Hi everyone! I am wondering what the method of contact you offer customers through your website. Is it email only..or do you list your mailing address /telephone number/fax numbers/ instant messenger details as well? If you came across a web designers site and they offered just email and IM contact (with a po box address listed)..would you still do business? Does the fact there is no phone number look dodgy? Reason I'm asking is becuase i'm not too good on the phone. I have just come across a nz web designer with only an email contact form on the website. As far as promptly checking emails and being online isn't a problem in regard to attending the potential client straight away. Would clients expect a phone call response?? I guess overseas customers wouldn't but perhaps nationally(here in australia) they would?! Thankyou, Arcanus
From a professional business perspective you'll find a lot of companies and individuals will certainly be suspicious of any company who have nothing but IM or email for contact - of course, it depends on the amounts involved. People perhaps will take a risk or not even think twice on $30 transactions, but $3000 is a different kettle of fish. From a sales perspective, many people prefer to enquire on the phone. They also like the security of knowing you are contactable via phone if need be. In my experience, the most effective and time efficient way of handling initial sales (dis)qualification is definitely through the phone as it allows you to rapidly ask questions and get answers quickly (and thus tailor you conversation effectively), plus you are able to use gut feeling more effectively. I'd rather spend 15 minutes on the phone to discover I'm dealing with a time waster than 2 hours via email. Basically my experience of email only communicating is generally poor - low conversion rate and typically poor quality clients, but I tend to target only local companies, so it would be strange for them to not want to talk over the phone and usually does indicate a possible tyre-kicker or even a competitor fishing for info. As such, I tend to avoid email sales entirely these days. If I'm contacted via email, I email back to ask for their phone number so I can call at a convenient time (and also offer a time for them to call me if they prefer). Basically, if you run a business (IMO) you should give up as much contact info as possible and at the same time expect your potential clients to do the same. Each to their own though!
interesting. thankyou SavvyDeveloper for your point of view btw, i will be a sole proprietor freelance. my intended market is global. and after some inspiration from DP i can now see other ways to use my skills to make money without relying on traffic to my site. Another thought i want to put out there to everyone..is how do you do your communication with clients through the buy and sell forum here(or even on elance)..? (on a side note: as far as how the payment process will work,I may start with using paypal..and escrow for larger transactions. As business grows and I get more income I'll make checkout seamless,and get thawte or verisign sealed-it's far beyond my budget to get it straight away ) Don't forget to vote in the poll attached...and keep the responses coming in... thanks, arc
I voted yes becuase i have done this a few times The person i knew was a good designer and coder after seeing previous work as well as knowing a few of the people he has previously worked with, the designer has actually done coding work for me and i would use him again.
thankyou n-james. I will definitely have a portfolio up. I've already lined up several website projects I'm doing for free. 1 for an online gaming friend,another for my cousin and another project for an online friend. plus when i get certification i will display the logo on my site..(should help in building credibility)
Arcanus, to be honest what i want in a designer and/or coder is that they understand what i want to be done, can complete it to the standards i want and are reasonably priced. I also believe in my opinion others do too which means, they arent really bothered about that 2 hour long converstation telling the web designer what they want (when they could say it over IM or email within minutes) they just want to feel more user interaction which you could easily do by if your including coding of a design in your price, so them the design before you code it (not only does this gvie them the feel of the interactive input as they can say what they want changed etc) but also benefits you as you will save having to code it and then the user going o i dont like X bit and Y part etc. Credibility is another major part which is why its vital you have a nice portfolio and customers raving about you becuase, other potential clients are going to think your much better then another place. Another point to note is that escrow and paypal is all you really need, mainly paypal becuase a vast amount of people online use paypal and as you can still pay via credit card through paypal its not really going to be a problem for someone without paypal. Its nice to hear your offering different types of payment systems in the future but they aren't really required, as many users i've seen on elance and other freelance sites use elance and paypal.
This is quite a common 'target market' for newbie freelancers, but in reality there is nothing targeted about trying to market the entire planet! You would be far better off targeting yourself to a niche for a number of reasons - you know exactly who you are marketing to, hence can build a strong customer profile - as such, you know where to reach your audience most effectively - marketing will therefore be easier and significantly cheaper than trying to target 'the world' - by standing out from the crowd and specialising, you are perceived as more of an expert in your field, hence you can charge higher fees - specialising means less competition to worry about - specialising means your business model is more focused and easier to administer Don't just target one niche, combine your niches, just make sure your niche is able to provide you with the kind of money you need to earn. Niches to consider: locality (i.e. immediate locality, or your country) industry (i.e. hotels, real estate etc) Software/technology (i.e. osCommerce installs, wordpress theme design etc) Services (one service only such as content management or ecommerce) Organisation type (e.g. new start ups, home business, corporate, personal, charity etc) So for example, a combo niche could be 'hotel CMS development for UK companies' (combines locality, an industry and service). As such, you know exactly who you are targeting (hotel owners/managers), you know where to reach them (UK hotel industry magazines) so advertising is focused and easy, and if this is all you do you will be able to immerse yourself in this industry and become (and be seen as) an expert in the field. Plus very little competition, very focussed portfolio and plenty of potential customers. And when you are done, you can think about moving onto another country, or looking to adapt your processes for a different industry within the UK, End result: you'll have a much easier time finding clients as they will seek you out, you'll have better quality clients who are happy to pay through their nose, who give good referrals, respect you and your services more (i.e. 'better' clients) and are more likely to throw repeat business your way. Plus you can develop repeatable solutions and hence rely less on being paid by time and move over to fixed-fee, value pricing model - this IMO is a better model for a sole freelancer as in the end, working by the hour is severely limited to the number of hours in a year, while fixed pricing is theoretically infinite (i.e. charge £xxxx for a predeveloped CMS install, regardless of the time it takes you). Plus of course as mentioned, specialists don't tend to have to rely on price competition, so even if you remain on hourly rate, you can charge much more per hour than your average generic freelancer.
thanks again SavvyDeveloper. I was already thinking about targeting a niche. You've helped immensely in figuring out the niche to target. green rep to you
No problem - I've just been writing an article about this very subject, so thought I'd chip in with some advice while it was fresh in my mind