business. WordPress maintenance plans are great ways to earn recurring revenue, build your relationships with current clients, and put your own mind at ease when it comes to finding new clients. According to our report, over 80% of web designers are already implementing WordPress maintenance plans in their business and reaping all the benefits of recurring revenue.
Not sure where to start? We have a great, free workshop that shows you how to create your own WordPress maintenance plans! Start building your own WordPress maintenance plans today!
No matter what services you decide to add to your business this year, any of these would be great services to add to new and even existing clients! Do the research to make sure you’re selling and marketing the new service at a competitive rate, be confident and test out your selling pitch for a new service on new, smaller clients first, and watch the new revenue roll in your business.
Have a great service that you’ve added to your business that’s not listed? Comment below!
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could keep your business thriving without booking any new clients? Or know that you’re always getting paid in full, on time, for all the work you actually do every month? WordPress maintenance services and plans are the secret to this magical revenue model, and this workshop has everything you need to get started!
Start the workshop here.