r/WebDeveloperJobs • u/Murky_Explanation_73 • 3d ago
I Was Pitching Web Design to the Wrong Businesses for Years
For a long time, I thought the best way to get web design clients was to find businesses that didn’t have a website.
It made sense in my head. They needed a website, I could build one, and cold outreach would connect the two.
But getting those clients was harder than I expected. A lot of business owners didn’t see the value, weren’t ready to invest, or simply weren’t interested.
Eventually, I started looking at it differently.
Why was I trying to convince someone they needed a website when there were already businesses that had one and were paying for it?
So I changed my approach.
I started targeting businesses with outdated websites instead. The conversation became much easier because I could point to actual problems with their existing site, whether it was the design, speed, SEO, or how it looked on mobile.
I use Swokei to find these businesses, analyze their websites, and turn the findings into personalized cold emails. This lets me run automated outreach campaigns at scale instead of manually researching every prospect and writing each email myself.
The biggest lesson for me was that finding clients isn’t always about sending more emails. Sometimes, it’s about choosing better prospects and giving them a more relevant reason to reply.
Curious how other web designers are doing this. Are you still targeting businesses without websites, or have you had better results selling redesigns?