How to Promote Your Web Design Business on Facebook: 10 Tips for Success
Published on August 25, 2021. Updated on October 15, 2021.
When you finish designing a client’s website, in some cases they might ask you for help with their social media marketing as well. This can take the form of setting up their profile pages or creating a strategy for posting weekly content.
In addition to helping your clients, why not work on your own social media strategy? Social media can be a great way to promote your web design business and attract new clients. With over 2.8 billion monthly active users, Facebook in particular offers you a tremendous opportunity to build awareness of your agency, connect with local businesses, showcase your work and generate leads.
Consider these compelling stats compiled by HubSpot:
Bottom line: Even if you don't personally enjoy using social media, from a business standpoint, it pays to get your Facebook strategy right.
Here are 10 tips to help you use Facebook to promote your web design business:
1. Create a Business Page for Your Agency
Creating a Facebook Business Page is your first step. This is where you would put your logo, cover photo, contact info, and a link to your marketing website. You’ll also need a Facebook Page if you decide to run ad campaigns eventually. Most importantly, having your own page on Facebook will help you get discovered.
Keep in mind that this will be different from your personal Facebook profile. A Facebooke profile is used for displaying personal posts (such as from a vacation or other event you attended) for friends and family while a Facebook Business Page is used for displaying business-related posts that current/prospective clients would find valuable.
2. Post Relevant Content Regularly
A great way to show that you’re present, active, credible, and engaged is to post relevant content to your page on a regular, consistent basis. After all, if you were to land on a local restaurant’s Facebook page and see that their most recent post was at least a year ago, what kind of impression might you get?
You could share small business marketing ideas, design tips and local suggestions that your prospective clients would find valuable. Just make sure that the majority of your posts are images or videos since these will help you achieve more engagement than text-only posts. By posting valuable and relevant content on a consistent basis, you’ll be perceived as an expert in your field.
3. Engage With Your Followers
As you gain followers for your page, you’ll want to keep them engaged. In addition to posting helpful images and videos, you could also post questions to get to know your audience. Here are some example questions you could post:
This can actually serve two purposes. While engaging with your followers, you would also be conducting market research and learning how you could better serve them. For instance, if a lot of people comment that they have so little time to work on their website or online marketing related tasks, this could give you ideas for a future promo post.
You’ll also want to maintain a healthy balance between gaining new followers while engaging with your current ones.
4. Reach Out to Family & Friends
It’s always a good idea to let friends and family within your personal Facebook profile network know that you are designing and selling websites now. Although they may not be in the market for a new website themselves, you might be surprised how many business owners they might know and have access to within their own network.
Friends and family are also a good source of referrals. Ask them to spread the word and recommend a business who they think can benefit from a new website. You could even create a referral program and offer a small compensation for each referral that results in a paying client.
5. Message Business Owners on Facebook
You can use Facebook Messenger to reach out directly to local businesses on Facebook and establish a relationship with them. You’ll especially want to look for local businesses who either don’t have a website or who have one but need it redesigned. When reaching out, offer to create them a free homepage design to show them what you're capable of.
Direct messaging businesses on Facebook is the digital equivalent of knocking on doors. The beauty about this tactic is that you can reach a lot more prospects in a shorter period of time, and you’ll save a lot of time (and gas).
6. Show Off Your Best Work
Every time you complete a client website, post it on your Facebook Page for the world to see. Take pride in your work and showcase the site with both a screenshot and a link to their site. It's a great conversation starter and it gives prospective clients an opportunity to evaluate your work and earn their trust.
This tactic is great for displaying your portfolio, but you’ll also help your client get extra recognition, exposure, and traffic to their new site. One post can help both you and your client!
7. Share a Case Study or Client Testimonial
Once in a while you could spotlight a client and maybe include a brief case study of how their business improved after working with you. You could also highlight a testimonial you received from a satisfied client. As time goes on, you’ll accumulate many client testimonials for others to see. These testimonials not only make for quality content, but they can help you close more deals.
Here's a tip: Ask your client's for a testimonial immediately after launching their new website and they're excited. You'll never know when you can use their praises in your own marketing.
