General Discussions

**boognish** · 05-11-2007, 08:31 PM

Just interested to know which sectors you tend to find the most interest in your web design services? For me personally its property, tourism, arts/cultural, and financial.

**vangogh** · 05-11-2007, 10:50 PM

It varies for me. I've designed sites across a variety of markets. I'm not sure any one has been dominant. If you've gotten a few in one sector though it probably leads to more people in that sector looking to you for services.

**ForrestCroce** · 05-12-2007, 06:11 PM

Not sure, as I'm really not a web designer. I've built a number of intranet web applications, and generally for these projects, design isn't a priority at all. It's a shame, but people who pay to have IT support systems couldn't care less what they look like.

A lot of photographers are interested in web services. Most of them seem to go to Flickr, Pbase, or something like it, but some percent choose to have their own site instead. 35 mm film is disappearing ... we're a couple of years away from the edge of a downward exponential curve before the stuff is as rare and expensive as gasoline. Most of these people have a big collection of jpegs they want online, and typically with some sort of eCommerce.

**ADAM Web Design** · 05-12-2007, 07:02 PM

For me, environmental causes and anything involving programming of an advanced nature as of late.

However, it can vary. Retail can be hot one year, manufacturing the next...it's like everything else I guess. Just depends on what people want.

**boognish** · 05-13-2007, 05:44 PM

Thanks for the replies. Some interersting responses. The environmental causes doesn't surprise me, the media seems hungry for any stories related global warming this past year. Wouldn't mind designing a few ethical websites myself. Photography websites are always good, the arty ones are always more fun for me.

The reason I ask is I have a sales person on staff, I get him to do some company door to door sales and some telesales each week. Its a bit of a hit and miss approach, was thinking of implementing a more targeted strategy based on demand by sector. We do seem to have more work from the sectors I mentioned above, so felt it might be more productive to hit those primary markets more than others. Do any of you use similar approaches? Also in terms of offline marketting, I distribute flyers and corporate stationary, advertise in print classifieds and print directories, attend networking events. Have any of you had a lot of success with offline marketting techniques?

Adam - your links for paid sigs and link exchanges gave me a laugh

**ForrestCroce** · 05-13-2007, 06:21 PM

I've had luck with offline marketing. In fact, sometimes this works out better than most online promotion techniques. Example: a neighbor of mine has had a Jack Russel terrier for a year, and doesn't have any photos of her. So I shot a few, and printed up the best few of them, with my URL watermarked into them. She took the 8x10s in to work and showed everybody she knows, talked up how difficult the dog is to photograph and how wonderful I am. Total cost was less than $10, and it's good exposure.

I'm a photographer more than a web developer, at least outside the 8 to 5 slot where I work for someone else, so this isn't exactly apples-to-apples. Still, word of mouth is a great way to get peoples' attention no matter what industry you're in.

Where are you based?

If you've done any "ethical" work before - and I'm not saying working for money is unethical, but that seems to be a keyword for environmental and fair trade issues - I would try making a smallish ( around 3x5 inch ) screen shot of the web site with its and your URL printed underneath, and see if you can get permission to leave stacks of these behind at local coffee shops. I've done something similar with some of my photos, and got good response.

**people-finding** · 05-14-2007, 05:47 AM

i only do cheap webdesign part-time but it's usally for small businesses or internet business ideas, hence why they're looking for decent cheap website design.

**boognish** · 05-14-2007, 07:21 AM

Yeah, you can't get better marketing than recommendations. I actually offer commission to clients, family and friends, if they bring a website to me. Cold hard cash is always a good incentive. But of course, doing great work that surpasses the clients expectations will definitely help get those contracts as well.
I'm based in Edinburgh, Scotland. That's a great idea by the way - leaving small leaflets in shops and coffee places. Can't believe that idea passed me by. Will get a few circulated.

**ADAM Web Design** · 01:05 PM

Glad you liked the links, boognish! That's what they're there for...that, and to deliver a social commentary.

As far as your approach is concerned, you're going to run into two major problems with it that I can see:

1) Telemarketing/door-to-door resistance. As someone who is constantly marketed to, resentment is very easy to develop toward people who adopt that approach. The last thing I want to hear is someone telling me how much better they can make my business. I'll make that decision, and I can research things for myself.

2) Conflict of interest. While targeting sectors is generally a good idea, this is the tough part of the equation. What happens if you get two competing hotels in the same city who want a site? Or two car dealerships? Or two manufacturers of a similar product, same city or otherwise?

I tried the leaflet thing once...got me nowhere. Not even a nibble (with a coupon on the leaflet at that!) Just my own experience.

If it were me personally, I'd look more at building out a website and marketing it that way.

**boognish** · 05-14-2007, 03:10 PM

From what my sales guy informs me the response from door to door is generally receptive, though as I said it is hit and miss. His sales approach is as far as you can get from a hard sell. There's no lectures about how a website will improve their business. He simply asks if they have a website, if so, are they happy with their current one, and if not, enquiring as to whether they'd like one or would consider one in future. It's looked at as a simply numbers game, catching someone on the off chance and getting my company seen and considered by the prospective client first.
I don't see the conflict of interest being a huge issue. There are web design companies marketed to supply to solely one niche sector. While doing telesales to financial companies, we found quite a few in the area used one particular web design company that provided websites solely to accountants. It didn't seem to faze any of them that this company was providing websites for their competition as well as them.
I do plenty of online marketing, however, there is a lot of competition in my neck of the woods, and it can be difficult to get noticed, so I am finding traditional methods of marketing are an effective strategy. Each to their own I guess.