Introduction
As a web designer, it is pertinent to familiarize yourself with the possible alternatives to scale your craft to the next level if you are not already doing them. What this does is assist in building structures around your web design business while also meeting your clients’ demands and a host of other important considerations that could be achieved by creating a work pattern that suits you and your clients and with the right toolset to commence without having to reinvent the wheel every time.
How Do You Scale Up Your Web Design Efforts?
Craft a Niche for Yourself
Choosing a product niche enables you to have similar engagement to attend to in the scheme of things. In addition, concentrating on a particular niche gives you an adequate idea about what that niche demands, its specifics, and its features. Particularly, even at the talking stage, you will know what the client wants from you.
When you choose a niche, marketing and branding become easier. Choosing a niche allows you to start concentrating and marketing to specific types of audiences in your niche. For instance, if you are known to be the designer behind a popular company’s website project, you will be exceptional among your competitors. What are your strengths and weaknesses? For example, if you are fascinated by app design trends and setup, as a designer, you could want to create a niche around that.
“How To Craft a Niche”
Creating a niche requires you to consider some factors such as:
- Project Budget
This involves the amount of money you will earn from a project compared to other projects you have done. So, first+, determine the difference between your biggest and smallest project.
- Opportunities for partnership
Another checklist to consider is the potential to leverage other organizations, associations, or some social platforms such as Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn. You can also link other similar businesses for referrals and recommendations.
- Project Ease
How easy is the intended project? Would it be easy to replicate the same feature set and configurations for another project? This helps you rationalize your time. Why would you spend so much time on one project when you could handle a series of projects for half that time with the same financial tags.
- Ease of Communication
This includes the number of calls or emails it will take to convince your clients, determine the range, and gather useful tools and materials from the client to make the project a reality. How about the time it took the client to pay you? These are factors to consider when starting a project.
- Market size
This considers the number of people available to be served by the same feature set. Do you think the number is low or quite fair? You have got to put all of these into consideration.
- Rate of the Competition
Do you have a pool of persons catering to the market? This does not include the general web design firms. Instead, it involves enterprises in the particular niche you are considering. Involving in a series of market research on google or some other online platforms gives a clue to this.
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2. Develop a basic Feature Set
As a web designer or someone just starting, it is important to consider having a baseline feature set. Know what you can handle and execute with ease. Although, it is tempting to jump on a project if a client is ready to pay handsomely for a feature that would need to be developed.
In cases such as this, and for most people, it could be impossible to say no. However, developing additional features for one client often leads to some distraction from your target market in most cases.
Here are a few factors to consider when developing a basic feature set
- Consider the key pains your target market feels and how you could meet them.
- You could want to consider some unique features that distinguish you from your competitors. Also, can the feature bring your client back a second time or perhaps, get a referral or recommendation from them?
To determine the right feature set, studying your competition is important. You could also want to google “web design” to see what other firms offer. By the end of this process, you’d conclude what you want to do differently.
- Check on reviews
It is pertinent to check on your competitors’ reviews. Consider the cons and pros, and this way, you will have an idea of how your own should be structured.
- Get feedback from past clients.
This is important because they are the end-users of whatever idea you are bringing on board. Reach out to the past clients in your target market, asking them if they are satisfied with the work you did for them and if there are any latest features they would like or one that would make their engagements easier.
.3. Concentrate on important Features
Having gotten a range of feedback on different features, it is important to know which features to incorporate and the ones to ignore. This enables you to fit properly into the market. Put in mind that the goal is to compete favorably or perhaps, outcompete other web design firms.
However, your goal as a web designer is to try as much as possible to automate your services so that it is easy for your clients to operate when you eventually lay your hands off the project. Therefore, endeavor to avoid features that are too manual.
You could also want to consider offering your clients services such as:
- Email marketing involves setting up email marketing software for clients and sending newsletters.
- SEO and link-building services that assist your clients’ websites to rank high on search engines, thereby getting more traffic.
- You could also offer website maintenance, regular plugin updates, and other services required to keep the website functioning.
4. Streamline Web Design
Building a website is not an easy one, and with that in mind, there is the need for streamlining, which involves breaking down cumbersome processes into smaller ones. For instance, building a website involves and is not limited to these steps: Proposal Development, sending a contract, sending an onboarding guide, and a host of other processes involved. Streamlining helps you focus on the most important aspects, which also assists in managing your time.
Conclusion
While there may be some other steps to optimize your web design efforts, you cannot go wrong with applying the above. Web design entails a lot, and it is a learning curve—a niche where you will keep unlearning and relearning. If, at any rate, you feel discouraged, try as much as possible to study what the issues are, trying to find ways around them. With time, it would be an exciting and fulfilling ride all along.