8. Share Something Personal
Although your business Facebook Page will be devoted to business-related posts, it’s OK to share your personal world with your audience from time to time. In the About section of your Facebook Page, you could talk about how you got into web design and why you’re passionate about helping small businesses thrive online. This provides a “human” element to your brand that other business owners can relate to. After all, all small businesses are owned and operated by humans!
9. Run a Contest or Promotion
Use the reach of your Facebook network to run a contest or limited time promotion. For example, you can run a contest asking your followers to recommend a local business who deserves recognition for their service to the community. The business with the most votes can win a new website (provided they pay your monthly service fee).
You can also offer limited time promotions/discounts to create a sense of urgency and drum up sales. For example, you could waive the setup fee for all new clients and position it as an end-of-month special, a New Year special, a holiday special, etc.
Be sure to check out our post on how to land your first 10 web design clients on Facebook for help with crafting your promo messages.
Here is more guidance from Facebook on posting coupons and discounts.
10. Create a Facebook Ad Campaign
After you establish your business Facebook Page, you’ll have the ability to run Facebook ads. When running Facebook ads, you’ll also have the option to display your ads on Instagram for even more reach.
If you have at least a few clients paying you a monthly service fee, it’s a good idea to reinvest some of that into an occasional Facebook ad campaign. The beauty of Facebook ads is that you’re able to target viewers based on multiple factors such as age, location, interests, occupation, etc. If you’re a web designer in Miami, FL, then you’ll most likely want to target small business owners ages 21 - 50 who reside in or near Miami, FL. You’ll obviously want to tweak the age and other factors to see what brings you the most results.
There is so much more to running Facebook ads - we only scratched the surface. Here is more guidance from Facebook on promoting your business.
Now you have 10 tips for using Facebook to promote your web design business. The more consistent you are with these tips, the more successful you’ll be. Also pay attention to which tactics bring you the most results and spend more time on those.
When you finish designing a client’s website, in some cases they might ask you for help with their social media marketing as well. This can take the form of setting up their profile pages or creating a strategy for posting weekly content.
In addition to helping your clients, why not work on your own social media strategy? Social media can be a great way to promote your web design business and attract new clients. With over 2.8 billion monthly active users, Facebook in particular offers you a tremendous opportunity to build awareness of your agency, connect with local businesses, showcase your work and generate leads.
Consider these compelling stats compiled by HubSpot:
- Facebook is the largest social network based on the number of active monthly users
- 69% of Americans use Facebook
- 56% of people visit Facebook to get information.
- U.S adult users spend an average of 33 minutes per day on Facebook
- 93% of businesses are active on Facebook
- Over 200 million businesses use Facebook’s apps and free tools
- Link posts receive 73% less engagement than video posts
Bottom line: Even if you don't personally enjoy using social media, from a business standpoint, it pays to get your Facebook strategy right.
Here are 10 tips to help you use Facebook to promote your web design business:
1. Create a Business Page for Your Agency
Creating a Facebook Business Page is your first step. This is where you would put your logo, cover photo, contact info, and a link to your marketing website. You’ll also need a Facebook Page if you decide to run ad campaigns eventually. Most importantly, having your own page on Facebook will help you get discovered.
Keep in mind that this will be different from your personal Facebook profile. A Facebooke profile is used for displaying personal posts (such as from a vacation or other event you attended) for friends and family while a Facebook Business Page is used for displaying business-related posts that current/prospective clients would find valuable.
2. Post Relevant Content Regularly
A great way to show that you’re present, active, credible, and engaged is to post relevant content to your page on a regular, consistent basis. After all, if you were to land on a local restaurant’s Facebook page and see that their most recent post was at least a year ago, what kind of impression might you get?
You could share small business marketing ideas, design tips and local suggestions that your prospective clients would find valuable. Just make sure that the majority of your posts are images or videos since these will help you achieve more engagement than text-only posts. By posting valuable and relevant content on a consistent basis, you’ll be perceived as an expert in your field.
3. Engage With Your Followers
As you gain followers for your page, you’ll want to keep them engaged. In addition to posting helpful images and videos, you could also post questions to get to know your audience. Here are some example questions you could post:
- “What is your top business-related struggle?”
- “If you could change one thing about your business, what would it be?”
