Lee Blue – DoubleStack: Recent Episodes
Lee Blue
Let's talk about how we're getting leads for free. So you don't have to buy ads, you don't have to pay for leads, it just takes a little bit of time to do some outreach. We're seeing 10 to 30% conversion rates from outreach to calls. So, generally speaking, a cold outreach campaign has about a 1% conversion rate, and this is at least 10 times better than that! So, let's go through all three steps...
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Have you ever heard of web designers using a data-driven approach to onboard web design clients? It’s not a new idea. People in other industries do this all the time. It’s just not very common in the web design world. It is a little bit complicated, but I think you’re going to find it fascinating. If you’ve ever wanted to stand out and give people a reason to work with you without lowering your...
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m not worried about AI driving the price of websites down to zero. There's a much more subtle threat that is going to wipe some web designers out that nobody seems to be talking about.
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Does it feel like all the leads you're getting are people looking for low-cost websites? When you offer other services like a marketing plan or even just a maintenance and support plan, they don't sign up. Here are three ways to make more money even with “cheap” clients. It is quite possible that the business owners aren't cheap. They just don't want to overpay. In other words...
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Want some fresh ideas for upsells you can offer your clients that will add more value to your projects and create better results for your clients? Check out my top 5 hottest upsells! These are not your typical SEO, hosting, and maintenance services. Instead, they offer unique solutions to common problems that your clients are facing. These upsells will build your authority and set you apart from...
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Most of the web designers I know (myself included) don't really like dealing with invoicing clients. Here are a few strategies I use that make the process run much more smoothly and with less stress. There are a handful of problems that tend to come up regularly like… The 90% Stall Out This one was the most common for me. This is the situation where you do everything you can do, but you need the...
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For almost 10 years I thought I was doing the right thing by trying to build a referral network for web design leads. I was going to BNI groups and trying to “sell the experience” of working with an ethical web designer who cared about his clients. During all that time it never occurred to me to consider the difference between price and margin. In other words, I never thought about the difference...
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Following this popular, mainstream advice caused a multi-year delay in launching my career. I thought launching a web design business was more complicated than it actually was. I felt so busy working on so many things all at the same time. Discovering the three things I actually needed and letting go of everything else was the key that quite literally launched my career. Maybe it will give your...
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There are 260 work days in the year. If you work eight hours per day, that means you're working 2,080 hours per year. If you want to make $100,000 take home income, you need to be making about $48 per hour. The truth is, when you're running your own business, there's no way all of your hours are going to be billable. It's more realistic for about five hours per day to be billable. That means...
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There was a time when I felt burned out. I had built hundreds of websites. Nothing felt new. I kept trying to get clients because I had to make a living. But when leads came in I almost felt disappointed. I didn't want to do the work. It was such a weird place to be because I really do love web design. I love technology and coding. I love creating. For a long time, I couldn't understand why I felt...
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If I could go back in time to when I was starting my web design business, this is what I would tell myself.
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Don't waste your time giving away free websites to build your portfolio. You don't need a portfolio to land clients. All you need is a good offer. Here are three different ways to present your offer so people will feel confident working with you even if they are your first client.
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This three-step shift dramatically improved my business both in terms of profit margins but perhaps even more importantly, in terms of how I felt about myself, my work, and my clients. Web design has changed a lot over the 20 years since I started my agency. Here are the three shifts that fundamentally changed how I view web design.
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The price race to the bottom is one of the biggest problems in web design right now. Here's the formula to break that cycle and get massively more profit from each project.
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Shifting from services to solutions also requires a shift in the way you get clients. Here are five examples of how to get leads for a Solution First agency that you can't do with a traditional web design business.
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ve noticed that in both business and in life, it's common to have to make decisions without all the information you need to know exactly what the outcome will be. Annie Duke wrote a book called Thinking In Bets which is about making decisions when you don't have all the facts. There's one quote that was my major takeaway from the whole book. Suppose you want to pick a WordPress theme as your “go...
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Selling – or even offering – site audits and/or consultations has a very low conversion rate. In other words, that offer doesn’t generate leads very effectively anymore for three major reasons. Offering an audit or consultation is all about telling the client what you are going to do and what they can expect from meeting with you. The copy on landing pages offering site audits will often literally...
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It's fun to look at all questions I've gotten throughout the year and tally up the stats. Here are the top five most-asked questions this year (and the answers). There are a lot of people, especially in the WordPress community, who feel like they are good at a wide variety of things, but they haven't specialized in anything to the point of mastery. Consequently, they feel stuck charging low prices...
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There are a lot of people overwhelming their clients in the name of over-delivering. Are you one of them? There are two ways to over-deliver; one bad and one good. You can over-deliver in terms of features, and you can over-deliver in terms of results. It's always good to over-deliver when it comes to results. Over-delivering on features can be a disaster. When you over-deliver in terms of...
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One thing I've realized is that when you're offering something good, there are essentially infinity clients. This is especially true when you're doing something significantly...
Web designers are losing money on unreasonably restrictive niches. Discover how to find profitable web design niches. Web designers get more clients at higher prices...
Everything about web design is constantly changing… except the web agency business model. There is a new model for web agencies that generates far more...
Most web designers try to get leads in the hardest way possible. Why do we do that to ourselves? There are only two ways I...
Get in the weeds. Lose the leads. When I learned the difference between lead generation and closing sales, it changed everything for our web design...
Offering “websites to business owners” doesn't get you leads anymore. Here's the fix with a template and some examples. Presenting your web design business as...
Have you ever noticed how there seem to be three broad categories of clients for web design? There are the low-budget ($500 or less) do-it-yourself...
It took years for me to uncover two forehead-slapping realizations that were costing me thousands of dollars on every project. Seriously, this is the difference...
I talk a lot about how to find leads for web design, especially high-ticket, recurring revenue clients. Once you get a steady flow of leads...
I used to price web design and digital marketing based on hours and effort. Then I realized that was stupid – both for my agency...
Most of the advice I've seen about selling websites to local businesses suggests that it's best to find businesses that don't already have a website....
Obviously, 2021 was a wild year, especially for us as web designers. Here are five of the most significant changes that I've made this year...
I don't believe freelance web design is going to remain viable as a full-time source of income as we move into the new year –...
A lot of web designers are caught in the loop of trying to offer more for less until their profit margins are virtually gone. There...
This is how you package web design when targeting a niche market. When you buy a deck you don't just want the wood and nails....
I was asked how to bundle SEO services into a web design package that generates recurring revenue. The problem is, I don't really like “normal”...
I got two questions from our Facebook group today. What's your favorite business book? What's the worst pricing model for web design? So, I'm sharing...
I've launched three 7-figure businesses. I've also launched a few businesses that were complete strikeouts. In the process, I've discovered a really simple, three-step process...
Here's how to create profitable projects even if the client has a small budget. What Problem Are They Trying To Solve? Usually, the reason clients...
Impostor syndrome is a ghost in everyone's closet but it doesn't have to be as scary as it may seem. Here's how I leverage impostor...
The key to getting your client to see your value is to set the right first impression. That means guiding their thinking with the questions...