I wanted to see if I could get some peoples opinions on a subject that has come to concern me of late… I am a freelance designer and I have got most of my clients, thus far, through word of mouth/verbally, but I have recently thought of publicly advertising my website. Any insights/ideas about the best place to advertise (design/art hotspot? yellowpages/yellowpages.com? search engines?)
Anyway, any information or insight on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
Also, got some new design prints coming out soon (hopefully something you will all like)….
Thanks/Cheers,
Jerad — DesignbySolo
Bryan Davidson
I’m in the same situation as you. Any listings you can get in search engines are bound to help, and having business cards you can hand out to people is another good way of verbally advertising. I’d say that the yellow pages are a good place to advertise, but personally I’d never hire someone out of the yellow pages unless I really had no other choice. If you’re getting decent business with word of mouth, it’s only going to get better.
DesignbySolo:
Thanks, I appreciate the advice.
Jeffrey Phillips
have u checked ur website stats? Should tell u where all your hits are coming from. eg. redubble, facebook, any other site you are linking up with. I get a shitload of hits from ppl clicking on my avatar when i post at the drawingboard.org forums.
Jeffrey Phillips
(um that posted prior to completion) – anyway i guess once you know where ur traffic is coming from you can devote ur time and resources in that direction. apart from good SEO, personally i dont think online ads are all that effective. i mean when was the last time u clicked on a banner ad..
DesignbySolo:
Thanks, I’ll use the stats as a starting point
Frank Stillitano
I would say think carefully about advertising. It can be expensive and most often inefficient.
My advice would be to spend your time, effort and funds encouraging referrals from your existing client base. A couple of things I do which seem to work ok:
1) Ask for referrals. A good way of doing this is to use ‘gift vouchers’. i.e. Send all exisiting clients a ‘1 hour free consultation voucher’ for them to give to someone they know.
2) Send wine or other gifts to the people who do give you referrals as a thank you. This lets them know you appreciate the referral and encourages them to do it more.
3) Make regular contact with existing clients (perhaps in the form of a newsletter or magazine) showing them examples of recently completed work. This lets them know you are still running a successful practice.
On the down side if you are trying to target a new type of client, these tips may not work very well. These methods do encourage similar types of clients to find you. However I have found that when referrals do come, they already come with a high level of trust in your service. Advertising will bring a lot of people who have no reason to trust you and a lot of tyre-kickers too.
Hope this helps,
Frank