- "How much time do you spend updating your website?"
- "Is your current website sending the right message to your customers? Contact me for a FREE website assessment."
- “What is your biggest roadblock preventing you from getting a new website for your business?”
This can actually serve two purposes. While engaging with your followers, you would also be conducting market research and learning how you could better serve them. For instance, if a lot of people comment that they have so little time to work on their website or online marketing related tasks, this could give you ideas for a future promo post.
You’ll also want to maintain a healthy balance between gaining new followers while engaging with your current ones.
4. Reach Out to Family & Friends
It’s always a good idea to let friends and family within your personal Facebook profile network know that you are designing and selling websites now. Although they may not be in the market for a new website themselves, you might be surprised how many business owners they might know and have access to within their own network.
Friends and family are also a good source of referrals. Ask them to spread the word and recommend a business who they think can benefit from a new website. You could even create a referral program and offer a small compensation for each referral that results in a paying client.
5. Message Business Owners on Facebook
You can use Facebook Messenger to reach out directly to local businesses on Facebook and establish a relationship with them. You’ll especially want to look for local businesses who either don’t have a website or who have one but need it redesigned. When reaching out, offer to create them a free homepage design to show them what you're capable of.
Direct messaging businesses on Facebook is the digital equivalent of knocking on doors. The beauty about this tactic is that you can reach a lot more prospects in a shorter period of time, and you’ll save a lot of time (and gas).
6. Show Off Your Best Work
Every time you complete a client website, post it on your Facebook Page for the world to see. Take pride in your work and showcase the site with both a screenshot and a link to their site. It's a great conversation starter and it gives prospective clients an opportunity to evaluate your work and earn their trust.
This tactic is great for displaying your portfolio, but you’ll also help your client get extra recognition, exposure, and traffic to their new site. One post can help both you and your client!
7. Share a Case Study or Client Testimonial
Once in a while you could spotlight a client and maybe include a brief case study of how their business improved after working with you. You could also highlight a testimonial you received from a satisfied client. As time goes on, you’ll accumulate many client testimonials for others to see. These testimonials not only make for quality content, but they can help you close more deals.
Here's a tip: Ask your client's for a testimonial immediately after launching their new website and they're excited. You'll never know when you can use their praises in your own marketing.
8. Share Something Personal
Although your business Facebook Page will be devoted to business-related posts, it’s OK to share your personal world with your audience from time to time. In the About section of your Facebook Page, you could talk about how you got into web design and why you’re passionate about helping small businesses thrive online. This provides a “human” element to your brand that other business owners can relate to. After all, all small businesses are owned and operated by humans!
9. Run a Contest or Promotion
Use the reach of your Facebook network to run a contest or limited time promotion. For example, you can run a contest asking your followers to recommend a local business who deserves recognition for their service to the community. The business with the most votes can win a new website (provided they pay your monthly service fee).
You can also offer limited time promotions/discounts to create a sense of urgency and drum up sales. For example, you could waive the setup fee for all new clients and position it as an end-of-month special, a New Year special, a holiday special, etc.
Be sure to check out our post on how to land your first 10 web design clients on Facebook for help with crafting your promo messages.
Here is more guidance from Facebook on posting coupons and discounts.
10. Create a Facebook Ad Campaign
After you establish your business Facebook Page, you’ll have the ability to run Facebook ads. When running Facebook ads, you’ll also have the option to display your ads on Instagram for even more reach.
If you have at least a few clients paying you a monthly service fee, it’s a good idea to reinvest some of that into an occasional Facebook ad campaign. The beauty of Facebook ads is that you’re able to target viewers based on multiple factors such as age, location, interests, occupation, etc. If you’re a web designer in Miami, FL, then you’ll most likely want to target small business owners ages 21 - 50 who reside in or near Miami, FL. You’ll obviously want to tweak the age and other factors to see what brings you the most results.
There is so much more to running Facebook ads - we only scratched the surface. Here is more guidance from Facebook on promoting your business.
Now you have 10 tips for using Facebook to promote your web design business. The more consistent you are with these tips, the more successful you’ll be. Also pay attention to which tactics bring you the most results and spend more time on those.
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