How to pitch a design to a current client?

I have a client who I host for, she pays me £125 a month for basic maintenance/hosting, but he current website is awful. It looks like it was put together by a 14 year old.

How would I go about pitching a redesign proposal to her? I enjoy the design aspect so don't mind working on a few designs before sending them over, but how would I word/suggest it to her?

Would I send the suggestion with the designs? or just send the suggestion?

The only reason I ask is because she only recently had the site designed for her (within the last 2 years) so it's unlikely (in my mind) that she'd consider a redesign so soon.

 

If you won't ask her then you won't know. First come out with such a proposal, suggest some changes, and then when she will agree you may think of examples. Show her some direct competitors and suggest that they change and she also need to do it to stay competitive.

 

I recommend doing it first then sending her the suggestions and the design. Often times people don't see the need for change until they see the alternative that changing can provide. As long as your hosting and maintenance services are valuable, she probably won't be so offended as to drop the existing services.

I would word it like this:
"We appreciate your business and you mean a lot to us. Because of the value we have for your business, we want to ensure that you are as successful as possible. After viewing your webpage, we thought a few revisions could provide you with more traffic (or whatever benefit you are trying to give her). Take a look at some of our revisions and let us know if this is something we could service you with."

Obviously you could wordsmith the e-mail a little more to make it sound more professional but in the end you want your client to get the message that their success means your success and you can help them grow. From what it sounds like, she needs the service anyway. Though she may not realize that until you send her some samples.

 

Both really helpful posts, thank you both! I now have an idea of how I'm going to approach her

 

Since you posted this thread in the general business, I would recommend that you think like a business man, the ideas stated above are good, but don't think for short term only, think that she'd be the first step.
Make few good looking design proposals, fill it with her own content, and make sure that it's quite better than what she has, educate her about the importance of web design, mention this sentence " Content is king, webdesign is the castle" which means no matter how useful and unique your content is, it won't be attractive if it badly presented.
Most important, give her the impression that it's a new service you are starting along with the hosting services, she will have the impression that you have a business growing over there, which will make you earn her trust, she'll probably recommend you to others which will get you more business to do.
Keep in mind that every email you send to a client may be forwarded, make it worth it

 

Don't make it sound to 'pitchy' initially. Kindly ask them if they have ever thought about a redesign, suggest a couple of changes. From this you will be able to gather whether or not they are interested in any design changes.

 

Go with the tough love approach. Tell her the website is shit and it needs re-done... no seriously.

Install analytics and if she has a high bounce rating, show that to her and tell her that she's losing... no.. "BLEEDING" customers from such a piss poor site.

Remember, she's a business woman after all and she's going to want to know how her investment is protected and how you can guarantee that a re-design will make her more money. She's not going to want a re-design just because it looks stupid.

 

If my host told me my site was 'shit', I'd fire them and punch them square in the face. What a load of rubbish.

 

No he's absolutely right, obviously I'd word it better, but he's written exactly what I need to do