How To Get Web Design Clients

Running a web agency is honestly a lot harder than most people think.

I've talked to a lot of web designers and agency owners over the years, and everyone seems to have a completely different way of getting clients. Some swear by paid ads, others rely on referrals, SEO, cold calling, LinkedIn outreach, email marketing, and so on.

What surprises me is that I rarely hear anyone talking about the strategy that has worked best for me.

The biggest challenge with running a web agency as a solo founder is that you're wearing every hat. You're building websites, maintaining websites, handling support requests, fixing bugs, making client changes, managing hosting, answering messages, and dealing with everything else that comes with running a business.

The question is, when are you supposed to do outreach?

That's why I prefer email outreach.

The reason is simple. It works for me in the background while I'm doing everything else.

I don't have to spend hours every day cold calling businesses or manually searching for leads. The system keeps working while I focus on servicing existing clients.

But I don't do email outreach in the traditional way.

Most people are blasting generic emails through tools like Instantly or Klaviyo. The problem is that business owners get those emails every day and can spot them immediately.

What I do instead is use a tool called Swokei.

I simply upload a batch of business websites, and the tool analyzes each one individually. It looks at things like design issues, SEO problems, mobile optimization, layout weaknesses, and other things that could be hurting conversions. It then generates a personalized outreach message based on the specific problems it finds on that business's website.

The result is that I can run highly personalized outreach campaigns without spending hours manually reviewing websites and writing custom emails one by one.

Another thing I like is that before running the analysis, you can choose the offer you want to lead with. You can start conversations, try to book meetings, or offer a free draft.

I always choose the free draft option.

When a business owner replies and says they're interested in seeing what their website could look like, I never build the site and send it over email.

Instead, I reply with something like:

"Sounds great. When are you free for a quick 10 to 15 minute Google Meet so I can show you what I have in mind?"

Then I book the call.

Before the meeting, I use AI tools to create a redesigned version of their website. It usually takes a very short amount of time. Most of the businesses I'm reaching out to have outdated websites, so even a solid AI assisted redesign looks significantly better than what they're currently using.

Then I present it live during the meeting.

This is where the real selling happens.

They're seeing a better version of their business online, customized specifically for them, and you're there to answer questions and handle objections in real time.

If they're interested, I close them on the call with a one time website fee plus a monthly hosting, maintenance, and support package.

For hosting, I mainly use Hetzner and Cloudflare. They're reliable, affordable, and make it easy to scale when you start getting more clients.

One thing I've learned is that you should never send the redesign over email. The meeting is where you have the highest chance of closing the deal because you can walk them through the improvements, explain the reasoning behind the changes, and answer any concerns on the spot.

So my stack is pretty simple.

Hetzner and Cloudflare for hosting.

Swokei for website analysis and personalized outreach.

Claude for building website drafts and speeding up development.

That's basically it. No paid ads. No cold calling. No spending hours writing personalized emails manually.

Just finding businesses with weak websites, showing them a better version, and having a conversation.

Comments

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Mohit007kumar•27 days ago•1

I think the best client acquisition channel is usually the one you'll do consistently. Email outreach works because it's scalable and you can do it on your own schedule. That said, the biggest wins I've seen for web agencies came from referrals and partnerships. One happy client can bring multiple projects without any outreach at all.

The mistake I made early on was constantly looking for the "best" channel instead of picking one and getting good at it. Whether it's email, LinkedIn, SEO, or cold calling, consistency usually matters more than the platform. The agencies that seem to grow fastest are often the ones that have a reliable system rather than a clever tactic.

Vidhmo•26 days ago•1

the "never send the redesign over email" rule is the part that stands out most. the call isn't just a formality, it's where the actual selling happens, an unattended preview link gets forgotten in an inbox within an hour.

choosing the free draft offer specifically over generic "let's chat" outreach also makes sense, it gives the recipient something concrete to react to instead of having to imagine the value.

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